Person

What Five People With Cameras Can Do

DA Devon Ashby

A look at the work the co-op has made since 2019 and at how the co-op itself is put together, because people ask about the second thing almost as often as the first. There is a documentary we carried for three years, a run of campaign films for locals across Southern California, and a plain account of our rate card, our profit split and how we vote on jobs. If you are thinking about doing this with your own crew, the last section is the one worth reading.

01 Long form

Documentary work we chose ourselves and paid for out of the co-op's own margin, shot over months and years rather than days.

Masa, 74 minutes

Three years inside a family tortilleria in Boyle Heights as it outlived two landlords, a rent doubling and the death of the founder.

We started in 2022 expecting a fifteen minute piece about a shop that had been on the same corner since 1974. Then the building sold, and then it sold again, and the story became about what it costs a family to stay somewhere. Shot on FX3s almost entirely, natural light, one small light for the night work at the mill. About 140 hours of footage across three years, most of it recorded between four and seven in the morning because that is when the masa is made and that is when people talk. We funded it ourselves out of commercial margin, which is why it took three years. Four festivals so far. A broadcaster is now asking for a 56 minute version, and I have posted a listing looking for an editor to make those cuts, because I cannot.

What we learned shooting at 4am for three years

Practical notes on long term access: how we handled the funeral, when we put the camera down, and the written agreement we gave the family from day one.

We gave the family a one page agreement in Spanish in the first week: they could see any cut, they could pull any scene about a living person, and if we ever sold it they got a share. No lawyer wrote it. It cost us nothing and it bought three years of trust. The founder died in year two. We filmed the shop the next morning, with permission, and did not film the funeral, without being asked not to. The scene that carries the whole film is his son opening at four the next day because the masa does not care. The rule we settled on: if you would not be standing in this room without the camera, ask before you bring it in.
02 Campaign and organising work

Films made with locals, tenant groups and co-ops across Southern California, usually fast, usually with people who have never been on camera before.

Nine member testimony films in six days

A contract campaign for a hospitality local: nine workers, six days, each film cut and captioned in English and Spanish within 48 hours of the shoot.

The local needed members telling their own stories, on camera, in their own words, fast enough to be useful during bargaining. We built a portable setup that fit in one car: two bodies, a book light, a sound blanket and a folding chair. We shot in break rooms, in living rooms and once in a parking structure. Nobody was given talking points. We asked four questions and let the silence do the work. All nine were cut, captioned in both languages and delivered in vertical and horizontal within two days each. Seven of the nine are still up. The one thing I would change is that we should have brought a second mixer and shot two workers a day instead of trying to do three.

The published prices for crew days, rental and finishing, including the reduced rate band we hold for locals, tenant groups and member co-ops.

🔗Our rate card, in publicsixthstreetpicture.coop↗
03 How the co-op actually works

Shares, votes, the profit split and the reduced rate calendar. Written out plainly for anyone thinking about setting one of these up.

One member, one share, one vote

How we structured ownership, what a new member has to buy in for, and the two things that always go to a vote.

Each member holds one share. Buy in is 4,000 dollars, payable over two years out of draws, and it is returned when you leave. Nobody can hold two. We pay ourselves an hourly draw through the year and split what is left after gear, insurance and reserve at the end, weighted by hours worked and nothing else. Not by who brought the client. That rule has saved more arguments than any other. Two things always go to a vote: any job over 25,000 dollars, and any job where a member has raised an objection. The second one is the important one, and it is why we turned down 40,000 dollars last month.

The reduced rate calendar

How we hold a quarter of our shoot days for organisations that cannot pay full freight, and why we vote on it instead of discounting quietly.

Roughly forty days a year go out at between a third and two thirds of the card. Locals, tenant groups, worker co-ops and small non profits. We decide those as a group at the quarterly meeting rather than one member deciding on a call. That keeps it fair between us, and it also means nobody gets a discount because they were good at pushing. The practical limit is our own draw. When the reduced days climb past a quarter of the calendar, all five of us feel it in the same month, so the number is not charity, it is a budget line we set together.