Hello all, hope you dont mind me, a face painter, coming on here?

Its just that i have an opportunity that I thought someone may be interested in -

I have been contacted by a production company who make the TV show Trash to cash.

They raid someones house and sell there items they no longer want and the money goes half to charity and half to the family.

They are filming near my area (Chelmsford, Essex) and on the day of the sale (16th Nov) want some entertainment for the children so I am doing the face painting and they would also like some other entertainment such as balloon modeling and/or a magician.

They are not paying anything but you will possibly get exposure on BBC1 and meet lots of people (I am sure can hand out business cards too).

Please email me at http://www.madaboutfaces.co.uk (under development)

Hi Michelle & welcome to the site. I think we could all be out working everyday for nothing :lol:
I wonder if the presenter, film crew, catering staff, producer etc etc are also all working for nothing
If we we're all to say no to this type of work then hopefully they & others would pay some one to come along & entertain the masses.

Sorry to sound a bit negative about the situation but I'm sure we all get lot's of offers to come & work for free as it would be great exposure for us.

On this basis I'm on the look out for a plumber, carpenter, gardner & painter & decorator to come along & work for free as I'd be more than happy to plug them on balloon chat & other sites about how good they are to do it for free.

If you do something for free they usually treat you very badly & then promote you to everyone while telling them you work for free.
So you end up on the merry go round with everyone after you for free.

Of course this is only my humble opinion & I'm sure someone will do it for 10 secs of fame on the BBC.

Let me go & check the diary incase I'm free & can do it :roll:

Graham Lee

Graham has a good point. Especially as TV programs have a massive budget.

Henry

I agree with Graham 100%. If you're in Yellow Pages, you'll get loads of calls asking for charity work. If I said yes to them all, I would never earn any money.

I'm not saying we should so no to any charity work, but my advice is to choose a charity and offer your services only to them a couple of times a year. That way, you are doing your fair share and probably more than most of those who call asking you to do thngs for free.

I do regualr work for two charities . . . deaf children in the UK, and children from Belarus affected from the Chernobyl disaster. See website http://www.makeasmile.co.uk

Hi Michelle

I live just down the road but I have to agree with the others. As has been said all the film crew and production staff will be being paid. The producers of the TV program will be earning money out of this, so why should we as professional entertainers not get paid. I am involved a lot with raising money for charity including being involved in organising one of the biggest firework displays in Essex but the professionals we have to set of fireworks, and entertain the 20,000 people that come to our display, would never earn a living if they were asked to do every charity related event for free.

Michelle no one is out to get at you but so often these TV company's will try it on and unless people are made aware they wont know.  :lol:

Regards
Roger

I read this one out to my wife to get her reaction to it, she used to be involved in the business a few years ago. Her reaction was the same as mine which is pretty much already stated previously. She said that to start with the BBC have a goodly amount of money and all these type of productions have a budget for this sort of thing.
Perhaps an approach to the company with a suggestion for a payment would not be turned down, after all if we can all get something for free we would do it but when asked to pay a reasonable amount then we do it don't we.

All this said and done welcome to the forum Michelle and please don't take our fairly hard comments to heart, this is an honest and open forum where we not only exchange ideas and have fun but people look out for and help others out. It is possibly, almost certainly, the best forum for balloon modelling around (you can pay me later Graham   )
So please stick around

Right on Graham, well said!!

Ran into the same problem with Martha Stewart in the USA. Wouldn't even off a hotel room for the night.

The Shanghai Balloon Fashion Team decided collectively NOT to do the show. Still doesn't stop the media "Who Ares" from doing it any way.

So far no one ... but give it time.