Ridiculous Job Offers / Demands!!

[Adam Grunseth]

I don't think what he is offering is terribly out of line, maybe a little bit- but I hire shooters to do wedding videos for me and I only pay a flat rate of $200-$250 a day. If I offered any more than that I wouldn't be able to be competitive. However, I provide all the cameras and gear, so I can see how it is a little unreasonable to expect someone to work for just less than that amount with all their own equipment.

[Randall Allen]

Videographer to Shoot Interviews

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Reply to: gigs-369191039@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-07-08, 1:20PM EDT


Need experienced to light and shoot sit down corporate interviews for 3 days late July. Using our DVX-100, light kit and bg's.

Respond with resume and link to reel if available.

Thanks

$500 for 10 + OT




Location: Atlanta
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: $500 /day


PostingID: 369191039



PLEASE, one of our DvInfo folks needs to get this! Wish I could but can not.



Randy

Edit:Dont forget the finders fee!

[Craig Seeman]

Randy,
It's great to post what a reasonable ad looks like.
That's $50/hr and the client provides the gear and it's 1/3" DV.

[Don Donatello]

i have a friend that answered a Craigs list ad last fall ... it was a work/learn for FREE ... over the past several months they have learned camera , editing , Producing ... for past 2 months they've been putting in 10-12 hrs days /5-6 day week ( free) ..
on tuesday they ask about a getting paid ... was told they would have a meeting next day .. on wednesday they offered 100K year !!!!
now at 25 they are making BIG $$$ .... every now & then being exploited does pay off .... choose your being exploited with some thought to future !

[Josh Bass]

Here's one from Mandy

:Vacancy: Directors/Interviewers
Employer: TGR Media, LLC
Location: Corp. Christi, Austin, Galvest
Duration: Day-to-day, starts Immediately



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TGR Media, LLC is looking for filmmakers to interview (and film the interviews) married and engaged couples. Interested filmmakers must find couples to interview (specifics about couples are set out below), conduct the interviews, and film the interviews.

The filmmaker must find couples that fit one of three criteria:

1. Either they have been married for 50 years or longer;

2. where either the husband or wife is currently, or has recently been, serving in the military in either Iraq, Afghanistan or the Gulf War;

3. They are either engaged or married (and in their 20's or 30's) and have funny, emotional or dramatic stories to tell about dealing with the engagement process. The stories should relate to things like buying a ring, proposing, dealing with in-laws, wedding planners, guest lists, caterers, wedding bands, etc.

From a technical aspect, the interviews must be shot on mini-dv and the video and audio quality (lighting, audio, image quality, etc) must be excellent. The standards of quality are subjective and I reserve the right to reject any interview that is not of sufficient quality for me to use it.

An interview needs to meet two qualifications: (1) it is of sufficient technical quality; and (2) it provides me with good enough content that I can find at least two short clips to take from the interview.

Ideal answers are between :45 and 2:00 in duration. For every interview that meets these qualifications, I will pay the filmmaker $110 plus $5 reimbursement for each mini-dv cassette used. So, for example, if you interview 6 couples (and each interview has a couple of anecdotes or pieces of advice I can use) and each interview uses two mini-dv cassettes, then I would send you a check for $720. Each interview should take between 45 min and 1 hour so there is certainly an opportunity, if you schedule interviews in advance, to complete 3 or 4 in a day. I have filmmakers who have completed as many as 11 interviews in 4 days. That's a lot of work but they did a great job and received $1310 for the 4 days of work. I am interested in as many interviews as you can do, provided the technical quality is excellent and the content meets the parameters I described above. Also, if you can set up a bunch of interviews in another city I am happy to work out some reimbursement of your travel expenses.

You must find the couples, schedule the interviews, contact TGR Media to get the work-for-hire agreement (which must be signed and returned to us before you do your first interview), the Release and the List of Questions. And, in the end, you must deliver interviews on mini-dv or DVD that are of high technical quality and which provide content that we can use.

I have done this exact same project with filmmakers in NY, OH, CA, GA, CT, SC and IL and if the interviews and content satisfy the conditions, we will buy them and we will look to use you to conduct future interviews and film assignments in the future.


Apply to: Daniel Victor

Applications only via this form.



Ad created by User 424845 on 17-Jul-07. Expires: 16-Aug-07. [edit/stop this ad]

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"

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Don Donatello

i have a friend that answered a Craigs list ad last fall ... it was a work/learn for FREE ... over the past several months they have learned camera , editing , Producing ... for past 2 months they've been putting in 10-12 hrs days /5-6 day week ( free) ..
on tuesday they ask about a getting paid ... was told they would have a meeting next day .. on wednesday they offered 100K year !!!!
now at 25 they are making BIG $$$ .... every now & then being exploited does pay off .... choose your being exploited with some thought to future !

Don makes a good point. Not all of these posts are pure exploitation.

From my own experience, I've been on both sides. I've done a whole lot of work for free over the years, and I've asked for a whole lot of free help.

In my experience, of the work I've done for free about 90% of it has been a complete waste of my time, working for people with no skill who most of the time don't even end up finishing their projects. The good thing about doing this is that it teaches you to recognize these people and avoid them at all costs. The more of this you see, the easier it is to pass on them. It isn't playing a lottery, it's simply gaining the experience to tell when a project is a waste of time.

The remaining 10% have paid dividends. The biggest project I did for free continues to drop a nice royalty check in my mailbox every month, and hopefully will do so for years. Yes it cost me months of my life, but has paid at least 10x what I would have earned on an hourly basis. Was I lucky to get it? No, luck had nothing to do with it. I considered the risk, rewards, background of all the people involved, the marketing, business plan, and how much I could steer it in the right direction if it went wrong. I calculated that it was a good risk and took it. A lot of other people saw that it was non-paying (up front) and passed on it completely, laughing them off.

There is a potential gold mine in any of these adds, you just have to be smart enough to tell which is which. So do your homework, don't believe any producers' BS and hype about the project, and use your common sense, you'll navigate the minefield a whole lot safer.

[Dylan Couper]

I've pruned several heated posts from the last page of this. I'm going to lock it temporarily to let everyone settle down a little.