few quick comments. . .
we paid up to $1k per day. Lodging and plane tickets were always our responsibility. I should also add that in many cases we managed to negotiate a better deal than the going rate by trading services or offering something else in return.
'had consultants in for many things from general operations to art, screens, press ops and so on.
There are two types of consultants. One will be a specialist in their given area (Dot Tone Dan for example) and they are brought in to accomplish a specific task or tackle a specific issue. The other kind is somebody like Mark Coudray or Richard Greaves that will understand all of the aspects of the company (including the business development and human resources) and should be hired on permanent continuous bases (a visit here and there and work done remotely).
pierre
