There is an oft-told story of Picasso drawing on a napkin. If you Google \u201cPicasso Napkin Drawing\u201d you\u2019ll find endless variations of the story. Here\u2019s the short version:<\/p>\n
Someone sees Picasso at a caf\u00e9 and asks him to draw something on a napkin. Picasso complies and signs it. Pablo then says, \u201c$25,000 please\u201d. (Sometimes the request was for $1 million depending only who is telling the tale). The person balks saying, \u201cBut it only took you 30 seconds to draw it\u201d. \u201cNo,\u201d answers Picasso, \u201cit took 40 years.\u201d Picasso understood he was a creative person, not a day laborer punching a time clock and getting paid a \u201cday rate\u201d. So he charged appropriately.<\/p>\n
It seems to us that\u00a0agents are more culpable than the photographers they represent when it comes to using the terms “creative fee” and the disfavored “day rate”.\u00a0Using the term \u201ccreative fee\u201d in your invoices will result in more money in your bank account than doing business on a day rate basis. Here is an explanation of the giant\u00a0difference between the two terms.<\/p>\n
Creative fee<\/strong> – this is the fee that a photographer charges for conceiving and\/ or\u00a0creating images.\u00a0The term encompasses the photographer’s\u00a0reputation which may include both his\/her, status within the industry and\u00a0any\u00a0public recognition of name and\/or style or body of work.\u00a0It takes into account factors including the photographer’s\u00a0work,\u00a0creativity, experience, skill, degree of difficulty, total amount of time spent on the assignment, specialized equipment employed and\/or unique\u00a0talents required to do the job. It also takes into consideration the\u00a0number and relative abilities of competitors\u00a0available to the client to do the same job in substantially the same way.\u00a0It means doing a realistic and frank evaluation as to where you are in the pecking order.<\/p>\n Some reps and photographers also include the nature and extent of the\u00a0usage of license extended\u00a0to the client for the work in the creative fee.\u00a0\u00a0Doing so, in our opinion, is simply wrong.\u00a0The nature of the license should be a separate line item. The\u00a0forms contained in our book address this issue simply and effectively.<\/p>\n An “Avedon” or a \u201cDemarchelier\u201d<\/strong> may charge more than a\u00a0photo student for identical\u00a0licenses for\u00a0use\u00a0on say, a\u00a0Clairol package.\u00a0That pricing is a product of name, experience and other market forces\u00a0but it ought not be mixed and conflated with the creative fee.\u00a0Also, other than a mega name photographer, a so-called “blue collar” shooter can charge and receive a mega fee for expansive consumer use on a widely distributed product even if the images created are although of professional quality, not particularly noteworthy.<\/p>\n Day Rate –<\/strong> The term “day rate” is really out of date.\u00a0It is an anachronism.\u00a0\u00a0Don’t use it if at all possible.\u00a0It was used by some photographers and lower tier models\u00a0to signify the minimum amount a photographer or model would accept to shoot or be in an image (usually) created for\u00a0an editorial use. Additional money would typically be paid\u00a0if multiple images were used or if images were used in publications that employed “space rates” in determining licensing fees. We do recognize there are some uses, such as catalog use, where the client dictates are set in stone, and they will only work on a day rate basis.<\/p>\n The term is often employed by\u00a0clients and ad agents\u00a0as a negotiating tool in an attempt\u00a0to pay the least amount of money for the broadest usage possible. Defense attorneys attempt to employ the very same term to minimize the amount of money their clients should pay in copyright infringements cases or in \u201cright of publicity\u201d cases.\u00a0 A flat rate that a photographer or model may be\u00a0offered for shooting for a publication,\u00a0eliminates all of the factors that makes a particular photographer or model commercially valuable, especially\u00a0the benefits gained by the client by using those very\u00a0professionals.<\/p>\n The term “day rate” ought never be used when doing an assignment job.\u00a0It is an attempt to classify the creator or model as in effect, an hourly employee of no greater value than any other photographer who would work on “hourly” jobs.\u00a0 Use of the term represents and assumes that\u00a0four hours of shooting a table top job for a single local hardware store, equals four hours of shooting a pro-football game, which of course equals\u00a0four hours of shooting nine six year olds\u00a0on a swing set for a\u00a0catalogue to be used by a world wide chain of toy stores, which equals working four hours filming a coral reef while loaded with scuba gear a few hundred feet under water.\u00a0 Four hours work equals four hours work, right? Kinda like four hours of flipping burgers equals four hours of performing a quadruple heart by pass operation.<\/p>\n Charging day\u00a0rates not only minimizes your value but it can also lead to arguments over full day vs. half days and even raise the specter of\u00a0billing smaller hourly rate vs. day\u00a0rates. Next step? Billing by the minute. Most day rates, as it is, are barely enough to cover a creators cost of opening their doors. Profit?\u00a0What a concept! You don’t need no stinkin’\u00a0profit!<\/p>\n When pricing\u00a0always consider\u00a0the financial benefit gained by your client from using your images. <\/em>Many an attorney will say with a straight face that, “Yes my client sold a zillion boxes of\u00a0face cream\u00a0every year for five straight years and made tons of money\u00a0but it only took the photographer\u00a02 hours to shoot the damn thing and he\/she has a day rate of $2,000 a day so we will give the photographer\u00a0three times that amount for the infringement and call it a day<\/em>“.\u00a0<\/em>Both inexperienced agents and attorneys representing the talent, fall for that line of drivel daily. That is the very reason smart defense lawyers use it. When they do, just pull out your Picasso.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is an oft-told story of Picasso drawing on a napkin. If you Google \u201cPicasso Napkin Drawing\u201d you\u2019ll find endless variations of the story. Here\u2019s the short version: Someone sees Picasso at a caf\u00e9 and asks him to draw something on a napkin. Picasso complies and signs it. Pablo then says, \u201c$25,000 please\u201d. (Sometimes the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,5,20],"tags":[474,370,475,96,61],"class_list":["post-1509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-be-aware","category-paperwork","category-stuff-you-should-know","tag-creative-fee","tag-day-rate","tag-napkin-story","tag-negotiating","tag-picasso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1510,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions\/1510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}