How much to charge for part-time film lecturer position?

November 30, 2013 3:01 PM

[HowMuchShouldIChargeFilter]: I've recently been asked to teach a filmmaking course in New York on a part-time basis by a private start-up. What to charge? Details inside.

I have an MA in filmmaking from a good school and had a short in a prestigious festival as writer/director, followed by a feature in an even more prestigious festival as a producer (which subsequently found distribution).

It'd be just one day a week for 3 hours for 12 weeks. When I used to teach part-time at a university (non-film related), the hourly rate was based on at least 20 hours. I can't even begin to calculate what rate would make this offer worthwhile, since at this point I'm not even sure how much prep work would be needed.

For part-time gigs such as this, do people still charge by the hour (contact hours)? Or do you simply bill for the semester? In either case, what is an appropriate rate/fee? In the former, is $50/hr unreasonable? In the latter, $2500?

Please help, hivemind!

posted by war wrath of wraith to Work & Money (7 answers total)

You might want to find some folks who teach at the Brooklyn Brainery or who used to teach at the now-defunct Third Ward and see what they charged. This sounds like a very similar gig.
posted by Sara C. at 3:12 PM on November 30, 2013

Bill/negotiate for the semester. Adjunct professors don't work hourly--it's all by the semester or semester hours (3--which is standard). Here's my experience:

1) 6-7K at super premium/well paying universities
2) 4-5K is average for most colleges
3) 2.5K at community colleges or poor universities

If the place you're negotiating with is non-degree offering, then it's probably lower on this scale. However, being in NYC and having the experience you do will jack it up a bit.
posted by Murray M at 4:04 PM on November 30, 2013

I have taught post-grad courses and everywhere I've worked has been €300 per class. It's higher to account for the fact it isn't just the classroom hours, and you should not therefore charge by the classroom hour -- you are going to need to develop a curriculum and materials for the classes and in my experience, that is very labour intensive.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:07 PM on November 30, 2013

Is there grading involved, or just prep work? For a 3hr/week class @ 12 weeks with prep, grading and office hours the pay in Montreal is between about $4000 (college level) and $7500 (university level). There is some variation at the college level based on experience. When I used to teach hourly in the arts - no office hours, no grading, minimal prep - the rate was $33/hr. That was about 10 years ago and I had little experience so I'd say your $50 is very reasonable.
posted by Cuke at 4:26 PM on November 30, 2013

What you can expect might differ depending on whether they are thinking of you as an adjunct, or as a kind of practical instructor. The latter is a non-academic hired for their professional expertise and they tend to make more than adjuncts. Since this is a start up (and not a university grinding adjuncts for low salaries) you might be find you're shortchanging yourself to look only at typical university adjunct rates .

For example, a friend of mine teaches a single course at a non-academic corporation and gets over $300 an hour. She also teaches a similar course as an adjunct at a NYC university and earns what would probably work out to a tenth of that if you were to break down the hours over the course of the semester.

In short, if you are being hired as a kind of practical instructor -- someone who can show students their name on the film festival circuit -- that is going to be a different conversation than if you were teaching an academic film class as an adjunct in a film studies dept. Figure out how they see you and try to rank your pay accordingly. Unfortunately, as a former adjunct before going tenure track (also in NYC), I can only tell you that the numbers above for adjunct work seem right to me too, but I would have no idea what a start up would pay a filmmaker hired outside this framework. Sara C's suggestions might offer pretty different pay experiences than what typical adjuncts can expect.
posted by third rail at 4:49 PM on November 30, 2013

The going rate for a one semester adjunct gig in NYC is between 3500 and 6k unless you're famous. $5k is pretty standard. One 3 hour seminar a week is a standard grad class.

There are a hundred people lined up for your gig too.
posted by spitbull at 5:09 PM on November 30, 2013

Sorry, third rail is correct that these are academic adjunct rates. A for profit company might be very different.
posted by spitbull at 5:11 PM on November 30, 2013