tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372081736393587830.post4183580795869375742..comments2023-03-25T14:09:08.045+00:00Comments on Professionally Resting: 1551Miss Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02939362519591444568noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372081736393587830.post-34193332231250378022013-01-27T10:28:06.821+00:002013-01-27T10:28:06.821+00:00Matt Jamie,
Clearly you have a conflict of intere...Matt Jamie,<br /><br />Clearly you have a conflict of interests. No one can successfully tread the line of employer and employee. On the one had you want to call yourself a film maker and presumably progress, but here's the rub, with that progression comes responsibility ie. the responsibility of paying people - its part of the process.<br />Your problem is you are wallowing around 'pretending' to be a legit film maker whilst as a producer you are clearly offsetting your costs to the performer. Just when will you decide to pay people? because all the evidence above indicates that that time wont come soon and the unbalanced statistics will continue to grow. You have no incentive to pay people and from your response don't even think you need an incentive or want to pay people - its all too hard.<br />We'll I'm afraid that's not good enough. As an actor (and you wear that hat also) we want a sustainable industry not one that is forever drowning under the weight of unpaid work with NO ONE willing to do the right thing and address the issue.<br />You are part of the problem, not the solution. The problem IS mostly with the small guys, guys who don't want to bother to learn about National Insurance, Tax, Holiday Pay etc but who want to make their name of the back of other and piggy back on other's unpaid efforts. Its not good enough that you send your film to festivals - anyone can do that - why can't you learn the nuts and bolts of film making and budget properly. You seem to want to gloss over the difficult stuff and responsibilities of office.The big guys are by and large not the main culprits and they are easily dealt with.<br />My advice to you is join PACT, learn how to become a proper industry producer and stop pussyfooting around, if you're serious about film making, invest some time, energy, responsibility and shoulder some of the financial risk - that's your job!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372081736393587830.post-21253672981540156422013-01-23T00:33:09.315+00:002013-01-23T00:33:09.315+00:00I think there definitely needs to be a change with...I think there definitely needs to be a change with big companies making professional commercial work, and expecting actors to work for free (not even for peanuts). This is definite exploitation because there will always be someone willing to do the work. This is where Spotlight, and casting directors should step in and not be promoting this kind of "job". <br /><br />But I think there's still a place for independent films to be made for expenses. I work as an actor and a film maker so I understand the difficulties from both sides. I always pay expenses and food (and usually offer to edit showreels or take headshots in lieu of payment) - but a lot of really interesting and mutually beneficial projects simply would not get made if people weren't giving their time for free. If I make a "no budget" short, I'm providing food, expenses, £x-worth of equipment and many £hundreds in editing hours + fees to submit to festivals (if it turns out ok!). For that I'm asking for for 3 or 4 days time from my actors who will (hopefully) have a good time, and get something useful and entertaining as well. <br /><br />But another challenge here is that there are now so many people making films that there's little way of knowing whether your crew will be professional artists making a creative venture, or a bunch of monkeys who bought a camera off ebay and now call themselves "film makers". So, as an actor, you don't know whether you'll ever see the footage, or indeed whether you'd ever want to... <br /><br />When looking at any work offering expenses (and I'd suggest not looking at anything not covering expenses) just do some research: if they're "independent film makers" look at their previous work. If it looks interesting, get a script. If that looks good, maybe meet them and see if they seem like they know what's going on. If they're a "proper film/tv company" look at the project and it's usually pretty clear if they're just cutting corners - and don't go for it. Hopefully Spotlight and Equity will start to filter out these types of jobs, but don't throw out the baby (film makers) with the (corporate) bath water.Matt Jamiehttp://www.mattjamie.co.uknoreply@blogger.com