State of Crew
State of Crew, September 2026
The government’s jobs numbers come from payroll, and payroll barely counts freelance crew. If you work day to day on shoots, you mostly don’t show up in them. So here’s what we see instead: the work that gets posted, where it is, who it’s for, and what a day pays.
Updated September 28, 2026. Rebuilt every day from live job posts and the day rates members set on their profiles.
Pay
Day rates by role
The line marks the median day rate. The shaded part is the middle half: half of all rates fall inside it. A role only shows up here with 5 or more rates behind it.
Director of Photography
$900 a day
middle half $675 to $1,500
Production Assistant
$235 a day
middle half $150 to $250
Actor
$250 a day
middle half $138 to $313
Production Sound Mixer
$850 a day
middle half $500 to $1,150
Camera Operator
$600 a day
middle half $525 to $875
Director
$500 a day
middle half $325 to $1,150
Video Editor
$300 a day
middle half $250 to $463
Makeup Artist
$550 a day
middle half $463 to $750
Producer
$825 a day
middle half $800 to $963
Background / Extra
$231 a day
middle half $185 to $231
Gaffer
$650 a day
middle half $500 to $850
Production Designer
$600 a day
middle half $500 to $800
Pay, by city
Day rates in the top cities
Same rule: 5 or more rates for that role in that city, or it isn't shown.
Los Angeles
Director of Photography
$750 a day
middle half $450 to $2,500
Who
Roles most asked for
Roles on more than one post that's open now or went up in the last 30 days.
1
Background / extra
2
Director of Photography
3
Production Sound Mixer
How we count
- A job is a post on NeedaCrew: a shoot, a casting call, a staff job or a live event. Open means it’s still taking people today.
- Cancelled posts, examples and anything that looks like a test are left out.
- Cities are grouped by metro, so Brooklyn counts as New York and Burbank as Los Angeles. Remote posts aren’t in the city list.
- Day rates come from two places: the rate people list on their own profile (unless they’ve hidden it) and the per-day pay on posts. We show the median and the middle half, so one very high or very low rate can’t move the number.
- A rate only appears once 5 or more people or posts are behind it. Fewer than that and it stays off the page.
- Job counts, the city list and trends appear once enough work is posted for them to mean something.
- Everything here is worked out fresh once a day from live job posts and the day rates members set on their profiles. Nothing is estimated or filled in.
Get the work, not just the numbers.
Free to join, free to post, free to apply. The hirer pays 5%. Crew keep 100% of their rate.