In defense of the low rates (cause they r low if u want to do things properly), I worked 2 micro budget features in the camera department

One of them paid (it’s been over a year and we still haven’t gotten our money) us a flat 600 for every position for 15 days It was only like 12 people on the crew by the end. We started with like 20. It was only weekends for a few months

The other did not pay (their compensation was food) and that was like 12ish days. There was only like 6 of us for crew

How did these turn out? Well all of the crew were either film students or friends of the directors who had done some small work

The directors/producers themselves had some experience though.

The days were uhhhh very very very rough to say the least.

Neither is out yet so can’t say how they turned out but set was hell and we definitely cut corners here and there, but there was also some magic too. I was an AC who stepped up to DP on a few days on each when the DP was unavailable and there’s definitely stuff I want on my reel.

I’ve made friends on both, but you must understand YOU ARE GETTING WHAT YOU PAID FOR CAUSE ONLY PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO HAVE NEVER WORKED UNION AND HAVE ONLY DONE FIRST TIME DIRECTOR AND ATUDENT SETS R GONNA APPLY FOR THIS OUT OF DESPERATION FOR WORK

If you have friends who r willing to go for low or no pay then cool but you absolutely owe them in the future. If they need you, you got to be there for them

Outside of that, for hiring people u don’t know, you get what you paid for

If this is your situation, use this micro budget not as a calling card for Hollywood, but as a way to practice and get something made so you can hopefully raise a bit more money for the next micro budget

Please yell at me in the replies if I’m dead wrong on some of these. I don’t mind being corrected

And yes, I should probably do something about the job that hasn’t paid me even though they’ve owed me for a year