Going rates/salary for Scenarist Pro Author?

[apo11o]

Hi,

Could anybody tell me what the going rates for freelance Scenarist authors are (depending on experience). Or even salary?

Obviously it is a specialised job and so it probably varies. But I would be interesed to know. I'd prefer a UK estimate, but any will do.

If you don't want to post such rates publically, you could always pm/email me?

Best regards,

Ap.

[RF]

I'd actually be interested in knowing this too.

[dgoodbourn]

I doubt you'll get anyone giving up that info, as it varies a lot from place to place, depending on what they expect you to do. Some places want you to only author, and some want you to do the lot, design, encode and author. Some people want you to quote on a hourly basis, and others on a per job basis.

D.

[apo11o]

Not even a ball park figure?!!

Are we talking 60K UKP a year for an experienced Scenarist author who can also do composite graphics and menus?

Are we talking about £1500 all in for a DVD with motion intro and several sub menus?

I know Stanleys repro house in London will do a basic author for a 30 minute title for around £500 + VAT

Ap.

[NavPak]

Well depends on the usual stuff inc. location. In the UK a low rate would be say 20-24K mid would be 24-28K and high (you'd need Creator/Maestro/Toshiba etc too) 28-40K.

Maybe £150-200 a day as the rate. It does vary though...

It all depends on your role, the type of Titles you'd author etc too of course.

HTH

NP_2

[Clown shoes]

I can tell you we charge approx £1000 - £1500 for a Full DVD9. That covers everything from encoding through to DLT mastering. We are quite cheap though. Stanleys are overpriced. That would prolly consist of a straight encode with a DVD recorder, no menus onto a DVD5! The pavement is just round the corner to us. Good bunch of guys. You'll pay a lot for thier services, but you'll get a high end product. I think they're still ranked as the best authoring house in the UK. As far as wages go, i can catagoricaly assure you I do not get anywhere in the region of £60k (although I am definatly not at the top end of the skills list) I have to say I would be pleasantly suprised to hear of any authors getting those kind of wages. Someone please pipe up up if you know anyone who does and by the way, can I get a job there? :D

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[Arky]

A significant factor, here, is that DVD Authoring is no longer as exclusive a skill as it used to be, a few years ago. Sure, the real high-end stuff can still command high fees, but general-to-mid level authoring is now available from a wider pool of authors, thus fees and salarys are bound to be reined-in to some extent, by these natural market forces.


Arky.

[NavPak]

Yep, I was giving figures in regards to freelance Scenarist authors. Of course someone who uses a dvd recorder or dvdsp is going to get less than 26-40K. Plus the lower down the food chain you go the more roles you are likely to have to play. The larger post/dvd houses have teams so the dvd author may just be that, the Author. The design team will do the menu design, the compressionist will do the encoding and so on...

I don't see authoring charges dropping much. The unit price of pressed discs has but not really the creation process,

NP_2

[Clown shoes]

Damnit. I'm working at the wrong place.

I am the entire DVD department. I author on Scenarist, I create the menus (motion and Still) I do the audio encoding, I capture the footage using an Avid pro with mojo and I encode the footage with CCE......


But I'm still not earning between £26K and £40K !

Never mind eh. I enjoy my job and what I really want to do is edit, so it gives me a chance to work on the Avids.

Life could be a lot worse :D

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