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falling asleep at the wheel


Ramsay

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Not exactly a sound issue but the special effects coordinator on our show didn't come to work friday because he fell asleep at the wheel thursday and totalled his new F250 truck. The police said if it wasn't for the size of his truck and the airbags he wouldn't have made it. The Producer, who up to this point has been a very unpleasant person to the whole crew has offered free rooms to any crew who have a long drive home. I can't remember the # of stories like this I have heard over the years. Feel free to add yours. I'm sure there are many more.

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Sorry to hear about your Fx coordinator. Driving is the most dangerous thing we do every day. Add to that the hours we work and it becomes only a matter of time before something like this happens. More people should see Haskel's movie, including your producer. Drive safe all.

Old School

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Not exactly a sound issue but the special effects coordinator on our show didn't come to work friday because he fell asleep at the wheel thursday and totalled his new F250 truck. The police said if it wasn't for the size of his truck and the airbags he wouldn't have made it. The Producer, who up to this point has been a very unpleasant person to the whole crew has offered free rooms to any crew who have a long drive home. I can't remember the # of stories like this I have heard over the years. Feel free to add yours. I'm sure there are many more.

Well, that producer probably got a call from the production's insurance company that staightened him right out about their liability on this issue.  Years ago I worked for a director whose MO, (we discovered) was to basically keep shooting until somebody important refused to shoot anymore, break for 12 hrs and then come back and do it again until he was done. One night (or morning--I don't remember which), it was my boom op and I that basically hit the wall and just started packing our gear up, refusing to go to the next setup.  We expected to be fired and didn't care at that point.  Instead of firing us the director basically said--"oh--you're leaving now?  OK that's a wrap."    We were handed a call sheet and the next day the extras revolted @ about hour 20 or so.  And so on.  These days, after a number of well-publicized deaths caused by crew people falling asleep while trying to drive home, smart producers realize that they had better make sure that crew people at least are given the option of being  put up near location after very long days.  That producer you mentioned has now become a  "smart" producer.

Philip Perkins

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This is the sneaky little secret of the production world.  After watching Haskel's movie"Who Needs Sleep", I sat down and tried to figure out what has put us in this delima more and more.  As the movie points out, a lot of great films were made in the past with decent 10 to 12 hour work days.  But it doesn't address the cause of the current abusive hours.

I think I can trace the origin of the problem to a couple of contract changes over the years between the IA and MPAA. Three give backs by the IA over the last 12 years or so have formed the "Perfect Storm" of abuse able to be practiced by the producer.  Although these causes all relate to Union Pictures, they had the same effect on Non-Union pictures except the exploitation can be even worse since there  can be no organized revolt.

1. The article XX which was the negative pick-up rule that allowed Studios who were signatories to the Union Contract, pick up Non-Union produced pictures for distribution by the Signatory companies.

That concession allowed the major studios to change their business model completely.  They became more Distribution companies and Facilities rental companies. They hired "Independent" producers to create all the properties they had in their pipeline.  By keeping the production "Independent" at least on paper, they were free to force the Unions to give even more concessions since then, each movie contract had to be negotiated with the Unions separately and they could always threaten to make the picture without a Union crew.  The result was a lot of "side letters" that waived a lot of the terms already agreed to by the signator production companies.

2. The next major concession contributing to the hours problem was the loss of the specific Saturday and Sunday as overtime days.  We went to an "any 5 out of 7" rule for straight time vs. Overtime.  In other words the producers only have to start paying Time and a Half and Double time on the 6th and 7th consecutive day of work regardless of which day of the week it was.  With this new rule, we lost synchronization with the calendar week. 

3. The concession of Night Premium on many productions (commercials etc) was the final straw that caused the problem.  This served cause the production to lose synchronization with the Solar Day....

Now with no hard Calander or celestial sync points the producers were free to do something sneaky.  Change the length of a Day.  Since movies and TV shows are budgeted based on "Production Days", they found they could stretch the length of the day (including production time and rest time) to more than 24 hours and still technically comply with the union contract.  The contract has terms that dictate minimum turn around times, or rest times but they assume a Day is 24 hours.  The producers were using the any 5 out of 7 rule to shoot 16 to 17 hours then give the 10 hours off, or sometimes 12 hours off because the Talent had that in their contract. So the "Day" including Work time and Rest time would end up being 26 to 28 hours long. This of course causes creeping call times and since the night premiums were not a deterrent and there was no fear of running into a calendar based escalation of pay, they were free to create a 5  "Day" week that was over 130 hours long (instead of 120 hrs. for a calendar 5 day period)  They end up getting the last day (rest period) which should be at Time and a Half for the full day at straight time (up to 9 or 10 hours).  Over the course of a 3 month shoot schedule they pocket a lot of dough and we loose a lot of sleep and have no Weekends left.

I think the unions (and non-union crews) should enforce the laws of Physics and say that a "Day" will be no longer than 24 hours. That includes Work time Plus any required Rest time before the next call. After you cross over the 120 hour mark (including work and rest time) in a week you start a new Day that has a minimum call of 8 hours and is at Time and a Half.  If they started enforcing the 24 Hour Day interpretation of the current contract I think a lot of the 16 hour days would disappear and the production schedules would gain days on the end.

---Courtney

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I've always had trouble understanding how producers think they're saving money by shooting long days. The only savings I can think of is in the cost of G&E rental. But with overtime it seems to me to be cheaper to add days to the schedule rather than to go to 16 hours. Depending on how OT is calculated, a 16-hour day is like paying for as much as 2 1/2 days of shooting.

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Thank you Cortney for making the subject easy for all of us to understand concerning our contract. I'm suprised at how many IA members I work with have never read the contract. I think all IA members should have a copy and try reading it, it's not that long. Andrew also makes a good point concerning 16 hr dayz and costs. I also thank Noah for being a realist.

Old School

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I remember reading about the early pre-union days in Hollywood, where big features would be shot in a matter of a few weeks because they production could schedule the shooting however they wanted.  I read about cots being brought into stages so crew people could take turns napping etc.  A lot of what I read decribes how many low budget films, here and abroad, are made now.  I agree that the union's allowing producers to flaut both the clock and the calendar have really made long schedule movie work something that is a real sacrifice for people with families, relationships, faith-type commitments to a church community or other interests to be a part of.  Now we find ourselves struggling to try and maintain a middle-class craftsperson's sort of life in a situation where we are increasingly looked upon as very expendable labor.  I often look at the producers in those sorts of situations, who are annoyed with us crew people for not really having the same committment to the project that they do and thus resistant to a do-and-die attitude, and thinking--this is great for you--you'll be done with this kind of life for awhile at the wrap of this production.  But my next job will expect the same kind of commitment, and the one after that and so on, so I get live this way all the time?

Philip Perkins

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  • 1 month later...

I just recieved my copy of "Who Needs Sleep?" in the mail yesterday, and promptly put it on. Kudos to all involved! I've certainly found myself nodding off on the way to or from set. I'm wondering if there is any way to get Brent's Rule on the internet somewhere so I can pass it around on my next show as a petition?

Thanks

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12 on, 12 off!

Oh, to be a member of SAG, no matter which restaurant I eventually have to work in. Why does it need to be this way?

Jim

from Washington, DC - where all we currently seem to be shooting is plate shots.

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