After my missive in this space last week about supporting the post-production salary survey from the Blue Collar Post Collective, an email came to me from my friends at Germany's UP.GRADE. It's a 9-month university intensive course on the craft of color grading.

UP.GRADE is in the midst of an anonymous salary survey for colorists!

This survey started out as Germany-only for a short test period but has been open to international submissions for a few months. They've gotten off to a good start but don't yet have a statistically large enough pool of responses.

To my Tao Newsletter readers worldwide, I urge you to take the survey.

Like I said last week: We need experienced colorists to respond. 'Seasoned' pros often complain about rates dropping as large pools of new talent are fed into the ecosystem.

One reason for a drop in rates? New talent has no idea how to price themselves and the people who pay them take advantage of that ignorance.

If you take the survey then you are helping younger talent learn how much they're really worth. In the long run, it's the smart play for all of us. Plus, this survey is specifically for Colorists, Juniors, Assistants, and Senior Colorists.

If you work at a shop, freelance, run your own one-person suite, or work part-time then this survey is directed at you!

Thanks to UP.GRADE founder Dirk Meier for emailing me about this! Let's help him close out this survey so he can share the results with all of us.

Have a great week. I'll see you next Sunday.

Happy Grading!

(and remember - if you have a story that's a fit for this Newsletter, hit reply or email it to 'newsletter@taoofcolor.com'! Include a quick reason for the suggested link.)

- Patrick Inhofer
Colorist | Publisher | Coach

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