Freelancer warning!

robmneilson

robmneilson

Veteran
Hey folks,

Thought I would give everyone a heads up. If you are contacted by a company called Pixelfish based out of Torrance, CA I would make sure you get a deposit up front on any work you do for them. I did a shoot for them in September, and was told that my invoice would be paid in 60 days. No problem....now it's a couple months overdue and I keep getting the "It will be sent out next week" response from them. I did a bit of google work and found old posts (from 2008) about the company not paying any of their vendors.

So, save yourself a bit of a headache and don't take any jobs from these folks. At the company I spoke with Andy Glickman, and Cameron Hassman several times before going out and shooting the job. Looks like I should have done a bit more research on them before I took it on.
 
Thanks for posting. Sorry to hear you have not been paid, this stuff has to stop but it seems to continue if not get worse. Any idea how they contacted you? Were you referred or ?
Best
Brian
 
The found me via google I believe...and I spoke to them on the phone at length, which made me give them the benefit of the doubt and not take 50% deposit up front (which I will never do for an out-of-town client in the future). Additionally the client they booked the shoot through was a friend of the rep I spoke with at Pixelfish. So next stop is to ask them if they had any problems dealing with their friends company.

Time will tell if this gets paid out, but wanted to get the word out incase they are also giving others the run around.
 
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Sorry to hear. Yeah a colleague in town made me paranoid last year, convinced me to basically to do that with everyone, regardless if out of town. Sometimes calls pop up the day before or two days before the shoot and its too messy to try to make that happen, but I do it if I can. Always awkward, never fun.
 
I take on overseas assignments in my line of work (management consulting) and always get 100% of travel + hotel up front.

No up front payment, I don't board the plane.

For video assignments, make sure you get a Purchase Order that details the scope of work/terms/conditions in advance of any planning/action.

if a job goes on for days, give the client daily extracts of the footage as proof of performance of work (it does not have to be edited i.e. it proves you were there and you did record), get a receipt as you hand over the SD or disc, make sure the receipt states that if the client has any issues, they need to get back to you within 48 hours.

Ask for weekly progress payments.

You can set up for payment from many countries/currencies via PayPal.


I saw a post in Philip Johnston's HDWarrior on Dec 18th, mention of a "not followed to completion" scheme that everyone here should be aware of.

A proper contract avoids this type of nonsense.

http://www.hdwarrior.co.uk/2014/12/...out-of-paying-you-not-followed-to-completion/

If anyone wants to contribute contract boilerplate they have accumulated/used, I would be happy to consolidate the material and try to produce up a generic text that could be adapted for use in different countries.

As always, all important documents should be reviewed by an attorney but collecting information is not providing "legal advice" and any homework you do before you call your attorney will save $$$.

I am at karl.walter.keirstead@gmail.com
 
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Karl,

Thanks for the info on that scheme.

From now on I'm deposit up front. This gig popped up as a simple one day shoot with short advance, so I didn't push for deposit as I should have.
 
Exactly, not the end of the world if this doesn't come through...but I already paid my audio/grip crew out of my pocket. I just got an emailed "confirmation" that the check went out last week. Let's assume like many companies they write on the 15th & 1st, with the holiday I'll be due the check on Thursday.
 
Yeah, that's what got me paranoid a while back. . .I had TWO other people I was responsible for paying. By "worked up" I meant it's hard to get motivated to lay the smackdown and insist they pay up front or else for these one day things, even though we totally should.
 
At the very least, this experience has lead me to meet "interesting" people. And by that I mean, those who have responded to my craigslist ad looking for gang members local to the businesses city.


CASTING DIRECTOR
What is your motivation?

GANG MEMBER
To cut his face?

CASTING DIRECTOR
No no no, it's to get your money.

GANG MEMBER
Right, then I cut his face?

CASTING DIRECTOR
NEXT!
 
I am sorry to hear about this. As was noted earlier in the thread, this is happening more these days. I've been in the business for 25 years and last year I had to take a client to court for the payment balance due to me for the first time in my career. We settled out of court. A bit of advice: sometimes it just takes a letter from a lawyer. That's what solved the problem for me.
 
Finally paid by these folks 120+ days after my original invoice was submitted. So, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say they are a horribly mismanaged company, instead of scam artists. But beware if they try to book you for a shoot make sure you get a deposit up front.
 
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