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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Untrustworthy

I just got fired from a job because the producer decided I was untrustworthy. Huh?

I get a little nervous when my phone rings and the area code on the display is located in Southern California. I spent ten years in the Hollywood film and television industries, and while there are many good people working in those businesses there are many, many more that are less than ethical. The ultra-competitive environment breeds a “get ahead at any cost” mentality, and it’s a good idea to regularly brush one’s back against the wall in order to better detect the presence of stilettos or other sharp objects.

A few days ago I was contacted by a company in Orange County: they wanted me to do a small local shoot for them in San Jose, I’d come highly recommended, and they wanted to know if I could help them put it together. All they needed was a simple SDX-900 package with some basic lighting and grip, so I called my regular rental house (Chater Camera) and had them whip up an estimate. I told the coordinator who the package was coming from and told them that I don’t bill equipment through myself, but I have the production company work out billing and insurance directly with the rental company.

There are a lot of DP’s who will rent and insure the gear themselves, because most rental houses will give them a 10-20% discount that they can then pocket when they bill their client full price. I’ll probably start playing this game at some point, but so far in my career I haven’t felt the need to take on that hassle. I don’t really want to be on the hook for a large equipment rental bill, especially when it’s my first time working with a production company.

I explained this to the coordinator, and she seemed fine with all the arrangements. Everything seemed to be on track… until yesterday, at around 5pm, when her boss called me up. “Most of our cinematographers insure the gear themselves,” she said. “I don’t know you, I don’t trust you, and I don’t know that you won’t walk away from the shoot with all the gear and leave me holding the insurance bill. I feel very uncomfortable taking on this extra risk, and I want you to send me something in writing that says that you won’t steal or break anything.”

There’s a divot in my jaw where it hit the floor. I’ve never been called by a producer and asked to write an essay on the subject of “Why I won’t steal or drop the gear, by Art Adams.” I was absolutely astonished, and it showed in my response. I’m normally a very easy-going person, with a reputation for doing good work very, very calmly, but this was too much. I must admit I gave her a hard time on the phone, and then I emailed her this note:

“In response to your phone call:

“Please contact me with any additional questions you may have.”

I received a response about an hour later: I was too defensive and negative, and as the company prides themselves on working only with fun, creative people they were going to look for someone else. That’s fine by me. I’ve never been questioned like that before, and I consider such questioning to be highly unprofessional. It’s one thing to call up and ask me why I do business in a particular way, but it’s inappropriate to say, right out of the gate and to someone you don’t know, “I don’t trust you not to steal the equipment, so give me something in writing that says you won’t.” It’s both insulting and stupid: if I was going to steal the equipment, why wouldn’t I write such a note anyway?

Also, if she’s uncomfortable taking on that risk, why does she consider it normal for me to do it? I’ve never worked with her either.

I comfort myself with a lesson I learned a while back, thanks to my days in the Hollywood film world: People most often suspect that you are going to do to them what they would do to you, given half a chance. The producers who think you are going to screw them are more than likely getting ready to screw you.

I think she did me a favor.

I’ve worked with some great Southern California production companies, although I had to leave LA before I found them. They can be a joy to work with. But there are so many others that act in such completely unethical ways that I’m afraid I’ll continue to cringe whenever I see (310), (323), (818), (949) or any of the dozen other Southern California area codes appear on my Caller ID. Sadly, Hollywood’s ethical business people live in the shadow of all the others.

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I believe I would have asked them to step away slowly from the crack pipe with their hands where I could see them.

What clowns! We’re going to see more and more of this as the barriers to entering the business go lower and lower.

I recently had a prospective client tell me that I was 3 times higher then the next bid they got. I’ve been in the business for over 25 years and my prices are very much in line with the local market. I told him good luck with his show. It costs me more then that to stay home!

Hang in there.

Dave Hudson
Manwho Productions Inc.
Atlanta

Posted by davhud  on  06/26  at  01:48 PM

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The funny thing about this job is that I came in considerably under their budget. They were ridiculously over-budgeted for a very simple shoot. I hope the next person they call is less merciful.

Hanging in. And thanks for the comment.

Posted by Art Adams  on  06/26  at  03:01 PM

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Art, you did the right thing.  It’s probably good you got out while you did.  It could have been worse.  They could have done some stunt where they refused to pay you or put a stop-payment on a check (which has happened to me) for a week’s or month’s worth of work.  Yet another reason why Hollywood and So-Cal production isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Posted by Joel Smith  on  06/26  at  06:08 PM

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Hi Art.
Unbelievable clients are so believable these days.
I do agree with you that you got lucky.
No professional needs to work like that…
although we do it… sometimes…

Posted by Snow  on  06/26  at  10:50 PM

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If they don’t trust you, why are they even calling you to work for them?

I’m continually amazed by the idiocy of some folks…

... but I am a little uncomfortable with the “windy” generalizations re: Southern California production professionals.

Posted by Christian Glawe  on  06/27  at  08:12 AM

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There are some great Southern California production professionals. My experience is that there are a lot more who not professional, but I came up through low-budget features and my experiences might not have been typical.

Once I worked my way into episodic television and medium-budget features things got a bit better, but odds things still happened from time to time. The politics became slightly more civilized at higher budget levels. At least they weren’t hiring two crews at a time. (The one exception was when I was on a New Line feature that the IA tried to organize.)

I remember watching the movie “Bowfinger” and thinking, “I lived that.” Early on in my career I worked on a feature out of the back of a station wagon, with a certifiably crazy director who didn’t seem to know how to direct, but I didn’t care. I was working in Hollywood! That zeal lasted until one night, shooting in downtown LA, when I went back to my loading area and discovered a couple of shot rolls of film were missing. The producer/director called the police, they searched my car, they searched all over… nothing. I was mortified.

Turned out the producer/director had stolen them himself and tried to collect the insurance in order to fund additional shooting. It didn’t work. Eventually I found out what happened, but for weeks I was pretty shaken up at having failed to protect the shot footage.

I’ve had a lot more of those kinds of Hollywood production experiences than I’ve had the other kind. I’m hoping to avoid that in the future as I start to work down there a bit more often, but ten years in LA was a great education as to all the ways people can screw up, mismanage and embezzle a feature film.

The work in Northern California isn’t nearly so exciting as a lot of what goes on in LA, but it’s much more sane. Corporate clients just don’t act that way. They don’t always know how to create really captivating material, and they don’t always get the logistics right, but they don’t actively screw us either. It’s very civilized by comparison.

Posted by Art Adams  on  06/28  at  07:47 PM

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I had a similar type of thing happen to me once, but I submitted my summary anyway. A year later somone called me back, said they had changed management in the production department, and were reviewing old proposals. They came across mine and didn’t understand why it had been rejected so they were now offering me the job. It turned out to be a nice job with some good people in the end.

Posted by DanConklin  on  06/30  at  12:52 PM

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You’ve pretty much summed up why it wasn’t difficult for me to leave LA 16 years ago.  It wasn’t the pollution or the traffic etc. It was the people had to work for more than half the time. I had some stellar clients, yes, but man oh man I got sick of the constant hustle by so many. And that was mainly working on corporate shoots!

Obviously there are similar scoundrels everywhere, but something about LA just seems to grow and shelter them.

Posted by Steven Bradford  on  07/04  at  11:32 AM

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I’m presently only a hobbyist in the film/video craft, but I’ve certainly experienced similar situations in my day-job. I work in research & development, and corporate clients often approach us to build prototypes or other forms of novel technology. I recently had the pleasure of being yelled at and accused of negligence because I was unable to get two pieces of technology (selected arbitrarily by the client) to work with one another. To use an analogy, it was like buying a random carburetor on eBay and then screaming at your mechanic when they have trouble installing it on your electric car.

I feel your pain.

Posted by Milo Hyson  on  07/26  at  01:44 PM

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