It’s pretty unlikely that we’ll make any money off of this, but if that happy thing was to happen, wouldn’t it suck if people felt like they didn’t get their fair share? I know that I would feel like shit. This is why I want to make this as transparent and accountable as possible.
As I proposed in this post, and there seemed to be general agreement on, one way to fairly divide our wads of hypothetical money is by logging our hours. So, this being the day of new resolutions, I’d like to encourage people to develop it as a habit that they eventually don’t have to think about. Personally, I’ve been using this dashboard applet for my Linux system and there seem to be various apps to do it with Mac and PC, including this Java crossplatform one (anyone else got a favourite?). But naturally pencil and paper is fine too, whatever works for you. I’ll be asking people for their hours right before we shoot, after we shoot, and after the project’s over.
Many of the people involved have done this to invoice clients, so it shouldn’t be that tough. However, unlike invoicing clients who are reselling your work at a profit, I’d ask people to consider that padding or guesstimating the time you’ve spent is either taking (hypothetical) money away from people that are being accurate, or underestimating the time spent and ripping yourself off.
Anyway: if you have concerns or questions, now is the time to voice them. We’ll work it out. Otherwise, I’ll assume you’re logging your hours!
Is it just the directors that would do this, or anyone involved?
Good question — everyone involved.
I’ve been advised to draw up this agreement as a separate document from the general release form.
I was just asked if one should log hours:
a) the sound/lighting workshop at roses, and if so how many hours that was
b) time spent reading and commenting on the blog (minor so far, but it does add up)
Yes (3) and yes.
It’s tricky sometimes because there’s things that you’d do anyway. Just ask yourself if it’s something you’d be doing if not for the project. You wouldn’t log time spent for every movie you watch, for instance, but if you seek out and blog about an obscure lo-fi sci-fi movie that you wouldn’t otherwise, then I think that’s fair game. For any borderline cases feel free to add a comment and I’ll answer.