IF YOU PAY PEANUTS, YOU GET MONKIES

Well, it’s tough times out there. More and more producers are calling me up for a job saying, “We would love to hire you but we have no money.” As you can imagine, this is not something I like to hear, because what this usually means is that there is an expectation to do the same amount of work for a lower fee. After a while, it becomes nearly impossible to make a profit and cast a film properly.

It takes time to cast an independent film. Usually, I advise that the agreement between the producer and myself is based on ten weeks of work. However, lately I have been working on agreements based on five weeks of work in order to accommodate the budget and my fee. It just depends on how big the job is. If I have to cast 30 roles, five weeks is enough time, but if some of those roles require A-list talent or recognizable names, five weeks of work may not bring on the results that are required of the producer. The other side of the coin is that I recently cast a film and the start date got pushed over two months from the original agreed upon contractual start date. One of the roles required a named actor. The expectation from the producer is that I find the actor and cast him, but this requires a significant amount of work on my part that technically I am no longer getting paid to do. It is as if it is expected of me to continue to work even though it was the productions actions that moved the start date after 99% of the cast was in place, confirmed and negotiated. I am not responsible for the late start and I don’t think it is fair to expect that I will work on something indefinitely with out payment. Am I wrong?

When making a low budget film, a producer must commit to a start date. There are financial consequences to moving an agreed upon start date and one of those consequences is the fee associated with casting. The days of working for free are no more, and I know I am not alone in this. I speak to a lot of my casting colleagues and we are all in agreement about this issue.

Attention producers: invest in the casting process or else you are going to get what you pay for…