d wrote: I need to make an I love Harlan Ellison t-shirt. I cant tell you how many times Ive had that conversation lately. And that Fred McDarrah quote is awesome. Im a photographer transitioning out of assisting and am the one raging to the photographers I work with when they say that their client didnt guarantee OT so they had to pay it out of pocket. If thats the case, then what kind of pussy agent do you have?
I also wonder historically when the client began to dictate the pricing? I have a photo editor friend that Ive heard say directly, we only pay our assistants $200/day. Well, a. theyre not your assistants, 2. is it that hard to pull an extra $50 from your ad dollars to pay for some hard labor that at the current state will be printed before its paid (whatever happened to copyright release upon payment in full anyway?) c. Good people
cost good money. Across the board. If you dont like the price go somewhere else and potentially absorb the cost of a reshoot. Everything costs money, and if you cant respect that this is both my livelihood, and those working with me, then do I really want to work with you?
To me, the real issue is that there are not standards, and there is no way for a young photographer to get the information that Harlan Ellison is talking about. Most photographers are hardly transparent about their business to their assistants. I would think that this mainly has to do with the competitive nature of the field. What its really doing though, is making it harder to negotiate across the board since no one knows how to.
In closing I might add my desire that photography mirror the professional film world. People on film crews all know the standards, and if you dont then theyre going to tell you, and repeat it over and over again until you are damned sure up on what flies. Guaranteed rates with no negotitated upward limit, payment within two weeks, unions with real health care and dental plans that have insanely low copays. Could go on and on. Hmmms odd. Commercial and film crews all have half the same clients as professional photography does? I used to have a roommate who worked as a non-union gaffer. Regardless of whether a professional job is union or not, then it is run by the same rules. In his capacity as a best boy, it normally fell on him to double-check if there was an overtime agreement in place at ten hours. He would go to the producers to find out somewhere around nine and a half hours into the day. His conversation with the producers would go something like this, Is there an overtime agreement in place? Because if there isnt, then all of these guys you see working away behind you come ten hours drop everything and just walk awaywhich means you break down all the grip and electric, pack all the trucks You get the idea.
I have half a mind to organize this industry. I feel much more relaxed now.

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