Why Writers & Film-Makers Alike Should NOT Be Working For Free

Abuse & Exploitation of film-makers – It has to stop!

I’ve hinted at this before but it’s something that’s not going away and it’s just sent me through two trips to the hospital within the same week and the mother of all migraines.

Lying on a freezing cold bed in A & E for several hours was following on from the biggest project of my life so far, following the post-production of a project when someone I trusted screwed me over on an edit job. The stress of making up for other peoples inadequacies finally caught up with me. Yes, it was said to be over a family bereavement but have to say when I've had bereavements, serious financial worries, health ailments etc all I did was ask for some time away (at worst) to deal with it / them & return as soon as I could. Seriously, if I pulled out for some of the bloody awful traumas and people I've had to deal with in my life, I'd have probably died myself by now.

The shooting of the production specified I was instructed I had to record the video & audio separately (video through our DSLR and audio through an unconnected SQN) for which so long as they were clapped this editor said he would be able to sync it all up and the quality of the sound would be better. Now despite me being incredibly uncomfortable about this arrangement, stupidly allowing myself to trust them just because they owe me for the projects I’ve worked on for them… I agreed. Naturally, I took all the precautions a director & producer should; everybody checks their equipment, batteries, SD cards etc. ALL of which became a problem on the shoot anyway and people asking me CONSTANTLY; “What scene is this, Dan?”, “How do I clap this, Dan?” This was further hindered by being in the middle of a rural location with no toilet facilities and no generators for chargers. Everyone expecting me to orchestrate a miracle here with no time to execute it!

 Anyway, the time that was getting thrown away rather than being able to concentrate on getting some extra nice shots and performances, I was running after everyone else because of this silly edit specification and then when my audio recordist turned out he had made a massive mistake, we had to spend an entire day making up for it, depriving me of what I’ve already mentioned plus the time I wanted to give to my stills photographer with my actors for the projects marketing material.

Production shooting then finished and a big road ahead of me then after a month my editor fails to even produce even a rough cut. He worked on it for barely 3 days before then announcing he can no longer do it. To make matters worse, the footage that was edited, exported to my VFX and music team was full of awful glitches. *head goes in oven!!!

My point is - THIS IS WHY – I’ve had to learn all the trades within film myself. When people screw you over (& they will sooner or later) no matter their obligations to you, you MUST be ready to jump on it yourself!

Unfortunately, this is not a one off and soon I began to realise just how much bullshit resides in the industry but also when I’m forced to work with students - this ego that they think they already know it all... Why? Don’t get me wrong, other filmmakers can be just as bad and alike these guys, there are those which are willing to give it a good old go but there’s this overwhelming majority that insist on putting on this staged performance of professionalism as if they’ve done it all before and know what they’re doing. Despite the fact that they should have some inkling, their practical experiences are next to nothing, which should never be the case before tackling a production.

A key flaw of student filmmakers when they begin is that they don’t know where to start when looking for professional actors, nor what that involves, nor how to direct them let alone even how to shoot them. Most of the time they are all shot in WIDE shots with poor audio quality and unless they have a writer involved – its usually a piss poor story and FUCKING awful dialogue they sue to describe everything - Aaaaagh!

Ironically, this is not even what infuriates me the most. It’s the shit level of communication. Some may say this will happen in the industry anyway, which unfortunately is true but that is due to variables beyond someone’s control like illness, weather etc. During my time at Bournemouth University it moreover seems to be a case of “I can’t be arsed” and/or "I’ll do it later (like last minute), it’ll be alright" and people who like to be organised like myself are seen to be ‘taking it too seriously or over worrying.’

Funny how I keep getting asked all the time to work for these kinds of people all the time yet the ones who fall into the lasses-faire category don’t… Hmm… I’ll tell you the reason; I give a shit!

The quality of my work is reflected in everything I’m involved in, which is why it makes me furious if others on a production aren’t or like I said – have no clue what they’re doing and end up dragging us all down with them. Recently, I got a ‘LinkedIn’ request from someone who directed that bloody awful ‘Hazel Silence’ film I somehow agreed to write for them. First of all this idiot hadn’t even met me in person to talk about it. Secondly, he completely fucked it up. Thirdly, (thank God he didn’t) no accreditation for me was given.

How many people am I going to be shafted by before I can finally stop taking chances with ungrateful time-wasters and leave this plain of exploitation?

There’s one thing I’m sure we can all relate to.  Why people think it’s unreasonable to pay us for our expertise in such fields.

Clients in the past have come to me saying things like;

Q. How much would it cost me / us to get a script for this / have you shoot this for us / edit this together?

A. Unless I have the specifics at this point it depends on the amount of hours in the day they want me for, how many crew, cast involved, location, would I have to hire my own equipment or use theirs? Adequate transport for me (and possibly my team) and the equipment… Can you give me an idea and I can give you a quote.

Even if I could overlook all this, these bullshit responses come back saying, that’s too much and / or, we’ll do it ourselves.

Why, oh, why do so many pricks think they can top my experience compared with their own usually? I wouldn’t claim to be a better writer or director etc than someone who’s obviously got more contacts and credits etc. MORE to the point I wouldn’t be some idiot working for a company claiming, oh this filmmakers rates are too expensive for what I need / want, I’ll do it myself… Really? So you’re going to train, manage and take care of everything yourself and split your attention across various areas because you can’t be bothered to employ someone who’s going to make you look much better than you could, save you much more money in the long run and could actually become a long-term asset to you and / or your business?

It’s the 21^st century, people like this aren’t going to read books on this so here’s how the roles break down, click on the red text:

Breakdown of Production Roles In Film-making

The Discipline Of Writing 101

You know what a professional new writer is expected to do for example?

Come up with the idea (usually), grip the reader’s attention in the first 10 pages, construct characters (their backstories, goals, relationships) make it all believable within a certain number of pages (keeping it well paced, interesting, as unique as possible all correctly formatted in an industry standard), knowing the story back to front (to be able to pitch it, summarise it in a logline, synopsises of different lengths, break it down into act structures, outlines and treatments). Accepting criticism, rewriting material (sometimes for the most insane reasons), then to go out and plug away in their own time, the fight for an agent and/or producer, scrounge together money for submission fees for festivals, competitions etc who can also just turn around and say ‘no’ anyway.

Concluded by since you’ve spent all your time, energy and money towards being the best writer you can be, you still have to pay rent, bills, food, transport etc with whatever qualification(s) you have but since employers 95% of the time just see WRITER on your CV, without knowing anything of the above the chances of you being ignored are pretty high.

There’s a bonus for those in relationships too… Writers (new one’s especially) barely have time for one, which can be sodding awful at times.

In fact I made a short comedy radio play about this in 2014,  called MEDIA WARS (below) take a look.

In the end, I must have invested tens of thousands to know what I know in my industry by now and whilst there will be places where the cost outweighed the benefit, why bother when so many idiots are of the opinion that film-making is something, fun, easy, whimsical and requires little expertise, preparation or passion to achieve?

You know what I do if I’m wrong… I apologise!

You know what I do if I don’t know something… I ask, listen and learn!

You know what I do when I’m needed somewhere… I turn up 5 – 10 minutes early!

So if you don’t know me by now (“… you’ll never, ever, ever know me – ha, bloody haa”)

I work damned hard every day, I strive to make every story the best it can be no matter what role I’m assigned. I’ve never cheated in my life in any respect, I’m trustworthy, reliable, self-motivated loyal and will continue to do this until I’m dead… Even if it does mean, I never get a holiday for years, a decent home or even get to create a better family than the one I got, one day.

…I’m Dan Tonkin people and I’m still fighting hard!