14 hour day

[480sound]

Hello LA and NYC brothers and sisters there's a rumor going around out in here in the rain starved desert about the IA signing off on some sort of 14 hour day rule.

Is this for 600 only or is it another overly optimistic hearsay. Is it April already?  Cheers and good luck for a prosperous year. 

[afewmoreyears]

Meaning limiting the day at 14 hrs....or, having another jackass rate for a 14 hr day...  Have not heard anything about this in LA..

[Johnny Karlsson]

I have heard of some production companies trying to base their rate on a 14-hour day. I hope we can all agree that this is a really bad idea, in every way.

[afewmoreyears]

I don't know one person that will put up with that foolishness..  Have not heard that... It is simply stupid...  I don't know what production companies, but that will not fly.. no way no how... on safety reasons alone... 

Idiots...

[Philip Perkins]

It happened on lowbudg movies, porn and music videos and probably still does.  For anything legit, like real movies, commercials, TV it's a terrible idea.  If you start having 5 or 6 day weeks of min 14s + travel, people are going to get killed.

[soundtrane]

Phil, any shoot in India is 12 hours PLUS travel time. SO, it has been a crapshoot for a loo0ng time... 

 

I dont remember ever working a day which was LESS than a 14 hour day including travel. Usually 15/16 hrs pass between when you hit the sack and when you awaken. 

 

-vin

[Philip Perkins]

Yes, and my friends have worked on crews in Thailand where the action basically never stopped--crew members would tap-out and go try to find someplace to nap for awhile, talent was round-robin scheduled and the above the liners drugged themselves to keep going.  In the pre-union era in Hollywood, sound stages would have cots for crew people to nap on while shooting a feature film in a matter of days.  Are we holding this sort of MO up as normal, a good idea, and/or what has to be done?  Only if we let them do it to us.

[JonG]

My way of fighting back is always quoting clients for a 10h day. Camera folks are never clever enough to try it, but I've been on shows where I got to wrap early because of what I negotiated and camera had to get b roll for a couple of extra hours

[fieldmixer]

A+ to that Jon, I've been getting overtime after 10 for 15 years on doc,factual,most reality,news,commercial and sports. Anyone who isn't, i strongly suggest you do! If not, its your big loss and you have no one to blame but yourself, and, everyone else should blame you too.

 

Overtime after 10. Just do it. Write it in the contract. It ends up adding up to a small fortune over time.

 

[JonG]

1 hour ago, fieldmixer said:

Overtime after 10. Just do it. Write it in the contract. It ends up adding up to a small fortune over time.

 

 

My rule is to give yourself a high rate, and let that be your 10h rate. You'd be surprised how many people will just accept it because they assume you know more than them. Plus, the more of us that do it, the more of a norm it is. I for one hate showing up and then sitting around for a couple of hours before anything starts happening on set. This way people may actually start thinking about your relative call time, and if not, you'll be payed accordingly for your time. 

[traut]

I have always been paid OT after 10 hours, except when I was doing docs for Cousteau and Nat Geo, which I was happy to do as that is the nature of the beast.