16 July 2009
Looking for work
Posted by admin under: Editing; Filmmaking; Indiependent Film .
Since I finished my feature,* I have been making the rounds to land some new clients / projects. Like everybody, I try to get leads from friends, old co-workers and so on but I have also responded to jobs on Mandy and Craigslist. I went to a few meetings and in most cases they want you do do something for free. Here’s a great example. These people had a listing and wanted an editor to cut their film down from 105min to 90 minutes to make it better. So I thought this will be a good fit, a short term project where i can give some creative options for them.
When I got there, i found out the film was done in the 90s, and they don’t have the original drives any longer, so the job really is to re digitize the film, re-cut it and then make the adjustments. I’m like ok, i willing to do that, what is your budget? The producer then claims we will do this at deferred pay, so when they sell it, i’ll get my money. This is where it get’s even more crazy, I ask do you have a company interested in your film now, is this why you waited so long, (Over 14 years) The answer was no, then they say, well when we do find one we have to pay back the, crew, actors, investors, then the editor. I’m like ok, this isn’t a good fit for me, thank you for your time.
Here’s a great piece contract post on creative cow that shows all the absurdity of bottom feeder clients who look for editors.
Some of the highlights below.
Re-editing 90 percent of this project is not to be considered a new project, but a free correction to the original one. All dubs are complimentary.
Client has the right to refuse payment for reasons of changes they thought of but never actually communicated to the dummy. Client has the right to incorrectly spell graphics information without penalty. All mistakes will be corrected by the dummy for free.
Read the full contract here.
*still working on the audio design / correction on “Black Site.”