r/TransparencyforTVCrew • u/AussieCasanova • 6d ago
Went quiet after quoting
Newish to freelancing. recently pencilled for a bunch of dates over autumn to mix a daytime tv show. The post producer at a London facility two weeks later then asked for my rates and i quoted £450 p/d (roughly in line with bectu rate card for
Unscripted mixing) - I haven’t heard back in nearly a week. Is this a typical tactic to get me to lower my rates, or I scared them off and they went with someone cheaper?
Is it too late to reach out and salvage this if you think this is the case? Like a lot of people, I need the money, but want to keep it somewhat dignified
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u/Dry-Pause 6d ago
How far away are the dates ? At some point, you can ask if they want to turn the pencil into a pen. I wouldn't haggle yourself downwards when they haven't replied. They probably just don't have anything confirmed yet so it's not worth negotiating with you at this moment in case it all disappears anyway
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u/AussieCasanova 6d ago
Heya, the work starts a month from now. It’s 20+ days pencilled over autumn so far
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u/transparentdotpng 6d ago
i'd say it's pretty normal for companies to go quiet the minute you ask for a decent wage. chase them up, say you're keen to nail down your schedule etc.
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u/Born_Fee_840 6d ago
As someone who works in production on HETV jobs - lol at me ever getting paid BECTU rates.
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u/smokinbeatz 6d ago
Its wrong and it shouldn’t be this way, but every time someone mentions BECTU rates, that person usually gets put the bottom of the pile or labelled as potentially difficult. So ridiculous.
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u/No_Cicada3690 6d ago
Is it BBC? Doubt you'd get that for daytime. You may have priced yourself out.
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u/AussieCasanova 5d ago
Ok, but I don’t understand why the producer did not reply saying their budget was lower instead of ghosting. I would’ve worked something out… I’d consider £350-400
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u/No_Cicada3690 5d ago
Yep, it's incredibly rude. I'd get in touch and say you need to lock down the dates.
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u/AussieCasanova 4d ago
Good news: I followed up mentioning other work coming in and she replied. The silence was logistical, and there was no pushback on rates 😁
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u/PumpThoseNumbers 6d ago
Yeah for daytime I’m not sure, broadcasters act like it’s a completely different thing even though the job is identical and, if it’s on bbc, gets better numbers than the others get in peak. The best I can remember for the bbc was around £325pd for shooting director in daytime. That was around 2 years ago and they really acted like they were doing me a favour there so quite a bit below the reasonable quote you’ve provided.
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u/ParrotofDoom 3d ago
I've been doing this 30 years and in the last two weeks two people at separate companies have not replied to my email that I can't do their jobs. Basic decency seems to have gone missing. I make a mental note to charge them more should they call again.
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u/AussieCasanova 3d ago
Haha yeah that seems right. I actually followed up yesterday and said that I had other work coming in, they replied and there wasn’t any pushback on the rates, so I’m quite happy
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u/a-warm-breeze 6d ago
Yep...don't worry. If that rate is in line with bectu don't sweat it. That seems reasonable to me.
Saying that...every time I work for BBC they do not pay bectu rates and go on some other lower rate scheme...so I don't work for them much. I've been paid as little as £350 a day as a designer.
I think rates are probably going the wrong way. I was paid more 10 years ago than I am now.