[Aaron Ekroth]

touche- and bravo. thanks

[Aaron Ekroth]

I’m curious how to breach the topic with new clients- I had a situation like this last summer where I had committed to a job for an NYC post-house (the word HOLD was never mentioned) for a monday and tuesday job – they called me on the previous thursday I think…. When I came in monday i waited until 1pm, trying to get a hold of some management or anyone at the business to call the client and confirm (after they didnt’ show up by 1030AM). Maybe that was a bad move on my part, but it seems that they didn’t call to confirm with the client (their bad) and so I guess everybody loses out, right? Seems like a bad business practice to me but I guess my questions are

Part 1) how should / can one bring up the issue of holding/cancellation/confirmation charges if the hold stage is skipped altogether? If they confirm you it seems like they’ve confirmed you.

Part 2) how can you get paid for a situation like this if there was no conversation about this

Part 3) is it worth it to go after a post -house for an issue liek this or will it do more harm than good? or is it more important to set a precedent?

[Aaron Ekroth]

thanks for the input, gents

I have considered all of these factors and as it turns out I negotiated about 75% of what i had asked for in terms of my (albeit reduced) rate for the project. While it’s true that few docs actually make money, many do get funding from other sources (although it’s also true that many don’t). I negotiated that the other 25% of my rate would be “up in the air” – that is – funding/revenue dependent- while 75% would be paid within one year. I’d also be intitled to 25% of whatever comes down the road in terms of funding, revenue, etc (although that clearly may be nothing). An added bonus is that there is flexibility in terms of the timing, taking other jobs, etc – that really makes it all more workable. And fortunately, as it turns out my producer isn’t broke and he brought more to the table than I had anticipated in terms of the financial reality.

Thanks for your caveats about not trusting the producers- i would agree with this in many many cases and I have been burned pretty badly in the past myself. I would never suggest that someone turn down paid work for a totally unpaid job. That is ridiculous.

[Aaron Ekroth]

this was my experience as well a couple of years ago- talk about insult to injury

not a lot can be done, esp. if they go out of business