Pay to Play? No Pay? Encouragement for Young Filmmakers...

  Between the Bears NOT paying Forte as the #1 all-purpose back in the league that he is and the NCAA throwing around the idea of "gifting" the students you exploit the living !@#$ out of for sick amounts of monetary gain but insist it's NOT Pay-to-Play, I am  starting to make me feel dirty. I don't want to feel dirty watching my Bears, watching the Illini. I am starting to feel like an enabler. And not the good kind of enabler that enables his friends to do stupid, wild stunts that they will most certainly regret now but will cherish the memories in the future. More like the kind of enabler that keeps giving a friend money that you know he's going to do bad things with.

   I'm giving you my money, buying tickets, watching the games, buying the hats, etc. And you keep doing things with it I do not approve of.

Not. Pleased.

McCaskey's: Pay Forte. His loyalty and professionalism should be rewarded in kind.

NCAA: Yea, a couple of those kids are going on to make $$$ in pro sports. But for the THOUSANDS that won't play another snap, another inning, another quarter, find something in those fat bank accounts to help them make the transition to life without sports. They helped put millions (SEC made $1 Billion last year) in your banks, put a little back.

Which comes back to young Hollywood. The kids out there right now who will be the rockstars of tomorrow.

   In indie film, a lot of young guns end up working for free. You help your friends, you help friends of friends, you help strangers. And you hear a lundry list of reasons for why you should help for free. I don't buy the "paying your dues" bull@#$% some producers will hand youngin's to justify what often times becomes PA abuse. But I firmly believe that, in film, people don't forget the folks that give them a hand when they needed it most. You help people for free, I think, for 2 reasons.

1-It will aid you in the future. Soak up every bit of learning you can on set. It will aid you. More importantly, mine for contacts. I met Continuum Pictures on a set I Produced and AD'ed for free. And my career has skyrocketed since because I found a group of highly motivated individuals to band together with. You will find some amazing people to work with, you will find some crazy people too. There's all types on set. This is our reality. If you meet people on sets that are also working for free, really get a feel for who they are. Because they might be you: An up-and-comer, helping a friend out of goodness, and looking for a team to help them rise to greatness. I have been more blessed in my life from working no-pay and $100-a-day jobs early in my career than working for Sony and Universal (point of fact, I got both those studio jobs from working on $100-a-day gigs)

2-You help because it's never bad to try to make the world a better place. People do not help each other much in this town out of simple kindness. LA can be an incredibly lonely town for being stuffed to capacity at a bit over 13 million folks. That strikes me as sad because, in Chicago, I felt like people were more open to just helping. Not for monetary gain, but for the sake of just being helpful. When you give someone an amazing gift of your time, it is the most compelling gift of all because it is not replaceable. If you help me for free, I can never repay you. I can never refill your clock. All I can do is give you a gift in return. Maybe it's my time later. Maybe its a high paying gig. Who knows where the road takes us, what the Cosmic Muffin has in store for us. But I think people SHOULD help one another. Because when you do, you are making the world a better place. By gifting someone your time, you are removing greed and agendas on a set and replacing it with a positive energy that has no $ equal. Surrounded by people like that, even tiny film crews can make amazing things happen. They create something grand by power of their own creativity, fueled by ambition and the kindness of friends and (sometimes) strangers. Is it bad in this town to bring something positive simply for the sake of being the good guy (girl)? Never.

Wrap it up. Writing the great american novel here. I know. When you start getting older, you lose track of time. Never be discouraged at working on a set for free. If you have the time, do it. Because you are making an investment in your future, and you're making a  greater contribution to that project than anyone can ever give. You are giving them an irreplaceable gift. I think, instinctively, people do not forget that. And your career should prosper from it.