Nightmare Hours of Dream Jobs: Film production assistants pushed to the brink
Griffin Sendek | WHN Blog | 08/27/2021
Making movies: it’s a dream come true, right? Nothing compares to the hustle and bustle of working a film set, the organized chaos, the proximity to superstars, millions of dollars worth of equipment. It's a particular rush that can’t be found anywhere else. But as the days drag on, that unique spark begins to fade. By hour 14, people just want to go home; they just want to sleep.
The Phrase, ‘Love what you do, never work a day in your life is one of the biggest lies ever told, the reality most often is — love you what you do, and you’ll happily push yourself to the edge of a cliff all the pursuit of passion.
Many film production assistants (PAs) across every department have a pure and undying love for the work they do, and every single day the limits of that love are put to the test.
The passion poured, and the passion given in return is not reciprocal, for a film set is no courteous or tender lover.
Lives are put on hold; after 60+ hour weeks, there simply isn’t enough time left to do hardly anything else but sleep. Physical and mental health is put on the line for the sake of production. All so the masses can snuggle up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and enjoy the latest season of their favorite show in a timely manner.
There’s only so much film schools can prepare their students for, and for many, the post-grad realization of what working in this industry is truly like comes as a shock.
For Ellie, a recent film school graduate with PA work on two major productions, the shift from student films to working on major motion pictures was a surprise.
“They told us there were 12 hour days, but they didn’t make it seem like anything serious,” Ellie says. “If I knew that the actual professional industry was like it, I probably wouldn’t have [pursued it]. I possibly would have tried to get more into the indie side of it.”
“We know that there’s 12 plus hour days, but it’s a lot different hearing that and actually living it,” Sarah, an actress who recently began doing some PA work as well, says. “I do it one, two days a week, but it’s taxing on your body, and me as an actor, I couldn’t imagine doing that full time.
In truth, 12 hours is what happens on a good day. Grant, who’s worked different PA roles on most big production sets in the city over the past three years, reveals the days are typically much longer.
“The hours aren’t 10-12 hours. It’s really more 12-14, and the worst shows go to 16 hours a day and that’s totally legal, and I understand why it needs to happen, but it still doesn’t make it right,” Grant says. “That part I wasn’t necessarily prepared for.
The majority of all other jobs operate under eight-hour shifts, and film schools attempt to limit the students' production hours, so there is no smooth transition for new PAs who suddenly find themselves working over 60-hours a week.
“A lot of people would joke on set about how your first year in the film industry will age you by 10 years,” Ellie explains how the first few years can be relentless with few chances ever to catch a break. “It has big effects personally, but also your mental health, it just declines so quickly...and you’re never allowed to take a day off really. You can just easily be replaced if you decide to take a day off.”
Life doesn’t give PAs the courtesy of stopping while they’re working on set. Family, friends, relationships, doctor’s appointments, other creative projects, and silly little errands still need attending to, and the weekends are some of the only times to see or do anything not work-related.
“Literally, Saturday and Sunday are like my only times I can see people, but whenever those times come along after a 60 hour work week, I just want to lay down and do nothing that weekend because I’m so drained from the rest of the week,” Ellie says.
There’s only so much anyone can work on set before their body catches up with them.
“My jaw is dropped at people that get up and do it every day for months, not weeks months,” Sarah remarks. “Because it takes a toll on your body. It’s taken a toll on mine. One day I worked four days a week, and I was like, ‘Woah! Ok, this hits different.’ It’s not like 12 hours of work as an actor.”
No two people on a film set experience the same 12 hours; it’s all relative to the job at hand. Talent and crew both perform hard work. The days are still long, but they undergo a very different 12 hours.
For Sarah, whose introduction to the industry was in front of the camera, the moment she stepped behind it, the sheer amount of personal attention and care actors receive was immediately apparent. Actors are treated very preciously on set. If they were always pushed to their brink, forced to perform while running on fumes, they wouldn’t be able to do their jobs effectively. The same is still true for every crew member; however, the crew is often not afforded the same luxury.
“When you’re on set as an actor, you have a whole team of people looking at you as an individual instead of you as a team. It’s a gift to be able to have that privilege as an actor,” Sarah says. “It’s difficult because now...I know how hard people work, and I don’t ever want to put them through anything.”
The damage a sleepy actor can cause is comparatively minimal. Exhausted and rushed crew can far more easily injure themselves and others, but the most severe injuries occur after the set has wrapped for the day.
“‘It’s this overnight, you know, we’re working all these hours, and I don’t want to be a baby,’” Sarah repeats from the conversation overheard on set. “He said, ‘I don’t want to be a baby, but when it gets to these early morning hours, it’s just, I don’t know if I can drive home alright, I just start getting drowsy.”
Car accidents after long set hours are not one-off occurrences; they’re happening on sets all over the country.
“There were dozens of car accidents that happened, the production never offered to provide hotel rooms for people for overnights until someone got into a serious car accident that totaled his car, and he had to go to the hospital,” Ellie says.
“I mean it’s horrible, I mean it’s absolutely deplorable, and It’s easily fixable,” Grant says.
The fight for change, the battle for fair hours, isn’t just for a better work-life balance, not just for an end to Fraturdays and endless overnights, nor just to put a stop to the immense physical and mental strain these people undergo. Most importantly, the fight is for the film workers’ lives.
“It hit me like, oh my gosh, everyone worries about this,” Sarah exclaims. “Just we don’t want to talk about it cause we don’t want to seem weak. Or we don’t want to not get the job. We want to work, we want to be here, we just don’t want to die doing it.”
All it takes is one time that Ellie, Sarah, or Grant get pushed a little too hard on a night that goes a little too long. For them to be sitting behind the wheel when exhaustion gets the better of them — and they might never work on set again.
It’s morbid, but it’s the reality of the situation that film workers face every night all across the country. There are many reasons why people want to push for fair hours, but most of all, it’s because no one should ever have to die for the sake of making movies.
“It just comes down to nickels and dimes; they don’t want to do it cause it’s going to cost them money even though it’s killing people,” Grant says. “That’s what’s so abhorrent to me that's what makes everyone so angry when we have to work these kinds of hours.”
Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Perhaps it’s the first time these stories are beginning to be spoken about a lot more openly, but that doesn’t change the fact that the industry has been plagued with issues regarding hours and exhaustion for years. Ultimately, it begs to question: Why now?
The answer, in a big part, is COVID-19. COVID fundamentally shifted every aspect of life, and for the first time, brought to the forefront issues that have been present in jobs all across the world. There's no question that the film industry was hit hard by the pandemic; everything got shut down. The moment it was safe to come back, albeit with restrictions, productions starting moving again. What Covid uncovered about the film industry upon its initial return was these ridiculous hours; pushing workers to the brink wasn’t necessary.
“For that 4 - 5 month period, the working hours and the working conditions, I hate to say it were Ideal,” Grant explains. “We were only allowed to work so many hours a day to ensure safety for the whole crew, and we were getting used to this level of treatment, you could say. And when restrictions started loosening up and we were able to go back to some semblance of normalcy, and everyone realized this is kind of horses**t. Why are we going back to this”?
Workers were treated a little bit more like people, less like workhorses, and the movies still got made.
“They made it safe and normal hours that people were able to go home and spend time with their families whenever they were filming during the pandemic, and I think people got a taste for what it was like,” Ellie says.
For so long, production has just been a single way; many workers have never known any other possibility. Funnily enough, out of some of the worst times, imaginable surfaced the best conditions many have experienced in their entire careers. However, these conditions under the COVID restrictions cost productions a lot more money. The moment the constraints lifted came the glorious return of backbreaking hours and destruction of the brief semblance of a work-life balance.
“There’s so many people that have an undying love for this industry. Don’t we owe it to them to give them conditions that are suitable for their health”? Sarah says.
Why does anyone put up with it after so long teetering on the edge, forced to put everything on the line for the sake of production? The love for working on films is so unwaveringly strong. The younger generation just starting out, trying to look ahead at their future career, leaves many questioning Is this what I thought it would be? Is this life sustainable?
Ellie recounts the words of a friend debating a career shift the moment her production wrapped. “She was like, I want to be creative again. I want to stop working these back-breaking hours and do something I’m going to enjoy, actually.”
Grant is chasing his goals, but he knows the road ahead won’t be easy. “Me personally, I don’t know. Being an assistant director is a passion of mine.”
It takes 600 days as a PA to get admittance to the Directors Guild of America. Grant can realistically only work an average of 100 set days a year. “Just that time dedication, just to get into the union as a director will take at minimum six years.” The guild will infamously not accept many of those set days, causing the need for 50-100 additional days of work.
In the end, the hours will equate to nearly an entire year of Grant’s life spent working on sets. And success is still not guaranteed; it’s all just the big next step in his career.
“Do I think I have six years of working 60+ hours in me? I don’t know.” Grant says.
Suppose no change occurs in the film industry. In that case, many aspiring filmmakers will be pushed out, more injuries due to exhaustion will occur, personal relationships will suffer and the retention rate will continue to fall. However, there are still so many out there that working on set will always be the dream.
For many, it’s far more than a job. It’s creating art. People put their heart and soul into art, give all their passion all their time to it. They’ll happily place their lives on the line because the pursuit of art is their life.
“Because they love it, they don’t know a career that has a much spontaneity and ridiculous unpredictability. I think people love to work in art and truly having that comradery within the crew is like no other.” Sarah describes. “And then there’s the degree in me that’s like, I don’t know? “We keep still going back.
“When I started PA work, I was talking to my friend, I said. ‘You know, I’m so tired, but you know what? I can’t wait to come back tomorrow.’” Sarah says.