2009Legal / Business Practices forum
Declining steadicam operator rates and strategies for industry-wide price coordination
17 years old. Gear and prices may have changed since.
DisputedParticipants disagreed and reached no conclusion. Read the findings as positions, not as an answer.
What the thread found
- Operator compensation has experienced significant downward pressure on features, television, and commercial work.
- The number of steadicam operators worldwide has increased substantially since the early days of the technology, expanding from a few hundred to thousands.
- Equipment costs have fallen and easier access to training has enabled new operators to enter the field with minimal investment.
- Some operators have declined work rather than accept what they considered inadequate rates.
- Producers cite difficult economic conditions to justify lower budgets and reduced payments to operators.
- Once production budgets are cut, they tend to remain at lower levels even after economic recovery.
- Individual operators accepting below-standard rates undermine collective efforts to maintain pricing standards.
- A previous in-person meeting of operators in Los Angeles occurred to discuss minimum rates, but some attendees subsequently undercut the agreed minimums on actual jobs.
- Some operators fear that coordinating minimum rates could be interpreted as illegal price fixing or collusion.
- Operators noted that producers openly discuss operator compensation with each other, yet operators discussing rates among themselves raises legal concerns.
- Many operators lack formal training in business practices, negotiation, and pricing strategy.
- Establishing formal industry standards through official organizations like a guild or association was suggested as a potentially legal approach to rate coordination.
- Operating a steadicam business requires skills beyond equipment operation, including marketing, sales, negotiation, and financial management.
Depends on
- This discussion occurred in 2009 during an economic downturn, which may have influenced industry conditions.
- The legal status of operators coordinating on rates versus price fixing remains contested and unresolved in the thread.
- No formal guild or association structure existed at that time to establish and enforce industry-wide rate standards.
- Proposed coordination methods ranged from private Facebook groups to in-person regional meetings, with concerns about enforceability.
- The referenced LA meeting produced no sustained results when some participants subsequently undercut agreed rates on actual projects.
- Advice about business education and negotiation skills was offered but not implemented across the industry.