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Who Needs Sleep? ... Everyone


Jeff Wexler

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Hi everyone,

This is my first post, so bear with me...

I'm a location sound recordist/mixer who has been working as a freelancer in Canberra(the capital of Australia) for 11 years.

The situation here in the television world seems to be evolving into a situation where 8 hours was the norm and quoted rate, to 10 hours being the normal expected billable day. But the expectation is  that more and more production companies have the view that if we book you for a day, than we own you for that entire day, and we will do what we want. And than say we do not have provisions to pay you overtime even though we scheduled it.

I understand that production costs money, and it is cheaper to schedule a 6 day shoot into 4 days if you are not paying a price for the extended hours worked.  But that is the problem I see, the overtime rate is there to protect us from working excessive overtimes if the price of that overtime becomes prohibitive to the production cost.

Some days need to be longer than the standard day for various reasons, but I'm also of the opinion that if I'm looked after with at least a 10 hour turn around, or some days being 8 hours or less, than I will negotiate some form of rate for the overtime worked.

But all this said, it doesn't change the fact that working excessive hours has a detrimental effect on peoples performance, personal lives, and health.  We work to live, not live to work.  And I am sure that most of us value our profession as more than just a job, but what is the point if we need time to "recover" after a job, cannot schedule family dinners(etc)  and are running risks of safety not only to ourselves but  to others.

I recently took a doco trip to South Africa, Egypt, United Kingdom, France, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Korea in 21 days, totaling 277 hours with travel. We shot 127 pieces to camera. At one stage the presenter asked the director(also owner of the production company) if he could have some time to get a post card for his wife, as this is what he does when he is away from her. The reply was "Do you think we are on a Holiday, No!"

This all being said,

I value what I do, and wish to be valued by the people who employ me just the same.

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Hi, BWilson, happy first post; wish your inspiration to make it wasn't the trend toward longer and longer hours. Unfortunately, here in the states anyway, there's been a concentrated effort both politically and PR-wise in the media to weaken unions. Some of our contracts are such that the fiscal penalties for long hours, short turnarounds, delaying meals, etc., are no longer onerous enough to prevent the practices.

Sounds like you're working non-union jobs, so I guess it's up to you to negotiate your deal and make the production stick to it. It's difficult to be that squeaky wheel alone.

Maybe you can get together with other shooters / soundies locally and agree to some standards for your health and well being's sake.

Good luck and welcome to JW Sound.Let us know if / what you decide to do.

-- Jan

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Hi Jan

There are two facets to the industry here, Film and Television.

Film is strongly unionized since most productions are partly funded by federal and state governments and therefore have to go by guidelines negotiated by the union. These are normally based on a 10 hour day, first two hours overtime charged at time and a half, and every hour after that charged at double time. If there is less than a 10 hours turn around than you get paid double time until you do receive a 10 hour break.

In the television world, the only productions that are unionized or have union input are the ones that are run by overseas companies. It is up to the individual to negotiate rates and penalties.

We do have occupation health and safety guidelines, but these are often turned a blind eye at.

We are caught in the trap. Complain or question it, Don't get future work. I'm tired of being treated this way, and don't mind sticking my neck out for everyone else. I am not a robot, I'm a trained professional and wish to be treated as such.

Work us to a hairs breadth of not functioning properly, and guess what, that's when mistakes happen, quality is compromised and worse, our health and safety of others comes into question.

Cheers

Bronson

(post no. 2!)

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sadly, producers don't notice that after really long hours the product output suffers significantly in both quantity and quality.

and this is regardless of OT pay, penalties,, or not!!

Hey .... 20 lbs of crap in a 5lb bag is the new "quality"....  Even worse on an exhausted crew...

I see it EVERYWHERE!!!!!  On MANY shows.... (sorry a tad off topic) That's why they love the video thing.... Shoot it all, then figure out what you want... This creates problems with their content and quality..  They don't really know what they want to shoot... Who cares, the video is cheap... until they spend hours in post wondering what to do with all their footage, and their loss of storytelling focus.  And this goes on well rested!!!!

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  • 1 month later...

Most of us post-guys sleep while you guys are on the stage recording :)

then again..we sometimes sleep while the producer is making the VO talent do 35 takes of the same VO line... "yeah..uhm..you said 'THe...could you maybe say 'ThE' with 10% more yellow in your tone?"  :D

yup..I agree with everything all of you have said. MUST sleep.

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  • 3 months later...

Good article -- thanks for posting that.  (And, good to see you back here more, Crew.)

With unreasonably extended hours, rates skyrocket and productivity plummets.  Who with even an ounce of logic would think that's a good formula for success.

Of course there are exceptions.  But, they should stay just that -- exceptions, not the norm.

In the low-budget world, there is seldom overtime pay, however, due to the lower productivity and creative burnout, super-long hours still work against quality filmmaking.

Then, of course, if you value human life, there's that to think of.  I notice that was pretty much an afterthought with most studio execs quoted in the article.

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As it appears many crew and DGA people are on the same page, regardless of how old some articles might be...

It would seem that the only logical solution to the problem of dangerous, ultra-long days is to, democratically, negate the perceived financial benefits with hefty rates, say triple time past 12, 14, whatever. 

This, of course, would require recognition and action by IATSE / union leadership, if they really care about CONDITIONS, and not just that pile of insurance and pension money to play with.

Although we might be conditioned otherwise by career experiences, 12hr days alone are difficult to comprehend by out-of-the industry family and friends..... let alone 14 or more..... 

Sadly, the notion of controlling this will probably not occur until after someone dies yet again....

and it's a much smaller world than many realize.

Michael Filosa, CAS

Atlanta   

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I still don't understand, and will continue to be appalled by our own union allowing ANY language in ANY contract allowing 14 hours of work before double-time.  This provision is given on contracts where the rate is already low, so it's not as if double-time at 12 is that big of a deal to the producers financially.  It's simply our labor representatives telling producers that it's cool to work the crew for 14 hours.

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I still don't understand, and will continue to be appalled by our own union allowing ANY language in ANY contract allowing 14 hours of work before double-time.

I throw out this suggestion again although with minimal hope that it will do any good. Although, I'm cautiously (very cautiously) optimistic that Matthew Loeb, the International President, is more committed to genuine trade unionism than any official I can recall from the recent past.

Anyway, some years ago when I had some work abroad, I noticed that the local union had an interesting overtime provision. There was no actual limit on the number of hours that a crew might work in any given day but there was a limit on the number of permissible hours of OT in a week. This seemed to me a flexible and inventive way to deal with unpredictable production demands. One might work a very long day to complete a scene that could not otherwise be completed because of issues of location availability or some other factor. But every extra hour on Tuesday reduced the hours available for the other days in the week.

Any time we talk about going over fourteen hours there is some risk and some abuse even if that is the only day the runs long. But, I think the greatest risk comes from following one excessive day with another. The limit on total weekly hours addressed that issue without unreasonably constraining a producer with a real need to get a project accomplished.

David

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  • 1 month later...

Blame Edison I say, since he introduced the first commercially practical lightbulb in 1913 we have lost 1.5 hours of sleep.

Lightbulbs allowed for factories to introduce 24 hour manufacturing. Was technology not supposed to free us? Seems like it's enslaved us all. Why didn't we ever invent machines to make it easier for us?

The next time you're on set, propose nap time. Although it sounds juvenile, argue it this way.

Do you honestly believe that your skill level will improve after 3 with a cup of coffee vs. an hour nap on a hammock?

of course, without lightbulb's and technology, we'd probably all be out a job.

but fight for the nap I say. We could all use a little reflection and relaxation.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Excerpts from an Associated Press news article today...

People who change shifts every few days are going to have all kinds of problems related to memory and learning. This kind of schedule especially affects what he called relational memories, which involve the ability to understand how one thing is related to another. In addition to drowsiness and inability to concentrate, people working night shifts are more subject to chronic intestinal and heart diseases and have been shown to have a higher incidence of some forms of cancer. The World Health Organization has classified shift work as a probable carcinogen.

"But even though that's been known for decades, we prefer to pretend that these things are not happening," instead of managing the problem, Czeisler said. "We have a bury-our-head-in-the-sand attitude."

See entire article here http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110416/ap_on_he_me/us_med_sleep_and_health

Laurence

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