local 600 question

[Marcus Friedlander]

In order to join Local 600, you must be paid for at least 100 days of work in a specific classification – such as camera operator – in a union or non-union project in the three years preceding your membership application. You can also join if you have proof of 30 days paid work on an organized production in a one-year period.


Do the 30 days that they are talking about include prep days and wrap days? For DP's does it include coloring sessions as well? Or is this for shoot days only.


Thank you.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I believe it includes any days where your paycheck says you were paid under the classification you are applying under -- and generally your payroll company does not distinguish between prep and shoot days. As for post time as a DP, which happens months after the shoot wraps, it depends on how your payroll was handled.

 

[Marcus Friedlander]

Great! Thanks for the info and the quick response sir!

 

[Kemalettin Sert]

you need to be U.S Citizen for joining?

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

I must be the only one who avoided it at every cost.. from hiding in the truck while 600 was on set doing a pop in, to just over all flying under the radar..

I was eventually called up and told I could no longer work unless I joined right then and there. the $8000 fee was a big pill to swallow, but I did it..

I def see the benefit now.. with health care and such.. but thats where the buck stops.. there is no protection for the DIT position.. I know this much..

productions are putting "digital loaders" in place and having them do things like LUT creations to transcoding, which is a DIT role..but they get away with it..

RANT DONE

 

[Nick Pasquariello]

productions are putting "digital loaders" in place and having them do things like LUT creations to transcoding, which is a DIT role..but they get away with it..

RANT DONE

That should be called in as a violation. Anyone in the camera guild should know better. LUT creation, manipulation, and application is specifically a DIT responsibility. Just like how no one is supposed to be taking pictures on set unless a Set Photographer is being paid, no one should be creating LUTs/CDLs unless a DIT is being paid. The fault is not with the Union (as this is spelled out in the contracts), but rather your colleagues.

On the other side of the coin, not every set requires a DIT or requires LUTs/CDLs. There are often times that a production would benefit from a DIT, but has to cut corners, and so there is no DIT. With the new abilities of a few cameras (Weapon conspicuously included) being able to shoot both Raw and Editorial files simultaneously, more producers are going to feel that they don't need a DIT. Though the Editorial files will likely have certain limits that productions are now not used to; lack of custom watermarks or smaller framing versus the Raw [editorial has been getting used to the idea of having some extra look-around room around the footage, in case they want to pan down to remove a boom, or just reframe in general] as well as lack of sound-sync unless sound is piped directly into the camera, which many productions don't like to do [which is a whole other issue I won't even begin to go into].

 

[Nick Gardner]

Don't worry to much about documenting your days. As long as your check clears they are going to be happy. As a lot of non union work is 1099, a letter from a producer friend or the production company is usually fine as far as documenting days goes.

Nick

 

[Tom Chase]

I have rented out my camera and been the second AC a couple times. Because the budgets were very low (ok almost nonexistent) I would get paid for the camera rental but I wouldn't be paid as AC (I included my time as the AC in the rental cost). How does that work towards hours for union side?

Thanks

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Not very well. unfortunately. The best documentation for Contract Services (run by the producers, not the union, BTW), which is the organization that determines whether you are qualified to be put on the roster, is a letter from a payroll company that will list the days you were paid for a job and under what job category. Second to that would be paycheck stubs with dates that also listed the job title.

Anything else, like a letter from a producer/production company listing those days and job title, is acceptable... but not guaranteed as proof, sometimes it gets rejected. I don't know what their criteria is for determining the validity of personal letters.

Always send copies to Contract Services, or keep a copy, because they have been known to misplace documentation. I was lucky because all of my non-union feature jobs were handled by payroll companies (and mostly one company) so a letter from that one company was enough proof, but Contract Services lost that letter and didn't tell me... and after I hadn't heard back from them for a few months, I followed up and found out that they didn't have the letter and I sent another copy.