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S.ed.ition
Tired of hearing from complaining
filmmakers? An
experienced script editor gives her account of just how
hard it is to stay alive and operate inside the Irish audiovisual
sector. [Extract]
Having read your accounts of writers and directors undergoing
the above, a rites of passage experience for anyone who thinks
they won't get worn down by this industry, here's a beat of
redress from the other side of the coin - the poor bastard
who is the script editor.
Having trained for 6 years, and worked as a
media lawyer, I made the big mistake of pursuing my 'dream'.
Thirty-two - time for a change. Time to do something interesting.
I'd written a couple of plays which had been produced, and
a couple of screenplays which hadn't.
The usual reasons - nice little drama, not enough action.
Next!
So, with mortgage and overheads, I waved goodbye
to 85K a year in London, and headed back to Ireland. I read
Segur, Dancyger, Egri, McKee, Reisz, etc etc etc. I did the
courses. All very helpful. But even then the warning signs
were there. All the script editors were aspiring writers,
or writer/director, who didn't seem to be earning very well
themselves.
That's why they were teaching.
Now, for any fool out there who's in the position
I was in 5 years ago, here's what you can expect once you've
'trained' and got some experience. Start at €10 an hour.
4 hours maximum for a script. So that's what - €40, maybe
€80 a day. But you won't get 2 a day. Not unless you
work for a production company, in which case you won't be
doing development all day.
OK - €40 a day. 3 or 4 times a week - if you're lucky/good.
Remember - no pension. You'll be paying all the government
yourself.
So you're fucked.
Unless you're living in a bin liner.
And you decide you can do that, for a year.
After that surely you'll be a script editor, not a reader.
Well - yes, and no.
Producers don't have money for freelancers.
If you're very good, and have maybe, what 3 or 4 years of
development experience in America or London, then you can
ask a whooping €120 for an editor's report.
€120.
Isn't that something?
You've worked 5 years, and you're earning €120 for a
day's work.
On top of your education. On top of your reading. On top of
the courses.
On top of the 1,000s of movies you've sat through. The 100s
of scripts you've read.
€120 - of a day.
And it's not going to be every day. No.
So you're earning €500 a week.
That 25K a year.
About the same you get for pulling coffees in Brown Thomas.
The
full text of this article is printed in Film Ireland
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