Career change. |
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spongebob
Young Croc Joined: 20 October 2010 Status: Offline Points: 1395 |
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God knows how much you could charge per day as a mobile smoke machine once all you've crammed up your arse starts leaking out Shag.
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MattStolton
Old Croc Joined: 04 September 2010 Location: Walthamstow Status: Offline Points: 4234 |
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I am with Shaggers! His abrupt manner may be, well, abrupt - but sadly he is pretty much bang on. All the "glamour" of touring has attracted some absolute numpties in, who think it is a way to get a cheap ticket to see the gig. This coupled with Tour managers/tour accountants who are fixated with 'their' margin, and suddenly you have 1 or 2 qualified/experienced "event critical" engineers, surrounded by a van load of well meaning, but totally inexperienced "help" on minimum wage or less. Kind of rips the arsehole out of the market, for anyone actually trying to make a living at it. Same with "disco" retail. A few start giving it away, as they have no other way of selling it, as they don't actually know what they are selling, and can't offer support (from their bedroom as they drop ship for 10%) and suddenly the prices have been shat down for everyone. Pretty soon all manufacturers will sell direct, so no "dealers" to get in the way, even the good ones! It is happening to MI in the states as we speak, soon coming to Europe, and whether we are still in or out, will catch on here. Woohoo - cheap retail prices, but at what cost?
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Matt Stolton - Technical Director (!!!) - Wilding Sound Ltd
"Sparkius metiretur vestra" - "Meter Your Mains" |
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toastyghost
The 10,000 Points Club Joined: 09 January 2007 Location: Manchester Status: Offline Points: 10920 |
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Depends if you're motivated by purely money as well though eh?
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MattStolton
Old Croc Joined: 04 September 2010 Location: Walthamstow Status: Offline Points: 4234 |
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I could have become an accountant, if money was my sole aim! I enjoy what I do, which is worth a few £k a year, but I still have mouths to feed, mortgage to pay, and I would like to be able to afford the odd nice holiday. No shame in making profit, if you do decent things with it! Just it is becoming bloody difficult to break even, thanks to perpetually getting undercut. And then it goes tits-up for the punter, who then comes to us....Some fly-by-night gets the lion's share of the money, and then disappears, and we get second level scrapeings for sorting it out. And the punter ends up paying more than would have cost them, for us to have done the job in the first place. Just a bit galling, TBH. Doing a school quote currently. We have specced a Qu-16, as they do end of term productions, so scene recall would be really beneficial, and their IT head of Dept. is more than able to actually use it (they hired one from us for this end of term production, and loved it). Trouble is, 3 other quotes from other companies all feature AVSL type 12 channel analogues, or cheaper. They also want 10 ways of radio. We specced QLX-D, as will defo do 10 simultaneous, and was reliable enough to be a bit drop proof in a school environment. Others specced Trantec S4.4 on Ch70 (so that is max of 4 concurrent!) or some budget AT-one - 4 of the 8 available frequencies are in the bit of Ch69 offered back by JFMG as Mobile Broadband guard bands! And still only 8 concurrent, not 10! We are the only ones who's quote will work, out of the box, let alone actually stay working for a reasonable period of time. But for that, we are going to be 15-25% more expensive. Peanuts in the scheme of things, for hassle free and reliable equipment? But try explaining that to the bean counters! I cannot drop down to installing cheap crap, which doesn't work, or fulfill client brief, as I haven't got the flannel to extricate myself from such a bad job, and still get paid. Others, with more Arthur Daley style mannerisms, do, and get away with it. That sucks.
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Matt Stolton - Technical Director (!!!) - Wilding Sound Ltd
"Sparkius metiretur vestra" - "Meter Your Mains" |
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shagnasty
Old Croc Joined: 30 July 2007 Location: Guildford, UK Status: Offline Points: 7685 |
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The going rate in 1999 was £250/day + PDs, the value of money halves about every 10 years so 18 years on the fact is I have taken a large pay cut. But the real horror is morons on tour for £70/day catering no PDS and no bus. Stop at the services for a latte and sandwich 10% of your wages gone! Working with un-skilled skilled cretins is dangerous and TBH if the production can't find budget for real Techs and catering etc who wants to do that gig. If you thinking having your car/van taxed, MOT'd and insured and a place to live is up my own arse cool, then I am. But the guy that changes the oil in my van charges £80+VAT/hr so I don't think I should get any less than that. I work hard and I am good at what i do, most idiots seeping in the industry for a sixth my rate aren't worth a tenth of me, so i am actually cheaper. |
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