02-05-2014, 08:41 AM
Oh god this reminds me of something that happened to me last year.
Over the summer of 2013 I got a two-week internship with a media startup in South London for photography (I used to be a pretty OK photographer until all my camera kit got stolen one night, then I had to go back to making images the old-fashioned way...), which turned into three months of illustrating, doing photography for, assisting with the graphic design of and generally keeping together an attempted magazine launch (on top of this I was homeless at the time, but fortunately I'd paid up my gym membership a few months in advance before I completely ran out of money so I went in every day to shower and make myself presentable - top tip if you find yourself homeless, keep your gym membership running!).
So I was working 16 hours or more a day for these people, every day. Pulled more than a few all-nighters fuelled by cans of Monster and packets of cigarettes, working in the back room kept me warm and off the streets at least. Being completely green and taken in by these charlatans, whenever I asked about money and vague mentions were made of 'forthcoming government funding' and 'eventual payment' I thought they were serious.
Eventually I discovered the boss was in fact an ex-heroin dealer who'd served time only to try and reinvent himself as a media tycoon and had a list of debts as long as your arm. When it became evident that any money coming into the company would most likely be embezzled by him to clear his debts, I made my excuses and got out of there immediately.
On top of that, somebody from the adjacent office asked me to storyboard a music video and again, being new to the whole thing, I didn't negotiate money up front. So I worked for two days solid getting it planned out with the singer, from writing a script to drawing it out panel-by-panel - only to be told the concept had been changed and I'd need to redo it by the next day. 24 hours without sleep later and I got paid for my troubles... £30.
Always, ALWAYS negotiate the money first. Also have a clear idea how much your work is worth. I later found out that here in the UK, storyboards on a fast turnaround can run as high as £600/day for an experienced artist.
In conclusion, fuck Brixton.
Over the summer of 2013 I got a two-week internship with a media startup in South London for photography (I used to be a pretty OK photographer until all my camera kit got stolen one night, then I had to go back to making images the old-fashioned way...), which turned into three months of illustrating, doing photography for, assisting with the graphic design of and generally keeping together an attempted magazine launch (on top of this I was homeless at the time, but fortunately I'd paid up my gym membership a few months in advance before I completely ran out of money so I went in every day to shower and make myself presentable - top tip if you find yourself homeless, keep your gym membership running!).
So I was working 16 hours or more a day for these people, every day. Pulled more than a few all-nighters fuelled by cans of Monster and packets of cigarettes, working in the back room kept me warm and off the streets at least. Being completely green and taken in by these charlatans, whenever I asked about money and vague mentions were made of 'forthcoming government funding' and 'eventual payment' I thought they were serious.
Eventually I discovered the boss was in fact an ex-heroin dealer who'd served time only to try and reinvent himself as a media tycoon and had a list of debts as long as your arm. When it became evident that any money coming into the company would most likely be embezzled by him to clear his debts, I made my excuses and got out of there immediately.
On top of that, somebody from the adjacent office asked me to storyboard a music video and again, being new to the whole thing, I didn't negotiate money up front. So I worked for two days solid getting it planned out with the singer, from writing a script to drawing it out panel-by-panel - only to be told the concept had been changed and I'd need to redo it by the next day. 24 hours without sleep later and I got paid for my troubles... £30.
Always, ALWAYS negotiate the money first. Also have a clear idea how much your work is worth. I later found out that here in the UK, storyboards on a fast turnaround can run as high as £600/day for an experienced artist.
In conclusion, fuck Brixton.