Dear DC/Baltimore, I don't need YOUR experience

[pulp]

You're probably a more evolved spirit, than I am. I'm on the brink of chucking a project at Warner because I don't like dealing with people who rush-rush you to get back to them with negotiation details, then blow you off for two days because...well, apparently just because.

Phone's rung with two other projects that I declined because I was waiting on this character. Screw him; next show calls, I'm taking it. Let him find someone else with the 'perfect for our project skill set and equipment fit' about which he was so enthusiastic, 72 hours ago.

I get those all the time. People call and want info immediately, and then they tell me they'll call me the next day or so. I get a call a week or a few weeks later and they want me to shoot the next morning. I tell them I have a shoot either way.

 

[ian dart]

its called show business not show charity for a reason...........

 

[Neighborhood Studios]

So true! I used to do free work for nearly four years for a local personality. Admittedly, I was in high school when I started, so the experience was worth it, and it did end up bringing in some decent paying work (not from him, of course, but from people who saw my work and valued it!). By the time I hit college I was starting to have problems with the way he wanted things done: it had to be his way, and he would often sit over my shoulder and tell me how to edit, or take over himself and leave me sitting in my office watching him at my workstation. Once I began working with colleagues at school who had paying gigs, and once I began to get paying gigs, I had problems with his methodology. I wasn't going to put up with this anymore! Long story short, he began to get upset once I placed the paying client he introduced me to over his needs. He ended up causing a big ruckus with the client and badmouthed a lot of people. His lawyer sent a letter barring me from personally contacting him ever again after I threatened to revoke the rights he had to use the dozens of videos I created for him (for free, and no contacts ever written, bad mistake!). However, he wound up getting sent by his employer out of state to work at a satellite branch after my client heard about his behavior and mentioned it to his employer (his employer and my client are very close).

What did I get? He wound up citing me in all the works I created for him. I spent thousands of hours over those years at all his events and in all his projects, and all his promises to take me with him when he "made it big" were for naught. However, it was a lesson I had to learn, and I think it was worth it. I rarely do free work now, and only if I trust the person and know that I'll get something in return. Contracts are a must! I'm thankful I learned this lesson young, and got burned when I could actually afford to. Ah, the innocence of youth...