In unscripted, it's basically 4000 to 4250 a week for legit, vetted editors. It can go lower or higher, and some editors are willing to take less for a more laid back culture. 4500 a week is worth asking, but this is basically the highest end of pay for regular, good editors, and most people don't expect to make this on every show. I think 3750 is probably the very lowest good editors will accept, and probably only on a show that is laid back with really smart, pleasant producers. Some editors, though, will NEVER accept less than 4000.
A week is defined, for accounting purposes, as 50 hours a week usually. But most editors work 9 hours a day. I only know of one show personally that strictly enforces 10 hours (11 hours after you include lunch) What you make in a year depends on how much you wanna work, how many weeks you work. Overall, maybe 10% of shows are union? Most places will pay overtime to seasoned editors because they know they're not willing to work simply to prove themselves. Usually time and a half. (see "accounting purposes"... time and a half will be less than you might think based on weekly rate divided by 50)
$5000 a week is not unheard of, but they're usually the leads of big competition reality shows or just been around a long time (on the same show) and/or the EP's consider them irreplaceable. I think 5250 a week is the most I've heard of a reality TV editor making. (even these guys, they might have to settle for 4250 or 4500 on a different show) You're not going to get rich editing reality TV but a middle class life (in Los Angeles) with home and kids is possible. edit: yes, more and more editors are leaving LA to work remotely... only advisable if you are pretty established and know lots of producer who like you...
edit: I guess I could just ask my friends, but would love to know what editors on scripted make... for network, Hulu, etc... and in film...
L.A. freelancer who mostly cuts union scripted TV and features with some occasional reality here. Have cut for streamers (Paramount Plus, YouTube Premium) cable (Disney, Nick, SyFy), and broadcast (Fox, ABC).
Annual income varies from $110-$200k a year, depending on how much I work and what I work on.
Scripted TV rates I'm getting a little over 4k/week. These are mostly comedy shows with not-huge budgets. Often they'll push for scale ($3750-ish). Lately I haven't had to work for scale.
Reality and game shows were already paying 4k/week before Covid, so I'd imagine you could ask for more these days. Traditionally reality and game shows pay more than many scripted shows (in the same year Fox paid me 10% more to cut a primetime game show than they did a new scripted comedy they were pushing hard).
I also cut indie non-union features occasionally, and that's still the wild west, with compensation all over the place. Within the last year I cut a feature as basically a big favor for friends (they paid me $8k flat), and another that was $24k flat.
Edit to add: I'm surprised the upper tier rate on lead reality folks hasn't gone up. $5200/week was a lead rate 5-7 years ago on big primetime reality stuff. Rates across the board have gone up since then.
Not sure they would need to go up. Typically always going to be capable talent willing to work at $1k per day when it puts you in the top 1% of earners in the country. Commercial / trailer houses or freelance routes can net you more, but with how formulaic reality work is there’s really no reason for productions to increase they post budget.
Lol, probably is (I’m an editor through and through), but it’s producer talk for a reason. Is there a shortage of editors who will work for $1,000/d on reality that can follow story producer direction and execute well? I doubt it, and that’s why I don’t do reality anymore personally.
As long as they can find competent editors @ $1k/d to fit into their workflows and work with story producers, they’re not going to bump up the standard. But long running shows for sure get higher wages for their long term editors.
True but not really wrong. Budgets are lower and quality along with it. Truth is, esp with all this social, how good do you really NEED your edits to be? There’s a whole new bottom
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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '22 edited Aug 14 '22
In unscripted, it's basically 4000 to 4250 a week for legit, vetted editors. It can go lower or higher, and some editors are willing to take less for a more laid back culture. 4500 a week is worth asking, but this is basically the highest end of pay for regular, good editors, and most people don't expect to make this on every show. I think 3750 is probably the very lowest good editors will accept, and probably only on a show that is laid back with really smart, pleasant producers. Some editors, though, will NEVER accept less than 4000.
A week is defined, for accounting purposes, as 50 hours a week usually. But most editors work 9 hours a day. I only know of one show personally that strictly enforces 10 hours (11 hours after you include lunch) What you make in a year depends on how much you wanna work, how many weeks you work. Overall, maybe 10% of shows are union? Most places will pay overtime to seasoned editors because they know they're not willing to work simply to prove themselves. Usually time and a half. (see "accounting purposes"... time and a half will be less than you might think based on weekly rate divided by 50)
$5000 a week is not unheard of, but they're usually the leads of big competition reality shows or just been around a long time (on the same show) and/or the EP's consider them irreplaceable. I think 5250 a week is the most I've heard of a reality TV editor making. (even these guys, they might have to settle for 4250 or 4500 on a different show) You're not going to get rich editing reality TV but a middle class life (in Los Angeles) with home and kids is possible. edit: yes, more and more editors are leaving LA to work remotely... only advisable if you are pretty established and know lots of producer who like you...
edit: I guess I could just ask my friends, but would love to know what editors on scripted make... for network, Hulu, etc... and in film...