Because we anticipate that we will not get paid, we are gathering affidavits of detailed accounts of pertinent information for the lawyer who is signing on to the case. PLEASE SEND YOURS IMMEDIATELY to unpaidextras@gmail.com. The lawyer needs them TODAY. Here are two very long examples. Names have been removed.
EXAMPLE ONE:
My name is [name withheld], and I worked as a featured extra on the film "Spring Break '83" on November 3 and 4, 2007. I was initially contracted to be paid $200.00 per day, which included travel days to and from Houston, Texas on November 2 and 5, 2007. I later agreed to a lower payment of $600.00 for these four days because Tina Kerr, the casting assistant from Texas, informed me via email that "we had to be paid the same rate as the Louisiana extras".
I have several complaints about the way the production was run and the way the extras were treated on set. Extras were yelled at in close range via megaphones. Crew members were taking cell phone pictures of unsuspecting female extras who were in their bikinis. Production assistants embarrassed and belittled a number of extras in front of the larger group in order to intimidate them.
It all came to a head on the evening of November 4, 2007, when producer Joy Czerwonky met with the Texas extras at our hotel and informed us that we would be needed for an additional day of shooting on November 5. This was simply not acceptable to me as we were told that November 5th would only be used as a shooting day if we were unable to shoot on either November 3 and 4 for rain or other weather problems. In addition to the horrible treatment of the extras on set, to add to my concern, I was told by several people working on set that they had not been paid since October 19. This includes one wardrobe assistant, the manager of the catering company doing craft services, three Louisiana extras, one contracted break dancer, and one principal actor. As a SAGe actress, I became aware that "Spring Break '83" and Big Sky Motion Pictures were committing serious offenses to their SAG contract. Simply put, I no longer trusted their word, and I wanted to go home immediately.
I personally told Czerwonky that I would concede if we were all paid an additional $150.00 and would be back in Austin, Texas in time for a 7 a.m. shoot on a different production on November 6. At that time, she would not agree to those terms and she proceeded to insult my friends and co-workers by telling us that our reasons for wanting to go home were invalid and that working on this film would be "our only chance to make it big in Hollywood" because we were all "way too old".
As no agreement could be met, 20 of us refused to go on set on November 5. After threatening to call the police for false imprisonment, the production company begrudgingly hired a limo and a charter van to take us back to Houston. We were told that we would leave by 8 a.m., but we did not leave until 11:00. In the meantime, two people went back to set.
Thirty minutes outside of Houston, our drivers pulled over to a gas station. My friend, [name withheld], called my cell phone and told me to let the others know that our drivers were planning to leave us at the gas station because a certain female passenger was on board who apparently had gotten in to a fight with the owner of the charter bus company the previous day (i.e. she was allegedly banned from riding on any vehicle owned by the company). I quietly spread the word so that the majority of us would not leave the van or limo. Because I wanted us all to get home safe and sound, I further felt forced to lie to the limo driver that that certain passenger was not on board.
When we arrived at the Wal-Mart parking lot where we had left our vehicles, the limo driver and the banned passenger engaged in a physical altercation. The passenger pulled out a tazer, and the limo driver was yelling for me. I had to hide behind a SUV because I was scared for my physical well being. The limo driver started to drive a way, but the extras had not yet unloaded all of their baggage. As the trunk was still open, the other extras had to scramble to get their
bags out.
My friend [name withheld] and I got in to her car, and we left for Austin. To this day, I regret working on this film, and to date, I have not been paid.
I attest the above to be true on this 25th day of February, 2008
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EXAMPLE TWO
My name is [name withheld] and I was a Feature Extra on the Blue Sky Motion Picture film, Spring Break ’83.
I was picked up in the WAL-MART parking lot in a suburb outside of Houston, Texas on Thursday, November 2nd, 2007 by Blue Sky Motion Pictures’ team, which included a charter bus and two economy vans. We were told to leave our cars in the WAL-MART parking lot (in the back of the lot), and that WAL-MART knew about them; an arrangement had been made between the production company and the store, and that their security would be watching our cars.
We then drove to Hammond, Louisiana, where the filming was to take place. We were set up by the production company at the local motel with two to a room, debriefed on how the shooting days were to be worked, fed (Subway and Pizza Hut) and were let go for the night. Call was to be at 5:00am the next morning.
The shooting schedule had been explained to us as: We would shoot for a full day (12+ hours) on Saturday the 3rd, Sunday the 4th, and return home during the day, with no shooting or visits to the set on Monday the 5th. We were to be paid $150/ for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. As a back-up plan, Blue Sky’s representatives had mentioned that there was a possibility for an OPTIONAL Monday shoot for VOLUNTEERING extras to serve as a pick-up day if one of the two weekend days was rained out. As it stood, Monday was strictly to be a paid, travel day back to Texas (it was a seven hour drive). Saturday and Sunday went along as planned, with no rain, although on both days we were not fed breakfast like we was agreed upon verbally by the production company and the extras.
On Sunday night, the producer showed up at the motel’s conference room (which served as our common area for checking-in in the morning, dinner and dismissal point each evening, as well as the area for all of our meetings with the production staff) and told us that we were needed for Monday’s shooting date, November 5th. This in itself was not a problem for most because we had already cleared our schedules for Monday per the agreement. It was Tuesday that was the problem for the majority of the extras.
Given the way the production company had been operating and handling the extras, this did not come as a surprise, but it did come as a severe inconvenience. The professionalism had been slipping as the days wore on: longer than told shoot days, more and more meals being skipped, and most of the extras had work or some other place to be as of Tuesday.
The Producer’s logic was this: we are paying you for Monday, so you will do what we want you to do Monday. This completely circumvented both the agreement (documented in email) that Monday was strictly a paid travel day (except for extended volunteering extras) AND that Tuesday would in no way be a part of the work terms. What she would not reason with was that if Monday became a work day, Tuesday the 6th would be the new travel day. This waged quite a long and loud debate between the producer and the extras, with extras explaining work and child obligations and the producer explaining that the production crew didn’t get the filmed coverage they needed to move on.
This debate ended with the producer simply stating that there would be no guaranteed rides home until the shooting was completed. Show up on set via the buses or sit at the motel. A majority of the extras waited in the lobby of the motel, waiting to be taken home which was supposed to be the case per the original agreement.
I was one of the extras who went in on Monday, thinking strongly that out of pure example there would be no extras taken back to Texas. When we got back to the lobby, at the end of the day, all of the extras were still waiting to be taken home.
When we finally returned to Houston, my party had to use the WAL-MART restrooms. We put our belongings in our respective cars in the back of the lot and as we approached the front door were asked by the security guard on duty who owned the cars in the back of the lot and what they were doing there. We told them of the agreement and the motion picture, but the security guard had no knowledge of any of what we had told her. She looked in the security files and documents. There was no documentation of Blue Sky Motion Pictures at all on file. She checked with the manager, who had no idea of any of this either. However, what we did discover was that if the cars had remained there for 24 more hours, they were all going to be towed.
I mention every detail I can think of regarding Blue Sky’s handling of the extras because as a whole, it looks like they just didn’t accommodate us to their fullest extent. As a filmmaker, this would be acceptable given their budget. It was their lack of professionalism and consideration for their employees that upsets me. Never once did they try to make a compromise with us the extras. Anytime they could, they would exploit us to their fullest extent and take full advantage of the fact that we had no means of getting home until they felt it convenient for them. I know of extras who missed work and were in severe trouble because of it, and that is unacceptable. Not when the schedule you outline is specific in its endpoint and completion.
To this day myself and a large group of the extras have not seen a dollar of the money owed to us. I had budgeted the money I was to make as income for the month I worked, which was November. If they had said it would be X number of days before you were paid, I would have used that figure. But they specifically said that our payment would be mailed to us in seven to ten business days. It is now February. Clearly this has not happened.
Upon multiple calls and emails attempting to gain some sort of knowledge or date of payment from them, they continually ignore or make excuses as to why they haven’t made my payment yet nor why they have no date as to when it will happen. On occasion, they will simply hang up if they are done explaining, or rather not explaining, the situation to me.
Thank you for listening to me. I may be reached for clarification or explanation of the above at the following: [personal information withheld]
