tldr: - no-name indie art director got paid net $6.7k for a month worth of work on the movie obsession - obsession was a low budget production but managed to be hugely successful and is projected to make $250 mil - no-name indie art director is crying that she should have gotten paid more i have a strong view on this: since the movie is so successful, the producer could VOLUNTARILY choose to give a nice bonus to everyone who worked on the movie, but this is at his own discretion and if he does not do that, it's completely fine a lot of employee level people cry that they don't get paid enough for their contribution to a project or company. they have no concept of risk. let me use an example from a private company: unless you are vc funded, the owner of the company takes his own after-tax savings to fund his company. that is a huge risk as over 90% of businesses fail as an employee, no matter how instrumental you are to the success of the company, you are getting a salary to provide your work. you are getting paid, you have no risk. risk is what justifies profit share, not "how much time you put into it", especially if you got paid for your time. if you work for free, you should get profit share, otherwise you are just a service provider it's actually a very prominent communist view that "the workers should own the means of production". it sounds nice in theory, if 10 people are producing the goods, they should all get their equal share, but this is simply not how the real world works, otherwise no one would take the huge risks involved in starting your own business, they would merely let someone else take the risk and then get their share of the profits but most artists who do commission work do not understand that. i think it's a mix of low iq and entitlement. i once worked with an artist and he created some work for me and i made A LOT OF MONEY from it, but i didn't even pay him a bonus either. i didn't like how entitled he was. also, he was completely replaceable, i came up with the concept, i directed him, he merely did the artistic part that i couldn't do but i could have hired anyone for that also, if you are actually capable, you will most often get paid. real recognise real, if i come across someone capable, i pay them what they are worth. most artists are not capable, they have low skills and that's why they get paid exactly what the market deems fair