Question for the producers out there: I’m a freelance editor in NYC. 15 years+ experience, former commercial post house editor. I love freelancing but lately budgets are just all over the place. Often I get asked my day rate just as an initial question (before I’ve seen creative or know what the project is). I try to aim on the higher end but I never want to be just written off. So my question is, what would scare you and what would you find reasonable for someone like me?

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I’m seeing $900-$1200 and up to $2500 for very senior award winning editors from established commercial post houses. Always negotiable depending on the project. $700 or less is for cutting assists.

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Same for my situation. I tell them my day rate, but emphasize that I’m flexible and let them tell me what they have in mind. It’s really tough out here right now.

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I’m generally paying editors around $700-900 a day.

Pitch work I’d often pay less or do a buyout.

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Agreed

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It helps to give us upfront 10 hour day rate and OT/weekend rates. Sometimes there are jobs that come across our desk with just dates and no boards yet. And sometimes, even though we have the board, due to confidentiality, we cannot share unless we sign. So we mostly depend on the portfolio, skills, day rate and availability as basis for hiring. At least for us, if it fits the budget, we don’t discount no matter what. Personally, I only approach editors/animators who has similarity to the board/specific skill clients are looking for. If it helps--recently, a reasonable rate for our projects is between $600-900/10 hours (Junior/Mid/Senior).

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Good luck! I hope you find the right projects!

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When I'm working with content, Anything over $1k unless you're top of the heap and I've got a budget for that. $700 low $900 high. Also, I don't work with people who only work in 10-hour chunks. I expect that you're logging actuals. If I give you 10-15 days I expect 100-150 hours used and logged in reality, stretched over the project calendar and giving me an accurate account week to week. Treat me well, and make it easy and I'll pull you under my wing and put 2-3 projects at a time on you and fill your pipeline.

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Me? Probably not. When I work with an editor I usually give them several projects, each with their own budget. On any given day we might need updates to all of them, or maybe there's a stretch where yes, one project is full days. But I expect actuals and won't hire anyone who won't work on actuals.

Thanks to everyone, this has been really helpful. As a follow up, these rate ranges are a lot lower than I’m used to seeing in nyc. Do you feel that rates have actually been decreasing lately? Or standard over time for your projects?

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This is great information as I don't know of any Editors who are working at all right now. 1 out of every 10 of my colleagues are booked at the moment. I have friends who have won awards and cut features for HBO who haven't worked in a year. If there's still work in this industry, I'd love to know where to find it.

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Freelance editors working directly to agency are generally $750-$900 as of late

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