Jane Clark Blog - February 26th 2007
Jane Clark has a beef I had promised myself I would talk about subjects relatable to most filmmakers, not just Los Angeles based peeps. I am going to break that promise today, however, because I have a rant I need to share. It's about FIND or Film Independent, which used to be IFP west, until they decided they didn't want to share their money or their notariety with their sister locations. When I first joined FIND, they were IFP. They were housed in a run down office building outside of westwood in Los Angeles. Everyone was friendly and inviting. They offered services for free, and had a great library of budgets, business plans, crew resumes, books, you name it. I used their computers (and budgeting and scheduling software) to do my first budget and schedule. It was invaluable because I couldn't afford the $800 per program that movie magic charged at that time. I copied business plans and pieced together my own off those templates. I used sample budgets as a guide for my own budget. I got a lot of worth out of my $85 yearly membership, and I became an advocate of the organization. Then things changed. They moved to very expensive digs, that they had designed and decorated specially for the organization. I wondered how they could afford it. How much of the membership money and grant and donation funds were being used just to look cooler? Then they started charging for everything but the library. I held auditions there for my second short and had to pay $65 a day. On top of that I got yelled at in front of actors I was auditioning, for getting there too early to set up. They treated me through the three days of auditions as an inconvenience and I couldn't help but wonder again, aren't they supposed to be there to support me? The library started going down hill next. Business plans and budgets hadn't been updated in quite awhile. The crew resumes were almost non-existent. Yes, their audition rooms are cheaper than other places, but you can rent a theater to hold auditions for the same price, longer hours and less strife. Their camera rentals are cheaper than standard rental fees, I'll admit, and I assume the same for their editing rooms. One could understand the need to supplement the operating costs with fees...until you find out that they only spend 50% of their budget on filmmaker services when most charitable organizations spend at least 75% of the budget on their cause. The other 50% FIND spends on what? Well the Spirit awards cost $1.3M last year. Their film festival cost$2M. And they are fairly elitist programs. Do they give a voice to independent film. Sure. But at what cost. And for whom? I attended the Spirit Awards party on Saturday. My husband and I go every year. This year was bigger than ever. And the people there weren't the filmmakers of FIND. They were celebrities and publicists, media, agents and managers. It began to feel like a $1.3M private party for friends and financial supporters. They say they use the Awards show as a fund raiser and they charge upward $40,000 per table. But if that is the case, where is the money being spent? Why aren't the seminars free for members? What about participating more actively in member projects? Or at least hire the man power to actively update and upgrade their library services? There are a lot of scams out there - People taking advantage of actors, models, filmmakers - people with big dreams - people who are need help and are vulnerable to false claims. But you would like to trust that an organization like FIND, that is high profile and well-funded (not to mention funded partially by tax payer money) would put the majority of their funds into their stated mission. I am sad to say, I think this will be the first year I will not reup my membership. I don't care to support an organization that feels like a private club that I am not allowed into, despite my membership fee. That's all. I'm done. Could use a nap now. Jane Clark
|
