Volunteer Movie Work

To start with a disclaimer: this article is not a whinge nor is it a complaint. I read through my posts and too many of them sound like it is all fun and games with famous people on a movie set. This is not the case. Following is a more realistic view of what happens on set when you are starting out. 

Firstly the problem for me is that the Director is inexperienced, will often offer you an uninteresting role with little chance for me to act and show what I can do, also being inexperienced they are often unimaginitive when it comes to the role and with a lack of funds and often only filming a short (5 minute) film they are more interested in getting a finished product they can hand in for marking (students) or for the local film festival.

Add in that most everyone else working will be inexperienced and you end up with massive delays, other actors who look like it is their first time on film, making your showreel footage look bad. Who cares if you just delivered the news that the Sergeants son just died in the mutant attack in a believable and heart rending way when the guy next to you is grinning like an idiot and staring into the camera?

Add in low budget locations (ie free) so you'll probably be filming illegally with no facilities about (ie no food, no toilets, lucky if you get running water), no transport, no kitchen, no showers, make your own way home covered in fake blood and dirt (yeah, see how many taxis in the west stop for you looking like that).

Add in that there is little to no money at risk so there is little incentive for the Director to push things along at a rapid pace and the fact that he is indecisive as he is thinking about what he wants to do as he is inexperienced in making solid spur of the moment decisions, on top of that nearly everyone is volunteer so if someone is stuffing around then he will be reluctant to tell the guy to do his job.

The no budget or deferred payment movie may work out if the team is professional - what have they worked on before? In this case a team of (usually) entry level professional and semi-professional film people get together and make a movie during thier 'quiet' time and thenprofits are distributed upon sale of the final movie. The key is a team of equally dedicated people who have experience.

Recently I worked on a student film, about 5 minutes after I said I would I started to regret it, but I stuck to my word.

On the day I turned up at 7am at the pick up point, the Director was already there. 2 hours later one other guy turned up, I started to get pissed off.

Then we get in the car and go to pick up the other guys who hadn't made it down to the pick up point. Now I am shitty. We turn up and one guy claims he is too sick to work, the other guy came along though.

I had shin splints so bad the night before that I could not stand up and could not make it out to dinner with a friend who had flown into Bangkok just for that one night, on the day my shins were badly swollen and in pain, but I gave my word so I was on the job.

Due to the late start we got more traffic on the way to the location than we should have, finally we are ready to shoot, in an abandoned building. I tell the Director since I was there on time and my time is valuable to me and obviously not to anyone else there that I wanted to shoot all my scenes so I could leave as soon as possible.

2 hours sitting in a car park waiting with 2 scabbed up feral dogs was not a good start to the day.

But it was better than the location.

OK said the Director can you die there and lay shaking like you having a fit? Me: No, I am not dying in a pile of dogshit.

Yep, the place was only inhabited by about 20 feral dogs and they had been shitting all through the place, so over 10 years of desertion the abandoned building  floors were coverd in piles of dog turds varying in age. The really old ones had turned to dust and covered every square inch of floor space. ie we were walking in dog shit, breathing it, and probably eating it in our food (which we had to supply ourselves mostly).

"I'll die against the pole and slip down it so I am only sitting in dog shit" was my response. 

Then one of the guys went home to wash the fake blood and dog poo from his shirt (we supplied our own clothing too), an hour later I say to the Director call him and tell him to come back now or I go home.

We wait another hour for this guy to come back so I can film the last 15 minutes and go home.

Yeah I am really unhappy with the disorganisation and more importantly the total disregard for my time.

Although I did meet an aspiring TV commercial Director who offered me work on his next commercial that has a suitable part, upon telling him my normal daily rate and seeing him near choke I guess that I'll never hear from him.

The next point, since you are working for free others assume you are a nobody with no experience, this gets annoying when these people with 1 or 2 TV ads under thier belt talk down to me (or yourself even), especially when they were only extras. Now I am not putting extras down, but I don't like people walking around pretending to be something they're not.

The other thing I find, to be polite I shall say "very annoying" is when there are veiled offers of future paid work if you work on this project. This is almost always pure bulldust and my take on this is if they need a 7 foot tall actor with experience then they'll hire me anyway.

If you are new to the industry go and work, meet people and keep in contact with the ones who seem to be serious, get the showreel no matter how bad the guy next to you looks - it is better than nothing, also the experience of being 'on set' even if it is nothing like a professional set will help in future as you get a close look at what is going on in each 'department'  (ie you'll often be asked to help). And if there is atrue professional or two on set and you are active and keen and do well they might be able to give some advice, recommend and agent or acting school or invite you along to another volunteer project until you get established in the movie industry.

On a final note I would like to say, from experience of listening to wannabe actors, directors and writers (yes I am talking about the Bondi Beach wannabes for those who know the 'scene' there) and from my experience in writing and getting funding for Bangkok Adrenaline. I would like to say that many of these projects have no/little budget because no one believes they are any good.

It's a mindset, Bangkok Adrenaline was shot with a small budget, to start with we had no money but approached some of the best foreigners working in Thailand at the time and offered them a chance to show their skills to the best of their ability with a professional film crew to capture it.

We then put a showreel of the actors together with a 1/2 page and 4 page brief of the movie and took it to potential movie investors. We believed in our movie, we believed in the script and the ideas, we believed that we had a good team to work with. We believed in ourselves and as such went in to offer the investors a chance to work with us, we did not go hat in hand grovelling or asking for money - it was a chance for them... and it was, it really was.

We got the money and judging by the main investors reaction at the first meeting we had done everything as well as we could have. Idon't see why so many low budget producers look at themselves and their project as just being a little thing and making it such.

Again for acting it is a what's in it for me situation at the end of the day. In the student project I get some showreel that I don't need (it's a soldier character and I already have that and can do it well, it does not show any range of character), I got no money and was barely fed. So why did I do it?

To get that 'warm fuzzy feeling' that I had done a good deed, helped someone serious (3 years of University) get into the industry, and helped and advised the others on the shoot. Well I got total disrespect of my time and therefore myself, paid for most my own food and drink and my taxi home plus had to launder my clothes manually (scrubbing brush) to get the dirt and crap out of my pants (plus the Director wanted to put fake blood on my jeans - it leaves a permanent red stain - I flatly refused)... and in return I got....?

A thankyou email from the Director, well it is short the warm and fuzzy feeling but I learned a lesson to not work with people who did not have money on the line again.

PS As a side note I was offered a part in like a 'pilot' for a TV commercial. They shoot a mock up and try to get the contract for the TVC. I said I would be interested in reading the script, again a soldier character, this time in tight short shorts and a pink muscle shirt for free. I politely refused while internally I thought like "f" I am doing that without some major money providing a decent reason why.

If I want to dress like a gay Village People soldier then...... no actually I cannot think of any reason at all that I would do that role.

PPS On a slightly different note, I have been asked if I would work on a low budget movie pilot, ie 5 minutes to 15 minutes of finished film to show investors to get funding, I instantly agreed. I have done a movie pilot for free before too. The difference is the people putting it together are experienced and I trust them not to waste my time, as their time is valuable too. And there is a very good chance in my estimation that something will come of it, if not the movie then the good will from those in positions of influence in the industry, plus I like the guys I'll be working with.

Upon saying all this the guys out there doing all these no/low budget things are still 1 million times better than the big mouth at the coffee shop sprouting off about his latest movie project, being out there and doing something is alway 1 million times better than sitting on your ass and doing nothing.