Robbing The Donation Plate

Posted on January 4, 2009

Markers, favors, barters, I.O.U.’s, karma, etc. Your account balances with others are an unavoidable currency in any industry. But, in media production, such chits are defined simply as a day’s work. I owe many more people a day than owe me.

The true mark of a valued colleague is when they offer you a crew position on a super-cool project. They trust you enough with a potential opportunity that will benefit you both. The intent is either to share in the profit, the glory, or just the experience. But, there had best be such good times in store, or you won’t be able to call upon your friends again. That’s the warning.

I’ve seen both clients and producers lose their credibility when they abuse close relationships.

I had a producer friend who was courting a local charity for work. Mind you, this was the premiere, national charity that has a Way of Uniting people. Since this is a top-ten major market they work in, they have vast resources, connections, and budgets to be able to easily afford quality work. After winning the big account and delivering a product that was greatly superior than the budget, resources, and especially competitors could deliver, we felt confident that we would her from them next year for the new campaign. They were pleased with our work, the donations rose due to the media production’s inclusion in the campaign. Of course, we expected that the next year’s project to be even bigger. But, they came to use with a proposed budget barely ten percent what it was the previous year. So, with no other choice, we went ahead and gave them discount work in order to foster a closer relationship so that they would continue to consider us their preferred vendor for media production services.  The next year, one of their corporate contributors decided that their donation would not be in cash, but instead would be in service. Media production service. Not knowing any better, the charity’s officers accepted the donation. The company’s department providing the shoot was a corporate theatre, or media presentation department, not a production studio. The resulting fundraising film was less than satisfactory. So, after getting burned, we felt that this client had learned their lesson. The next year, we were happy to hear from them after they had seen our recent results for other charity groups in the area. After several conversations discussing their needs, goals, and planned message for the year, we were sure that any day now they would call to schedule a shoot. They called all right. The managing director called to ask whether the Panasonic AG-DVX100B was an appropriate camera to rent for their shoot and where could they get one? It seems that they had some mass comm major from the local junior college, a friend of a co-worker’s kid, who was going to produce their film that year. calling about this at 4:45PM on a Friday, hmmm… Good luck with that. Oh, and go ahead and (expletive-filled rant deleted.)

If there’s no reutrn on investment now, maybe it’s an account that can be cashed in Karmically in the next life.

I had a producer/director who was notorious for demanding one more take (up into the double digits) without providing the cast or crew any direction that would solve the problem in order to lead towards a use-able take. Normally, this is fine when your employees are getting market rate for their services and you provide time and a half, and later golden time, in reimbursement for your incompetence. But one time we were out getting street footage of mass transit when we saw the most adorable grandfather and grandson both dressed as cowboys (hats, vests, big buckles, boots, bandannas, boleros, fringe, pearl snap shirts, the works.) We couldn’t pass that up, so we asked them to step off the bus again. Oh, just one more time please. Again, if you would. No, don’t go, I need it again. This is the last time. No, once more… Of course, we didn’t need the bus to make the round trip circumnavigating the entire block for each take. Sure, simply getting the bus to back up ten feet and make the stop just for the exit (which is what we wanted) would have made each take last a mere five percent of its total reset and retake time. But, karma is a foreign word to some people. After for or five takes, this old man and his toddler grandson had invested nearly an hour of their valuable time together in our project. The director, of coures, hadn’t told us, the crew, what the issue was to solve in order to avoid another take. The grandfather was so elderly and the grandson so young, they both had the same immense difficulty getting on and of the bus. It was a miracle neither of them fell down. The punchline is that none of their footage made the cut. The two of them took over twenty seconds to exit the bus. An eternity in commercial time. The director should have seen that coming.

Abusing free resources. That really offends me.

One of my first features I DP’d for required the cast and crew work at reduced pay for the opportunity to work on a supercool project.  After completing the majority of the picture in a two week stretch, we took a break for a few weeks to restore our mental and physical faculties. After those first few weeks, it became disoncerting when the director wouldn’t commit to a restart date. In fact, they wouldn’t return any calls or massages. (Since it took a couple of weeks of planning and negotiating in order to get everyone to agree on new shoot dates, the proccess must be started soon in order to ensure successfull completion of the production.) Yet, they insisted on keeping both cast and crew waiting for months before resuming. Aside from the loss of valuable momentum the project badly needed, there was another cost for this most unprofessional behavior. The cast and crew ended up turning  down other work and social events while they waited on the film. Yet, this practice continued on the promise of “in a couple of weeks, we’ll start up again.” Worse, he wouldn’t let anyone see the film being assembled. The cast andcrew needed clips to promote themselves, none ever came. They had all discounted their services and dedicated months of work and waiting for him on the promise that they would be the first to recieve copies (it’s the independant code: credit or copies or food or alchohol.) Even worse, when the shoot was finally scheduled, we were given less than a week’s notice. A shoot on the other side of the state with no gas stipend, no expeses, crappy accomodations, no per diem, no wrap party. It’s all good. We believed in the project. We had faith. We’re still waiting.

So, you’re banking on your professional and personal reputation when your currency is charity, I.O.U.’s, or markers. When you cash out your aacount’s principal on such a gamble, the return is immense when paid back in full. But, the penalties are permanent when defaulted.

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