File puptcrit/puptcrit.0810, message 138


From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Mathieu_Ren=E9?= <creaturiste-AT-primus.ca>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 14:29:24 -0400
Subject: [Puptcrit] Breach of contracts (was copyright infringement)


Seems the talk about copyright infringements veered into the 
just-as-fascinating contract discussion...


Twice I've had projects dropped by the customer, one before I was fully paid 
(50% owed still), the other  was dropped by the producer before even 
presenting it to the customer, so I wasn't paid for the two weeks of 
intensive character design.

In the second case (no contract yet, producers needed sketches to make the 
customer approve project), I got nothing for the 40 hours of sketching on 
paper and in clay.

In the first case, I had a detailed contract, but I was too trusting, 
accepting to sign it even though I was uncomfortable with the clause stating 
that they would pay me the remainder of the salary when the website would 
make a profit. What convinced me to take that risk were 5 reasons:

-they said the rest of the collaborators were not even paid in advance, not 
a cent, but I was paid 50% upfront, so they were already doing me a favor 
above the rest (yeah right!).

-They assured me (verbally), that the last payment would be no more than 3 
months away
(It's been over a year. They owe me two thousand dollars in salary.)

-The project was to be huge, real quick, they had a huge publicity deal in 
the works.
(turned out to not work, the website is barely kept updated, no one talks 
about it, no new puppet video since the first three were put up on the first 
two months. Most of the puppets I built were not featured. They paid no 
attention to the techmnical advice I gave them about bare minimum proper TV 
puppet studio setup).

-the customers were famous in the media, not likely to disappear.
(even in the public eye, they can avoid answering the phone, bounce me to 
their agent, refuse to pay, etcetera).

-their relative fame and the success of the project could bring my puppet 
building business a lot of great exposure. (so far, no good).

I haven't given up on getting paid.

My lesson learned:
No matter how famous the customers, or how interesting the project, or how 
much exposure it could get me, I'll never accept to work without my now 
standard and reaffirmed (I had them before this project)  conditions:

-signed detailed contract (with description of creation, with whatever 
options required of the product)
-50% of salary and totality of material costs paid in advance, before 
starting (exception of some sketches for TV projects, but the time shall be 
billed later).

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