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Ethics of “Hiring” Unpaid Production Assistants
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Problem I find is half the time an unpaid PA disappears about 2 hours or less into the first day because they realize- a. that PA works sucks and b. Not getting paid to do sucky work sucks even harder.
Not to say you can’t find any folks who feel otherwise and actually are good- i.e. have a future in the biz. But for me divining who is truly any good for free is not really worth betting a whole shoot day on.
Also Lance- in my experience in the U.S./Hollywood there’s really nothing you’re obligated to do for folks who are interning. They are volunteers- simple as that. Makes zero difference whether they’re just watching or lifting boxes. You don’t have to pay volunteers. And also they don’t have to work if they suddenly decide not to, works both ways.
I myself once did some days as an intern on a Roger Corman film and they were expecting me to prepare daily budget reports, babysit actors and even sit in on script rewrites. And I still ‘quit’ after 3 days because as intriguing as it was, it was still tons of work for zero pay and I learned what I found useful and also got a huge head of steam to go do my own movie stuff.
Noah
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D.
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You are correct Noah – anyone answering a craigslist ad to crew a show for just meals and a copy know what there getting into – but they’re not really interns but as you said “volunteers”.
Regardless of pay – if you ask someone to be somewhere at a certain time to performs certain duties that would be considered work – they are technically your employee and there could be tax/legal obligations if someone wanted to enforce it. They are not independent contractors as many in Hollywood assume…
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
True enough but reality is- whether it is legal or not no one pays interns/unpaid assistants/volunteers- interchangeable semantics to a movie crew- if they don’t feel like it.
Noah
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D.
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I’m not arguing with you here at all – the practice of not paying interns and scumbag Producer’s crewing their movies with unpaid workers will continue in Hollywood forever.
As far as the intern Law – check with EP.
Lance Bachelder
Southern California -
A kid can work damn hard at film school… and then have to pay $10K! Say what? Why is that? Then I wonder what the relationship would have to be and what the “student” might receive in return if tuition was $0. I’d call that relationship an internship.
But then what do I know? I’ve never hired an intern. They are just too much work for me to teach, guide, nurture and keep busy. So I have the greatest respect for those who do take on interns.
Rob Brandreth-Gibbs
Bravo Zulu Productions
Vancouver, Canada
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