Djonny Chen.

What is it about Christmas that brings out the worst in crooked film producers?

No soon as mistletoe appears above the Christmas tree than the conmen and hucksters in the industry perpetrate their worst against freelancers they have used.

Take Djonny Chen of Silent D Pictures for instance. Forthcoming and chatty as you like when he wanted work done on his latest film production, Chen turned as silent as a Trappist monk when invoices for the work he commissioned hit his desk.

Nothing pisses freelancers more (apart from not getting the pay of course) than being met with a wall of silence when they send and chase up invoices. It leaves them not knowing whether or not they can meet their own commitments at a time of year when pressures on the pocket are at their highest.

Not that that seems to bother Chen in any way at all. He’s got what he wanted so who cares about everyone else? (Silent D Pictures motto: “Every frame begins with silence”. Yes, and every invoice too it seems).

None of which bodes well for another of Chen’s projects - a proposed new studio in the North East which he is associated with. Anyone partnering with him in that venture would do well to think carefully whether the risk of associating with him is worth taking, given the way he is currently dealing with financial matters.

Suffice to say - Djonny Chen, Silent D Pictures: Freelancers Beware.