I am costuming for a local high school, and when I ask about pay, the director says 'you just let us know' - this is extremely awkward, as I have NO idea if I should be asking for hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars, what?  I've costumed Aida and Urinetown, and made (after the expenses I laid out myself for all the costumes) about $200 per show - I KNOW that's not right - that comes to about $1 per hour.  But what's right?

 

Help!

 

What are they paying sets and lights?  You need to be getting at least as much as the set designer if that person is paid.  Your pay, (with withholdings if possible), should be paid out separately from the actual costume budget. 

 

Consider what you would charge to work for someone for a day - knowing that yes, you will probably work more than 8 hours some days, but only spend 4 hours another day sourcing materials or hitting the thrift store on your lunch another day. What is comfortable for you to accept as a day rate? This could be $80 a day to over $300 a day.  Depending on what you  are doing, these are very typical day rates in the industry. 

 

 

 

Is there a costume shop and equipment  provided?  Is said workspace and equipment worth a cr*p? If you have to do everything at your house, on your equipment, then make sure you're compensating for the use of YOUR items. 

 

Depending on the show, how much will need to be built, and what is pulled/rented?

 

Figure a base rate for the actual 'design and coordination' work - your work doing script and character analysis,  sketching, working with the director determining the look of the show, working up the costume plots, etc.  Then consider a labor rate for actually pulling everything together. 

 

Obviously this organization has budget if you have actually gotten paid anything in the past.   You know what they had for your budget in the past.

 

Sometimes it's hard to ask for what you think you're worth, but you can't let them undervalue you either.

 

Anyway, good luck.

Marsha