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This almost sounds made-up....


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  • TITLE: Cut to the Chase
  • PRODUCTION COMPANY: Secret Identity Films
  • RATE: Low Budget ($100.00 per day for a 12 hour day)
  • TRAVEL DETAILS: Applicant must be local to the city listed on the job
  • NON-UNION JOB

Low budget production looking for a sound mixer/boom operator one man band. $100/day plus modest $500 box rental for 18 days of production. Travel (driving, not flying) stipend depending on your location, per diem, and lodging at a downtown apartment with other crew. 

18 days between March 31-April 21 including one week where we work every single day.

Ideal kit would include:

- 4+ channel mixer (Sound Devices 744T or equivalent) 

- Sennheiser MKH50 shotgun or equivalent

- 2x Lectrosonics lav Kit with Sanken lav mic or equivalent

- Boom pole/blimp/etc

- Necessary cables, etc

Optional (will pay more box for):

- Digital Slate

- Timecode Jam Box (Red DSMC)

- Comtek

Lots of fun, solid, sometimes ridiculous days. Modest, but not completely abysmal pay. Producers aren't assholes. We're just like you. Professional crew types making their own film. At wrap time, we are known to buy drinks, cut loose, and dance on bartops. 

Let's make movies together.

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They didn't sound like bad guys honestly. They knew the rate was low. Sounded like it was a pet project and they got all the money they could, probably out of their own pockets. I didn't get the impression they were trying be cheap or unfair. They just have what they have and understand that they can only get what they can.

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It's a shame these kinds of posts always have the same reaction.

While I would never take a job for this pay, just as erice mentioned it might be

guys throwing all their money into a hat to try to make a dream of theirs reality.

 

I respect the fact that they are out there trying to make it happen for themselves.

 

Now if this was a real production company or network trying to low ball for the sake

of low balling, yea then there is a problem.

Other than that simply say no and move on with the rest of your life.

 

To act like people shouldn't even try to create their art without a huge budget

is just sad to me.

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Thank for elaborating exactly my point. They never represented themselves as a huge production looking to skim off our backs.

Ya gotta start somewhere and at the very least, I appreciate the fact that they even had us in mind with any kinda cash. At least it wasn't just for pizza and imdb credit.

I do hate the lowballers and make it a point to either inform a production that their budget isn't correct for what they want, or blast them a new one if they are trying to lowball intentionally.

But in this case, I do feel they are just doing what they can with what they've got. Every single one of us has been there.

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Like I said I'm not defending anyone. I'm just saying that from what I gather from a few calls and emails was that it didn't appear to me like they were trying to be disingenuous.

And most "low budget" producers are usually "disingenuous" until proven genuous. I also make up words in my spare time.

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The issue is, despite their desires and intention, however good they may be, they are still making a commercial product (their movie) and they stand to profit off of the illegal wages they are offering. Those sub minimum wage offerings are the only thing the crew stands to gain, so even if they aren't intentionally being exploitive, they still are.

The director may write and direct and art project for the sake of his/her own set, but the rest of the trained technicians do not, and cannot have the same creative control and ownership. WE are not the "artists", we are the technicians that create the art.

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Again, I'm assuming this particular "production" is on the up and up, but this is turning into a more general discussion of how to approach low wages.

The sub minimum wages aren't the absolute only thing crew can gain. They are obviously only going to get newbies or inexperienced crew. Maybe it'll be someone's first sound mixer credit. Or someone gets to camera op when they've only been utility before. The credit/experience is good for those at the very beginning of their careers. I worked for free for a year and a half busting ass, meeting everyone I could, making good impressions, learning set etiquettes. It eventually paid off.

No one can live off these wages, but the crew that does accept these jobs probably have a part time restaurant job or may still live at home or who knows. Is this job for any of us? No. But I took jobs like this and was excited I was finally getting paid to do what I love. Now I wasn't close to owning a 744, lectros or a 50.

My overall point is that sometimes we jump on ads like this because it's easy to only look at it through our more experienced eyes.

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The red flag to me is, if they buy drinks and party then they AREN'T putting all of their hard earned money into the project.

I'm not opposed to drinking, but I do have a bit of an issue with someone who tells me how little they have to spend and claims to be putting everything possible into their dream project, and then brags about how hard they party.

A person's actions tell you all you need to know about their priorities.

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The red flag to me is, if they buy drinks and party then they AREN'T putting all of their hard earned money into the project.

I'm not opposed to drinking, but I do have a bit of an issue with someone who tells me how little they have to spend and claims to be putting everything possible into their dream project, and then brags about how hard they party.

A person's actions tells you all you need to know about their priorities.

^ this

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They're all locals from what I gathered. It's not stated but I'd guess it's for LA Film Prize. >15 min short. $50k grand prize. Biggest prize for a shorts festival. The only stipulation is that you have to shoot in the Shreveport/Bossier City area. A lot of teams are crewing up now. I worked on one last year, for free, that got the equivalent of 6-7 place out of ~120 entrants. The festival was a BLAST.

Extremely talented and knowledgable people and we all worked for free. Deal was, if we won, we'd all get paid well. It's a job you take if you aren't booked and wanna have fun helping friends and friends of friends. 2 day shoot, with very modest hotels.

My point is that none of us know specifics. We can all take this in the context of anything less than Union or union-like work is an outrage and get our pitchforks and burning torches ready, but it isn't always like that.

I don't know anything about these guys but they weren't lying about the job or anything. They didn't take 20 emails to drop a low rate on you. They admit the rates are low but understand they can only do what they can do.

It may be a great experience for someone early in their career. It may be a giant waste of time and frustration. But at least they're not hiding anything. I'd have rathered take a job that was upfront with me rather than showing up and realizing I was duped.

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