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Showing posts with the label interns

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: When you form a production company, FOCUS on what matters!

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Jeff Orgill of https://filmbudgeteers.com A decade or so ago, two of my filmmaker friends and I formed a production company. The goal of the company was to produce two feature films back-to-back; one written and directed by one of my two friends, and one written and directed by me. The third friend had a line on $10,000 seed money and wanted to produce his first feature, after producing several short films and being involved in the Sundance community for several years. We kept it simple, at first. We met at a Denny’s and set up an office in my 2-bedroom Los Feliz apartment with the main goal of getting name talent attached to our two scripts. We decided to work on two films at once to put us ahead of the game in two key ways: 1) If we were known to be setting up a slate of films and a production company, rather than just setting up a single film, we'd be able to differentiate our company and our films from the scores of other filmmakers out there hoofi

PRODUCTION TIPS: Ending a Horrible Film/TV Industry Practice: "Paying on an Unpaid Basis"

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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 offering instead "pay on an

PRODUCTION TIPS: Use Interns in Your Productions the RIGHT Way... Or Else

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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 talent while giving them

CASE STUDY: Top 13 Stories, Trends and Legal Decisions in Film/TV for 2013

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​ on loan from Short of the Week - see their 2013 list of shorts 2013 winds its way to a close and we are wiser, wealthier or both.  Hopefully.  Wealth is never a guarantee for the veteran filmmaker let alone the first-timer. And, as a result, the wisdom gained can be bittersweet.  Nevertheless, as a weird mix of artist and entrepreneur, the wealth and wisdom we attain can be measured and classified in a variety of blessed ways.  Wealth and wisdom in practical knowledge, local connections and production experience are valuable indeed. We live and work in interesting times and the tech we use and watch, the society we live and practice in and the tactics and strategies we employ are ever changing taking our beloved art form to strange places. And until the end of time or until film as an art form is supplanted, each year brings something new that mattered in film and TV; whether its a modification of something old for new times or something simply brand new and unexpected.