A job advert seeking a producer to work unpaid for six months on a London Film School-funded shoot has been withdrawn after an intervention by the institution’s bosses, including the filmmaker Mike Leigh.
Leigh, who has campaigned against low pay in arts institutions and who is the school’s chairman, said the ad was a regrettable error and reiterated that he was strongly opposed to the use of unpaid labour. The school’s director and chief executive, Jane Roscoe, echoed his sentiments, adding that it was against the school’s policy and would be removed.
The ad appeared on the job site Film & TV Pro, looking for a producer to make a London Film School student’s graduation piece. The LFS had put more than £4,000 towards the shoot and the unpaid producer would have been expected to help find additional funding.
Other duties included finding a cast and crew and planning the project from start to finish. The shoot was due to take place in the Ghanaian capital Accra and the successful candidate would have been expected to start immediately and to work until March next year.
Leigh said he “utterly disapproved” of the call to work for free. In June last year, he joined Ken Loach, Eric Cantona and Russell Brand in supporting low-paid arthouse cinema staff, including those working in the Ritzy cinema in Brixton. “Unpaid work is totally opposed to the policy of the London Film School, the case in question constituting a regrettable error,” the filmmaker said.
“I have had the privilege of chairing LFS since 2000. It goes without saying that I am fully in support and agreement with all aspects of the employment policies of the school, the staff of which is represented by a strong Bectu shop.”
Roscoe explained that LFS student directors were often required to find crew from among their fellow students, as well as volunteers from outside the institution. “We regret that a student placed this advertisement on his own initiative, which is contrary to our policies and instruction to students,” she said. “We do carefully explain to the students their potential responsibilities in terms of employment law. We are very clear in instructing the students on how they should recruit volunteers, and how they explain their status to them.”
The ad, which was first highlighted on the Stop Working for Free Facebook group on 20 September, had been taken down by 24 September. Roscoe said she was unable to say whether a paid producer role would be advertised for.
Ben Lyons, the co-director of the campaign group InternAware, said: “The vast majority of people cannot afford to to work for free, let alone for months on end. It is a really damaging practice, which is not just exploitative and wrong, but also deprives industries of people who are really talented and hardworking who cannot afford to work for free. It is vital that people are paid for any work they are doing.
“There is a big problem with unpaid internships. They are concentrated in London and will often last several months. Almost four in five people cannot afford to do an unpaid internship in London, which clearly means that there is a loss of potential.”
