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Are actors a thing of the past in New York?

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  • #16
    On getting lots of $2000 animations...

    I have a core of actors; always will. My daughters graduation open house is in a couple months. She wrote a list of "friends" and "family" to invite to the hog roast open house. She put actors on the "family" side of the list; not friend side.

    But there was a comment about "museum of props" above. I travel the country every winter trading off my animatronics after 1-3 years of use and always rotating 50%. Taken winter trips from Michigan to Florida, New Orleans, South Dakota, Tennessee, Georgia and the states in between to trade.

    In Larry's post he touched on taxes of both actor and machine; but did not touch on how you can depreciate a props total cost AND STILL SELL IT later. Or my favorite thing TRADE IT LATER. And yes those $2000 -$3000 Posion items fit this niche PERFECTLY.

    Wicked Farmer

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    • #17
      Originally posted by MDKing View Post
      If you are a for-profit business you cannot use unpaid labor. Only a registered charity like a registered 501c can use volunteers. Aside from the laws, don't you think your staff works hard and earns their pay?

      Allan
      Apparently, that is the case:

      http://www.businesslawpost.com/2010/...or-profit.html

      Few people "work hard" these days. Coal miners worked hard... a person in a make-up or mask who jumps out and says "boo" is not a hard worker. Government has purposefully made it difficult and expensive to utilize labor of others, purposefully so as to kill off the middle class and make everyone dependent on government for their existence. When everyone becomes dependent on government (i.e. wards of the state) for their existence (except for the 1% of elitists), government will suddenly not care so much for the poor downtrodden citizen worker-- See: North Korea.

      This is not directed at you Alan: Only an extremely ignorant person fails to understand that raising everyone's wages to a massive rate causes the cost of everything to rise, and any gains are quickly lost to higher priced commodities . Only an extremely ignorant person thinks a Big Mac Value Meal remains $6-7 dollars, when everyone is paid $15 an hour minimum wage, but our government via public school education and propaganda has purposefully created entire generations of malcontent, extremely ignorant people.

      We have 90 million unemployed and underemployed citizens in this country, increasing risks and costs of employment will only serve to make that much worse.
      Last edited by SAWDUST JONES; 04-20-2016, 09:11 AM.

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      • #18
        I'm not suggesting haunts not pay their actors if you can afford it, but I don't want the haunts that worry they are breaking the law by using volunteers to live in fear of The Men in Black. Fortunately, Seasonal and Recreational establishments are exempt from minimum wage requirements. (But if you're open more than 7 months out of the year, you're not exempt.) You can read the exemption yourself at:

        http://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/screen75.asp

        It's about midway down the page.

        I always want to treat our actors the way I would want to be treated. Yes, I would volunteer for free because I love haunting, but if I sacrifice a lot of time going there multiple nights (especially Halloween), I would like something to show for it (besides the bags under my eyes). Just because you are not required to pay them doesn't mean you shouldn't remember the golden rule.
        www.TerrorOfTallahassee.com

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        • #19
          Agreed.

          I agree about paying working actors and anyone else, it is just that certain elements in government have made legally employing people very hard and risky and one-sidedly so. Further, minimum wage employment is one-size fits all, which suck. Government clearly dislikes small business despite small business providing 70% of jobs.

          Meanwhile. so called "charities" are allowed to utilize volunteer help, despite many "charities" just enriching themselves. The hard-and-fast rule is if the charity spends more than 33% on operations, they are not meeting their mission. Charities are allowed to bring in millions of dollars and spend the vast majority just paying themselves for the job.

          Here is what was written about a charity that is supposed to help sick children:

          "Every year, Kids Wish Network raises millions of dollars in donations in the name of dying children and their families. Every year, it spends less than 3 cents on the dollar helping kids. Most of the rest gets diverted to enrich the charity's operators and the for-profit companies Kids Wish hires to drum up donations.In the past decade alone, Kids Wish has channeled nearly $110 million donated for sick children to its corporate solicitors. An additional $4.8 million has gone to pay the charity's founder and his own consulting firms."

          http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities/

          Or as one writer put it: "Too many 'careerists' in the voluntary sector, says philanthropist"

          The article details U.K. charities but the same goes on here: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/careeri...rticle/1173686

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          • #20
            I'm telling you what RIGHT NOW the minute the wage jumps like that I'm calling Poison Props and ordering like 100 pop out animations and firing 2/3 of our staff, then doing what all the car manufacturers do and hire a bunch of techs to fix everything. LOL

            WE MUST PUSH FOR A REPUBLICAN ... VOTE AGAINST all Democrats.

            We have no choice.

            Larry
            Larry Kirchner
            President
            www.HalloweenProductions.com
            www.BlacklightAttractions.com
            www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
            www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

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            • #21
              Originally posted by drfrightner View Post
              I'm telling you what RIGHT NOW the minute the wage jumps like that I'm calling Poison Props and ordering like 100 pop out animations and firing 2/3 of our staff, then doing what all the car manufacturers do and hire a bunch of techs to fix everything. LOL

              WE MUST PUSH FOR A REPUBLICAN ... VOTE AGAINST all Democrats.

              We have no choice.

              Larry
              It's not going to happen, the election is already over. The republican most likely will not win. I'm not saying it is how I will vote, I'm just saying I feel it is how most people will.
              Jared Layman

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              • #22
                If a democrat wins the white house the wages are going to go sky high. This will create a very complicated problem for small business owners. I'm not sure how we would handle that dynamic if it occurs but without a doubt we wouldn't hire as many staff members. Only time will tell.

                Mark

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                • #23
                  Couple things, first if you read the article on volunteers all it states is that if you DO use volunteers you always run the risk of that person coming back and trying to sue you claiming that they performed a real job. This is more in reference to a full time position in a year round business. It stemmed from an old AOL (remember them) case where they had people "volunteering" for a year, and then they stated the best people would be promoted to full time. No one was promoted so these people worked for free for a year! We are a temporary event, there are no full time positions so the risk is almost negligible. We run as a profit business but we donate heavily to several charities to where we provide as much if not more than a charity run event would!

                  Second...contractors...forget it. Basically you can not call someone a contractor if you set his hours, provide his uniform (costume) and set the criteria for his work (tell him what you want to do and when). Legally a contractor is paid for a specific job. He is to determine the hours required to complete the task, skills and tools necessary, and how he is going to complete the job. As soon as you tell him when he has to show up and specifically what you want him to do, he becomes an employee. Several haunts ran into this problem already.

                  Granted even a contractor paid to remodel my house may be given hours that he can work on it (I may be home and don't want walls torn down while I'm there, etc.), or certain days or restrictions. You would basically have to hire a haunt troupe of actors, stating you need actors these days you are open and then they would decide who to put where and what they would do. Most haunt owners do not want to turn over that much responsibility without accountability!

                  Looks like we'll all be buying more animations....good news for the better vendors!!!

                  Rich
                  R&J Productions
                  Las Vegas, NV
                  www.LasVegasHaunts.com

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