When to Stop Working for Free: Navigating Your Film Career Purposefully

BY MARGO MCHUGH, CO-OWNER FLOATING LAVE STUDIOS

MAR. 1, 2024 9:00 AM PT

Every year thousands of hopefuls move to cities like Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Atlanta to make their dreams come true. Most film careers begin working for free but how do you know when to start saying no?

Working in the movie biz is much like any industry, you need experience to get a job but you often need a job to get experience. Unfortunately, that paradigm is exacerbated in the film industry because the barrier to entry is low and competition is high. Whether you’re an aspiring actor, crew member, or development creative, producers want to know you can do the job before they hire you to do the job. 

Most entry-level positions will provide training or use your educational background as a launching pad. Film sets normally don’t have the luxury of time for training and a producer’s best indication that you can do the job is when you have multiple, similar credits already; bonus points if you’ve worked for a mutual contact they trust. So if your goal is to be a working professional in the film industry, how do you build a resume that will secure you whatever job you’re currently desiring? If you don’t have a powerful studio exec uncle you can call, the answer is taking low or no-budget jobs. That does NOT mean taking any job you can because lack of focus is the main reason I find when my colleagues are not where they’d like to be in their careers. Below are the insights I’ve learned and implemented in my career to keep progressing toward my goals and staying focused in the crazy and amazing world of show business.

Evaluate Each Opportunity

At every point in my career, I evaluate opportunities that I come across with the below criteria, regardless of the pay rate or employment type. When working for low or no pay, it is imperative that you use this time strategically in order to progress your career in the direction you’d like and not get caught up in the whirlwind of Hollywood. When building a team to film my production company's first feature, Out Past Dark, we knew the budget was ultra low but we wanted to collaborate with people motivated and excited for the project. Thankfully we were able to work with cast and crew who were all looking to step into roles that they were ready for, but hadn’t yet been able to secure the credit(s) and were therefore willing to accept a low rate or points to gain that experience. Since each opportunity is unique and your goals will vary based on your early career progress, below I’ll describe how to evaluate each job prospect and examples that I’ve seen or experienced.

Does the credit advance you in the direction you’re seeking?

If you’ve never been on set before and are looking for your first PA gig or you’ve been at the same job title for years and want to advance, you will likely need to take a low or no-paying job to get that relevant credit. Remembering my days as a production coordinator, I knew I was ready to step into the production manager (PM) role but landing that first PM credit at a full rate was not happening. A contact of mine reached out regarding a low-budget feature film that she was working on which needed any production support they could get. I used this opportunity to negotiate the PM position for the feature, though it required accepting a very low, flat rate. Calculating my day rate for that project, it was lower than I knew I deserved but ultimately that one credit has opened the door and allowed me to work consistently as a production manager ever since. If an opportunity isn’t advancing your credits, try and use this negotiation technique to obtain your desired position, or potentially pass on the job in search of other projects that may open the door to a higher title.

Is the job in the medium you want to work in?

You may have heard, or experienced it yourself, complaints about being stuck working only on music videos, commercials, documentaries, etc. Remember when I explained before that producers love hiring crew with similar experience to the current job opening, well, this means it is very common to be pigeonholed into a specific type of production. I have worked with a fast food client on a burger commercial who declined to hire a director because they had taco commercial experience and they would only hire a director with previous burger commercial experience, no joke. Unfortunately, since competition is so high for these coveted jobs, those hiring are often able to be this specific when looking at experience, citing an unwillingness to take the risk on “unproven” hires. So if you are working regularly but not in your preferred medium, take this as a nudge and consider if this would be a good time to possibly take a lower credit or a low/no pay job in the area or medium you desire to transition into.

Is the project in the caliber you aspire to work at?

Although almost everyone wants to work on critically acclaimed projects, the reality is not all projects are on that level. That is ok since advancing a stable career is not solely reliant on hitting the lottery on such a project. To do so, it is important to balance the caliber of the projects you work on versus the experience gained. I often hear actors considering the caliber of their role and the project but this should certainly be taken into consideration by crew as well. An actor who regularly books supporting roles in big movies is likely to reject a supporting role in a low-budget feature but is significantly more likely to accept a role in the same movie as a lead. This also applies to genre changes. Comedic actors attempting to explore more dramatic roles (or vice versa) will often take a pay cut to book a part in which they haven’t proven themselves before. The same thoughtfulness can be taken as a crew member. When an opportunity comes along, think like an actor and weigh the position, pay, genre exposure, and caliber of the project to determine if the fit is right for your current goals. 

So if you find yourself stagnant or working for free on projects and are not sure what your next move should be, use the above guide to vet each job. This exercise will keep you motivated and progressing towards your goals, in addition to providing you with the why you should say no to that student film or your friend's no-budget short. The longer you work in the film industry, the more opportunities you will encounter and the easier it will be to get distracted from your ultimate objectives, leading you down a career created by accident instead of by design. Your time is valuable and without a discerning eye, the time and energy you’re putting into other people’s dreams will only take away from your own. However, when people purposefully come together with their individual goals synergized, breathtaking projects can be created on a budget, like our film Out Past Dark, which is now available on Amazon Prime.

Making the 'Out Past Dark' Score

BY CORA YIHUAN CHUNG

MAR. 1, 2024 8:30 PM PT

Hi! I’m Cora! I’m the composer of Out Past Dark. I want to show you the concept and the method I used to create the magic world of the film.

1. The different line of story

    The film is playing around the relationship dynamic. In this film, I used violin and cello to represent men and women in this power game. All the percussion sounds are from these two instruments. High strings and the bicycle sounds are the guide to the mystery. Following the story, you can see the dynamic switch between the couple, and how the music reacts to it. Take the gas stop scene for example, it's a simple percussive dance. But at the end of the journey, after the couple went back to the house together, the percussive dance was tweaked on top of the owl singing spices to add some "magic" to the man's story.  

    For the mystery part of the story, I processed over 30 owl sounds to a bird choir (persuaded the sound designer). The sound also provides the hint of the battle. The climax of the film is the owl battle in the woods. The audience can hear the sound of the owls (the magic world) mixed with human voices (the reality). It was a fun experiment! I’m very glad that Eddie and Mark gave me this opportunity to play around music and sound! I believe music and sound plays an important part to help the story telling. After the lab with Skywalker Sound, I realized the sound (or even just the frequency of sounds) can also be part of the music (if the sound designer and the director gives me the thumbs up). 

2. Playing time and space

    The cool part of the story is that you can’t tell which one is real! When I create the music, I want some sounds that people are familiar with, but feeling a bit off. I ended up using very small groups of elements: solo strings(violin/cello), voices, birds (owls), synth sound that I built using the production sound and the elements ahead. It’s all acoustic instruments, but you may feel different.

   Pacing and rhythmic are other adventures. At the beginning, the couple was on the road enjoying themselves, then the tension and the conflict started to emerge. You can always hear the motive from the music but show up with different speed or twists.

3. How to help the storytelling through music

    As for my classical background, I am still very engaged with natural and acoustic instrument sounds; As a creator, I try to figure out another way to use these sounds to innovate the story telling. In this film, all of the ambient sounds/pad is from birds(owls) and human voices. I also want the string instruments to get a different tone as usual. At the "Back from the Wood" scene, you can not only hear the string percussion reprised with filters and compressions from the convenient store, and also the violin was added with a super low bass amp, the cello playing extremely high notes to display the dynamic swapping and the couple's discomfort. It's also a challenge to myself to develop a new voice to the film. 

    I hope you all enjoy the film and the music soundscape that we brought! I am truly grateful to be part of this amazing team! The soundtrack album will come out soon, please stay tuned! Thank you so much!

Be Filming Your Feature in 3 Months | a How-To

BY EDDIE VIGIL V

FEB. 28, 2024 9:38 PM PT

No story? No team? No real money? No problem.

I’ve done it (that’s how Out Past Dark got made) and if you follow these 5 simple steps maybe you can, too.

(NOTE: I want to preface early that this pre-production model is limiting and may not work for you and your current goals. My goal at the time was focusing on producibility, otherwise known as leaning into the constraints that came my direction and finding a way to make something over nothing ASAP)

Step 1: Location, location, location

Before literally anything else I wanted to know where I could make my movie. Where would the story take place? Where would the cast and crew be housed?

For you, is there a place you could likely get access to for no money for an extended period of time? How long do you need?

For me, I wanted to be somewhere for a month (1 week of prep, 3 weeks for filming). What came to mind was a vacant house in the family that sits in the middle of a small village town that I grew up in as a kid.

If I could get a yes for the house that meant a filming location AND lodging for a small team AND a home base that would allow me to expand the story to other parts of the village (gift shops, train station, restaurants) that I hoped I’d be able to also get.

Have an idea of a location for you? Great. Call whoever manages that space and ask for permission to use it for the specific dates you want it. Be transparent, honest, and promise you’ll respect the space leaving it better than when you found it.

It was February. I asked for the month of May, in three months.

I got my yes.

Step 2: Find Your Team

How many crew members do you need? How large should your cast be? How many people can your location comfortably house?

For me, I’ve worked as a 1st AD and Script Supervisor as well as having the confidence that I had already directed a feature film once before… so I leaned into wanting producer help. I needed a cinematographer and, ideally, someone to assist them on camera and a different someone to assist them on lighting. I needed sound help.

In this situation getting help with production design, makeup, continuity, scheduling, and hair would be a luxury I didn’t expect to get.

For you, who do you know that can do the things you need help with? Of those people who is hungry to create something right now? Create a short list and start reaching out.

Again, be transparent and make sure everyone understands the assignment. Let them know that, yes, this is a little crazy, but that you’ll feed them and house them, that you’re excited, why you want them on your team, and that they’ll have part ownership in the final product and/or get some pay.

This all goes for cast as well. For me, I wanted a movie that focused mostly on two actors with room three supporting cast.

After all this I had a DP, an AC, a gaffer, a sound person, two producers (one who could double as makeup) and four actors committed, with a special role I planned to cast locally.

Step 3: Write the Script

If you, like me, can feel overwhelmed with the task knowing the short timeline it may be wise to seek out a co-writer to help carry the load, which is what I did in this case.

I used the “write for what you have” method. It’s a like a stew. I had my ingredients (locations, cast attached). I knew what kind of tones I wanted (comedy, drama, psychological).

Keep it exciting for your team. Brainstorm ideas with the collaborators you have attached. Talk character arcs and relationships with the cast. Talk visual ideas with your DP.

Outline. Write. I split the writing 50/50 with co-writer for initial drafts and we each took turns polishing and editing from there.

If at all possible get a final version of the script out to your cast with time for them to prepare as much as they can before they travel out. We were able to get a finished script with two weeks to spare.

Bonus points for the ability to be flexible during production. Sometimes you’ll realize you don’t need certain scenes or that you need something that’s not yet written.

Step 4: Build Your Schedule

I didn’t have anyone on my team with 1st AD experience so this task fell on me. It may fall on you.

There’s a lot involved in scheduling a movie. It takes breaking down the script, understanding how much time things will take to shoot (how many days you’ll need at each location), which scenes go first/last for each day (or each week, or in context of the whole shoot).

Talk to your DP as they’ll have lots of helpful thoughts.

For me, I personally wanted 10hr shoot days (industry standard is 12hrs), with filming 6 days each week for 3 weeks (18 days is healthy for the average indie, I’ve experienced). I like keeping the days shorter for more recovery time. Remember, making a movie is a marathon. I figured 6 days was reasonable since we all were on the same page with getting a movie made.

Lastly, get the schedule as solid as possible as soon as possible because locations will need to know when you’ll want to be there, cast needs to know when to show up, and there’s inevitably going to be so many other things you’ll need and you’ll want to know what to prioritize.

Step 5: Show Up

As mentioned earlier, I gave myself one week of prep on location. What did I do with that time?

Location scouting. Become familiar with your new world.

I had my main house location locked already, but I needed to find and secure a gift shop, gas station, diner, train yard, forest, campground with fire pit, stream to fish in, as well as taking notes of other visually notable spots I stumbled upon thanks to local help (in my case family and friends of family).

Re-reading the script over and over with the real life locations in mind.

Team members trickled in throughout the week. First came the DP. I showed them all the locations and we talked all our thoughts. Second came the producers. I showed them all the locations and we talked all our thoughts. Third came the cast. I showed them… you get the picture.

Once all key people were up to speed with the broad strokes the focus turned to what we’d be doing our first week.

Remember to clock out, to rest, to recharge, and keep that energy. I’ve seen too many eager filmmakers burn themselves out because they think they have to exhaust themselves each day and give up sleep. No. Please don’t do that.

Now you’re ready to go make a movie.

Have fun.

And… action.