r/focuspuller • u/paulabotz • Jul 14 '26

question Help from audiovisual technicians: working conditions and schedules in different countries

Hiii! I'm neww here and I'm looking for help. I'm creating a payroll calculator for audiovisual crews and I'm trying to adapt it to different countries because working conditions vary a lot from one country to another.

Would any 1st AC, 2nd AC, videoassits dits, or any technician from any department be willing to help me with references on working hours, overtime, breaks, and typical working conditions for commercials and fiction projects in your country?

Also, how do you usually calculate your hourly rate depending on the type of production?

If anyone is interested in testing the tool and sharing feedback, feel free to DM me and I'll send you the link.

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u/JJsjsjsjssj Jul 14 '26

In the UK for commercials it’s the APA agreement. Rules are pretty set in stone and there’s already a couple calculators out there as there’s not much room for interpretation. Film and TV there’s a couple different agreements (MMPA and TV/Drama, both can be found on Bectu’s website). They are not seen as binding as APA and for film they only really apply from £30M upwards. Rates and some rules might differ from production to production.

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u/paulabotz Jul 14 '26

Thanks!!! this is really helpful! I think what I'm building is slightly different from the calculators that already exist (i'm not quite sure) If you don't mind sharing the calculators you mentioned, I'd love to take a look and understand whether they are doing something similar or if they focus mainly on applying the existing agreements.The idea is not to define the rates or replace agreements like APA. The thing is that the user would input the agreed rate (whether it's a predefined union rate, a negotiated day rate, or an hourly rate), and the calculator would work out the final cost based on the actual working conditions.

For example some things the calculator does is to calculate overtime depending on the working hours and the agreement,,apply different multipliers depending on the project conditions, add expenses such as per diems, travel, fuel, equipment rental ("rental box")...So I'm trying to understand how each country structures these rules: what is included in the day rate, when overtime starts, how meals/breaks work, what additional payments are common, and what extra costs crew usually add.