“Sing Sing” is a scripted narrative characteristic primarily based on the real-life Rehabilitation By the Arts program at Sing Sing Most Safety Jail. Starring Colman Domingo, the movie tells the story of the incarcerated males who took half within the theater program, and the ensemble consists of graduates, together with Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who introduced their real-life experiences to the movie.
“The film is constructed on these folks sharing their tales and baring their souls,” stated co-writer/producer Clint Bentley. “It solely follows that they need to have fairness within the film and have possession over their very own tales.”
This philosophy towards storytelling, each by way of who will get paid for it and owns a stake in it, is one Bentley and director Greg Kwedar wrestled with lengthy earlier than “Sing Sing.” It’s a philosophy they consider must be rooted in creating an “possession mentality” for your complete solid and crew, who are sometimes overworked on low-budget movies and go away feeling exploited. The outcome was the creation of the distinctive pay and inventive fairness mannequin used on “Sing Sing.”
“The mannequin on ‘Sing Sing’ was first pioneered with Clint’s movie ‘Jockey,’ a construction constructed on parity and fairness,” stated Kwedar. “The best method to put it’s that everybody in our movie, from the star of the film, by our manufacturing assistants, all through put up, all of us labored for a similar charge.”
“The Mannequin,” as Kwedar and Bentley have come to name it, is definitely not that easy, and that’s as a result of the issues it’s making an attempt to deal with are each advanced and ingrained in how indie movies have been financed for many years.
The Issues
When Kwedar and Bentley went to make “Jockey” (2021), they encountered the identical challenges being confronted throughout the business. From studio to unbiased initiatives, motion pictures had been bringing in much less income, and the do-more-with-less mentality, which has all the time been an indie movie ethos, was being stretched too far.
“We had been making an attempt to convey these prices down on the precise manufacturing of ‘Jockey,’ so you may really give the movie a shot to make some cash,” stated Bentley. “However we didn’t wish to do this simply by making issues cheaper and asking folks to work for much less.”
Engaged on unbiased movies has usually been a labor of affection, with lengthy days and little pay, however with budgets shrinking, the doing-more-with-less mentality had crossed the road into being exploitative.
“The opposite greater factor that we had been making an attempt to unravel was everybody kills themselves for an unbiased movie,” stated Kwedar. “However then if the movie is a hit, financially or in any other case, only some folks sometimes share in that success, and the remainder of the individuals are thanked for his or her service they usually transfer on to the following one the place they kill themselves once more.”
Some principal crew and solid members on indie movies, in change for accepting a decrease than their regular charge, are capable of negotiate a proportion of the backend if the movie makes cash. The issue is that, even for these with this artistic fairness, the factors they obtained on the backend not often receives a commission out.
“The best way that it’s sometimes structured is traders put up the cash for a movie after which they should receives a commission again the finances of the movie plus 20 % earlier than the movie is taken into account in revenue,” stated Bentley. “There’s so much that will get carved out [in marketing and distribution costs] earlier than that cash ever comes to offer these traders their 120 % again. We have now so many associates on the crew facet, who in the event that they get fairness on unbiased movies, they suppose it’s nugatory.”
The Mannequin: A Potential Resolution
To handle these issues, the filmmakers created a brand new mannequin for “Jockey,” which had three primary tenets that altered the business-as-usual strategy of most indies.
Pay Fairness: In the case of how the the solid is paid on lower-budget movies, SAG-AFTRA has clearly established day and weekly charges which can be primarily based on the place the movie is shot and its finances. There is no such thing as a equal with IATSE and different unions representing those that work behind the digital camera, which is why the crew on movies like “Jockey” and “Sing Sing” are non-union.
On “Jockey,” the charges established by SAG-AFTRA for the solid had been utilized to your complete crew, so everybody made the identical quantity.
Who Will get Artistic Fairness: On a typical indie movie, who on the artistic facet will get fairness, and the way a lot it’s will get negotiated individually. Defined Bentley, “This individual will get two factors, this individual will get three factors, this individual will get no factors — it’s simply all very imprecise and opaque, and so we wished to standardize that in a approach the place there’s no negotiation backwards and forwards, it’s simply actually clear and all people’s on the identical web page.”
For each “Jockey” and “Sing Sing,” the movie was damaged up into totally different life cycles: growth, pre-production, manufacturing, post-production, and promotion (doing publicity when the movie is distributed).
“We then assigned some extent construction to every of these phases and established a minimal variety of days that wanted to be labored to get that time worth,” stated Kwedar. “And so it’s very easy. Anyone knew, ‘If I work this many variety of days on this part, I’m gonna get this many factors.’”
And the purpose construction, primarily based on time labored, utilized equally to every member of the solid and crew — it didn’t matter in the event that they had been the set dresser, lead actor, director, or sound editor. As soon as the solid or crew member reached the minimal threshold of hours labored, their artistic fairness was primarily based on the period of time labored throughout that part of the film.
First Greenback Payout: For that artistic fairness to have any worth, Kwedar and Bentley knew they would wish to take a sledgehammer to the business commonplace by which traders had been paid out one hundred pc of their funding, plus 20 %, earlier than these with artistic fairness obtained a penny.
“We created this cut up off the highest the place 60 % went to traders, and 40 % went to solid and crew (these with artistic fairness) from the outset,” stated Bentley, “And as soon as traders bought 120 % again, we then cut up it 50-50.”
Kwedar believed this facet of the mannequin is necessary financially, but additionally marks a essential shift within the mentality of the indie filmmaker.
“An investor is taking a threat in financing, and there’s actual worth in that,” stated Kwedar. “The film wouldn’t occur with out the investor, however the film wouldn’t occur with out the artist both. And so I believe we have to lastly acknowledge that we’re not sitting with our hat in our hand begging, that we’re really providing one thing.”
‘Sing Sing’: Can the Mannequin Scale?
After having artistic and monetary success making use of the mannequin to “Jockey,” Kwedar and Clint Bentley determined to attempt it on a a lot greater challenge.
“‘Jockey’ was a 10-person crew with three primary leads and was made for below a half-a-million {dollars}, and on ‘Sing Sing,’ we scaled as much as a 50-person crew and 25-cast,” stated Kwedar.
That degree of scaling up meant the filmmakers would wish extra institutional traders, quite than the personal cash they raised to make “Jockey,” together with huge title stars – each of which would wish to purchase right into a mannequin that altered how and the way a lot, they had been paid out.
“We encountered traders who handed on ‘Jockey’ as a result of they weren’t taken with that mannequin,” stated Bentley.
4 weeks earlier than the beginning of manufacturing (timed to the one hole in Domingo’s appearing schedule), the “Sing Sing” crew met with Teddy Schwarzman and his Black Bear Footage. Just like the movie’s star, the financiers had been excited by the mannequin and closed out their deal to take a position simply two weeks earlier than the primary day of manufacturing. It was an especially shut name and one which speaks to how the mannequin limits the variety of monetary companions. However Kwedar argued the mannequin additionally served as a filter to them discovering the fitting companions.
“I believe there’s one thing to be stated for outlining your values, quite than simply form of inheriting the best way issues have been performed earlier than,” stated Kwedar. “You form of plant these flags on the bottom, and other people know what you stand for. After which I believe that, in flip, attracts the people who find themselves proper for it and pushes away those who aren’t.”
The Mannequin’s Future
Kwedar and Bentley have met with plenty of indie filmmakers trying to replicate the best way “Sing Sing” achieved pay fairness, and the duo are on the point of announce a brand new manufacturing firm by which they may begin to fund and help different indies trying to observe of their footsteps.
Bentley, although, doesn’t consider there’s a one-size-fits-all mannequin that’s relevant to all indie movies, and even between “Jockey” and “Sing Sing,” they wanted to make modifications tailor-made to every movie’s wants. He argued the takeaway from how they made “Sing Sing” must be extra in its mentality than its monetary construction.
“Impartial movie must be a testing floor and a proving floor for brand spanking new concepts. There must be some degree of freedom that we must always embrace in making unbiased movie that’ll make the movies extra fascinating and that may make higher methods than those we’ve inherited,” stated Bentley. “And in order that’s the factor that we all the time attempt to speak about with youthful filmmakers. It doesn’t need to be this mannequin. Take this mannequin, make it higher. Take this mannequin, throw it out. Do a very totally different mannequin, however simply embrace the liberty to do it a greater approach.”