Roadkilled and Still Running Update

Brian Dzyak · November 14, 2008

Just an update to this thread:

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...ompany+Warnings

After going several rounds with the Production Coordinator who decided to change the agreed-to deal memo AFTER the job was over and the invoice was submitted, I went several more rounds with the "Producer," who refused to acknowledge any liability on the part of his company for the deceptive practices that his Coordinator employed with me and other crew members who also were not paid for labor and/or equipment rentals.

As of this date, my owed overtime has not been paid AND the Producer decided to also not pay the Loss & Damage (damaged Steadicam and lost Dionic battery).

The Director has attempted to contact me for reasons unknown, but for a variety of reasons, he is never available when I can talk with him, though I explained the situation in several voicemails. The Producer has all of the "evidence" as well as my invoices for the job itself and the L&D. There is no further discussion required. They made deals with crew and are choosing to not honor them.

It is disappointing in that the job itself was enjoyable and this is the first time in my twenty years of experience that I've run into such blatant unprofessionalism, disrespect, and deceit. Since this happened, I've spoken with many others who were on the job, and not, and it seems we all have horror stories to share and luckily for me, others have gone through much worse with much more money at stake.

It's easy to become complacent after dealing with so many established and reputable companies and people who know what they are doing. The warning for me and everyone is to take extra care when dealing with new people to avoid issues like this. I'm sure that most of the people in this particular company are ok to work with, but from my communications, it seems as though just one person was pulling a fast one with me and other crew and hasn't taken responsibility for it. The Producer had a chance to fix the problem by honoring the deal memos for me and others, but he has chosen to side with his Coordinator instead.

We are responsible for our own reputations and those two individuals have decided to ruin their own to save a few bucks.

So, that's where this has ended up. We all did our best under difficult and shifting circumstances and I do hope the best for the project. It's just too bad that the company has chosen to deal with the crew in this way.