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I’m just so mad!!!
Hello all this is my Rant I apologize in advance…
I payed 60,000$ to go school (I’m in debt) I bought a edit system for 5,500$ dollars, I have a bachelors, I have real work on my reel not just student stuff I did videos and shows for TLC, Discovery etc. Now I was laid off 5 months ago from my Post-House and since then can someone tell me why EVERY freakin person that contacts me to edit thinks its okay not to pay for my services. I’m getting really sick of this. I had to take up a Day Labor job (digging holes) just so I could stay in Los Angeles and attempt to find paying work. This was five months ago. I’m seriously ready to just SCREAM Angry e-mails back to these people (Don’t worry i never would burn bridges like that) Honestly what are peoples deals? I would understand if I was a student and had no decent stuff on my Reel but these people see that I’ve done professional work and still ask me to work for free. I feel this is a slap to my face. In short what do I say to a person who wants me to edit something for free thats not a quick turn around (this one guy wanted me to do a 120min feature for nothing but copy and credit. How are you suppose to live on “copy and Credit”? I mean what’s the best say to someone “Hey Pay me for the skill I invested 1000s of dollars into please!” I’m ranting I know I’m just done with day labor I wasting all my education I paid for. Anyone please give me some advice? Again I’m sorry for ranting I’m just so mad.
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40 Replies
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I feel for ya, pal. But let me say, despite what they think there, LA is not The World. It may be time to expand the range of where you’re looking for projects. Nit saying to be less fussy about work you take on. Only that there is a lot of work out there that needs doing, payiong work, and it’s not all features. I think it is mostly a question of networking.
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First off, congrats on working on some projects for TLC and Discovery.
Mark has some great advice. I would give the “Jobs Offered – High Pay” and “Jobs Wanted” forum a try. Try a user group in your area if there is one. In the end, it really is all about networking. Best of luck and I hope you find work soon.
Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2
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It’s difficult. Editing in L.A. has become like acting: an over-saturated market and a belief that people do it for the love of the craft and not the paycheck.
Look at it like this: The people who offer unpaid work only exist because the cost of “film making” has plummeted in recent years, so anyone can make a movie now. A few years ago these people would not have existed and you wouldn’t have had anyone to rant against. Instead there’d be silence and “no work”
These people are here to stay unfortunately.
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60k on school and 5k for gear is bass ackwards. Other way around and you’d be ok with a nice edit suite.
Your schooling does not make you anymore marketable. Just makes you a student and that’ll gat ya intern wages to start off with…same as without the schooling. I’m not saying you waisted that time and money but I can think of better ways to spend both.
They guys who went to work when you went to school have 4 years on ya. Start small and work up fast, man.
enjoy.
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Depends what school one attends. After I graduated film school, I followed the auteur theory. Other graduates are working full time in the biz.
If you’re in LA and not cranking out narratives, my question is: Why not make that IMDB profile a mile long?
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Los Angeles…indeed.
I’ve had several employees over the years who have stayed with me long enough to learn something about production…then they moved to LA and got the opportunity to fix copiers and sell insurance…
I also have lots of friends who have made a very fine career on the west coast.
I think the micro-filmmaker “revolution” has definitely created some casualties, and one is that there is now somebody with FCP on a Mac about every 100 yards in all but the smallest towns in the country and if you don’t work for free, someone else will…it’ll likely be a train wreck and not get done at the quality level or in the timeframe the producer had planned on, but somehow they’ll probably not arrive at the conclusion that you get what you pay for…just that they picked the wrong free guy.(girl)
I’ve said for years that the corporate market is far more stable than entertainment if workload is what you’re interested in…but our current economy has made even that a false statement.
If you want to get some chops and stay in LA, you might have to carefully choose a Pro Bono project that you could get some marketing payback on…and keep plugging away.
BTW: Even the clients who you are theoretically working for for pay are paying extremely long term these days…I have several projects that certainly FEEL Pro Bono at the moment…
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
Greg, you might find this thread of interest as well: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/12/856205
Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2
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Does’nt matter anymore I did my taxes I’m F&%Ked I;; be moving out in the next two months unless I find (at this point) ANY JOB!!!!!
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You can’t spend 60k in 4 years with no profits and expect to be in the green anytime soon, man.
You may have over estimated the income level of today’s intern.
How’s your reel lookin’? This is what will land you paying gigs, not that 60k degree you are starting to question. Polish that bad boy up and get to cold-callin’. Be ready to move if you have to. Do it for a job that works ya way too long for way too little pay. You will learn more at that job than you did paying to go to school. Every other year or so, step up to a higher paying job. You’ll be up to 60 a year in a hand full of years and with any luck, can pay off that student loan within a decade or two.lol
I’m sorry to laugh but 60k on a education in this field?
I’d only spend that on a field that garantees a return. You’ll start at the same rate you would have with no education at all so hop off the internet and get to work, man. -
I went to columbia college hollywood a “Film making” school I wanted to be a producer and realized that its a long hard poor road to go down so I focused on learning Software programs so I could get work. One quarter at Columbia cost 5,200 dollars and thats not including living expensives. It wasn’t until my last year I had realized I had pissed all my money into this crap school. I laugh at it to. 60,000 is a lot of money.
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