However, there is, invariably some problem with something that crops up that is more involved. And to be honest, I often have to make some value judgements on the worth of my time on if it’s worth fighting over or not. I am not only in the middle of finishing this project, but ramping up on others, and I only have so many hours in a day.

So, for the past few weeks, I have been dealing with one of our actors business managers. She is claiming her actor was underpaid for the two week period. (let me first of all say, she was not…) However, the difference in what the business manager was claiming, and the payment already given was about 800 dollars. I did a couple of calls, and quickly realized that, although I was correct in the payment given, this business manager was about to make my life hell with calls, emails, and trying to get SAG involved. Was it worth it? I came to the conclusion that no, the $800 payment was worth it to make her go away. So, I commenced the payment, and brushed off my hands, thinking it was done.

But, no. The business manager thought that the adjustment wasn’t right, and called our SAG rep to complain. Now, let me say, that we have a great relationship with the unions when it comes to payment. We do all step ups as soon as we are notified, we don’t miss P&H payments, we are responsive to anything that is an actual problem, etc.

So our SAG rep takes a look at everything…and determines that I should CANCEL the additional payment made. We were right in the first place on the payment, and don’t owe anything additional. (which I had told the business manager repeatedly)

Well, there you go. Your client has now lost $800 I was willing to give her, because you decided to escalate.

Happy?

I am, she’s out of my hair now.

Now, before I start this entry, I feel like I need to give my general opinions of unions to put it in context. I think that, overall, the idea of unions came from a very good place, where there needs to be a certain level of protection for workers. And, I think that, in the film industry, unions are an important thing. They make sure that people have specific recourses and remedies in an culture that likes to work people 18 hours a day. While I personally believe in overtime and breaks on shoot days, be they union or non-union, I also know producers that would work people into the ground without recourse or compensation. 

BUT…I think that all production and creatives should know why people in my position often disagree with unions. And right now, I can give a specific example. The movie we are shooting is a Tier 1 shoot. That means it’s 2.5 million all in. Low budget. No one is getting paid a lot. You get the picture. But, I (fortunately) have some amazing people working on the movie, because they all think (as I do) that this is the kind of film that will be a breakout hit. All of my department keys are people who do much bigger movies than this, so no one is doing it for the money. But in this industry, if you are the key on a great breakout hit, you get launched up/nominated/etc. So, this little 2.5 mill movie is looking like a 15 mill. 

And yet we have a union problem. See, there’s a person who was PLACED on the film. One of our department heads couldn’t find a second who was union (due to the pay on these tier 1 movies) So, instead of letting him hire a non-union person, the union placed a person in the second position. 

Which could have been ok. Except that she’s terrible at her job. Due to her lack of performance, whole takes have been ruined, the director has yelled at her, the DP has yelled at her, I have taken her aside to speak to her (I don’t yell…mostly), and I have gotten to the point where I have told her key to fire her. 

Except that she’s a legacy. 

A legacy? She is fourth generation in this particular union, so her entire family in embroiled in it. So when I sat down with the union to speak with them about it, they told me, that regardless  of her performance, I was not allowed to fire her. No matter what. She could burn down my set…and I could not fire her.

This is not what unions were designed to do, and yet it feels indicitive of what they have become. They have gone past the point of protecting basic wage and labor practices, and have become a mafioso group who can force people in a free market economy to do things which are bad for business. 

So, now I’m in a position where I have to hire an additional person to do her job, and have banned her from set…so she can work on the trucks if her key so desires, but essentially, she’ll be doing nothing. 

Makes me wish we had gone non-union.