Day Rates Update - Film & Motion

Typical roles within the Film & Motion Category include: 3D Designer, Motion Graphics, Videography, Animation and Video Editing.

Day Rates

The average day rate across the Film & Motion discipline in 2020 was £365, nearly a 5% increase on 2019.

Overall in the Film & Motion discipline, data shows an average project length of 9 working days. This is slightly down on 2019, where we saw an average of 11 working days.

Although we can see an increase on the overall discipline, the rates across the sub-disciplines hasn't changed significantly from 2019 to 2020.

3D Designer

The average day rate for contracted 3D Designer in 2020 was £352, similar to that of the rates in 2019.

Animator

Contacted Animators had an ever so slight increase year on year, from an average of £348 in 2019, to £349 in 2020.

Motion Graphics Designer

Freelance Motion Graphics Designer had an average day rate of £346 in 2020, a slight decrease on 2019 rates.

Video Editor

Freelance Video Editors contracted average day rate in 2020 was £351, a 2.5% increase on 2019 rates.

Videographer

Freelance Videographers contracted average day rate in 2020 was £362, slightly down on 2019 rates.

Gender Divide in Film & Motion

Film & Motion has done a good job of reducing the gender pay gap, in fact in 2020 women were actually paid 4% more, on average, than men. However, the worrying finding here is the very low proportion of contracts being awarded to women (this is broadly a function of the limited pool of female freelancers in the field).

The extent of the drop in bookings in 2020 may in part be a function of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may in part be a result of women having longer average booking lengths than men last year, however it does not change the negative overall picture.

With only 17% of freelancers working in Film & Motion being female, we met with Natalie Hobbons, Senior Motion Designer, to get her thoughts on how she thinks more young female talent could be encouraged to work in film & motion.

I think role models are one part to play in it. Somewhere along the way, I went from being an illustration student amongst a sea of women, to being a motion designer sitting in a studio amongst all men.

For me, it was a gradual and natural transition from illustration and design into animation, and therefore into production.However, if I had stereotyped this video production work as ‘male’, I may indeed have been put off. In the early days of my career, it was just me and another female responsible for the video work... so I didn’t think anything of it for quite a while.
Natalie Hobbons, Freelance Senior Motion Designer

For more insights into the gender divide within the UK’s creative & tech freelance community - check out the 2021 For Everyone Report.