Who Needs Sleep? A Documentary by Haskell Wexler

[jax_rox]

Wanted to share this.

A few days ago, I pulled a 14-hour night. We started at 6pm, and didn't leave until 8am the next morning. You know you've been working too long when you start before the sun goes down and you're still on set for 3 hours after its up

I was wrecked. This happens, all too often. Thankfully, I haven't done too many 14+ hour nights, but I have done some ridiculous days, and some ridiculous hours over the course of a production.

I was recently told the story of an acquaintance who was hit by a truck on their drive home after three 14+hour days in a row.

Technically, we're supposed to have 10 on, 10 off here, but often you go over, sometimes without overtime pay. Sometimes the people writing pay checks simply write up a contract that ignores some or all of the union rules or guidelines.

And then there's times when you're barely getting paid enough to live. Funnily enough, the better a production pays, usually the more they adhere to proper work times.

Anyway, I think it's important to share, the documentary's a good watch if you have a spare hour or so to watch it:

http://whoneedssleep.weebly.com/

http://vimeo.com/63127085



http://12on12off.weebly.com/

 

[Zensteve]

Awesome doc. Thanks for the links.

Btw, the doc is downloadable, for people who want to save & share elsewhere.

.

 

[knightly]

I'd seen that one… very enlightening. If you're union and the union production isn't adhering to the union rules, you should report it to your representative. That's the reason for the union. There are a lot of places I don't believe in unionization, but in realms where employees are being put at harm by how they're being utilized, I think unionization is quite important.

 

[WalterB]

I made a rule for myself:
don't drive when sleepy after a long day: take a nap first.

Once I was so sleepy I almost drove down a dike (yes, I live in the Netherlands): it scared the sh!t out of me.
But what was even scarier was the fact the scare didn't really wake me up.
All in all I got home safely, but I don't want to repeat that ever again...

@Jax:
Indeed: less pay and more hours.
Proper budget: proper hours.

 

[ItDonnedOnMe]

Looking forward to checking this out. I've pulled a lot of long days over the years, well over 48 hours in some cases, and I long ago realized it wasn't worth driving after being up all night - it's easily as bad as being drunk.

I'll have to dig around and find it - someone a few years back ran a bunch of budgets with both the typical 12-14 hour overtime days and 10 hour days, and found that the difference in cost was negligible.

There was a recent story about a woman who died after working 30 hours straight. Too much red bull seems to have been a contributing factor to her heart failure, but that kind of thing comes with the territory when working long days, so there's more to it than just the danger of driving tired.

 

[jax_rox]

Too much red bull seems to have been a contributing factor to her heart failure, but that kind of thing comes with the territory when working long days

Funnily enough, the production I was on had slabs and slabs of red bull..... And no water

 

[baoliun]

Funnily enough, the production I was on had slabs and slabs of red bull..... And no water

This is insane.

 

[gorillaonabike]

This is every industry with good rewards. I work in the software industry and I've seen plenty of guys pull all nighters.

A couple of years back, I left Friday night at 10pm and one guy I work with was still there at 3am... Sunday.

 

[jax_rox]

This is every industry with good rewards. I work in the software industry and I've seen plenty of guys pull all nighters.

A couple of years back, I left Friday night at 10pm and one guy I work with was still there at 3am... Sunday.

The difference is, when you have an office, or a cubicle - or even just a workstation in a permanent place of work, you can take a sleeping bag and sleep there after your all-nighter. Even without a sleeping bag, you can collapse on the floor and sleep until you're ready to leave.

If you're one guy, you can probably take public transport home.

The difference is on a film set it's everybody. The place of work isn't permanent, so you can't just sleep there until you feel better to drive. You can't take public transport because you've got a whole truck full of grip gear, or a car full of camera equipment. And really, you're just as likely to be too far away from public transport anyway.

Not only that, but you're then being pushed for a smaller turnaround time, so you're not even able to catch up properly on any lost sleep.

On a film set, it's not just staring at a computer whilst you get no sleep. People are rigging things, carrying incredibly heavy pieces of equipment, operating condor lifts..
It's incredibly dangerous.

Anyone staying up that much is bad, and it's always dangerous, but a film set is a whole different kettle of fish, so to speak.

 

[kjones]

Thanks for posting this, jax, it hit home. I hope to make another film in the next year, and humane hours/day will definitely be part of planning the shoot.

...A couple years ago I was A.D. on a shoot where the producer/director wanted a 6 hour turnaround time, "forgetting" the locations were 2 hours from home for cast/crew *each way.* Only the make-up artist complained, but she was right, so I fought for 10 hour turnaround and learned a valuable lesson— and this was a micro-budget short film.

Part of what makes this doc so great... is that it was by the great Haskell Wexler.

 

[jax_rox]

...A couple years ago I was A.D. on a shoot where the producer/director wanted a 6 hour turnaround time, "forgetting" the locations were 2 hours from home for cast/crew *each way.* Only the make-up artist complained, but she was right, so I fought for 10 hour turnaround and learned a valuable lesson— and this was a micro-budget short film.

As 1st AD, it's really your call at the end of the day anyway.

Honestly, the more I'm getting paid the less likely I am to complain, but you rarely find the higher paying productions working you so hard, or at least they're paying proper OT rates (and proper rates to begin with) so it's not as big a deal.

Friends of mine have walked off set at 18 or 20 hours; I've heard of some shoots that went for an entire 24 hours.

It's insane, and unhealthy and everything else.

I usually kick up a fuss about <10 hour turnaround times (at least when we're not getting paid OT for the forced call), but I do it because someone has to do it, and it might as well be me.
Usually the discussion goes along the lines of 'I'm happy to do it if you pay me my full rate and pay me the double time tomorrow until the 10 hours is reached'.

 

[kjones]

As 1st AD, it's really your call at the end of the day anyway. <...>

True that. (In my example, the Producer/Director was a wife/husband team, and that added occasional fun to the dynamic.) Unless the 1st A.D. speaks up, imagine it takes a high crew position for the producers to listen (crew grumbling notwithstanding). It seemed in the doc that even *Wexler was nervous about bringing it up with the big shots.

When I worked in Search and Rescue, I had to constantly remind team members that driving to and from the search area —after searching in the mountains for 8-10hrs. or more straight— was more dangerous than anything we'd do on the search, itself.

The nature of the industry, right or wrong, and some personalities attracted to it, seem to foster an "if I don't work these nutty hours, they'll find someone who will." I like what Tom Hanks said and the Euro style, seems safe, efficient and concentrates the creative work.