Reality Fights Back… Remember where you were.

Further to my post of last week, this week a long running David / Golliath story just got wrapped up with a settlement of over $4M dollars being paid to Reality staffers for just the sorts of practaces I mentioned in last week’s blog.

The class action law-suit was brought by a bunch of reality crews against FOX, CBS and ABC for the illegal failure to pay cash due for working overtime, working through meals and at weekends.

The repercussions of this decision to settle are already beginning to have an impact… a memo went around the office yesterday instructing the crew on the show I’m running now about the company’s (sudden) decision to adhere to several ’newly implimented industry standards’. And then just this morning - amazingly - a timecard turned up on my desk with a note to “please fill in hours worked accurately and fully” for the first time in my career.

 Read this story…

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/01/reality-staffers-win-class-action-lawsuit.html

 I’ll let you know as soon as I hear any more news from the front. (Or if this gets swept under the carpet).

AN UNHOLY REALTY TV NON-UNION

So I was at dinner last night with some friends, one of whom has just returned from a shoot from hell, where her fellow crew members spent the entire 9 week shoot while travelling around the country complaining about everything.

The sad thing is that as we talked over the minute-by-minute breakdown of the shoot, the other people around the table, including myself, were all able to chime in with similar hellish stories from filming out in the field.

The problem is well known among reality TV producers, the issue is simple. And I’m going to be totally frank. A lot of very untalented people work in reality TV, and rather than move on and work in commercials or feature film production, (where they’d have to play alongside real professionals - not to mention getting into a Union), they can bust out of school, do a couple of turns in an assistant role, then, so long as they work for cheap and print up new business-cards (striking the ‘assistant’ from it) then they can pretty much make a long career in reality TV where they make up for their lack of discernable skills by being in a constant state of anger at the many and various ways ‘the producers are trying to keep them down’, ‘directors don’t know what they’re doing’, or (a big favorite), ‘this shoot is taking too long?!’

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of extremely talented people working at all levels in reality TV, but they will all tell you the same story. In reality TV bad crew-members can get hired over and over, and there’s enough work with new companies (who move into production too quickly to check references, and enough clueless executives who themselves have worked up through this same ladder, so don’t even know the difference), that the bad ones can flourish.

A favorite complaint is the lack of paid overtime, working through lunch and long days. Why do they complain about this? Well, for all of us working in reality TV we work ridiculous overtime often for free, we work through lunch most days and almost always work extremely long days. So this isn’t a gripe I disagree with.

So, it’s not that there isn’t enough to complain about - we don’t work nine-to-fives, and we don’t get anywhere near the compensation that you’d expect considering either the hours we work or the amount of income we generate for the production companies and the networks. But, my problem with the attitude of these crew-members is that, well, this is how it is - this is how we all KNOW it is. It’s how it’s always been. Moreover, their complaints are being made to the wrong people, and just don’t make the shows any better.

I’d love to say that that the networks and the gargantuan production companies we make so wealthy are finally preparing after all these years to redress the balance and pay us what we’re worth. But they seem quite happy earning all that money - I’m not holding my breath. I’d also love to say there’s a growing workers movement inside realty TV preparing to fight for the rights of all of us working in Reality TV, but we’re not organizing yet… we’re all too tired.

But these complaining crew-members highlight something about reality TV, and it’s something that the viewers should never really know, but effects every single second of every single reality show.   

You see, almost all Reality TV is non-union. It is cheap to make precisely because it’s non-union. It’s one of the reasons that the networks love us and one of the many reasons why cable TV has grown so powerful in the last 10 years. Just as with cheap washing machines, bras or fan-belts - if your product is made by a union worker, (with all their lovely healthcare, benefits and employment protection), it is always going to be more expensive than one produced by a group of uninsured, benefitless and disposable workers.

(It’s worth remembering that in TV the ‘products’ that the networks are selling are not their TV shows but the airtime for the commercials in between the shows - so they’ll always dump a high priced drama with middling ratings for a dirt cheap Reality TV show with middling ratings - so long as they get some ratings they can sell the airtime to big brands).

So, why isn’t Reality TV unionized? For a start we came in late - the production companies who started delivering high rating reality shows right at the beginning of it all managed to do it for tiny budgets - the budgets have now been set in stone - and no network is going to pay more for a show when they now know how cheap the other guy did it for.

Another reason is perhaps the most controversial one… many producers have said, (and in the darkest corner of my mind I can only agree), that it would be almost impossible to produce reality TV under union guidelines. When shooting a reality TV show, any show, you’re expected to be capturing real life emotions from real live people, these people get emotional late at night, early in the morning, or after being under the microscope all day. One fun staple of the reality show is that we get to watch the ‘competition’ part, or the ‘challenge’ part - then we get to see them ‘back at the house’ where they’re forced to live with their competitors. That’s when most of the yelling and screaming happens. Outside of office hours. So, now you’re committed to shooting during the day AND the night. See the problem? That’s not a 10 or 12 hour day.

So, if reality TV unionizes there would be two results - for starters, shows like “Fat March” or “Beauty and the Geek” will become within spitting distance of being as expensive to make as “ER” or “West Wing”,  and I think given the choice, if the networks have to decide between shelling out the same amount of cash, even I, who earn my living making reality TV shows, would prefer to be jobless and watch more “West Wing” rather than watch another cat-fight amongst a bunch of alcoholic bimbos.

Another result would be that I would have to become a Director’s Guild member in order to direct reality TV. I’d be in the same pot as Ridley Scott or Steven Spielberg - and the networks could have their choice between using me, or some of the World’s best directors to make their shows… I think you can see why this wouldn’t necessarily be in my interest.

So, I’ve given you all the reasons why unionizing Reality TV would probably spell the end of the genre as we know it, and may even lose me work. Would it surprise you to know that I’d love to have this industry unionized?

I’d get healthcare. I wouldn’t be forced to work the insane, unreasonable hours I’m expected to, and that I don’t get paid for. All signs are that I’d get paid more and my quality of life would increase; hell, I might even get a pension. Finally, executives would have to value my work, training would increase for the younger crew and old dogs alike, and above all, with all this to back it up the work will be the focus of everyone’s day.

And if you’ve got TV being made by motivated, healthy, rested, properly paid and well trained crews - I totally believe the work would get infinitely better. But, this is realty TV. Who wants that?!