Scarlet undercut by an Epic EPIC Lowballer

[Brad Webb]

I suppose it was only a matter of time, but today our Scarlet rate was undercut by someone with an EPIC. Here's an excerpt from the email from the line producer:

We recently came across someone who must be literally insane, because he can provide us the RED-Epic, DIT and operator for a ridiculously, unbelievable rate. I suppose anything is possible here in Los Angeles.


Obviously I don't begrudge the producer for taking the deal. Good for them for getting an EPIC for less than a competitively priced Scarlet package. But wow dude. How hard up are you for work?

I'm not mad tho. I'll probably be buying this dude's used Epic in a year for cheap when he can't afford the loan payments anymore.

[Stephen Williams]

What was this super low rate?

[Justin Kirchhoff]

The producer may get what they pay for if you know what I mean.

[Brad Webb]

The producer may get what they pay for if you know what I mean.

That's what I'm betting. The producer will be getting a follow up email from us on Monday asking how the shoot went.

[Timur Civan]

I feel bad for the epic owner. hes doing that poorly?

[Stephen Williams]

That's what I'm betting. The producer will be getting a follow up email from us on Monday asking how the shoot went.

There is a good chance that everything was fine, even if it was a disaster the producer won't tell you, so I would leave it a few weeks & ask to see the finished result.

[Ash Worth]

Maybe just a slow week for them and they would rather be working? So this community only supports EPIC owners who charge a certain daily rate?

[Gavin Greenwalt]

If I could keep an Epic busy every day of the year at a super low rate I would make 10x as much as many epic owners.

$600 * 3 * 52 = $93k a year. That's a nice little profit on top of maybe a $70k investment. Buy two Epic packages and keep them both busy that regularly and after the first year you're making serious cash.

[Brad Webb]

If I could keep an Epic busy every day of the year at a super low rate I would make 10x as much as many epic owners.

$600 * 3 * 52 = $93k a year. That's a nice little profit on top of maybe a $70k investment. Buy two Epic packages and keep them both busy that regularly and after the first year you're making serious cash.

That's assuming nothing breaks or gets lost, and with that much use, stuff is going to break and get lost. Especially cables. It's also nearly impossible to rent your camera everyday for a year. Logistics make it impossible. Shoots run long, get cancelled, pushed back, not everything gets returned at the same time, you need to check your gear between rental, etc. If you're really lucky you can get 45 weeks a year. Realistically if you're hustling you're renting it for 30 weeks a years.

Oh, and FYI... this guy would have beat your $600/day price.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

If shit gets lost or broken... you charge them for it. Even then if once every 5 weeks someone breaks something that's only $2,500 in cables.

You also assume that it's not getting use outside of rentals. My Scarlet rentals have paid for all of my accessories. Ultimately my Scarlet is for my use not as a profit center--so I actually tend to put back all of my rental income into more equipment.

I could very easily see a situation where someone would need to rent an Epic 6 weeks a year. @ $1k a day rental that would work out $18k. Over 2 years that's $36k. If they purchased and then rented it out for even $333 a day for 20 weeks that would mean they would also make $40k over 2 years in rental revenue. For $76k you could put together a really nice package and have access to a camera 30 weeks a year instead of 6 weeks a year--which opens up more opportunities.

The reason we can have such low ballers (such as myself) is because not everyone needs to live off of their rental revenues like a rental house. Sure if you need to pay your bills from renting out your gear it's unattainable to rent out at ridiculously low rates. But if every $ coming in is seen as profit (after paying for wear and tear) it's quite a nice little chunk of beer money.