Freelancing can be a bitch. I've done it quite a bit myself, and have been screwed over by a number of production companies. For the newbies- if you have a bad feeling about a company, demand 1/2 payment up front, and always send an invoice. Keep track of whom you've worked for, and how long it has taken to receive a paycheck. Harass any company that takes longer than a month, and never give up when somebody owes you. I've pestered some places for as long as five months for payment. Persistence is key.
On that note, there's a bunch of posts this week on New York City craigslist this week about places not to work for. They are mostly film production companies. Please note that I have no experience with any of the following, and don't shoot the messenger. This list includes names of places and people, and the poster's complaint against them.
Exile Ramirez (never paid poster)
Kreative Film Empire (never paid, bad working environment)
Peppermill Films (didn't pay total invoice)
Jackson Stone Media (didn't pay)
Wall Street Webcasting (unspecified)
Joey Vegas/Jeff Goldstein (low pay, bad treatment)
Team Omni (didn't pay, bad working environment)
Guardian Entertainment (vague complaint about manager)
Vid Arroyo (didn't pay)
Taxi Cab Productions (unspecified)
Real Savvy Media (low pay, inexperienced supervisors)
Animal Fair Magazine/dearlucky.com (unspecified)
Wendy's Diamonds (didn't pay)
Paris Multimedia (didn't pay)
Sonia Manzano (didn't pay)
Drop Squad Productions (didn't pay)
Nexpert News (didn't pay)
Tony Burton - (didn't pay after 6 months)
Jeff Jones - (pays too low and then tries to go back on his word_
Sasha Chesterton - (actually beat up an AD who tried to get blocking rehearsals)
Ian Moore and Matt Farneworth. (Didn't pay an entire Grip and Electric Crew.)
Creative Entertainment Group, who also go by the name Producers Advantage (don't pay)
Nick Knonopka, Mori Design. (didn't pay)
Morgan Dees of the Bronx (abuses his crew)
Splendor Video (Total deadbeats)
Crue Call staffing (bounced checks)
Ironbound Films (didn't pay)
In the interest of fairness, if you are on this list and feel you should not be, you're welcome to post explanations or defenses in the comments section.
Also, if you know of more shitty places to work, leave a comment!
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About Me
- KDubs
- New York, New York, United States
- Tired. Caffeinated. Quietly evil.
I'm a theatre technician, living and working in NYC. Also an aspiring costumer, makeup artist, playwright and dilettante.
I like to rant about things, I swear like a person who swears a lot, and I work too much. Other than that, my time is spent at home with the puppy or in Chelsea bars with friends and co-workers.
35 comments:
Please add Michael Rossato-Bennett, from Serious Business Films to this list and SCORES Media Group.
Thanks.
please add Ian Moore and Matt Farneworth. Two deplorable people who didn't pay an entire Grip and Electric Crew. I don't know how guys like this look at themselves in the mirror.
I don't know what this person's experience was with Michael Rossato-Bennett but I've worked with him before. On more than one occasion. I have to say that he's a very decent person.
I'm sure he feels he got screwed over somehow as many of us do these days but... can i ask that whoever puts down a name of a bad person/company, gives an explanation of why the rest of us should stay away from them.
Doesn't pay, rude, clueless, scammer... whatever. just explain yourself. please.
About Wendy Diamond and Animal Fair: I didn't post that "doesn't pay" thing, but I've worked there, and she is the single most deplorable human being I've ever met, or will ever meet, in all my life. Obnoxious, rude, condescending, self-important and also very, very stupid. And her dog shits all over the place, FYI. Every moment I was in that "office" of unpaid interns and psychologically abused staff was a moment of my life I'll never get back.
Another company to beware of is Creative Entertainment Group, who also go by the name Producers Advantage. I know a few people who don't get paid by them. They make lots of promises but they don't value the contribution of the people they need to make it work and they don't pay in the end. And they are very rude if you try to get paid and they lie. Beware, unless you like to work for free. Then they are the best.
I also worked with Matt Farnsworth, years ago. He paid me weekly while I was working, but after I left I invoiced for my last week and was never paid. I called and sent emails for months, but always got different stories. I never got paid for my last week of work.
Nick Knonopka, Mori Design. I'm still owed lots of dough.
I was involved in the craigslist posting. Thank you for posting these. My experience is one I hope won't happen to others.
Seconding Wendy Diamond / Animal Fair. She is obnoxious, irritating and stupid, although she must be doing something right if celebrities keep getting their arms twisted into talking to her. The vast majority of the projects were done entirely by unpaid interns, and believe me, watching the projects, you could tell that.
Please add Abbas Film Solutions to your list. I worked there for one day. There was no bathroom, the drinking fountain water smelled terrible (like it came out of the broken down bathroom) and that was only the environment. Abbas is despicable. He was paying $1.10 an hour and routinely made people work for days..sometimes 60-80 hours at a stretch without food, water or sleep. I saw him defecate on the one poor DP that made the mistake of saying he wished he just would love half a saltine, and then he stabbed him and sent the ambulance away when they came. I finally escaped by dropping a penny on the floor - when he dove for it I was able to grap the keys off his belt and get to the door. Thank you for offering this valuable resource so we can all share this important information.
be leary of ted smits. Low pay, controlling, not good at working with others. Says negative things about current employees working for him.
That you have many fictional company/employer names in your list is absolutely priceless and a perfect illustration of why this doesn't work! Thank you, thank you, thank you for including those.
Hi. I posted in regards to Michael Rossato-Bennett. I worked with him on more than one occasion. He seemed easy to work with and a nice person. My only complaint is that he did not fully pay me for a job well done. He is aware of this.
To the above poster: not sure how you'd know if some of these companies don't exist, unless you're the one who made them up. New companies sprout up and die so quickly. But anywho, like I said, I've never worked for any of these, so I can't vouch for any of this information. Just puttin' it out there for others, so snark away if you must.
My daughter worked as an intern for Richard Miller - Guardian Entertainment while in college, and then he hired her after graduation. He promised payment for 2 projects but never followed through. Went to small claims court and won - (several thousand dollars) - but then the bastard filed Chapter 11 before we could locate assets and hire the marshal. He did the same to several other people from whom we have written affidavits that we presented in court!!! The courts also have a list of other people he owes money to. STAY AWAY FROM GUARDIAN ENTERTAINMENT ! ! !
Wendy Diamond is a blonde at heart, with her dumb comments and superficial attitude. She has learned how to schmooze, getting people in the entertainment industry to hook her up with the occasional tv appearances. Her office consists of all interns who do all her work, whether it's writing up her wikipedia page, designing her site, photographing celebrities, creating video clips of her, writing her magazine, books, and making phone calls for potential promotional events. What does she do? Nothing really except go to networking events in hope of landing stardom. The worst part is she doesn't give credit or pay these interns. From personal experience working with her, she is neither a talented or good person.
Wendy Diamond is a blonde at heart, with her dumb comments and superficial attitude. She has learned how to schmooze, getting people in the entertainment industry to hook her up with the occasional tv appearances. Her office consists of all interns who do all her work, whether it's writing up her wikipedia page, designing her site, photographing celebrities, creating video clips of her, writing her magazine, books, and making phone calls for potential promotional events. What does she do? Nothing really except go to networking events in hope of landing stardom. The worst part is she doesn't give credit or pay these interns. From personal experience working with her, she is neither a talented or good person.
I hope Animal Fair and Wendy Diamond don't last another year. She's a complete rip off, has no sense of professionalism and is way in over her head about her company and her "passion." I promise you, she doesn't give rat's ass about charities and animals. She just wants to be famous. It's her ultimate goal and main priority.
DO NOT WORK FOR WENDY DIAMOND OR ANIMAL FAIR IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. Cause everything that has been said is true.
Source: Former intern. Worked when I was one of her longest lasting interns for the period: 5 weeks. In a matter of three 3 months, ELEVEN interns came and went. Only one of them left on good terms after a month. Everyone else? Fired or quit.
Agreed on the Wendy Diamond/Animal Fair/Dear Lucky front.
When I interned for her, I too was her longest lasting intern. I stayed for 3 months (longest BY FAR). By the end, not one person I started with was left. 12 quit and several were fired. On more than one occasion she was completely inappropriate. I heard interns called names like "stupid" more than once. It's a joke.
The woman is a joke to begin with. She writes about relationships, but she's 40 and single and she writes books about pets that she knows nothing about. She just has interns research pet information online then rephrase it and say she wrote it.
I did so much for her including things that weren't even close to being included in my job description.
The company consists of her and one other bitchy, paid woman and everybody else is interns. She blames interns when things go wrongs, but we're college students and interns. The point of an internship is for her and her "company" to teach us, not for us to do free labor.
She said I was her favorite and that she didn't give letters of reference but that she'd give me one, but she never did, yet 3-4 months after I left the internship she'd still text me expecting me to help her when she had a problem.
I don't know how this woman has a business. She leaves voicemails for big companies by singing a song like "Weeeendy Diamond Weeeeendy Diamond".
The reason she doesn't pay is because her business makes no money. Nobody buys her dumb magazine or cares about her. Her business is run out of her apartment. The closets in the office are full of her clothes, the bathroom is full of her makeup and accessories and the upstairs has a bed and tv. She's completely broke.
She even said herself once that she wasn't smart enough to get in to college. Her family had to pay someone to get her into a charm school after college because her grades weren't good enough to get her into any college. Dumb, failure of a woman.
Thank you for this information. I am in TX and one of these companies wanted me to show up at a conference and give my paypal information for payment. I don't understand how these crooks can get away with this stuff. We're all poor artists who just need work. GEEZ!
Wendy Diamond/ Animal Fair Magazine. Everything said about her above is spot on. Very rude, fake, condescending woman that deserves none of the attention she gets. Treats people "working" for her like trash. Treats every celebrity like gold. STAY AWAY!!
Oh Wendy Diamond. I am so shocked and relieved to see I am not the only one here who had a major problem with Wendy. The 6 months I spent as an unpaid intern have literally left me psychologically scarred by her and her cohorts. So much so in fact that I vowed never to live in or work in NYC ever again. Firstly, I was looking for an audio production internship, and she promised I would get to work on a bunch of projects and that it would be exciting. By the end of my internship I was running her website, had built a website for her incredibly shallow movie Puppy Love, creating fake accounts and comments for her social media and blog, and regularly getting phone calls from her at 11pm after she was drunk to tell me what a horrible job I did on whatever I worked on that day. In the end she said that she wouldn't give me credit for my internship, she's an idiot though and didn't realize that the SUNY school system is who awards the credit to me. What an egotistical jerk. After she found that out she tried to take legal action against me because I had "seen some of her passwords". Obviously that didn't work, so she said she would make sure I never worked in NYC ever again. Just remembered, she also demanded that I fly out to California on my own dime so I could help " assist" her at some festivals. I would like to remind the reader, I was an unpaid intern. She may love animals, but she hates people. Unless they will give her money, then she loves them. For those that have also endured, YOU ARE NOT ALONE .
Wendy Diamond, of Animalfair I recently had a very unpleasant experience dealing with her and out of curiosity found all these comments. Well let me tell you its now 2014 and nothing has changed if anything i believe she is worse. I do believe that many of the networks no longer use her as word as gotten around as to her true behavior and personality and how she really treats people so poorly. I will never do business with her again and many people I know in the media feel the same way.
Found this online as per Ms. Wendy Diamond
http://www.dhr.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/Commissioners-Orders/sullivan_v_animal_fair_media.pdf
It's been some time since I interned for Wendy Diamond at Animal Fair, but every now and then I remember that awful time in my life and feel bad for anyone else who might have to endure her.
I can corroborate everything everyone has said, especially the bit about how she doesn't actually seem to care about animals, but rather just wants to be famous and to schmooze with celebrities. I think she was looking for an easy hook, some way in, and so she went animals. She then got her dog, Lucky, from a humane society and away she went. Lucky is just her accessory, something she uses for appearances and photo ops. When she's not using him he's being dragged along the sidewalk while she texts on her phone not realizing or caring that he needs to stop to use the bathroom. I honestly don't think she knows anything substantial about caring for animals.
As for my experience there, my work area was in a cramped hot area under the stairs. I worked there unpaid for 12-13 hours a day, 5 days a week for 2 1/2 months. I only remember ever taking a lunch break once (when she was out of town) because we would get scolded if we weren't at our station working, instead I just packed my bag with snacks for the day. This was not a learning experience or a place to grow, she just wants free labor and relies on the skills that the interns already possess in order run her entire company. If it wasn't for the interns, Animal Fair would not be able to sustain itself.
Somehow Wendy has found a way to weasel her way into good situations, but she's as unprofessional as they come and not someone you would ever want to work for.
On Wendy Diamond. Same Issue. I can't believe this site lists so many problems about her whom I thought only a few of us were victims. My issue started sometime before 2008, I can't remember when. I was starting out as a freelance computer technician. Posted ad on craiglists. She called, we met and upon arriving her NYC apartment, she realized that she forgot her key, so she had me (I was willing at the time) go running to SONY studio where her roommate or someone who has the key worked. After that. After that, some assistant of hers arrive (I wonder if this assistant leave any complaint, coz she witness what happened between Diamond and I later). I am supposed to backup her laptop or something. So I took out my tools from my backpack. Her puppy dog keeps barking at me, and she just let it, some would say that's very distracting. I examined the laptop and before I could remove the HDD, she began yelling at me, accusing me a fake for holding a screwdriver or something. She looked in my backpack and complained to me whatever's inside. Perhaps I made the mistake of telling her the country I was originally from, because when she started yelling, she threatened me that she knew the CEO of SONY, people in high places or something and that she could get me deported back to my country. Of course, at the beginning of my career, I just calmly packed my things and left.
I then posted a comment about her on craiglists, and someone responded saying that he had the same crap from her when he did some paint job for her.
Anyway, after a while, I must admit I kinda got my revenge, not that I am proud of it because there are collateral damage. Since I had her cellphone number which I was about to erase from my phone, I faked an ad with her personal phone # as contact (which I don't have now, was rather satisfied when I dumped it after, as for her apartment I believe it's the same as wherever her Animal Fair business is in NYC), the ad posted was about Diamond wanting to give away her puppy dog. After that, I got a response to a fake email I setup for craiglists saying that he (or maybe she) was pissed and that Diamond was pissed as well. Being assured that my fake ad worked, I delightfully abandoned that email, so I don't even remember the email address/account now, I erased everything I have of her info. If any of you wish to design pay back, I suggest think of something smarter than mine, so that no innocent bystanders get involve.
Or just telling the truth is good enough. No need for revenge.
I am writing this coz I just wonder how things were going with her after all these years. And was astonished at so many complaints even til today.
Add Hezi Torati of NYC to the list. Short Sales guy, owes clients, employees, freelancers money. He's changed company names more than I can remember. Uses Rubber checks, never pay. You can find out about him on google as well, he's been trying to get his bad name taken down from ripoffreport.com to google search database, some more successful than others.
Great article. Thanks for the info. Does anyone know where I can find a blank "california form cause action" to fill out?
Hi! I found a blank fillable california form cause action here: http://goo.gl/Ms4ebj
OMG Wendy Diamond: crazy & fraudulent
Completely agreed about everything stated about Wendy Diamond in the comment section above. Animal Fair basically failed and her newest project is Women's Entrepreneurship Day. Nothing else has changed. She forces her unpaid interns to work in the tiny, smelly, and hot apartment-turned-office. Wendy continuously would hold giving me a personal reference over my head while I worked there. In the end, I decided I'd rather marry Donald Trump before using her as a reference. For those who have posted before or those that may find this + comment after, the best we can do is report her to the Ripoff Report or the BBB.
Link for RR: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/specific_search/wendy-diamond
No more innocent college students / interns should have to waste their time or deal with Wendy's abuse.
I worked as Wendy Diamond's slave intern back in early 2000's. She said my writing sucked. We slaved away in her personal apartment in which she never allowed us to turn on the AC.
As for animals, she doesn't give a flying F about Lucky or any animal. She had me take care of Lucky and bring him to my home overnight. Lucky was a seriously disturbed dog. She would nip at my ankles during my sleep. That dog was seriously neglected. All she cared about was having her picture taken with a celebrity. Any true animal lover would not hand their pet over to a complete stranger to take care of Lucky.
On top of that, she fired me because she didn't trust me. She thought I was out to get her contacts. If she didnt trust me, then why did she have me take care of Lucky at my own home after only 2 weeks of interning with her? Honey, if you're that important, why aren't you famous already?
Any negative comments you have written on any public site, she has her crew erase it in hopes no one finds out she's truly nasty. We ALL know she's nasty to the core. I'm so glad I found this forum to reveal her true colors after almost 20 years!
When I saw Victoria Stillwell go after Wendy on that show, I was rooting Victoria to claw her eyes out.
It's great to know Wendy is still single, never married, and will forever die a spinster. That's how ugly her insides are. Ugly on the inside, ugly on the outside.
I Googled to see if Wendy Diamond has changed. NOT. ONE. BIT. Still single. Still fake. Still fraudulent. You know what's laughable? She poses in front of a Christmas tree. She doesn't celebrate Christmas. She's a cheap-ass intolerable yenta. Wendy Diamond's networth: A PENNY; TWO-FACED & WORTHLESS!
Wendy Diamond, the founder of Animal Fair is evil. She's all show and treats her associates poorly.
I interned for Wendy Diamond for a week or two back in 2014 during my junior year. It was an unpaid internship I found through a college program. On my first day she was welcoming and friendly -- she brought out a handful of snacks and placed them on the dining room table where I was stationed to work (which I thought was so nice of her...). But I quickly noticed an unpleasant side of her on my first week (maybe even on my first day). I remember her making a comment about my slender appearance that made me felt embarrassed (which wasn't cool bc it's always been an insecurity of mine...). Without any guidance, she often scolded me for not knowing how to do my job. I’ve heard her speak poorly of me to her friends over the phone while we were in the same room… It was a VERY toxic environment. She is good at making an impression, but you’ll soon see through her, easily.
I am writing this post to keep this chain alive since no other information on what working here is truly like can be found online. If given the opportunity to work for Wendy Diamond, please do not take it. I worked for her Women's Entrepreneurship Day organization in college and spent hours in that stuffy office that had used dog pee pads left out, not allowed to talk to anyone over the course of the day, and was often rudely degraded by her for my work after receiving almost no guidance or training. I tried so hard to please her but it was so awful trying to communicate with her and she often misinterpreted innocent actions and mistakes of mine and thought that I was purposely doing things to be rude to her or do poorly on my work. We were not allowed to ask fellow interns for help at work and we couldn’t ask Wendy for help either. She always assumed we were gossiping about her when we were just whispering for help in fear of getting yelled at by her. I often cried on my daily commute into that office and would have quit much sooner if school credit wasn't on the line for me. She yells at interns, threatens to leave horrible recommendations about them, gaslights them, and makes them feel useless. She tells interns that they will never make it in a real job, however, her own business is delusional. I worked 9 hours a day unpaid and got a 20-30 min lunch break. Stay away from this phony bully. She only cares about famous people with high follower counts and not small entrepreneurs that actually need exposure or actual help pertaining to her alleged “mission” To second a previous comment: you are not alone if you have been through this with her. These comments really helped me in understanding that, hopefully, this can help someone too. Do not tolerate her psychological abuse by working here.
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