Who Needs Sleep? Respect my life.

This morning my friend and I went to see a movie about Cinematography. We got to the Santa Monica Theatre a bit early and had some amazing breakfast. It was some Crapes place in Santa Monica. I had delicious Crapes with Nutello and bananas. While in line for the tickets the legendary Haskell Wexler ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005549/) came out of the theatre and approached us. Mr. Wexler is an Academy Award winning Director of Photography with such movies under his belt as: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, In the Heat of the Night (1967), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Colors, etc.

He started talking to us about film and movies then we realized he had his Documentary playing at the same time with a Q&A afterwards. We jumped at the opportunity to see and hear what he had to say. His movie covered the hazardous conditions on movie sets when working on limited sleep. It was very insightful and passionate. He interviewed loved ones of victims of that lack of sleep, that eventually led to deadly car accidents. He showed a lot on set goings on. And did a big piece on his old friend Conrad Hall. At the end I was actually in tears over some the images and stories about the legendary DP who paaased away a few years ago.

So after this movie I started thinking and remembering the good ‘ol days of working on no sleep, driving home, napping, then going back to set. Wexler is trying to push a 12 hours of work and 12 hour turnaround for next call time. I gave my friend some of my stories regarding this. On one show for discovery we had a 26 year old Animal trainer die in a car accident heading home after a long shoot. She fell asleep at a wheel. The production decided to cut our hours to no longer then 12 but after a week or so we were back to the 14 to 16 hour days.

I was once pulled over at around 3 am swerving. The cop wanted to charge me with a DUI but realized I was just asleep. He let me go but ask if I could pull over and sleep somewhere. No such luck, I swerved my way home. Another time I had a 5 hour drive from 29 palms to Santa Barbara after a 17 hour day. Needless to say I almost hit a barrier after waking up with my car traveling towards the median. I used a 6-pack of Pepsi I snagged from craft service to keep me up, but I actually poured it on myself to keep me going. When I arrived at my destination I was sticky mess. But alive.

When I worked on one of my last main stream shows, it was a Pilot in New Mexico … a reality show a’la Fear Factor. On a daily basis we worked anywhere from 14 hours to one harsh 23 hour day with a 6 hour turnaround. Upon arrival back to the set our Video Engineer wouldn’t unpack the gear until he had a talk with the producer. He made sure we were covered with a raise, more meal penalties, and hazard pay. It was the least producers could do for us and I am glad he stood up for his crew.

That rarely happens, but I learn from people and experiences like that. A respected and fed crew is a happy crew and will bust their butts for you. When I used to be a Department Head on shoots I made sure the crew was treated properly. I would buy them small trinkets out of respect. One of my proudest moments was running into an old grip/electric guy who showed off a leatherman keychain I bought for him and the rest of the crew on a show few years prior.

I take the same approach to all my productions. We are all people when the camera stops rolling, some more normal then others. So don’t be a dick production manager trying to get a quickie promising to either give work or pull work from talent, don’t be the “creepy” dude on set hoping for an interview in the bathroom, shit stop and think if these people have a life outside this location house.

Respect is earned not taken, but should always be the first gesture in a meeting. Feeling respected goes along way. I think people tend to forget that whether it’s mainstream or adult. It would be nice if we were treated or treated others as if they were our loved ones, not someone else’s problem.