My first proper on set experience

[MileCreations]

For the next week I am being a runner on a short film which is significantly more professional then anything I have ever been involved with. While I have been on my own 'sets' before they have consisted of mostly skilled (and un skilled) friends with an extreme skeleton crew and myself falling into a number of the roles.

Anyway I thought I would document each day here, see if any others have advice and perhaps help give a small insight to other people at an earlier stage in their film making journey.



Day 1 (Friday) - Runner / sound logging

Firstly I got the role through going to a 3rd year film school (and masters etc) crewing night as encouraged by forum member jax_rox. As I currently live two hours from the major city, I signed up to shoots that were planning a more rural location, hopefully closer to me, so I ended up only signing up to 3 projects. Basically I walked up to them, introduced myself, said I was interested in healing out and explained my location situations and all that. Well only one director got back to me and that's the shoot I'm on now!

About a week ago I got basic times and locations but no call sheet until yesterday midday. The call sheet in itself was a learning opportunity! One or two abbreviations I didn't know (ie MOW: make own way) a quick search helped me a lot.

So I had to help a prop guy get his stuff so this meant leaving my house at 6am. Got to this insanely run down house but full of crazy props and expensive paintings and such, with an interedting and cool owner. We stacked up some stuff and headed to the location. We were about 15minutes earlier than anybody else. The cast and crew rocked up in four cars and a bus between 8.30 and 9ish. I introduced myself / the introduced themselves to me with about a third of the crew at first meeting, and slowly met more of the 25-30 over the rest of the morning. One awkward introduction consisted of
Dude: Brendan
Me: yes, er
Dude: *confused expression*
Me: oh are you Brendan? I'm Brendan too!
Basically the way he introduced himself I thought he already knew who I was.

First I helped set up the dressing room and food table and power and all that (on location) and then headed to the producer, I was then handed down to the first AD, next gaffer and then finally a grip who I helped reorganize the rental van with the lighting equipment and camera boxes. Enter first decent find out about a person chat with the grip.

When we got started filming I was given the role of filling out a sound log for each take and the time code and such. This is when I came as close to a Red as I have ever been as the filming day went on it turns out that 3 16GB cards are really really inconvenient when it comes to using a Red.

Because I was the runner I was also sent down the hill to the set up area numerous times to get random things or take them back.

Finally when I was nearing to leave I was asked to drop somebody off at a train station which was kind of the opposite direction to my house, so my journey home was just under 3 hours rather than just over 1 hour.

At the end of the day I would say they I know a out 4 of them to a good point, knowing the name of probably at least 85% of the crew too.

Tomorrow is the day off and I have a 15:00-23:00 shoot on Sunday.

 

[sfoster]

on my set i ordered pizza.. then the girls wouldn't eat it. so i ordered salads.. then my 2nd camera guy was lactose intolerant so i ordered chicken wings.. smh

 

[Lucky Hardwood]

I primarily work on large budget union sets so the catering is quite good.

 

[NickClapper]

i work 12 - 14 hours a day humping around lights, if i am not fed a decent lunch
i load everything back in the truck and go home.

its a little thing called respect

Really don't understand this sort of opinion.

You've acknowledged that you're 'working'. You're doing a job. You're getting paid to do it.

Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be 'fed a decent lunch', but if we're talking about 'respect', the idea of packing up your gear and walking away from a job that you're being paid to do because you're not getting enough food is not just disrespectful, it's outright immature.

It's funny, but most jobs that people do don't provide them with lunch. Obviously, it would be a pain (and often impossible) to have the whole cast and crew sauntering off for an hour's lunch break during the middle of filming, which is why food and drink are provided on location.

Humping lights around might be physically demanding, but it's no more physically demanding than being a day-labourer on a construction site, or teaching a classroom full of unruly school kids, or working as an orderly in a hospital... On a film set you'll usually get to enjoy food that would be out of the daily budget for a worker who had to purchase their own lunch, and, as such, it is a luxury and one that should be appreciated rather than treated as a God given right. If there are sandwiches provided for cast and crew, eat the sandwiches, it won't kill you! And if you don't think the sandwiches they've provided are good enough quality, bring your own the next day, or make a nice request to catering for different sandwiches.

In my opinion, it's only worth getting angry if there is obviously insufficient food to feed the cast, or if the quality is actively offensive. If it's not either of those things, I feel like we can just suck it up and get on with our jobs and be grateful for the fact that we get to work in such an interesting place.

 

[darty]

hi nick,

can i ask if you have ever worked on a professional feature ?

arrive on set 1/2 an hour early after 1 and 1/2 hour travel (on my time)

spend 5-6 hours working without a break
45 min lunch
spend 5-6 hours working without a break
wrap (if we dont go over, which we do)
1 and 1/2 hours breaking down and loading truck (on my time)
1 and 1/2 hour travel home(on my time)
fall into bed

now repeat 6 days a week for 8 weeks (not a lot of personal time left ! )
and not a lot of time to organise my own meals.

although i am well paid i expect to well fed on set.

try getting your average day labourer, teacher or orderly to work those hours !
and yes i consider it my god given right to be looked after on set and refuse to suck it up.

i m putting my personal life on hold for 8 weeks for the production and expect to be respected for that.

being grateful for the fact we get to work in such an interesting place doesnt pay the rent.

after 10 features, over 70 short films and hundreds of tvc's and corporates i think my experience
has earned the right to be respected.

cheers,
ian

 

[cheeseandachallenge]

try getting your average day labourer, teacher or orderly to work those hours !
and yes i consider it my god given right to be looked after on set and refuse to suck it up.

while i mostly agree with your point (though Nick raises a pretty valid point about entitlement) - all the labourers I know do this. During big projects/deadline pressures, my friend was getting up at 5, starting work at 6, working all day, with a half hour break (he was the youngest, so he had the luxury of going to the bakery to buy everyone's lunch - not paid for by the company). They finished at about eight. He'd go home, eat whatever his family had left for him, and then collapse into bed. It might just be where I live, but labourers have a pretty rough time (and all of them are going through a lot of physical stress here, as opposed to just the few who are grips or whatever).

 

[jax_rox]

Whilst most labourers might work longer than 8 hours during peak times/as deadlines approach etc. - as many full time workers do when deadlines are approaching - most film professionals are working such hours every single day for the entirety of the time they're contracted. And on television programs, it's much longer than just 8 weeks.

Surely if the perk of the business was shooting in interesting locations, those business people who constantly travel overseas would be working for free!


Even if all things were equal - the labourers still have a choice of what they want to eat, what's going to replenish their energy etc. as they seem fit.
On set, you only have what you're given. Often shooting in remote locations, where the closest food shops are 20 minutes+ drive away, with only 45 minutes for lunch (assuming you're not rushed back to work by the AD).


An interesting point to make is that generally the lower the production budget, the longer the hours and the worse the catering...

I'd feel more inclined to forgive a shoot I'm being highly paid on for bad catering, but it rarely happens - it's usually the ones you're being underpaid on, or helping a friend out for low pay (or even free!) that end up working you 13-14 hours+ (plus travel time etc. on your own time) with naught but some small sandwich triangles to keep you going.

 

[Lucky Hardwood]

I have always considered Craft Services and catering part of the compensation for the job. If the food sucks, it does not count as proper compensation. I would not expect a vegan to eat rack of lamb simply because it was the only food offered.

 

[ChimpPhobiaFilms]

I'm bookmarking this thread. Lots of great advice from Jax, darty, Lucky Hardwood, and others.

 

[cheeseandachallenge]

I would not expect a vegan to eat rack of lamb simply because it was the only food offered.

Again, I agree that catering should be included and all dietry requirements should be covered.. but that is a pretty fallacious argument (given that "meat eaters" eat vegetables, and I don't think many would argue there is anything bad about eating them if they get everything they need nutritionally from them). I dislike the argument, but simply "I don't like eating vegetarian food" is a fair one. Even if someone is getting everything they would from a meat meal, psychologically they're not, and a film set isn't the place to be an activist for a change in mentality.

 

[NickClapper]

I don't think we're going to agree here. Working on a film is hard work and intense over the period of the shoot and I'm not denying that.

I know many working film professionals, in the UK and abroad, and to suggest that, over the course of the year, they worked harder than, for example, my Mum, who's a doctor, is ludicrous. But if she packed up and left her work because the food in the cafeteria wasn't up to scratch (and hospital cafeterias are pretty bad) then that'd be unacceptable.

And do you really think that choosing what you get to eat is a real perk of being a labourer? Working insane hours of back breaking work for minimum wage (and often less) is hardly compensated for by being able to choose when to replenish your energy.

But I'm not saying that sets shouldn't be properly catered. My point is just that if I was told that a crew member had packed up and gone home because the food wasn't good enough, I'd be angry at that crew member, not the caterer.

 

[CraigL]

[...snip...]
I know many working film professionals, in the UK and abroad, and to suggest that, over the course of the year, they worked harder than, for example, my Mum, who's a doctor, is ludicrous. But if she packed up and left her work because the food in the cafeteria wasn't up to scratch (and hospital cafeterias are pretty bad) then that'd be unacceptable.

And do you really think that choosing what you get to eat is a real perk of being a labourer? Working insane hours of back breaking work for minimum wage (and often less) is hardly compensated for by being able to choose when to replenish your energy.

But I'm not saying that sets shouldn't be properly catered. My point is just that if I was told that a crew member had packed up and gone home because the food wasn't good enough, I'd be angry at that crew member, not the caterer.

I think the difference here is two fold, one of perception and one of reward.

The reward for your Mum is saving a life, or improving one. It's an intensely personal reward, shared very personally with another human being. It's very much a calling; no matter how smart you are, not everyone can do it. But if that reward system works for you, then you're golden.

Film sets have always demanded a lot of a lot of people, and many of them just don't get that same intense personal reward. The actors might, the rest of the above the line crew might, but for everyone else, there just isn't that same personal reward; not to mention, a Doctor doesn't (normally) work on the same case exclusively for weeks or months on end. Not having that reward at the end, means it needs to satisfied during the process, and the expectation in films is that part of that will be decent food.

Good catering is also a very selfish act on the part of the production company... it's a (relatively) cheap way of keeping people happy short term while you suck every morsel of energy/talent you can from them. Again, building up the expectation that you'll be impressed and satiated at a minimum on a film set.

Keeping people happy and energized is a continual challenge on a film set, any trick you can use is an effort well spent I think.

CraigL

 

[darty]

sorry to hijack your thread brendan.

nick, from experience i would just say that you have to set some minimum standards you are willing
to have regarding your working conditions.

i have a list of 14. one of them involves food, the majority of the others involve safety.

the first thing i do when when approached to do a film is send out a list of my working conditions.
if the producer is willing agree to them i will book the job, if not i dont.
if i have to turn the lights off and go home it is because my conditions were not met.
it is the only action i can take.

cheers

 

[MileCreations]

sorry to hijack your thread brendan.

nick, from experience i would just say that you have to set some minimum standards you are willing
to have regarding your working conditions.

i have a list of 14. one of them involves food, the majority of the others involve safety.

the first thing i do when when approached to do a film is send out a list of my working conditions.
if the producer is willing agree to them i will book the job, if not i dont.
if i have to turn the lights off and go home it is because my conditions were not met.
it is the only action i can take.

cheers

That's fine, it's still an interesting discussion, just out of curiosity would you be willing to mention your 14 conditions publicly? If not, that's fine, I might PM you, just would be interesting to hear about individuals personal standards in the industry.

 

[darty]

hi mate,
i can list them without all the legalese


1: i will work a 10 hour day and a 5 day week or a maximum 50 hour week

2: i require a 10 hour turnaround (NOT NEGOTIABLE)

3: i MAY work up to 2 hours overtime after 10 hours if asked politely in advance of wrap

4: LIGHTS OUT AT 12 HOURS....THIS NOT NEGOTIABLE AND NO DEBATE WILL BE ENTERED INTO

5: parking for gaffer truck is to be provided as close as possible to location and parking permits to be
supplied where needed

6: locations above the 1st floor must have lift access (THIS IS A DEAL BREAKER)

7: I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE TO WORK IN CONDITIONS I FEEL ARE UNSAFE OR
DANGEROUS

8: ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE TO LOCATION OR PERSONS IS TO BE COVERED BY THE PRODUCERS
INSURANCE

9: MAXIMUM WORKING HEIGHT ON LADDER 2 METRES for heights above this a scissor lift, cherry
picker or scaffold must be supplied with appropriate working at heights safety equipment

10: i work the industry standard day....... work 5 hours -meal break- work 5 hours


there are more but they just involve travel, recce fees, payment terms and consumables

cheers