Creative Solutions Needed for Indie Films

In my recent L.A. Times interview, I offered some ideas for a solution to the dilemmas of making low-budget pictures in conjunction with the unions. Lyle Trachtenberg’s sarcastic response in suggesting I waive my salary for films made under $3 million in which union requirements would be waived is an apparent attempt to avoid the issue rather than offer a productive alternative. (Calendar Letters, Jan. 13.) As he well knows, waiving these requirements doesn’t mean waiving salaries; it means everyone involved, myself included, reduces their rates to make risky low-budget films possible.

Trachtenberg claims the IATSE [International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees] will work with any budget to keep independent films in Los Angeles. The reality is that many companies are moving their productions out of state and to Canada in order to stay within budget. While union members regularly participate in indie productions, the cooperative atmosphere between IATSE leadership and the filmmakers described by Trachtenberg is, in reality, nonexistent.

In the making of “White Man’s Burden,” a low-budget independent film, the union struck and shut down the production, causing immeasurable damage and delay, only after which would they negotiate. It is in this poisoned atmosphere that independent filmmaking currently exists.

Unlike the East Coast Council, with whom we successfully negotiated a low-budget contract on “Fresh,” Trachtenberg is woefully out of touch with the needs of independent filmmaking. It takes creative leadership to recognize the needs of a changing industry. I invite the president of the IATSE, Tom Short, to sit down with myself and other representatives of the indie community to work out creative solutions. I believe it can be done.

LAWRENCE BENDER

Los Angeles