The Hills Are Burning: Know The Rules.

The Hills Are Burning: Know The Rules.:

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It drives me crazy - so many freelancers don't know their rights, and let themselves be bullied by unscrupulous producers. Labor law is actually on your side, guys. Protect yourself and your crew.

Freelancers: When to give it away?

This is something each person has to figure out on their own, and we've been discussing it at work.

When/how to provide your services and expertise for nothing?

The simple answer: when its worth it.

What does that mean?

To me, it means when either the time involved is minimal, or the positives for building and growth far exceed the layout.

Case one happened to me this afternoon.

One of the volunteer ushers at a theater I work at also teaches stage craft at a local, very under funded high school. He popped into the booth while we were waiting for the house to open, in order to ask some questions about gobos (those pattern things that go into lights).

The projections are quite large in this house, due to the size of the throw. He wanted to know how big the patterns themselves were. (About two inches in diameter). He also wanted to know about costs. I gave him some information about making your own safely, that would also be really cheap. He was thrilled, and talked to me about possibly talking to the kids at some point as a guest lecturer.

Cool.

This was all of five minutes of my time, where I was sitting around chatting with my coworkers anyway. Always worthwhile.

Case two, is much more involved on my end.

I shot, and am in the process of editing, a really nifty music video for a non profit group. (Remember kids! Non profit is a charitable designation, NOT a 'you ain't gettin' paid because our wanna be rap star's mom won't spend money'.)

They were a ton of fun to work with, and the post is being done on my schedule, with no clear deadline. These two things are very important to me for something like this - if a gig is a hassle, then its not worth doing for nothing. If there's a time frame, particularly an insane one, they better be paying.

Three is an ongoing adventure with a long time friend. He directs, I shoot, and vice versa. We borrow each other's gear. We also hire each other whenever possible. I love working with him, and paid or not, we make some cool stuff. Days are always smooth and short. See how that works?

You've probably gotten THOSE emails - 'We have no money and we're making an epic that's going to x film festival (yeah, that's not a guarantee, ever) and we need this impossible thing done by next week for nothing'. No.

NONONONONONONONO.

You, no money people, are in no position to make demands of anyone. Plus, I've made the mistake of agreeing. A few times (I was that desperate kid once). They have all been, ego ridden, demanding, and usually obnoxious, as well as delusional about the initial quality of the project. None of these was ever worth putting on my reel, so they were a complete loss. Steer clear of these. If they really have anything worthwhile, they'll find a way to get money for it. And if they do, you won't see a dime if you agree to work for nothing. Unless they have something of real, tangible value to trade, walk away whistling.

In a nutshell: Is the project fun? Are the people awesome? Is it a real non profit, or some jerkwad who's purposely misusing that title? Am I going to walk away with something of tangible value?

That's how I decide whether or not a project gets my skills for free.

A little more on tangible value - is there something missing from my portfolio, or that I need to practice, that this gig will help with? If so, and the time investment isn't too large, I might consider that as well.

How do you decide?

stoney321: LDS Sparkledammerung IS HERE!

stoney321: LDS Sparkledammerung IS HERE!:

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Written? Kitten!

Written? Kitten!:

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For every x number of words, you get rewarded with a new kitten picture.

Write or Die by Dr Wicked

Write or Die by Dr Wicked:

It sounds rather extreme, and maybe it is. A tool for those of us (I'm looking at Me, Self...) that can spend an entire day crafting and re crafting a single paragraph in the futile search for perfection. Or perhaps there's a hidden fear that the finished work won't be any good, so we're loathe to get the damn thing done. Or end up with a million word opus.

Anyhow, this nifty little program (free online, ten bucks for the desktop edition) is designed to help you keep putting words on the page. If you get distracted, or agonize over a word for too long, the screen turns red and an alarm sounds, in normal mode. I believe in Kamikaze, your words start unwriting themselves. I'm too chicken to try it, even for random words just filling a page.

Since I signed up for NaNoRiMo again this year, I need something to shut up the inner editor. My goal for writing is 1500 words in a day. I suspect a third of them will be readable, but I need to get into the habit. For those people without evil inner editors or the attention span of a chipmunk, this bit of software is pretty useless.

For people like me, it might just be the bit of a push that they need to get them moving. I'm going to try it for a month. If it does the trick, I'll thank the creator by purchasing the software.

Here goes nuthin...

I found the picture of the two Jack Sparrows!!

OMG I found it!!!

Remember that story I told about watching two Jack Sparrows get into a fist fight? I FOUND THE PHOTOS. Well, not of the fist fight, but the moments before. I can't make this stuff up.

Hope this makes your day, they certainly made mine.

Porn Star Kareoke - How did I not know about this???

How do you make a tacky thing awesome?

Multiplication. It works for anything, really. One garden gnome, tacky. An army of creepy, smiling plaster constructs staring vapidly at the neighbors from your front yard = kind of awesome.

A single cheap stuffed animal carnival prize jammed into the corner of a teen girl's bedroom is just kind of sad. However, sewing a hundred of these little things onto a suit and roller skating down Main Street, USA sounds pretty amazing. (Disclaimer: I have not done this. Yet. I don't have the carnival prizes. If anyone wants to hook me up with them, I WILL do this. And take pictures. And post them here.)

Another great thing I didn't know about until recently was the customization of My Little Ponies. You might remember these smiling little rubber horse shaped toys with nylon hair and a graphic on their butt - I had a collection myself when I was a kid. Until I discovered Breyer horses, but that's another story. (Yes, I was a little girl obsessed with horses. Imagine that.)

Dragons, The Borg, oh heck - pretty much any pop icon you can imagine. Who knew this was a thing? Aren't you glad you read this now? (Proof that one, anything can be elevated to an art form if the creator is good enough at it, and two - you can make a living doing anything.)

But that's not what I wanted to talk about (remember, I warned you about those tangents...).

What I wanted to talk about is potentially the most amazing marriage of tacky that has ever been conceived. Porn stars doing karaoke. I shit you not. Personally, I feel like this is the true spirit of Los Angeles wrapped up, packaged, and presented with a cheap satin and lace neon pink bow. And I'm excited. I must see this before I die, so be aware, LA friends - I'm going to beg to go to this.

Porn stars sing at Sardos.

I think this will be an experience on par with watching the two Jack Sparrows duke it out on the Walk of Fame. I think I'm starting to miss LA.