(Editors note: This document was created with information from additional sources, which have been credited. Additionally, a number of people have provided ideas and information to help fact-check and provide clarity. They have not been credited (although one was quoted), but should they read this, their input is acknowledged and appreciated. Otherwise this document specifically reflects the views and opinions of the writer (of this blog), and is not affiliated with any groups, coalitions, unions, organizations or the government; enjoy)
To say that the year 2020 has been unique would be a dramatically gross understatement. The last time we dealt with a real world, life-altering pandemic was the year 1918, and I’m pretty sure none of us were alive, nor were our parents and probably not our grandparents (unless your gam or grandpa is over 100 which in that case God bless ‘em and keep them safe!).
These United States are embarking on a shaky and, in some circumstances, grossly premature attempt to return to some semblance of economic reality, the equivalent which will be that of running the Kentucky Derby with a three-legged horse.
There won’t be a “normal” anymore, at least not as far as 2020 is concerned. Quite possibly, things will never be the same that they were prior to early March of this year. I suggest this because we are on the precipice of summer time, and those of us working in unscripted television have, honestly, no idea when we are going back to meaningful work. I’ve heard, from a number of camera and production folks, a wide swatch of start-back-up projections, ranging from as soon as next month to as far away and extreme as we might not even shoot the rest of this year. I’ve heard some small shows are beginning to crank back up. I’m not going to play Nostradamus; if you have heard you are going back to work sooner than later, then you are fortunate. Or, maybe you aren’t so fortunate, if you are rushing (or being forced to rush) into a situation where you might not really be safe.
Obviously, more than ever, our safety is important and obviously our industry is among the many that involve large groups of people of varied perceived importance and salaries sequestered onto buildings and stages and situations. However, this isn’t about those mammoth difficulties involving a re-start of productions; many people smarter than me are struggling with the details right now and it’s a bit mind-boggling.
So I’m going to focus on the idea of rates., and specifically operator rates. It’s probably the most prevalent conversation in our specific window of the industry. I realize there may be other people in this group (AC’s, utilites, robo ops, specialty cams) who have their own specific issues with their rate of pay, and for that I apologize and recognize your concerns, and suggest that you will have your day to raise that issue.
Before I get started in on the idea of rates, I’ll systematically consider a number of elements we need to consider when looking at Operator rates:
In the beginning: There’s a fair amount of uncertainty regarding how camera operator in unscripted productions were saddled with their rate. Although at the time there wasn’t a large market regarding the number of non-scripted productions, there were shows enjoying a fair amount of success, both ratings and financial, on any number of networks, both network and cable. And when you consider that some of these non-scripted shows utilized well over 20 operators and 20 assistants per a given day of shooting, I’m certain someone recognized the massive potential for filling their banks. The rate primarily settled on for union non-scripted, from what is known to be The Green Book, or the VTA (Videotape Agreement) is currently the albatross that we drag with us to this day, and have for over the past 20 years or so. That’s not to say we can’t overcome that rate: Live and Stage show operators are also included in the VTA but by sticking together and having a unified goal, they are able to negotiate rates above those contained in the VTA. Additionally, there is another much more palatable rate in what is known as The Orange Book, which outlines the rates for operators working on features and episodic television productions. It’s more in line with what we ought to be making but we aren’t.
However, as many as we think we are, we aren’t: I mentioned early about what would seem to give us a numbers advantage within our place in the 600. Surely it would seem that, based on the sheer number of shows. many with large crews, unscripted would make up a large piece of the 600 pie.
Umm… not so much.
At this juncture, non-scripted directors of photography, camera operators, and all categories of camera in non-scripted production make up approximately 5.7% of active membership that makes up Local 600. Seems hard to believe, doesn’t it? But it helps explain why it’s difficult for us to get any leverage when it comes to making headway in raising our basic rates.
We are 1 of 13: There are currently 13 locals in the Hollywood Bargaining Unit, which negotiates the Basic and VTA for us (the agreements between IATSE and AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) that are negotiated every 3 years. Twelve groups other than us, with their own issues regarding rates, benefits, and safety issues, and their own separate contracts.
Or think about this: you’re in a room with 12 other people. You are all trying to decide what to eat for dinner. Some people have different preferences, some might have allergies, a couple people may be hard-core vegetarians, one might just prefer to drink their dinner. Now, consider unscripted operators, based on our numbers of representation in the Local 600; we represent the 4-year old on the hand of the adult, and as much as we scream about wanting to have candy for dinner, we most likely will be shushed, or ignored. Whether or not you buy this categorization, it’s important to remember that unscripted has made actual and positive inroads within the union. We are now represented within the Union (through what is currently known as the UWG, Unscripted Work Group) and have unscripted people on the National Executive Board, which ain’t nothing, to use a double negative.
IATSE is listening (sort of) but already knows the answer to the question you most want asked: At a meeting at the Local 600 prior to the 2018 negotiations with AMPTP, the very powerful group who IATSE negotiates with every three years in order to try to improve the status of its workers through re-negotiation of the Basic Hollywood Agreement and the Videotape Agreement (the primary contracts which cover our position in the industry), one of IASTE’s primary negotiators pretty much summed it up like this (note: this isn’t verbatim): “Every three years, we make prescient and salient arguments as to why our workers should have higher wages. And the producers will often agree with us, and assure us that they hear us, but the answer is NO.” Above the line loves its money, and they do not want to share it with you. This is an infallible truth. Or, if you want to subscribe to the Star Wars theory of hieracrchy, AMPTP is our Darth Vader.
So, you say with defiance, we should strike! : Uh, sure, but at this point in time, there hasn’t been an industry-wide walkout in the entire history of the union, which is about 127 years old. Possible? Sure. Probable? Doubtful. It would require a mammoth commitment and change of mindset of our part. Like winning the lottery, it’s fun to occasionally muse over, but not very realistic to actually achieve.
This isn’t fair: You’re right, it’s not.
You’re not making this sound particularly hopeful or positive: You’re right, I’m not.
So what are we supposed to do, smart guy? Well, I’m glad you asked.
In case you missed what I said earlier, let me reiterate: We could be on the verge of something great. Similar to what occurred in ’08 during the writer’s strike, the door is open for unscripted production to take a very large and fortuitous financial step into the arena. It’s most likely that smaller productions will be shooting before the bigger, audience-based, large competition-type shows will be back in production. A major step in the right direction for unscripted camera people will be wrangling the opportunities that are coming our way.
The truth is that there’s only so much the union can do for us as far as moving rates on unionized shows. The 600 and IATSE are legally prohibited from helping us raise our street rates because they negotiate our contracts. The communications we have here, or have on the Our Local 600 Facebook page, or any other organized arena that might even indirectly involve the Union, are not sanctioned by the Local: “Essentially any communication about street rates is a matter between… colleagues and is not part of the local or the IA’s agenda”. IATSE and/or the 600 may also have specific contracts with certain production companies, where those contract details including rate scale has already been established and is not open for negotiation. If you are interested to learn more about the various contracts (and you should be), here’s a link to the list of the most recent versions of some of those contracts:
https://www.icg600.com/My600-Pages/Contracts
I’m making this point to emphasize again that whatever we accomplish from this point moving forward will largely be a grassroots function that needs to involve ALL OF US. It’s sort of like that old proverb: “If you don’t vote, don’t bitch.” If you don’t want to get involved, then don’t bitch about your rate or falling short of your benefit hours if you had a chance to negotiate a higher guarantee of hours. And if the pandemic didn’t underscore the obvious, I’ll mention it here: Everything is Political, whether you like it or not. Decisions will be made with you or without you.
For us to move the proverbial needle, however, is going to involve an effort from the body of us all that is equal parts utopian and visionary. This method involves both flipping shows, and raising rates, as they are interrelated subjects:
Ask questions: When you have been called, it’s ok for you to ask for the names of the other operators. Sometimes you already know, but if you don’t, ask. Ask not only about the rate but guaranteed hours in your deal. Those hours are important; they will affect not just your daily rate, but also your health and pension benefits.
Communication: Whether it’s flipping a show or raising rates or attaining a higher guarantee, it’s so important that we communicate. It starts with the operators on a given show, but that circle needs to be expanded to include as many of us as possible. By communicating, we are able to say things like, “Hey, we are trying to get this show flipped; please support us by not taking the job when they call looking for someone else.” Or, “Hey, we are trying to get said show to pay us a better rate; please don’t undermine us by taking the job if they call you.” Is this fantasy? Right now it is, maybe. But it doesn’t have to be.
Have a plan: If you are attempting to flip a show, there are effective ways to do this without putting your neck out there on the line. Granted, there is always some risk (no risk, no reward, right?). But a phone call to one of the labor reps, or a text or email to one of the people on the UWG, and you’ve already made inroads. If you are not sure how to go about taking that steps or crafting a procedure to do so, many of us by this point have been involved at least once in the flipping of a show. Use the safety of this email group, or the Our Local 600 page.
Do your research: If you are looking to increase your rate, know what the general rate scale is. Obviously, each individual show is a unique matter, but for non-scripted, the VTA (Video Tape Agreement) Rate Card is the one normally utilized.
The minimum for 8 hours is $413 ($51.63/hour), and stands to increase by 3% by October 4, 2020. As mentioned, both the Basic Hollywood Agreement and the VTA are scheduled to be renegotiated sometime in 2021. In addition, understanding the dynamics of the show you will be working on allows, as well as the company you will be working with, will help you and the camera group to craft a plan. For instance, many productions book operators on 10 hour deals. That will convert your daily to $567.89/10 (stands to increase by 3% by October 4, 2020). Is that enough for you? Maybe, but probably not. In lieu of what operators on live shows, scripted shows, episodics, etc. are making? An emphatic “Fuck No”. And if you really want to get pissed off, you should see the other positions who are making more than we make. You can’t really be pissed at those individuals, though (like audio mixers); however it worked out, maybe they evolved into higher rates, or maybe they had a better plan, but either way….
Respond cohesively: Once, as a group, you’ve reached a decision as to what (if anything) you are asking for, now is the time to inform production. Have someone on your camera team craft a response; on a recent show, Lego Masters, one of the operators wrote a respectful but specific letter to the line producer on behalf of the operators. It outlined that the operators understood the goals of the production, but also supported by the operators felt like they should be granted an increase in their guaranteed hourly. All the operators involved signed it, maintaining solidarity. The letter was effective and the request was granted.
Understand what you have to offer: I heard Rebecca Rhine, the National Executive Director of Local 600, once say at a meeting that, in essence, the only effective tool that we have to bargain with is our Labor.
While I’m not suggesting anything such as a strike right now (but around late 2021 who knows?), I am suggesting that an incremental grassroots movement, a show-by-show strategy where even a single positive change should attempt to be achieved, should always be our goal and our mindset moving forward. What I mean by this is we should always seek to move the needle in some positive way for ourselves, whether that be a rate increase, a raise in our hourly guarantee (raising the hourly is a tool for us to increase our rate, as well as increasing our overall health/pension hours), safety provisions such as controlling handheld hours, or other ways.
I do understand that some production companies on some shows have done right by their camera crews (after alot of work put in by those crews to prepare a cohesive strategy). NZK Productions, the production company for “The Bachelor” family of shows, has crafted a deal for its veteran camera operators, which is very reasonable ($70.83/12) even based on the current market for operators of all types of shows, but this is an exception. The production company did this because, in a large part, the Bachelor camera crew organized. They came to the 600 with their proposal; they were informed and unified in their process. It was by no means a slam dunk; it took time and several meetings to achieve the result. But they did the work, and the Director of Photography of their show was very involved and supportive (this is an important distinction to note). But even though this is an example of a success story, there are also many companies that will offer the minimum, because they can. This is where the conversation needs to start. It’s up to us.
We are currently trying to set a base in which we can start the conversation. This is probably the gnarliest of concepts for camera operators, as a group, to agree upon. In writing this, a number of operators were consulted, and almost to the number, each offered a different figure. They basically ranged from $650/10, to $60/hr to $700/10 to $750/10. There’s an old saying: you are worth whatever the market will pay you. So why not start high? Let’s say, just as basis for a jumping off point, $750/10 seems to be a fair base for us to shoot for as far as initial negotiations go. To quote John Armstrong, a veteran camera op, “One thing that’s undervalued about our work is that the stress level can be quite high. A story develops spontaneously in front of us, or off in a corner, and we only have one chance to film it. We don’t get retakes. The ability to stay calm, alert, focused, and reactive on unscripted shows sets us apart from camera operators in many other genres, and shoulld command higher rates.” Makes sense to me. The biggest issue is to try and establish a universal rate we can all refer to, in order to send a message to all productions that we operators, as a group, are organized and specific in our goals.
Also, in most cases, don’t expect producers or directors to go to bat for us. They might, and if they do, that’s a bonus. Most above-the-line employees are more inclined to not want to rock the boat. It’s just best that we keep all of us between us.
Now, a word about flipping shows.
Like a lot of industries at this current time, and in the months to come, television production, and specifically, unscripted television production sits on the precipice of what may be a new frontier. The overwhelming and obvious safety concerns of going back to work on TV shows may very well be leveraged against the desperation of the many people (like us) who are unemployed and sitting at home, waiting for the phone to ring, or a text, or an email calling us back to work, while we wonder how we are going to pay our mortgage or rent, or for our car, or utilities, or food. The bump in unemployment insurance is nice, sure, but those with families, or even with a little more than the most basic living expenses know that this can’t go on indefinitely. Besides, we like our jobs, and we want to get back to work.
May I extend a note of caution? Because of the likelihood of shows that require smaller crews might be the first to return to production, coupled with what may be desperation from the many networks’ and their desire to start creating multifarious and inexpensive content, could be something that could work into our favor. Or it may not, depending on our approach to it.
First of all, it’s more or less common knowledge that the largest number of unionized non-scripted shows are usually either live-audience stage shows or large competition-based shows, both of which utilize many more people of different categories, almost all of whom are already union members, and therefore can be galvanized into one cohesive group that is able to use the force of sheer numbers to flip a show from non-union to union status, if necessary. You’d be hard pressed to find a non-union stage show at this point; most production companies don’t even attempt to try it.
Not so in the small-format non-scripted world. These shows usually feature three or four operators (or less), utilize AC’s to shoot, christening them with the evil title “Junior Operator”, which signifies they work like a dog, doing separate jobs for one salary, while keeping a full-time camera operator unemployed. In fact most of these shows require many camera people to do more than one job, which some will happily do for the dangling carrot of a (very) minimal rate bump. It’s not uncommon for DP’s on these shows to shoot, light, direct (while shooting), cast wrangle, and drive the van.
There’s going to be an opportunity to flip these types of shows to non-union. And while I understand that money talks, and you have to pay for the BMW you just leased, and sometimes you actually make a better rate on these smaller shows than on the bigger unionized ones, hear me out.
More than ever, safety is going to be an issue in our industry, regardless the size of the show you work on. How likely, even in remote locations with small crews, are we going to be safely isolated and social distanced from the world? Maybe at times, but not always. Is that small production company going to pay for Covid=19 testing every day? Are they going to pay for your incubation period should you contract the virus? I mean, these are among the many issues large union shows and production companies are and will be continuing to wrestle with for the foreseeable future. But understand that you stand a better chance to be protected, physically and fiscally, with the union behind you. We’ve all joked in the past about how little our union protects us or even gives a shit about us . But in the last three years, we’ve made headway within the 600 that you couldn’t even fathom years before. It’s been incremental, but things are getting better. And if you are in rural Mississippi in a swamp and you have some predicament with a health or a financial issue, you’re going to get a lot more support from the union than you will that producer you are hanging with in the day and drinking with at night. Truth.
So, how do we flip these small shows? How do we get everyone on the same page? We’ve tried before and it’s virtually impossible. When someone came up with the statement about comparing achieving something nearly impossible to that of herding cats, they probably were referring to achieving solidarity within the universal camera operator realm. As far as conceptualizing the zen of camera operators, we are more mercenaries than we are philanthropists.
And I get that. My personal situation is different from your situation, and yours is different from hers, or his, or everyone’s. Some of us are desperate for the gig; some of us have personal relationships with the production company. The list is endless. But the conversation always seems to end up at the same place: “I’m not getting paid adequately to justify my experience/effort/skills.” If you are tired of that old tired argument, then maybe you are ready for something akin to a movement, real change. If you aren’t ready to do something about it, then don’t bitch about your shitty rate.
I’m going to suggest that, if you haven’t, go back to the February newsletter of the UWG and read these links, which do an excellent job of identifying a number of productions where incremental positive changes were made, and provide us with a reasonable strategy for establishing a cohesive camera department that can use its positioning for good:
https://mailchi.mp/0804a0365b72/looking-back-two-years
https://mailchi.mp/1b7aca2b1028/how-you-can-help-raise-rates
In closing, I am going to reiterate that I don’t have a fucking clue how this is all going to turn out. Of course I’m hoping that we come out the Covid-19 shutdown with enough production to help us all keep busy, and with more success stories that will give us the momentum to realize an even better future for us all. But I’ve already heard of some shows shooting with robo-cams (sort of a variation on the “Big Brother” model), where the postion of on-set camera operator may be eliminated, or at least severly limited. I don’t think that will happen, but did anyone predict a pandemic that would immobilze the world in such a way that it would kill hundreds of thousands of people and severely disable the world’s economy? (Well, actually the government had a pandemic task force and plan somewhat in place before the current administration disabled it in ’18, but that’s a political conversation for another time… yet, everything is political, isn’t it?)
But even with all the uncertainty currently surrounding the world right now, and in our industry… it’s up to us. Be part of the change you want to see.
Stay safe,
Brett Smith
DP-Camera Operator/Citizen of Planet Earth