Rob has an important post on APE about GM’s agency refusing advances and requiring photogs to be last in the payment foodchain. If you get a contract like this, you must say “no.” You do not need to finance both the agency and GM. That’s what it means. And that is IF they pay.
The risk is far too high to take. If there is another reorganization of any kind, you will be the very last entity to get paid, if at all. More importantly, other agencies will claim that “in these tough times…” they require the same kinds of terms. We need to make a hard stand now against this. Get the word out, especially to some of your less educated and more desperate colleagues.
[yes, this has been cross-posted on several forums… we need to get the word out and make a stand about this]
Leslie,
Leslie,
Thanks for your diligence in these matters of great importance for all of us in the creative fields doing commercial work. These types of policies hurt photographers but also writers, illustrators, etc. Even though you have your nose to the grindstone with law school, you still keep an eye out for important matters to share.
I had a call from a would-be client this morning. She was crying about terribly a tight budget coupled with a requirement for all usage rights. (I asked, “Even for billboards in China?”). Segueing from the business terms to creative and back again is quite a challenge for right-brain directed creatives trying to just get through the mumbo-jumbo and get an assignment they can get to work on.
Thanks to your encouragement and that of opportunities such as ASMP’s SB2, many of us have a much better left-brain directed foundation to build on when constructing a meaningful business proposal.
Again, thanks for all you do.
Charles Gupton
http://charlesgupton.wordpress.com