Re: HELP!

From: Flick Harrison (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Feb 18 2009 - 09:16:51 PST


I'll take the side of production-land on this one. I love what I
learn about film making from Hollywood shows. Sometimes its great
material for later mockery, sometimes you just get hard money-making
skills, most of the time you learn tips and tricks that will improve
your own work.

I worked on "John Tucker Must Die," and let me tell you, it was
without question the worst piece of shit I've ever had the extreme
displeasure to be unable to avoid working on. But stuff I saw on that
show is working its way into my current script.

There's a bunch of different ways of looking at this.

1. Production sucks, especially at rock-bottom. It's easy to screw
up in production, and newbies are often idiots, and so until you prove
you're not, you'll get the crap treatment. It's like the army,
though; if you like getting through hardship and can handle being
treated like dirt, and you are good at your job, eventually you will
move up, those who were bossy dicks will eventually switch masks and
you'll be part of a hard-working team. That being said, you'll be
really, really, really, happy when you get through this stage and make
it to level 2: meagre pay and grudging respect. Eventually this leads
to wacky-high pay and people cowering / grovelling before you. If all
this appeals to you, stick it out. I know lots of people who love
film industry jobs, but I also know those who quit even after reaching
A.D. level on big tv shows, because of the stress and the hierarchy.
Remember, there's always another part of the job at which you are
always the groveller, i.e. when Sylvester Stallone is on set, everyone
feels like you feel now.

2. Everything is open for negotiation. I know you took the
internship as unpaid labour. But a contract without mutual
consideration is NOT a contract, no matter how much they make you feel
like they're doing you a favour by letting you work for free.
("letting you work for free:" remember that phrase). Now it's time
to re-negotiate. Practice in the mirror, in your head, or with
friends. "I really think I'm doing good work, (example example), I've
learned a lot and now I know what my work is worth, I need to get
paid. That way we can continue working together in increasing
happiness and prosperity, joy, etc." If they say no, the key to good
negotiating is to walk away calmly. There are plenty of other free
work opportunities in the world, too many in fact. In any case, they
will think you are amazing just for handling this professionally, and
they may say "let us think about it" and look at their budget. Or
they may blow stacks and try to make you feel like a worm. It might
be extremely satisfying to say, at this point, "See? I'm leaving
because you're an asshole." Very calmly and professionally.

3. Think in time chunks: Can I handle this for another week?
Another month? Another day? When the answer is no, time to go.

4. If you decide to end it, make sure you get contact info from
people on the job you liked, who you think liked you. That's how film
works. Every six-eight weeks, everybody re-hires / re-crews the next
show, so the people you liked will be looking for crew, and that means
you. As you're leaving, tell them life is too short to work for free
(or whatever reason you give, don't whine or kvetch too much) but tell
them you liked working with them and would like to hear about future
projects. Then hit them with ever-improving resume and such via snail
mail every, oh, six months, give or take, and hit them up with a phone
call or email at discreet intervals, especially just before this
current production ends.

* FLICK's WEBSITE & BLOG: http://www.flickharrison.com
* FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=860700553
* MYSPACE: http://myspace.com/flickharrison

On 17-Feb-09, at 6:29 PM, Mr. Jason Andrew Forsyth wrote:

> I thought this would be a great question for everyone on the
> frameworks
> platform. Does anyone have so advise, motivation for someone who is
> passionate about Experimental Film but is trapped as a studio
> production intern. It's to the point I hate waking up to goto
> "work." I
> do shoot my own stuff on the side but it suffers because I have become
> so aggravated with the internship. Does anyone have any advice I can
> keep in mind will finishing up.
> Best,
> Jay
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.

__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.