Film Strategy

REPOSTED FROM MY OTHER BLOG: LENSATIC I have always admired the low-budget filmmaker who can make something beautiful or daring or entertaining with the tiniest budget.  Unfortunately, the low-budget filmmaker is not the rarity but the norm.  There is no shortage of filmmakers trying to create even if it means at negative cost to themselves because there is so much potential financial and personal reward in the end.  Maybe that's why the industry has been able to get away with paying nothing for highly creative and technical services and expensive equipment.  That's done more harm than good in the grand scheme of things.  That is why Charles Davis has done the industry a service by reporting on the internship abuse in the entertainment industry.  In a post for The Baffler, he  tracks and outs  the production companies that continue to perpetuate one of the worst practices of the film and TV industry: failing to pay workers a real wage by o...

The Black Swan case and the Casting Society of America's recent announcement to cease internship job postings  reflects a new world when it comes to using interns in the entertainment industry.   The federal and state labor laws are pretty straightforward when it comes to interns,  “If the employer would have hired additional employees or required existing staff to work additional hours had the interns not performed the work, then the interns will be viewed as employees and entitled to compensation under the  Fair Labor Standards Act  (FLSA).”    Although it might seem unfair and a break from tradition to producers who remember the good ol' days(?!) when they were the interns themselves or who mean no harm because they are just trying to save as much money as possible for the benefit of the production, it really isn't. Using interns is not an excuse to save money or an opportunity to use free labor, it is an opportunity to teach and hone new ta...