October 19, 2011Talent I want to address something I have been seeing online lately.
There are production companies in the region advertising for actors to participate in commercials in exchange for gift certificates, free for the experience or for $50 for principal work in commercials. These are commercials that are airing in some cases locally and some cases nationally.
I encourage you not to accept this work. The crew and the producer are being paid by the client to produce that commercial. If they are getting paid you should be getting paid.
If you have not done work before would it be good experience yes, but understand what you are doing.
The production companies that are doing this are harming the industry as a whole. They are underbidding a project in order to get the work I am sure to provide for themselves and their families. But what they are causing to happen is a dangerous slippery slope.
So the production companies that are bidding on the commercials with a fair rate for the talent are not winning the job. If you the actors keep working for free or subpar rates, the production companies that are underbidding the jobs will get more and more work. Thus creating less and less paid work for you the actors. And perhaps some of the production companies who are bidding with fair rates for the talent will then start saying to themselves why should we pay the talent if they are going to work for free. And they start underbidding with that in mind.
With the economy the way it is rates are already lower than they used to be. We must stand strong on this today or tomorrow we will starve.