Are You An Exploited Film Student?
Upon graduating from film school, I was lucky enough to land a job almost immediately. Unfortunately, many of my film school friends were not so lucky. Those that did find jobs were often underpaid… and some of my university classmates never found work at all.
Of those that did find work, most of them were unhappy with their positions and felt that they were either underpaid or under utilized.
Some of my friends who did get work, found positions that gave them a lot of experience, but didn’t actually provide them with a paycheck. In other words, THEY WEREN’T GETTING PAID!!!
The Intern Conundrum
One of the worst parts of the film and television industry is what I call the “Intern Conundrum.” The Intern Conundrum is where young filmmakers go to work for major studies and production companies and don’t get paid a single cent. They are promised a great experience and made to think that they will eventually move up in the company… but that doesn’t always happen.
In many cases, the student goes to work as an intern and doesn’t get a salary, but hopes that after the internship is over they will be promoted within the company and a salary will then be paid to them at that point in time. They put off payment at the beginning in hopes of a pay out in the end.
Of course, that never happens. Instead, the company realizes they are getting a lot of value out of this free worker and that there are a hundred of other people out there who are willing to get an internship with the company and do the work for free.
So what do they do? They let the intern go (he or she basically gets fired) and the company brings in a new intern who will work for the company and then be replaced by another free intern somewhere down the line.
In the end, the company gets a free employee and the intern is tossed out and forced to find a new place to work.
Sadly, because the student been working for free for the past year, they haven’t built up any perceived value (something I’ll talk about in a future post), so no one wants to hire them. So what do they do? They go out and get another internship, hoping that this one will turn out better.
They then work for another year as an unpaid intern and are let go once again at some point down the road. By this point, they’ve essentially been out of work for two years straight and they simply can’t take it anymore. No one will hire them, they don’t have any money left, and in the end, they are forced to go out and get a job in a field completely unrelated to their passion or their background.
It’s artistic exploitation, but it happens every single day!
The sad fact is, those of us in creative industries are often times exploited because we are in a highly desireable industry. If you need proof, read this article on exploitation from the good people at LateralAction.com.
So now that you know what’s happening, you’re probably wondering to yourself, “How do I avoid this situation?”
How do you find work after graduating from film school?
How do you negotiate a reasonable salary or day rate?
How do you build your perceived value?
The answers to these questions are going to be the topic of discussion here at FilmAndTVCareer.com over the next couple months.
Check back soon and you’ll learn what mistakes people make when looking for work in the film and television industry. You’ll discover the secrets to building your value and your brand. And more than anything else, you’ll see how you can jump from a lowly worker bee to a high paid executive in 12 months or less. It can happen, you just have to know which steps to take!
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