I am a director of photography, producer, director, editor, writer, and occasional actor. I have been professionally involved in both television and film production since 1996 and have worked on many deferred (“delayed”) payment projects, and still do when I can afford it. The projects themselves are usually fun, probably because I carefully pick and choose who I’m willing to work deferred with, if I like the project, and what else besides money is in it for me. I am quite discerning and observant. I like professionalism, and plain, simple language.
Have I ever seen a cent from any of these projects? Nope! Not once in 30 years. Why not? A lot of the time the projects are never distributed, or even completed. Most of the time they don’t make their crowd-funding goals and some of them, as a result, stop dead or never begin in the first place. Was being involved, for me, about making money? Not really. So why do it? What do I get in lieu of money that can somehow still help me make a living? Material for my reel? Street cred? IMDb? Proper networking with actual paid work with good people? Soul fulfillment, maybe? Sure! Any one of those things, or all of those things. If the juice is worth the squeeze, I’m all for it.
Was the experience ever good or bad? “Good” in that I usually got the promised reel, credit, networking, etc. “Bad” that sometimes I didn’t get anything promised me, and of course it’s bad to not get paid for an incredibly laborous and specialized job such as anything in the camera or G&E departments. And that gear ain’t cheap, either.
But even the bad ones: if the experience on the project sucked (like a lot of the earlier ones which went from “bad” to just plain “ugly”), I tried to learn from them; at least what NOT to do, who NOT to work with again, who NOT to trust. Etc. But, even on the bad ones, I usually met some good people.
When I am approached for deferred work I usually negotiate a deferred scale rate along with a reasonable backend structured from all gross profits. In the present, I always want my upfront expenses paid like travel and lodging, and I’m going to want any other expenses immediately reimbursed like fuel, mileage and food. Although it’s nice to be given some amount of cash before returning home, what I don’t want is to spend any of my own money, at least not without reimbursement. My professional time, skill, and equipment in exchange for networking with good people, reel, IMDb, and the hope of deferred scale and backend potential. That’s good. I’m always happy to discuss any project.
My advice: Never work for free, but don’t be opposed to do work for no money. Sometimes, depending on the project and the people involved, the networking, experience, reel, IMDb credit, the struggle might be well worth it. But, use discretion. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
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