out post sound blog

There has been much debate recently about wages, interns, runners and the like in the film and television industry.

BECTU have had their say, Skillset have attempted to clear the water and many other have just stood back to see which way the dust settles.

At out post, we have also hit problems involving legislation laid down by the government, which effectively means that you cannot take on interns without paying them. The legislation broadly states that if someone is volunteering to work for you, you cannot tell them to do anything!

The confusion that this legislation has caused lead us to abandon our plans to take on an intern. We even looked at taking on an apprentice, but unfortunately the support we got from the "Apprenticeship Hotline" left a little to be desired.

However, Skillset have now launched a set of guidelines to help companies like ourselves who wish to give people and foot up in the industry n the form of "Guidelines for Employers offering Work Placement Schemes in the Creative Industries"

The guidelines have been developed to "provide clarity over different terms associated with work-based learning programmes including Volunteering, Work Experience Placements, Internships and Apprenticeships."

The 26 page document details these different approaches and gives best practices to employers on what their responsibilities are. However, and this is where it all gets complicated. If you provide an internship you have to pay, albeit the National Minimum Wage. Now, we all know from experience, that interns in the film industry don't always get paid, but this is what the legislation dictates. The only way around this is to use volunteers, but as previously mentioned the employer is not allow to stipulate times of work, hours or in-fact tasks. How is this useful to anyone?

At a recent meeting in London between BECTU members and members of the indie film industry in the UK, around 1/3 of those in attendance agreed that people should NOT be allowed to work for free in any situation. To me this seems like a violation of peoples personal right to choose. How does this actually help anyone?

BECTU can be seen to be protecting higher wages for crew, which is fine, but at what cost. If a movie can only be made on a low budget the crew members have the choice if they wish to work on it. On the other side of the coin, and this is something I have stood by for a long time, giving services away for free, can eventually undermine the value of those services making it impossible for anyone to make any money. A prime example of this is the internet - how much are you willing to pay for - news for example?

It is a minefield in many different ways. For what its worth, I don't think there is anything wrong with people offering their services for free to gain experience, benefiting all parties. (Unfortunately government legislation, at least in the UK, makes this increasing difficult.) What I do think is wrong is film makers expecting talented and experienced crew to work on productions for nothing or very little. It takes years to gain experience and skill, and with the pace of development especially in the post world, keeping up with the technology can almost be a full time job.

The indie UK film industry must not act as if it is a charity. It needs to make it's own way in the world. Relying on funding and grants only leads to mediocrity. If a product is good enough to stand up on its own then there will be someone out there who wants to put up the cash… right?