Hi, Forward Lookers:
Movie car rental fees are about the purest form of unregulated
capitalism left in the Western World. (Other than swap-meet prices and
e-Bay bids on 1958 Chrysler showroom display boxes, I suppose).
The movie guys will pay a lot for a car that they HAVE to have. I had
the benefit of owning a car that matched the car written into a film
script and got about US$700 for two separate days (i.e. about 2 hours
the first day and about 4 hours a week later) but I drove the car to the
set and waited around for it. This was my first movie venture, and I now
believe that I could have squeezed a few more bucks out of the
situation, but, read on.
Another car of mine went for US$350 a day, and again I drove to the set,
sat around in the food tent from 7:30 a.m. until they actually shot my
car's scene at 6:00 p.m. and left at 7:00 p.m. But my car's paint color
matched the actress's dress to a "T", so no wonder they jumped on my
car. And I got to eat the same fantastic food that the actors were
eating. The three guys I sat with for lunch were performing as extras
for their own interesting reasons, but get this: they were playing the
part of Swiss bankers, so they were asked to wear their own dark suits,
dress shirts and conservative ties, they drove to the set on location,
they sat around from 7:30 a.m. until their scene was shot at 3:30 p.m.,
and then at 4:30, they each collected their US$30 for the day. It
scarcely pays for laundering the shirt, dry cleaning the suit and the
gas to get there and home again. But, they had their reasons. I didn't
mention the car's fees until they asked me point-blank.
Then come the background cars: just parked on the street to give the
right time frame to the scene. Here, they send a flat-bed, or roll-back,
or tilt-and-load, truck to pick up the car, take it to the set, and
bring it back. Obviously, my agent gets a decent fee for transporting
the car back and forth, in addition to his share of the fee. For
background cars, which they pick up and deliver, I get US$145, which my
agent tells me is 60% of the US$240 he charges the movie production. I
would expect he gets something in addition to his 40% (US$95), for
transporting the cars. It might sound like gravy to you (and to me, too,
sometimes) but his trucks and drivers are sometimes working two or three
days around the clock with no sleep, when they are doing a film that
calls for 50 - 100 cars for some scenes. It takes a lot of organization
and time to pick up that many cars one or two at a time, and deliver
them to set and then home again. And his office staff make a heck of a
lot of phone calls to the movie production company and the car owners,
for each car that actually ends up being used.
Some of these background cars have been a bit more than window dressing.
Once, they returned my Caprice, minus the flat tire and wheel in the
trunk. When I complained, they told me they had shot a scene using the
trunk and must have left the tire on location. They gave me a used
universal style wheel and well worn tire from some 15" GM car, but what
they had left behind on location was actually a 14" wheel and destroyed
tire from my 68 Town & Country wagon. So, if you don't accompany your
car all day long, they might miss a detail that an observant owner might
catch.
Now, some of my friends have done a lot better, dollar-wise, with their
cars. One shrewd fellow insists on getting US$350 for the day, then
sends the car on his own tilt-and-load truck and charges another US$175
for delivery and return because he's 125 miles away (one way) and sends
his son along to mind the car and try to repair it, if and when it
breaks down (this guy's cars don't usually run any better than they have
to, just to move around his yard). Then he asks for a fee for his
"mechanic". Maybe US$25 or US$35, if they'll pay. On one occasion
recently, they kept on shooting the scenes until 2:00 a.m., which is not
unusual either, if there are night scenes. So, the son and the car
didn't return home until 4:00 a.m., so my friend complained enough to
get ANOTHER US$350 for the extra-long day. Obviously, he makes a lot of
money this way. The killer though, was when they wanted to use his car,
but wanted it a different color, with a different interior color, too.
US$2,100 was what they paid him for painting and interior work. But, he
had his own upholsterer do the interior for US$600 and sent the car to
Maaco for a US$240 paint job! Yes, it IS a crummy paint job, but it's
shiny enough for the movies and, like a pig in warm mud, my friend is
happy enough with his shiny paint job. After all, he has US$2,160 left
in his pocket.
But, my agent won't even call my friend, because he won't take less than
US$350, so for the "roles" my agent is filling, it is always somebody
else's car that gets the US$145 a day work. It's a decision you have to
make for yourself: do you want to hold out for "big" bucks or just take
what they'll give you? You can succeed in holding them to ransom,
sometimes, because the film producers are almost always operating in
what appears to be a disorganized panic mode. They often don't decide on
which cars to use until the day before they need them. And if they do
set up in advance, they almost always change their minds about which
cars to use or about which scene to shoot the next day. To us civilians,
it is an unbelievably wasteful and inefficient way to run a business.
So, they will pay US$500 or more for a car they need the next day, since
the car's cost is a drop in the bucket compared to the daily operating
budget for a production crew. But, will they call again when there is
less panic, and more cars which could fit the bill, if your car is
over-priced? Who knows?
Sorry for the long sermon on this topic, but I was recently interviewed
for an upcoming article on this topic, so, if and when it gets
published, I'll post the details.
Dick Woodside
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