Movies are the closest incarnation of magic known to man. Why wouldn’t you want to grow up to be a part of them? Answer: they’re all smoke and mirrors, the magic is forgery. It’s Schrödinger’s magic, it only exists during the time you happen to look at it.
Some of the largest production companies in Hollywood (Paramount, Nickelodeon Movies, Regency Films) are now defendants in a lawsuit brought up by four production parking assistants. I don’t know what their job descriptions were exactly, but according to the lawsuit, they endured some pretty shitty conditions.
Routinely working more 12-hour days, 60-100 hour weeks and earning no overtime pay is only the tip of the iceberg in the allegations against set conditions. According to The Wrap:
Instead, they were paid a flat rate of $150 a day on average for a 12-hour day. The suit also states that the PPAs were not provided compensation for food, nor given access to food on set, despite others being given dinner on set.
Hmmmm… I’ve always dreamed of a magical place where suddenly shitheads cease to exist. I was hoping to get to Hollywood and I was really hoping to matter. That kind of naiveté left me sometime around my 12th birthday.
So, these PPAs really have worked their asses off to land some kind of role in the making of some kind of movie. And what happens? Sets and shooting aren’t immune to weather conditions so naturally at some point during the careers of these people, it got cold. They weren’t given heat. They weren’t relocated. Grin and bear it, boys and girls. So what’s a person to do? You’re freezing your ass off, but you happen to have your car… your car has heat.
So you’re relishing in the newfound warmth and comfort of your car in these frigid conditions and you’re thinking… f**k, I just burned all this gas and I only make $150 a day. I’d be pissed too, wouldn’t you?
It all sounds like a job worse than the summer you worked for your dad. But your dad probably let you use the bathroom sometime between breaths of shouting at you, right? I don’t know, I don’t know your dad.
Paramount didn’t do that. Resources were stretched so thin that evidently the four PPAs were forced to s**t in their cars, in bottles and in buckets, because they weren’t able to leave post to use the bathroom.
I one time had to pee in a cup in traffic and I thought about suing the city for poor traffic conditions. If you ask me, the PPAs deserve the back pay and slew of damages they demand … I mean, assuming such awful things can happen in the world.
[Image: Flickr]