How profits should be distributed among people participating in the production of an independant film?

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I've read somewhere that for Eraserhead, David Lynch paid everyone with "points" on future profits (100 points would = 100% of the profits).

In this case or in general in your opinion, how many % of the profits should go to
the director
the producer
the screenwriter
the cinematographer/cameraman
the editor
the sound mixer
the music composer
the actors

― SÃ©bastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Monday, 19 April 2004 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

If I wanted to answer questions like this, I'd take the GRE.

― hstencil, Monday, 19 April 2004 19:29 (twenty-two years ago)

At the IFC Spirit Awards, Kevin Smith, Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Bill Murray, and Vincent Gallo are all sitting in the same row. Steve Buscemi will not sit next to Parker Posey, and Bill Murray must sit next to Kevin Smith. Vincent Gallo must sit on the aisle in case he needs to run to the bathroom. What order will they sit in?

― Prude (Prude), Monday, 19 April 2004 19:33 (twenty-two years ago)

haha "profits"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 19 April 2004 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

100 points to Harvey.

― hstencil, Monday, 19 April 2004 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

haha "profits"

Eraserhead did generate revenues. At some point. You can answer for this example if you have the exact numbers or if you don't I would still like to hear your opinion.

― SÃ©bastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Monday, 19 April 2004 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll try to be clearer.
If making a film requires X amount of efforts and sacrifices, estimate the amount of efforts and sacrifices that generally comes with each of these jobs. X = 100%

― SÃ©bastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Monday, 19 April 2004 21:02 (twenty-two years ago)

haha "profits"

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 19 April 2004 21:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Divide it by work and value.

The producer and screenwriter will pobably be the first people working on the project. The producer will probably work the hardest and longest, with the possible exception of the director (and the crew which I presume you are paying ready cash or pixie dust, or something).
The DP, the composer, and the editor should all make more than any actor unless the actor singly carries the picture.

the director 10%
the producer 15%
the screenwriter 10%
the cinematographer/cameraman 7.5%
the editor 7.5%
the sound mixer 5%
the music composer 7.5%
the actors 27.5% (to be split accordingly)

I can easily imagine this breaking down differently if the writer was the director or was the producer or actor. If the dp's hard to get you may want to give him a whole load of the profits to get him to play. You may want to offer a bunch to an actor whose name recognition may get you distro deals or other sources of money and/or commitment. If it's a musical, the composer and the sound people are gonna deserve more. It depends on the film.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 19 April 2004 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Thank you for your answer Michael.
I would have come up with numbers similar as yours but it turned out it was the place of the actors in all of this that gave me trouble.

I can easily imagine this breaking down differently if the writer was the director

Yes, because it would reduce his workload isn'it?

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Monday, 19 April 2004 23:07 (twenty-two years ago)

if the film wins an ocsar then each crew mebmer shoud be given a peice oft he statue. the preson who actualy won it gets the plinth of cousre.

― :|, Monday, 19 April 2004 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't forget the director is in chargee of the whole creative process from scripting to post-production. I'd value him top, then the writer. The producer organises, finds finance and makes decisions, so his remuneration depends on one's pragmatism - if your primary aim is to reward creativity, then they should be relatively low down. I'd reward the technicians slightly less that Michael has. And as for the actors, fuck 'em.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 07:07 (twenty-two years ago)

you should reward the risk-takers who put their own money into accordingly, whomever they may be.

― Orbit (Orbit), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 07:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Um, but they tend to be financiers who want to bleed the production dry, rather than plucky art-lovers. Your call.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 07:13 (twenty-two years ago)

well the thread title says INDEPENDENT film, so I'm assuming the producer/director are the ones putting some money in.

― Orbit (Orbit), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 07:14 (twenty-two years ago)

markelby i totally disagree, often it is the producer who runs the process from scripting to post!

also i have never heard of a production where the primary aim is to reward creativity!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

i mean not to sound cynical, but to discount the producer's role in favour of more auteur-glorification is a serious mistake!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Audio is very nearly always half the cameraman's rate.

― ModJ (ModJ), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 14:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Since there won't be any money anyway, you might as well tell everyone you'll split it equally. Or just tell each person they're getting the most money.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't forget the director is in chargee of the whole creative process from scripting to post-production.

This is not necessarily true. Some directors concentrate on their actors and leave the rest to the prod. designer and the dp, or to the producer. In my experience working in film, I always found that the person most likely to make or break a film was the producer. They put together the package that fuses money, director, creative, distro, crew, etc... The best director with the best script in the world still leads to shit if the dp sucks, if the crew is lame, if production doesn't know how to negotiate with unions, if the actors are bad, if the prod. design is wrong. Also whatever other mental skills actors may or may not have they smell that 'fuck the actors' arrogance and you'll find yourself rewarded with perfomances comensurate with your pay and care almost every time. Which is why it's important to have a director and producer who know how to cast their film.

― Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

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