A friend of mine in high school made a terrible zombie movie on a budget of approximately $5. He asked me to be in a scene and I happily agreed, I didn't feel taken advantage of at all. We also got the cops called on us for a noise complaint (we were filming at midnightish at a trailhead near some homes) so we even got some fun memories out of it.
if that movie went on to be extremely successful you might feel differently though.
I have a friend who works on low budget films, and it's a struggle. The directors are usually passionate and put in a lot of work, but also get all the credit and rewards if it succeeds. There's a budget, but it's mostly spent on paying travel expenses for out of state actors or for props and equipment and it's taken very personally if any background person want to be paid. "You'd take away from the quality of the movie just for your personal benefit! how greedy!" And in general expecting people with much less stake in the film to be just as invested and willing to sacrifice as they are without any of the upside.
ah fair enough, idk your project, sounds like a fun time
just saying that people who are expected to put in significant hours to semiprofessional low budget movies sometimes feel exploited. if you don't for yours hell yeah
