The bain of every creatives life... Payment. It seems to be pretty normal for most artists; and I use that term widely meaning- musicians, painters, actors, make up artists, dancers, directors, models, stylists, art directors, photographers, graphic designers (the list goes on), that working for free to gain experience or contacts has become a complete piss take. A good friend of mine has had enough! She has been working for free for years and has more than enough experience to be able to not give a toss if she loses a contact. And sure when you are starting out the more experiences the better but there needs to come a point when we start demanding payment or at least payment in favours or at least more direct opportunities. And it's not even the arts that are suffering. Thousands of people who are out of work and on the dole through no fault of there own are being forced to 'internship' at places as corporate as Superdrug. I.e working for free or lose your payments. Bad times.
Endless amounts of students are spending summers interning at the lose promise that it may turn into a position. Yeah sure if you lucky enough to be given that one position out of hundreds of people, then great. The thing is I constantly ask people to work for free on projects, however I'm not getting paid, and I always try and repay the favour. The minute I start getting paid, so will anyone I ask to work with me. It's fair and it's what I would expect from other people. So come on everyone, lets share those opportunities and contacts and start demanding what we deserve. Otherwise in the end all we are doing is under valuing our own hard work.
Absolutely! Well said!
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