I was hired to do some concept artwork for an indie film. The budget was fairly small, but I agreed to do it because they seemed like reasonable people.
Wrong.
I met with the film production, and they gave me a detailed description of the artwork needed. I drew up drafts on the spot, and they all agreed that's what they wanted. I emailed the executive producer a work plan, which detailed the scope of the project, and he agreed to it. Then we signed a work for hire agreement and got a down payment.
I completed the artwork, and we went back and forth a few times on revisions and corrections. All fine. After the corrections, he said that this all looks good, and he was going to run it by some other folks. Okay fine.
But then, he came back with lots of revisions and corrections that are out-of-scope with the original project description. They were completely different creative directions. I would essentially have to redo everything.
Okay, still, all fine. I encounter this sometimes. I let him know that it sounds great, and I explained the work that would need to go into making the changes, justifying the need an updated contract, new scope of work, and some additional fees.
Then he turned around and fired me. Worse, the tone of the email was inappropriate, and he made it clear that he won't be paying me the remainder of my payment.
I already consulted with attorneys, and the advice I got was just to let it go. The process at small claims court would be a hassle over not a lot of money. It's not a huge loss, but it feels bad because I executed a project to completion and did not get fully paid. Basically, I got screwed. I'm angry about it. And I'm out a few hundred bucks that is a lot of money for someone who doesn't make very much doing hard, skilled work.
I don't really work in the film industry so I don't know what advocacy groups are out there, or what groups I can connect with. I don't even care about the money at this point because the cost/benefit analysis of the situation isn't in my favor. But it makes me angry that illustrators and freelancers can be taken advantage of like this. If I can't get this resolved in my favor, at the very least I want to make a complaint to some kind of advocacy group. I know this situation and the amount of money is really small beans for film productions, so I don't know whether anyone would even really care about this. Which makes the whole situation even more depressing.
Any advice is appreciated.
Wrong.
I met with the film production, and they gave me a detailed description of the artwork needed. I drew up drafts on the spot, and they all agreed that's what they wanted. I emailed the executive producer a work plan, which detailed the scope of the project, and he agreed to it. Then we signed a work for hire agreement and got a down payment.
I completed the artwork, and we went back and forth a few times on revisions and corrections. All fine. After the corrections, he said that this all looks good, and he was going to run it by some other folks. Okay fine.
But then, he came back with lots of revisions and corrections that are out-of-scope with the original project description. They were completely different creative directions. I would essentially have to redo everything.
Okay, still, all fine. I encounter this sometimes. I let him know that it sounds great, and I explained the work that would need to go into making the changes, justifying the need an updated contract, new scope of work, and some additional fees.
Then he turned around and fired me. Worse, the tone of the email was inappropriate, and he made it clear that he won't be paying me the remainder of my payment.
I already consulted with attorneys, and the advice I got was just to let it go. The process at small claims court would be a hassle over not a lot of money. It's not a huge loss, but it feels bad because I executed a project to completion and did not get fully paid. Basically, I got screwed. I'm angry about it. And I'm out a few hundred bucks that is a lot of money for someone who doesn't make very much doing hard, skilled work.
I don't really work in the film industry so I don't know what advocacy groups are out there, or what groups I can connect with. I don't even care about the money at this point because the cost/benefit analysis of the situation isn't in my favor. But it makes me angry that illustrators and freelancers can be taken advantage of like this. If I can't get this resolved in my favor, at the very least I want to make a complaint to some kind of advocacy group. I know this situation and the amount of money is really small beans for film productions, so I don't know whether anyone would even really care about this. Which makes the whole situation even more depressing.
Any advice is appreciated.
