"Work for Hire?"

[silentknights]

Hi, I have a question about "Work for Hire".

I was offered the chance to work on a film and was told that it was basically "Work for Hire". In my college education I was told this was a bad idea for illustrators. Now, my education mostly covered this aspect in regard to editorial and advertising. I don't know how things work in the entertainment industry (i.e. games and movies) so I don't know if "Work for Hire" is common in this field. Other freelancers bid 300-400usd which was a hell of a lot lower than what I did. From my research and from my professors (who are working professionals) I have gathered that "Work for Hire" is considered unethical.

Basically I'm trying to figure out if "Work for Hire" is common in the entertainment industry when doing freelance concept art or if it is considered unethical for companies to claim copyrights (especially for prices like $300).

I don't like the idea of getting paid so low for a concept for one movie and then find out that they are going to use the concept for another movie and merchandising without being compensated accordingly or having the right to charge for it.

[dpaint]

Most game and film companies are work for hire because they want the opportunity to license the property for marketing purposes to fast food franchises, toys, comics, clothing, etc. The money is accumulating at the top with most of it going to producers and directors with very little filtering down to the creative teams.

So creating the content or characters nowadays doesn't get you a percentage of the pie. Companies like Disney Paramount and Lucas are all work for hire. It has been that way for about fifteen years, before that adventure games were new enough that you could develop a property and get a piece of the action but not anymore.

Part of the problem is wannabe's low ball everything now and want to work as artists and so give away all their rights to do so. Its only going to get worse from here. Game and film companies pay a quarter of what they did in the old days and people are so desparate now to be in the industry they will do anything
for a job. Even pros are starting to lower their prices because of this; entertainment unions are mostly broken now because of offshore development houses.
I was talking to my friend at Bungie and he said modelers now are working fo 6 bucks an hour now and are a dime a dozen and concept art isn't far behind with one of the bigger art houses in Washington closing its doors. Matte painters are still getting good pay but the skillset is much higher so it weeds out alot of people.