Introducing DP Career Coach: Our First App

For more than two decades, Geared Like A Machine has built systems for production. Rental inventory that shows up dialed in. A scope process that turns a vague brief into a real plan. A studio that runs like the name says. Now we have built something for the people who actually run the camera.

DP Career Coach is live on the App Store. It is free, and it is the first app we have ever shipped.

The Question Nobody Answers Straight

Every working Director of Photography eventually asks the same thing: what does this career actually pay? Not the headline number someone bragged about at a wrap party. The real one, after the slow months, the unbillable bidding days, the gear that depreciates, and the rate that has not moved in three years.

Most of the answers out there are noise. A forum post from 2019. A figure someone in a different market swears by. A gut feeling that you are either leaving money on the table or about to scare off the next client. We wrote about why most DPs undercharge their day rate, and the response made one thing clear: people want the math, not the pep talk.

So we built the math into an app.

What It Does

DP Career Coach takes ten honest inputs about your situation:

• Years of experience
• Market tier, from a smaller market up through LA and NYC
• Production mix
• Days per month
• Reel strength
• Network strength
• Kit ownership
• Union status
• Specialty add-ons
• Retainer clients

And it gives you the picture most DPs never get to see in one place:

• A year-one income range: low, median, and high
• Your effective day rate
• How many days you are realistically booking per month
• A 10-year projection chart that shows how the trajectory compounds as your reel sharpens and your network grows

The calculator runs locally on your iPhone. No network required for the math.

An AI Coach That Knows Your Numbers

The numbers are the start, not the end. DP Career Coach has a built-in AI coach that can read your scenario and help you think through the moves.

Wondering if buying a full cinema kit pays off for your market? Ask it. Considering joining IATSE Local 600 and want to know what changes? It can run the math. Weighing a strategic retainer client against staying fully freelance? It will compare the scenarios with your inputs in hand. The chat connects to our backend, with no account and no login required.

Built on Real Rates, Not Vibes

A calculator is only as good as the numbers behind it. The rates in DP Career Coach were compiled in May 2026 from IATSE wage schedules, DGA rate cards, the AICP commercial production agreement, Wrapbook, Mixing Light, the AIR Rate Guide, and peer surveys. This is the same kind of grounding we bring to every bid we build.

Private, Free, and Built by People Who Shoot

DP Career Coach was built by the working commercial cinematographers behind Geared Like A Machine, because we got tired of guessing too. It is free. No ads. No account required. No data collected beyond the calculator inputs you save, which stay on your device.

Get It

DP Career Coach is free on the App Store. iPhone, iOS 17 and up. See everything it does, or download it on the App Store.

Know your number.