1551

You know I don’t actually enjoy blogging about unpaid work, right? Despite my countless entries on it, I don’t actually get a kick from it. Well, I do. My love for this job gets a kicking as does my poor and feeble bank account. But I don’t get a thrill from it, I promise. All I get from it is a desire to climb up on the roof and scream for the rest of the week. But, yet again, I find myself blogging about it. I’m sorry but it’s happening. So you can either look away now or you can come with me on a little brief journey… You still with me? Excellent, now follow me…

I had no intentions of writing about unpaid work because I was pretty sure I’d said all I wanted to on the matter. But yesterday, eager to get started on 2013 and hoping that the castings would start appearing as everyone gets back to work proper, I practically leapt on the casting websites. I checked the paid jobs on one particular site and found one measly, grossly underpaid role to apply for on the woefully meagre list. Cover letter and CV fired off, I checked the unpaid jobs to see if there were any gems I could share on Twitter. Despite it being mid-morning, there was already a full page of unpaid jobs. As the day went on, the unpaid list increased quicker than my Christmas waistline and I had trouble keeping up with them. At the end of play (about 5.30pm when casting calls ground to a halt and hopes of a productive and fruitful day die yet again) there were 15 paid jobs and 51 unpaid jobs. That, maths fans, means that for every paid job, there are 3.4 unpaid jobs scavenging around, making everyone feel a bit uneasy. I'm not saying that it's this bad every day but I can say that every single day, the amount of unpaid work will always outnumber paid work. Always.

This is worrying. And it’s no wonder that Spotlight are now planning a consultation on the matter (if you’re a Spotlight member and are yet to complete the survey they’re emailing out, please do so. It only takes a minute or so and is super important.) But the sheer amount of unpaid work out there is continuing to be a problem. I’m not sure I can say anything new that I haven’t said before. I personally don’t take on unpaid work anymore but I used to so I don’t feel like I can be in a position to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do. I’d like to ask people to stop doing it because while people happily do it, it will continue. And it’s not just the small independent filmmakers and students that are the problem (and I’m not saying that none of them pay, some of them do which is wonderful) but it’s the big, major channels that are to blame too. Most weeks I’ll see castings posted by terrestrial channels asking for performers to work for expenses only. This sets a terrible example and show just how big this problem is. If the major companies aren’t prepared to pay everyone then you can hardly blame the smaller companies for following suit. 

And it’s not just expenses only work. Yesterday, on the particular website that gave up the depressing 15/51 statistic, around half of those jobs weren’t even offering expenses. These were jobs that expected actors to essentially pay to work just so they could receive a DVD maybe a year later and perhaps an IMDb credit on a page that no one will ever look at. I’ve even seen jobs that don’t even offer food for their crew and performers. However desperate you might be for work, please don’t take on these jobs. If they can’t even be bothered to make a few sandwiches and buy a few bags of crisps then I can almost guarantee that the on-set experience won’t be a fun one. But of course people are still applying for these jobs. The amount of work out there has decreased to such a depressing level that people just want to be doing something, anything to confirm to themselves that they are in fact an actor and not a temp or a call centre worker or whatever other job you find yourself doing to keep the money-hungry wolves from the door. I desperately need to update my showreel but I didn’t get any work last year that I’d be able to put on it. I’m still waiting for a copy of some work I did back in 2011 (chasing this up has become an almost full-time job) but while I have an out of date showreel, the jobs are that bit harder to get. So it’s no surprise that people take on unpaid work just so they can get a bit of material and maybe edge their way out of this ridiculous catch-22.

Hopefully Spotlight’s findings will bring about change. Or maybe 2013 will just be another year of me constantly whinging about a problem that won’t go away. If it’s the latter, I’m sorry. I really am.

Undramatic Irony

“We’ve got this really good idea for a film. How about we make a film about how tough it is being an actor. How talented they are but how tough it can be to get a break. How, to support their dreams they have to take on jobs that they don’t want. What do you think?”

“Sounds great. What’s the budget?”

“We don’t have one.”

“So you’re making those actors, playing struggling actors, work for free.”

“Yes.”

“I hate you.”

I imagine this is what would happen if the production team behind a particular casting out at the moment had the misfortune of telling me about their upcoming film. The deleted scene would then show me shoving all my bank statements down their sickening throats and garrotting them slowly and painfully with my woeful tax return. 

The premise of the film is entirely expected. At some point, all actors will have a go at writing a film. Some of them will be bloody awesome. Many of them will be about as good a read as toaster instructions. And of course, as we’re often told to write about what we know, actors will inevitably write about the lives of actors. Heck, even I’ve thought about it. I’ve scribbled down a few ideas. It’s lurking on my computer somewhere with all the other half-baked ideas I’ve had, all sat there as a constant reminder of how horribly short my attention sp- Sorry, I just stopped to watch a video of two cats fighting in French. It was great.

But if I ever got the point where I put my ideas on to camera, I’d damn well make my actors were getting paid. I mean, I’d pay actors all the time otherwise as, given all my Twitter and blog rants regarding pay, I’d be left with about as many legs to stand on as a drunk spider after an encounter with a particularly evil-minded three year old. But if you’re making a film about how tough it is being an actor then bloody hell, wouldn’t you make sure you weren’t that dick? The irony of it all appears to have smacked them round the face so hard that they think the only way actors can play unpaid actors is by not paying them. Because, of course, actors don’t understand how difficult it is to be an actor. We have no idea what it’s like to take on demoralising, low-paid jobs just to keep our dreams wheezing and spluttering. We don’t know what it’s like to be constantly worrying about money or whether we’ll ever get a break. Oh no. We need incompetent fools to not pay us in their precious little film to ensure our performances are real.  

I’m tempted to apply. Just so I can tell them where to stick their stupid film and their ridiculous ideas on how actors should be treated. I’d like to tell them how utterly hateful they are and how everything is wasted on them. I’d like to stand guard and stop any actor taking part in this insult upon our profession. But mostly I’d just like them to go away. And never, ever come back.

Basic Needs

Another day, another blog about actors rarely getting paid to work. I didn't plan on writing another entry, whining on about how hard done by we are but I saw an advert for an acting job yesterday and it brought a few poorly funded memories back.

The advert was for a film. Unless you are ridiculously lucky, films publicly advertising roles will never come with a pay packet. They're usually made by students, a new film company or just a group of people with time on their hands and hope that there are others out there happy to go along with their whimsical ways. This particular film fits very firmly in the last category. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with these sorts of casting calls, everyone has to start somewhere and while people are happy to work for nothing, why not put it out there. But what really annoyed me was that in the 'salary' section they had put:

'We will keep you warm and fed.'

Since when did two of the most basic human needs count as a 'salary.' Does this mean that I can now pay my bills with a blanket and a bowl of soup? Sadly not. And I'm guessing I can't get the bayliffs to go away with a fleece and a macaroni cheese either? As I said, I have no real problem with unpaid work. In an ideal world it wouldn't exist and I do sometimes wonder if the full funding can't be found to ensure that all cast and crew are paid fairly whether the project should still go ahead. It's a debate that could go on for days and I don't have the time or inclination to start that up on a Saturday afternoon when I should really be concentrating more on how I'm going to fund myself and my crisp addiction.

I've done some excellent projects which were unpaid. I think you have to weight up the pros and cons and as long as you're not going to make yourself bankrupt over it then they're often worth doing. I've been in some lovely films and have been ridiculously well looked after. One shoot I did, the producer had been up since 4.30am cooking and baking to ensure that all involved had the most incredible food to munch on throughout the day. On another shoot, the make up girl snuck out when she saw everyone was getting a bit tired and stressed and returned with a bag full of beer and a towering pile of pizzas. Add these lovely little touches to the fact that these shoots can provide you with excellent experience and it can all seem a bit more worthwhile.

On the flip side (there's always a flip side) I've also experienced some bloody poor treatment. I did a shoot not long after I'd graduated for a group of students wanting to make a film for their film society during the summer holidays. It was an interesting script (although my character was mute) and it was filmed near where my parents lived so I was happy to do it. The shoot was a complete shambles with filming usually starting around 4 or 5 hours later than we had been called. One evening especially stands out in my mind where we had to do a night shoot by a canal. Although it was during the summer, it had been raining nearly all day and by 2am, it was damn cold down there. I had to look like I'd been beaten to death so was covered in make up which meant I wasn't allowed to wear a jacket. Apparently smudged bruises just don't cut it. I also had to be barefoot so, couple this with me being in a vest and skirt and I was quite the shivering actress. The director's girlfriend had packed us off with a whole load of sandwiches and after myself and one of the other actors in the scene had finished our run through the first shot, we went to grab a sandwich while the crew finished setting up. As we got to the bag we found the sound guy happily devouring the last remaining sandwich on set. Bye bye dinner. Not one word of apology was ever offered us as we survived on a bag of dried apricots that one of the other actors found at the bottom of his bag.

Looking back now, I wish I'd just walked and told them to stuff their poxy job but I was new to the scene and I thought that this kind of treatment was normal. But we live and learn (that we actually do like dried apricots.)