Day rate calculator
A 13-hour Saturday night shoot is not a standard day — bill it like it isn’t. Overtime, double time, premiums and your kit fee, itemized the way an invoice should be.
What this day bills
- Day rate (10h day)
- $600
- Overtime — 2h × 1.5x
- $180
- Hours on the clock
- 12h
- Straight-time hourly
- $60/h
- Effective hourly (labor only)
- $65/h
Conventions vary by market and agreement — set your own terms in writing before the shoot day.
Bringing gear to set? Price your kit fee first.
How day rates actually work
A day rate is a flat price for a defined block of hours — not for “the day, however long it runs.” The rate only means something when it names its hours: $600 for a 10-hour day is $60 an hour; the same $600 across an unbounded day is an invitation to work free overtime. Quote the number and the hours together, every time.
Once the standard day is defined, everything else is arithmetic. Overtime bills at a multiple of your straight-time hourly — 1.5x is the common floor, and many crews move to 2x after two overtime hours. Weekend and holiday work typically multiplies the whole labor charge (1.5x–2x), and night premiums add 25–50% on top — both standard in union agreements and much of Europe, and negotiable everywhere else. Your kit fee stays outside all of it: gear rents flat, labor earns the premiums.
The habit that protects you is itemizing. An invoice that reads “Gaffer day rate, 10h — $600 / Overtime, 2h × 1.5x — $180 / Lighting kit — $750” gets approved without a phone call, because every number traces to a term agreed before the truck rolled. A single mystery total invites negotiation after the work is done — the one negotiation you can’t win.
And track the effective hourly this calculator shows you. If long days keep dragging your real hourly below your straight-time rate, your overtime terms — or your day rate — need renegotiating.
Day rate questions
What counts as a standard shooting day?
It depends on the market and the agreement — 8, 10, and 12-hour days are all common. Commercial and corporate work often books 10s; features and episodic often run 12s. What matters is that your quoted day rate names the hours it covers, so everyone agrees when overtime starts.
How is overtime calculated on a day rate?
Divide your day rate by the standard hours to get your straight-time hourly, then bill overtime hours at a multiplier — 1.5x is the usual starting point, with 2x (double time) after a couple of extra hours on many jobs. A $600/10h day is $60/hour straight time, so hour eleven bills $90 and hour thirteen might bill $120.
What is a fair day rate for film crew?
Ranges vary hugely by market and experience. As broad 2026 reference points: gaffers commonly quote $550–1,100/day, videographer/camera operators $650–1,400/day, DoPs $900–2,400/day, and 1st ACs $400–700/day — labor only, before kit fees. Union agreements set their own scales.
Do I still bill a full day if we wrap early?
Yes. A booked day is a booked day — you turned down other work to hold it. Wrapping two hours early doesn’t discount the rate, the same way wrapping two hours late adds overtime. Half-day bookings are the exception, typically agreed up front at 60–75% of the full rate.
What about weekend, holiday, and night premiums?
These are contractual, not automatic — common in union work and standard in much of Scandinavia and Europe. Typical structures: 1.5x–2x the day rate for weekends and public holidays, and a 25–50% premium on hours worked at night. Agree on them in writing before the shoot, and itemize them on the invoice.
How does overtime work under FAF 2024 (Danish film & TV)?
Under the Danish FAF agreement the day rate covers 8 hours, and each overtime hour is paid at the base hourly (day rate ÷ 8) plus a bracketed supplement: +25% for the 9th and 10th hour, +100% for the 11th and 12th, +150% for the 13th, and +200% from the 14th hour onward. On top of that come genetillæg — flat hourly supplements (typically 100 kr for 18:00–24:00 and 200 kr for 24:00–06:00, early calls before 06:00 at the evening rate). Switch the calculator to FAF 2024 mode to compute a full day from call and wrap times.
Should my kit fee be part of the day rate?
Keep it separate. Your day rate pays your labor; the kit fee rents your gear. Separate lines keep overtime math clean (premiums multiply labor, not equipment) and make the invoice easier for production to approve. If you’re unsure what your kit should cost, use the kit fee calculator.
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