Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541330
8 WINTER 2026 return for the paycheck and to maintain a roof over their heads. But despite their growing popularity, verticals are notorious for low budgets and high expectations. "They're very exploitative. They're taking advantage of a lot of unemployed, high-caliber talent in town, and hungry for any job. They push for all these impossible deadlines and standards with zero budget and rates that are below minimum," Wendy Espinoza, a 705 Women's Finished Costumer, told me. Taylor agreed, "It depends on the project, but rates are $350-$450 per day, usually $400 max. If I get an assistant, they'll offer $200 per day. Sometimes I'll pay out of pocket to make it $250 per day. I feel exploited a lot." "They don't want to pay the real cost of things, like for uniforms and multiples. They don't understand the perks of having multiples in a scene, and everything is so chaotic. They want us to return things we already used. My average budget is $1,500 for maybe 20 to 30 outfits, depending on the vertical," Taylor continued. "We always have to ask the cast to bring stuff. I have to ask the casting director, like if we need a security guard, then they need to be someone who owns a black suit. Producers also like to make last-minute decisions and don't consider the financial impact for the Costume Department. A friend had to do a football scene and production brought in two extra people to be in uniforms and said, 'just put them in white shirts.'" "I use my own kit, I use my own car, and production gets mad at me when I can't fit the insane amount of things in my car, because we're shooting 90-minute movies in 10 days. We're nickeled and dimed for any expendables. They make a ton of money on these, and they'll spend thousands of dollars on locations, but skimp out on buying hangers. Productions want to return everything and I know a lot of productions that get blacklisted for unethical stuff— wearing clothes and leaving tags on, for example. I will not do that. They want union labor and union-quality work on less than a student film budget," Espinoza added. In addition to low rates and budgets, getting assistants and prep and wrap days seems to be a rarity. "I ask for $400 a day, a few prep days and at least one wrap day, but I don't always get it. Some companies will pay $350 per day with only one prep day," Blake said. "Some shoots I'll get an assistant for a few days, but a lot of times I don't. And they don't pay them enough, sometimes $150 per day. I ask for $250 per day, and they say they can't do it, so they bring someone inexperienced who takes an hour to steam a shirt. And I feel I can't ask them to do much more because they're barely being paid anything." And it's not just the assistants who are inexperienced. While the crews are a mix of union and nonunion, many crew members are straight out of film school. "I had a first AD who didn't communicate when scene order was shifted from the call sheet. A lot of the crew are recent film "They're taking advantage of a lot of unemployed, high- caliber talent in town, and hungry for any job." —WENDY ESPINOZA, Women's Finished Costumer Camera setup to film in a vertical format.