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.
