View Full Version : [locolist] Strike fees revisited
<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>Dear Location Professionals,
I had hoped this issues of strike days would have been resolved amicably
between Disney Studios and the homeowner but it appears that it will have to
be resolved by the attorney's. The issue is what constitutes a strike day.
The homeowner's position is that each day they are removed from their house
after filming is completed and work of any kind, such as removing props and
furniture, striking sets that were constructed, refinishing floors damaged by
the production company, cleaning and painting of walls that were damaged by
the production company is considered a strike day. The production company's
position is that the days that were spent repairing the floors, painting and
cleaning (which amounts to two days) are not considered strike days even
though the homeowners were unable to move back into their house. The studio
says these were days spent making improvements to the property. My production
manager, Jeffrey Zeitlin, and the production executive, Randall White, would
like to know if there is any official definition of a strike day in any
location manager manual. I am not aware of anything describing what
constitutes a prep or strike day but maybe a clarification by our union would
be helpful. Steve Dayan, is this something that you could shed some light on?
I want to make it clear that these homeowners are two of the nicest people
that I have had the pleasure of working with and I do not feel that they are
trying to take advantage of the company in any way. I feel that they are
being mistreated and that they will probably never allow filming at their
property again or if so the fees would be much higher to compensate for their
inconvenience. The next location manager to knock on their door might not get
the warm reception that I received.
Many of you have responded to my previous posting but I am now asking for all
to share their opinion on this matter so that I can pass it on to the
production company. This could be done by individual responses or a single
letter composed by someone such as Steve Dayan with people giving permission
for their names to be attached. I would like the production company to know
that there is an organization of professional location managers and that
there are standards by which we conduct ourselves.
Thank you,
Kevin McAteer
Home 805-241-0992
Cell 818-970-0469</FONT>
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Jr, Enok
04-17-2001, 10:29 AM
Kevin -
The situation you're describing deifinitely constitutes a strike day. I
believe that if a homeowner is unable to exist in their own home with a
reasonable level of ccomfort (refinishing the floors, for example), that
would also constitute a strike day.
No wonder we keep fighting with Disney.
Yoshi Enoki Jr.
In my experience, a strike day is any day after the shooting crew has
left a location that is needed to restore a property to the condition it was
in prior to filming. The fact that you are "fixing up" a person's property
does not mean that you are entitled to perform that work without paying them
for having to occupy the house while you do so.
I find it incredible that a company the size of Disney feels it has the
right to redefine what is standard industry practice in order to save money.
I have never personally experienced any situation where a production manager
became involved in defining what was properly a strike day and what wasn't.
That is not his job. It is the location manager's duty to negotiate the best
deal possible for the company, and once that deal is made, it is his ethical
responsibility to uphold the company's fulfillment of the agreement.
I find the behavior of your production manager and production executive
borders on the disgraceful. I am glad you have published their names so that
I and others can avoid working on projects with which they are associated.
Sincerely,
Ken Hunter
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Kevin,
I'm sorry to hear that Disney has taken the position that they have.
I believe Disney is mistaken and will only end up paying the homeowners
attorney's fees in addition to the strike day fees in question with interest
or damages to boot.
I don't have copies here at the office of Location Agreements that define
what constitutes prep & strike days, but I'm sure others do.
My advice would be to get defintions from some of the location services
as well because strike day language is usually quite specific in their
agreements. I did check the EIDC's guide, "How to Make your Property a
Star" but it doesn't define a strike day. You might want to ask the
CFC if they have a definition in any of their documentation.
Did the contract that was signed by the parties specify prep & strike
days? Was the Company making these repairs because of damages they
created, or were they simply doing restoration work as part of the agreement?
I am not aware of any "official" defintion of a prep or strike day,
but would again refer to what various agreements state from various production
companies & location services.
Don't we have enough work to do already without dealing with issues
such as these?
Kevin, I know that you're doing your best to deal with a difficult situation
and I will gladly help in any way possible.
All the best,
Steve Dayan
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I'm happy to sign a letter from our group or send one from myself.
This gives us all a black eye.
Carol Smith
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This is indeed the kind of thing that we should have a voice in. I will
sign any letter going to Disney, to get them to wake up, and smell the
mouse droppings. It should be a nice and professional letter along the
lines of, "Perhaps you are unaware, etc., etc."
Tom Richer.
I find it hard to believe any producer would allow this to happen, especially
given the fact this is a hero house you've now established for a potential
new series. What on earth do they think they're doing? I saw the house you
shot and remember what you went through to find it. Do they seriously think
they're going to find even a reasonable match if the show gets picked up? I
don't think so. Not only that, but the fees they'll end up paying the poor
location manager who gets hired to find a match (if the show gets picked up)
will likely be equal, at least, to the fees they would have paid this
homeowner.
Very irresponsible. Bad UPM. Bad producer. Go right to bed without desert.
Ed Lippman
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Kevin,
This whole thing is absolutely ridiculous! Who are these amateurs???
All this does is screw things up for everyone else, including themselves
should they ever want to return! If your show took out all the furniture,
messed up the house and the owners can't live in it, then of course the
restoration time should be considered "strike". I would be glad to
come to your defense in any manner.
Greg Lazzaro
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Hello all-
Any letter I can be a part of to educate any company, especially Disney, to
the realities of location filming I am eager to see. The reality is that if
the homeowner cannot live in their home, they should be compensated. Minimal
surface repairs are another issue. Count me in
Kristi Frankenheimer
(Currently working for the mouse, too)
Larry Pearson
04-17-2001, 11:22 PM
Kevin,
I do feel sorry for what you are going through. It seems at times that when we give our word, it is not only for this Company but for every Company that comes after us. We always try and be fair since we are the middle man. We have a responsibility to all productions to do the job, and to save money and not just throw it at the problem to make it go away. I think most of us do that.
People don't always us common sense in this business, but common sense says if the people can not live as they did prior to us filming at the home, then we will pay strike fees until we have restored the home. Sometimes I have negotiated an all inclusive fee to include Prep, Film, and Strike. Sometimes I have talked to the owners before time and said if it is just paint touch up, or clean the driveway, etc. then that would not be considered a strike day (this is very rare because most owners are very savvy to prep and strike days) I think only then we would not pay anymore strike days than originally contracted. I agree that we should not have to pay if someone forgot to put back a lamp, or hang a picture. It is just plain stupid to think that once the film crew is out of the house we have no further financial responsibilities. What if the film was bad and we had to come back? Maybe that is why more stages are being built, because we can not go back there. A stage will cost $60,000 to $100,000 per month plus the cost of building it, where the house is $1500 to $3000 per day. I guess it makes more sense to be rude.
I have found that when I run into problems like this it is easy to say to the UPM or Producer "that if it were his or her house you would want everything back to original and they would expect to get paid for their time" When they think of it as theirs then sometimes it puts them back into reality.
If that fails then explain to them that is the reason that people are asking for higher security deposits than normal, because the last production did not live up to their agreement.
Again it all comes back to our word, and if the production will not back it up then maybe we should only find the locations and let the UPM or Producer negotiate the deals. I know they would not want to do that, because there are at least 95% of the UPM's that understand what we do and rely on us to do whatever it takes to make the show run smoothly. The other 5% Micro Manage to the point that we are only puppets waiting for our strings to be pulled.
Good Luck,
Larry Pearson
Add my name to any letter that goes out.
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Kevin,
You can add my name to any group letter that may be proposed for these
knuckleheads. And thanks again for listing their names - may I never be
available should they call. ;-)
Stevie Nelson
This is just plain bad business and also bad for "The Business"..I also would
suggest a call to the two government agencies which represent filming and are
also responsible for facilitating filming....The EIDC and the CFC. A call to
Disney from these two about the damaging impact to the business might give the
issue additional support.
Best regards,
Tony
Hi Kevin,
A little late, but I'm behind you 100%. Your people are off their rockers.
Doesn't surprise me in the least though.
I once had a Disney UPM tell me "You'll never work for Disney again!"
(I'm not kidding) because I left a temporary day-to-day assistant gig on a
pilot, with no guarantee of work past the next two days (in case a new script
came out with changes), and with the blessing of the Location Manager, to
take a series.
Of course, a few months later John Reade's office was calling me begging me
to work.
Anyone remember the cartoon that was around years ago, of the homeless guy at
the freeway offramp holding the sign: "Will Work for Disney" ? ;-)
All that being said, I'm working for 'em now, one step removed, and haven't
had the slightest complaint. Knock on wood. I appreciate that they're still
in town and paying my bills.
As for your situation, Kevin, you might look up Mark Indig, whom I believe is
still a production executive at Disney. He used to be a very good location
manager, and he might be willing to share his thoughts on the matter with
your UPM.
Good luck,
Kristin Dewey
Hi Kevin,
A little late, but I'm behind you 100%. Your people are off their rockers.
Doesn't surprise me in the least though.
I once had a Disney UPM tell me "You'll never work for Disney again!"
......
Of course, a few months later John Reade's office was calling me begging me
to work.
Anyone remember the cartoon that was around years ago, of the homeless guy
at
the freeway offramp holding the sign: "Will Work for Disney" ? ;-)
......
Well.... now John Reade ***is*** the homeless guy.
David Israel
Kevin, here's a suggestion:
The only thing that Mickey Mouse would hate more than a lawsuit is bad
publicity. Perhaps you should talk to Russ Sega/Fega and see if he and his
new best friend, the reporter who wrote the Sean Penn article about filming
in his apartment, could put together a little expose on Disney jerking these
poor home owners around. Sort of a "Buyer Beware" follow-up to the joy of
having your house used for filming - just be sure it's not used by Disney!
Pat Parrish
Kevin: my unequivocal position, based on the information you are supplying, is that the company owes the homeowner for the two days in question. If these days were in fact spent repairing damage caused by the filming, and cleaning up after the filming, neither of which would have been necessary had the filming not taken place. This is not considered "improvements." This is RESTORATION. If the work being done is far more extensive than might be reasonable considered necessary--i.e., a floor which was received in a severely damaged state and was further damaged by the filming is now being completely refinished, or walls which had major holes in them before the filming and are now being patched and the whole house repainted, I can understand the concept of "improvement." But this is the kind of thing that needs to be negotiated up front, not after the fact. It seems to me that your UPM is being extremely cheese-paring and shortsighted, to say the least, if not absolutely unethica!
l. This is NOT the kind of behav
ior that encourages people to allow filming on their property, and it is NOT conducive to keeping filming in L.A. This is rape/pillage/slash & trash behavior, the kind that eventually gets you run out of town. I'm glad you included the names of the guilty so I can run screaming if they ever call.
Leslie Thorson
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