Comments

1
The same argument is made in the music world--all the cafes, events and bars on Craigslist looking for people to play for exposure. Typically some cover band musicians will start complaining that anyone who plays for less than "$100/man" is "stabbing his brother musicians in the back", and so on. It's as if everyone forgot how that whole supply/demand thing works in the marketplace.
2
The same applies in the design world. http://www.no-spec.com/

When you turn down work and say no because of your ethics, you build your case stronger for everyone. Out-of-work actors will still be out of work when they turn down a gig, so it's not like they're worsening their situation.
3
I definitely don't understand working for free on a commercial. Working for free for an amazing role? Sure. A commercial? Fuck no.
4
It's not like the idea of non-paying internships thrives in any other industry. Actors are unique!
5
Why you guys gotta be so greedy? Isn't it about the ART!!!!!
haha, just kidding. I blame the people working for free more than the guys that take advantage of these idiots.
6
Hm. I've worked in casting before and very few people will work for free. Maybe a couple times, it's hard to get in the business and everyone needs exposure, but not for long shoots. Time is money and eventually productions will feel the pressure from actors and their casting depts to pay up. You can't get quality without paying something.

Unless it's Twilight. People will fly at their own expensive from Europe to get on that shit.
7
Any actor-scab who has a free gig on his resume should be denied membership in the Screen Actor's Guild and Actor's Equity if the gig results in him getting noticed.
8
@4 - Um, are you high? Unpaid internships are HUGE in the ad world, which is where I came up. Which is actually one of the reasons I failed to break all the way in - I could never afford to work for free because I left school with a mountain of debt.

The exposure carrot is dangled in front of a lot of us. Writers get it the same way - "we can't pay, but we can guarantee thousands will read your work." Yeah? So what?
9
@8 Your inability to detect sarcasm was probably also not a selling point in the ad world.

Supply/demand: it's not just a wild theory.
10
Whatever happened to the labor guy Slog had for awhile? Was he disappeared?
11
Doing a free acting gig for a show or film that has no hope of realistically making money for experience or "art"? I understand and support that. Working for free on a COMMERCIAL where the whole point is making people in one or more links of the chain money? Fuck that.
12
Out of curiosity--how much does the Stranger pay its interns?
13
It's the same in every artistic field that also shares a commercial component...especially when the difference between "so good it deserves every penny spent on it" and "free and good enough for our purposes" is difficult to define.

How much is a stand-up comedian worth? How important is professional graphic design? Does your party need to pay a pro dj or should you go with a hobbyist willing to spin for free?

They say you get what you pay for...but with increased tools getting into the hands of the public and less appreciation for quality and standards...that seems to matter less and less, when "good enough" is all people expect.
14
@12, Internships are a learning experience to benefit the neophyte and the company. It's not the same thing as asking a professional or skilled person to work for free.
15
You're an idiot if you work for free and think you're getting something out of it. If producers don't have money to pay you (your salary is a *tiny* portion of a production budget, by the way), then they probably don't have money to market the project to get promised exposure.

In any creative endeavor - whether you're DJing at a friend's bar (we're bringing back disco!), bartending at a friend's wedding (that can be your gift to us!), ASL interpreting for a business meeting (Deaf people need access to this!), or acting in a commercial (this director could be the next Fellini!) - giving yourself away for free ends up doing nothing to benefit your career, and usually undermines you.

Unless you're really, really new to a field and don't mind getting screwed over, or you want to be known as bottom of the barrel talent (directors don't work for free, and they know no one serious about their career will work for, free either - even extras), stay away from "free" work.

Never, ever work for free. Everything costs something.
16
@10:

I'm still very much here.

Now, obviously Steve has a vested self-interest here, but it's a completely legitimate one: people are trying to make a living, and, while everyone in the industry recognizes nobody is OWED one, this kind of shit simply unlevels the playing field for all of us, because what it boils down to is producers like this simply cutting corners by creating a poor quality product, but still pocketing whatever they've been paid by the client to create it in the first place.

Now granted, when you're doing some sort of ultra-low budget guerrilla DIY project, quality probably isn't your highest concern, but by the same token, dangling the "exposure" carrot for your fracking cheap-ass student film or Internet "commercial" is simply a blatantly ludicrous overstatement, because the chances are extremely high that such a producer isn't going to be able to deliver on those promises; in fact, the performer will be lucky if the product ever makes it out of the editing suite, for the simple reason that the overall quality of the project will be so poor, it'll probably be abandoned before it reaches the rough-cut stage. And if it DOES ever see the light of day, you as the performer may end up being so embarrassed by the end result that you won't even want anyone - and certainly not anyone professionally connected to the industry - to ever know you were involved. So kids, how exactly is that "exposure" going to help you, when it's either non-existent or actually can be detrimental to your professional aspirations?

Simply put, if you truly intend to break into this business, a handful of legitimate, quality credits that have actually paid you some money (even if it's only a modest amount) is going to carry a LOT more weight with potential employers than reams of credits on no-budget "freebie" projects, most of which will have never been seen by anyone other than the writer/director.
17
First off, if it's a commercial everyone must get paid. It's got the word commercial in it for a reason.
If you want to make art with your friends or some other artists and hope that they will return the favor later, or that you will get some experience from it, then you know what? Doing it for free isn't such a bad thing. Just don't expect any free gig to result in anything other than the experience and maybe an opportunity to hone your skills or get some material for your reel.
There is a place for free work, but it isn't on commercials or movies intended for distribution.
18
Come play in our Battle of the Bands! It's a great chance for exposure, and the winner of the four-round, four weekend competition gets paid!
19
@14 While an intern may be a neophyte, in many industries they aren't unskilled.
20
Same is true in my little corner of the creativerse.

http://www.no-spec.com/

That's a call to graphics folks to not do spec work, or work for "exposure" (a lovely term used by cheap-ass client wannabes).

Of course you always get what you pay for; just this week I'm having to clean up some logo designs done for local businesses by - as near as I can tell - visually-impaired dipsomaniacal bats.

So on the plus side, when some cretinous lackwit screws up someone's design, it actually creates work for me, that I can charge extra for because I'm cleaning up someone else's mess.

On the minus side, there are lots and lots and lots of people who just don't know any better, and consider anything containing colors and shapes to be "good design".
21
i would NEVER do a commercial for free...but I would (and do) take great roles in theatre for free. Sorry, but if you love to do it, you will find a way to do it. It's not like working at Target or Starbucks, which you ONLY do for the money to buy booze and no other reason...
22
Never, ever work for free. Everything costs something.

How many great works of art, how many wonderful performances would never have happened if great artists followed this simplistic advice?
23
"How many great works of art, how many wonderful performances would never have happened if great artists followed this simplistic advice?"

Provide a list of great works of art and wonderful performances by great artists that never would have happened, given my advice, please.

I doubt you'd have find Rembrandt painting Ronald McDonald's portrait without at least some free McNuggets and a large Coke. And the possibility that you're the next Rembrandt of a low-budget production is astronomically low, although something every low-budget producer would like you to believe.

That's the point here. You give away your time and talent for free and you devalue yourself and your craft. But hey, I've been wrong before. And after I review the list you provide of "great artists" who did "great works of art" for free, maybe I'll change my mind.
24
Actor wages are not over-inflated in film. If it's a union film, it's generally union scale unless you are the 1-5% of the acting populace in the US that are "Stars." A casting director, like Stephen, is a vital line item on an actual BUDGET, and he (or she) is in tune with the professional actors in the market that are hired to help make the project one of quality.

Actors do not work daily (unless they are a regular on a TV series or working at an Equity house) and all actors are seasonal. Actors may go months or even years before they book more work. My last paid acting job was yesterday. A two and a half day project. Before that, I did a day on a MS Industrial film in May.

Union actor wages have a long history of hard fought battles and it turns my stomach when producers pit actors against actors in a race for the bottom-line undermining the union wages that help some of us contribute to our families, in my case I'm married with four kids.

Sure there are opportunities to "donate" an actor's skill to a short film or student film or a web series (and there are provisions in union contracts that allow this) but really the onus here is for producers to take responsibility and work with a line producer to develop a budget, finance or fund raise for that budget and be a REAL contributor to a professional industry by actually HIRING professional actors and crew. Help create jobs. Help cultivate and grow the film industry responsibly.
25
The general attitude of "I'd NEVER do a commercial for free, but sure, I'd give it away for 'art'", concerns me. Not because I haven't done free art - hell, it was kind of a badge of honor for me and mine for a while -but I think that attitude is what bothers me about it. At what point does the actor (designer, writer, etc.) decide that they are either hobbyists or are going to make a go of trying to make a living at it? This decision is unique to every artist, but every actor has to make it at some point to maintain their own sanity and self respect.

Perpetuating a culture that assumes artists will give it up for free as long as their creative boners are kept up somehow is insulting and ignorant. I never judge my fellow artists for doing free work -everyone has their reasons- conversely, however, I'd like those artists who chose to be part of the marketplace (sellouts!) or who elect to turn down work that isn't covered by a union (dinosaurs!) to be the rule rather than the exception. How to make that happen? Well, I'm with Brendan here in a way, but I'll paraphrase: start treating this stuff not as a prize but as work, as a job, because that's ultimately what it is. No more and no less.
26
I was now just alerted to the fact that The Stranger had published my comments about talent working for free as posted on Complete Casting's Facebook page back in August of this year. As an update to this situation, I wanted to correct "facts" I noted in my letter to producers looking for free talent for a commercial. When I was contacted by producers of the film, "Grassroots", they informed me that their total production budget was $250K. During a meeting in my office with the director and producer, I registered my concern that this was an extremely low budget to try to hire professional crew and talent at reasonable wages. They assured me that they were going to hire at current market rates and not try to undercut those rates. As I had not yet read the screenplay, I told them that I would read it and if I liked it, I would work for whatever they had budgeted up front plus some "back end" participation. This is a standard formula for hiring people when their normal rate isn't available up front so they receive what's commonly known as "sweat equity" in the profits of the project. I received a call from the executive producer two days later informing me that they were going with someone who's rate was more in line with their budget. As I had not actually quoted them a rate (only a formula), I was incredulous that this was their decision. Inexplicably, the executive producer, Matt Brady informed me that my dear friend and peer, Jodi Rothfield was willing to cast the film for free! I informed him of how unethical I thought this was and wrote an email to the line producer expressing the same sentiment. Neither one of them felt compelled to correct my impressions in an effort to quell what I felt was clearly an inflammatory situation from my standpoint. Eventually, I met with Jodi who informed me that under no circumstances did she work for free on Grassroots and that she had no idea why the executive producer would tell me that. Having considered Jodi a dear friend for some 20 years and since my previous letter to producers was published by The Stranger, I wanted to express to her my apologies for passing on untruthful information that was inexplicably passed on to me by executive producer, Matt Brady. Having said that, I stand by all my previously expressed opinions about talent and crew working for free on projects designed to make money by their producers. Thank You, Stephen Salamunovich, CSA President, Complete Casting, Inc.
27
if you are in it for the right reasons, the money won't matter...
28
Sounds like Stephen got butthurt because he turned down a position that someone else took. Your decisions are yours alone. Dont try to tell others what to do because they all have their own goals and motives.
29
I was approach for a featured role for independent movie where I had to under go major make-up time, full body latex, major nudity, that wood show major sexual nature and complete nudity of my body in a later director's cut, that later would be let out after the movie was shown, I was to be wearing special contacts in my eyes as well. I had to do the casting completely nude running through lines during winter, the factory building was so cold that the audio didn't even record, I then had to re-audition again nude, but it was luckily considered one of my call backs.

I was the talent that was intentionally first approach for the feature role, I never knew of the casting and I wasn't refereed by my agent, the casting director contact me themselves.

I was asked to then give basically what my talent rate was for the feature role in the movie and if I wanted royalties and what percentage. So, the director said they were happy with rate, it was reasonable, and I actually lowered my rate, and told them this. And there was another talent they were considering after my auditions.

When I was first contacted, they were thinking of flying in a major porn star, but saw my modeling/acting profile ( non-porn) and loved my look, I was published and had connections they could use, as well.

I later received a phone call and was told that the other actress said she would do all that was wanted for director cut, was charging only $100.00 for 1- 2 weeks or long hours of filming plus promo work, and I guess did interesting audition, something I didn't do and recall as real talent. My rate was $1000.00s above her $100.00 at the time plus some royalties, if they were using my connections and nakedness only fair.

So, I bowed out respectfully and told them "yes! They have themselves a great talent there and to be very proud! And I won't lower my price or do it for free!"

I recently looked up the film project, everything happens for a reason, maybe I could have helped or maybe not, but its not in the stores its not on Netflix and you probably don't even know what film I'm talking about cause no hype was made and they thought would make it big.

I have done work for free and I have been paid well. But, I think the point is, not to take advantage of others, we are all starving artist here at one point or another and always looking for the next job. So talent be smart don't lowball yourself, don't over charge your work either. And those in production don't take advantage of those eager to break into the business, just to have work on their resume and a demo reel. I think that's also important. I have turn down lots of jobs, and most of the time felt good afterwards, because for some reason you're just happy its not following you anywhere.

So break a leg to you all and Gods blessings to all.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.