I have been in the midst of a multi-person discussion this week with about a dozen people I never met.
It’s taking place on the Film and TV Professionals site on Linked In.
Actually, although I always accept Linked In requests, I almost never use the site.
Personally, I can’t figure out what it does, exactly.
I am much more for Facebook
(Feel free to Friend if you like)
In any event, I became intrigued by a discussion on the Film And TV Professionals page about whether to pay participatns in a documentary.
The original poster, someone named Alyn, asked whether it was ethical to pay someone, in this case a homeless person, for their participation in a documentary he was shooting.
I was pretty astonished at the outpouring of responses.
The vast majority of people (not all however) were not only in favor of paying the homeless people, but the discussion soon digressed into whether it was better to pay them or give them sandwiches, or vouchers, or clothing.
So here’s my take on this.
If you are a documentary filmmaker, you NEVER pay anyone for participating.
NEVER.
If you are making a commercial release fiction film or entertainment this is a different issue.
But a documentary takes us into the world of journalism, and journalism has certain rules and standards.
One of these rules is, you never pay people to participate.
Why don’t you pay them?
You don’t pay them because paying them changes the nature of the relationship. Â If you pay them, they are working for you. And as your employees, it is their job to do what you want them to do. Â As soon as that becomes the nature of the relationship, the faith that the viewer has that ‘everying you see is absolutely true’ is shattered. Â If these people are working for you, if they are now, in fact, actors in your film, how can I know that what I am seeing is real.
It’s the same reason we actively discourage directing in docs and news. Â It undermines the trust.
And in undermining the trust the viewer has in your film, it undermines the trust that people have in the entire genre of documentary films
There is no National Board of Documentary Films that certifies that THIS FILM IS A+ FOR INTEGRITY.
We police ourselves, and as such, it is imperative that every documentary filmmaker strive to mainting the creditibility not only of their own work but of the entire genre.
Sometimes people will indeed ask you for money before they will participate. If they do, walk away. Find someone else. Â (Often that is enough to change their minds anyway). Personally, I can count on one hand the number of times I have paid for someone to be in a doc or news piece (on two fingers, actually). They were both mistakes.
What I am astonished by is the number of people on the Film TV Professionals discussion site who seem to confuse being a filmmaker with being a social worker. They are both important jobs, but they are radically different ones.
10 Comments
Melanie February 02, 2015
Umm..if I might…I’m not a filmmaker, and won’t pretend to know anything about the industry, because I don’t. In the coming weeks, there is a chance my boyfriend and I will be cast in a doc about our particular type of relationship. They are paying us for the opportunity 1. for the travel costs (around $1500) and 2. for the chance to film a very intimate (not sexual lol) moment in our relationship. I think it’s completely ethical to cover our expenses. They are (in my opinion) paying to peer into a very special moment in our lives, record it, and show it to the world. It’s not a very common situation..and we are agreeing to letting the world see our moment. So..yeah….I think it’s okay to pay in some circumstances.
amy June 16, 2013
I am making a historical documentary. I have a few experts that are going to be interviewed for there knowledge on the subjects. Should I pay them?
Michael Rosenblum June 17, 2013
No. Don’t pay anyone for participation in a documentary. This is journalism (not entertainment) and we don’t pay sources. If you pay people, you can’t really trust what they say is the truth (as opposed to being done for the money).
amy June 20, 2013
I have several historic experts to talk about history within the documentary. I’m taking up there time and using there knowledge. Why would they change there knowledge on history if I paid them? And yes it is entertainment it’s a historical documentary made to entertain and educate people.
Michael Rosenblum June 28, 2013
if you pay people they want your approval and more business with you. The NY Times does not pay people it interviews. Neither does any reputable journalism organization. Entertainment companies do. Trust me, if you pay people you undercut your own credibility.
Miriam February 12, 2014
Who is to say that “documentary” doesn’t turn into entertainment, a risk to the person not being paid. When someone can supply documents, facts, proof of what they say, pay is irrelevant to that. You are not giving them a fortune, just compensation for their time and effort.
LaRai Diamond-Fortune March 30, 2012
I know someone very dear to me that was in a documentary that was based on her family history. That history has changed laws in almost every state in the united states. Now your telling me that she should not be paid for her interview,when you are paying for someones story and their time. Does the person making the documentary get paid for making the film? Do they get paid if its premiered,televised and picked up by a very wealthy network? If someone is sharing their very personal story with you then you should pay them. When you get paid they should get paid its only fair. I dont believe that its right to in your eyes share an idea or shed light on a subject that no one knows about, ask people to speak on it, maybe jepordize their life,reputation etc. and they get no compensation for that?! Thats poppy cock. If a famous person has a story and people want to know do they not pay the famous for their story? Yes they do! What is the diffrence between a homeless person, a teacher ,or someone being the last surviving member of a history making family, Nothing. If you can pay the rich you can pay the ordinary! After all its the ordinary people that do the most extrodinary things!!!
Michael Rosenblum March 30, 2012
Journalists don’t pay for stories. PR firms do. That’s the difference.
Miriam February 12, 2014
My story has been approved by a network and an independent writer. They have never mentioned compensation, but I agree with Larai-Diamond and my story could significantly impact civil forfeiture which violates people’s rights and the constitution. And there is a lot of documentation, etc that I am having to share which I have over the last two months with the writer. I have also been rendered homeless due to this matter which followed a family inheritance. Shouldn’t I get paid? And have a contract in hand so that facts, not sensationalism is told.
Tom Weber February 10, 2012
Absolutely! If you paid people to be in it, it is an infomercial, a public service message, a nonfiction film, but it is not a documentary.
I saw the same discussion on LinkedIn. On another discussion group on LinkedIn, I recently saw a discussion about product placements in documentaries. The consensus was that product placements were OK, they helped pay the cost of production.
Discussions like these have been raging since the argument over whether it was ethical for Robert Flaherty to recreate parts of the big walrus hunt in “Nanook of the North.” But I think the past few years have witnessed a dangerous erosion of the documentary form, in part through the influence of presentational filmmakers like Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock and Errol Morris.
These directors make great nonfiction films, but I would not call their works documentaries. I agree with you that documentaries must follow the ethical standards of traditional journalism.
A documentary filmmaker must strive to have the smallest possible footprint, to make minimal intrusion into the phenomenon being documented. I don’t think documentaries can be “commissioned” (like portraits) and I don’t think documentary subjects can be paid. No money should change hands between the documentarian and the subjects, in either direction.
I also don’t think that the filmmaker belongs in the documentary, but that’s another subject for another day.
Best regards,
Tom