Film Career · Art Director
Consulting Art Director
Art Director · IATSE Art Directors Guild, Local 800
- Union
- IATSE Art Directors Guild
- Day rate
- ~$3,000–$7,500/wk
- Experience
- 8–18+ yrs
What does a Consulting Art Director do?
A consulting art director leads within the art director department, answering for its output while managing the people and logistics behind it.
On union productions the position falls under IATSE Art Directors Guild, Local 800, which sets the rates, hours, and conditions the role works within. Like every art director role, the job is hired production by production, and repeat work comes from department heads who trust the name on the call sheet.
What does a Consulting Art Director make?
- This is a department-head chair, toward the top of its department's range.
- Art direction is paid weekly: roughly $3,000-$7,500 a week (ADG scale around $3,000-$3,600), or roughly $120K-$300K a year (IATSE Local 800).
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
Government wage data
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the closest federal occupation.
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You can draft, budget, and manage a build
Soft skills
- You make decisions calmly and own the results
- You can lead a crew, hold a budget, and answer for the department
Career progression
The role advances the way most art director careers do: repeat hires from the same department heads, growing responsibility within the craft, and a reputation that travels between productions faster than any resume.
How do you become a Consulting Art Director?
The path here is internal: the art director department promotes this position from within, based on a track record built in its junior chairs. Start at the department's entry level and let the work argue for you.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by IATSE Art Directors Guild, Local 800 contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.