SET ETIQUETTE

[Zakaree Sandberg]

I hear ya kalani.. agree completely

 

[Ketch Rossi]

And dare I say...don't bring a RED camera to shoot behind the scenes of a SONY commercial. Ha ha. They may just frown upon that.

Funny, I have actually shot Sony commercials on Red One before, just had to Tape off the name "RED" but I did had the RED hat on...

Sorry Zak, very unprofessional of them, would they had done that to me, I assure things would had ended much different on that set for both of them, then again I never would have drinked that horrible stuff in the first place...

EDIT:

After been authorized by Richard Fox, with hum we have done the Sony shoot, I am posting few snaps form some one 's phone, don't mind my look, I was shocked to see the Red One all blacked out...

 

[Shawn Booth]

It sounds like the UPM/Producer were insecure and worried. Or they're old school and just demand certain things be known, ie. no A on B's set...

 

[Richard Fox]

Hey Ketch, that was a fun shoot.

 

[JanneJansson]

I was shooting for a european car company a few years back and my car then was very crappy toyota corolla, and it also got me into trouble when I drove in to a closed proving ground. When people are stressed the smallest reason can start a meltdown. Just SOP, standard operating procedure.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Hey Ketch, that was a fun shoot.

He he, in deed it was Richard, next time in Rome!!

BTW, posted the pics on the first post since yours didn't came out...

 

[Erich Roland]

Seems like a problem that isn't going to come up very often, shooting a soft drink commercial and accidentally drinking some competitor's drink on the set. If you shoot a Nike commercial, does the entire crew have to make sure they don't wear any other kind of shoes? If you do a Microsoft commercial, does it mean you can't use your Macbook Pro on set?

I shot an interview with Bill Gates about a year ago we were staged in his outer office and the interview set was in his conference room next door. When he arrived he came back to the staging area where the crew were hanging out, and there were about 5 lap tops on the table, and they were of coarse all Mac's. Gates said nothing and I don't think anybody on the crew thought anything about disguising the tools that we use. Later when we hashed over this poignant moment the producer-director said he thought Gates did a scan of the table top with likely an understanding that this was the world of film-video and his products (for the most part) did not work in this field. Gates is a pro (and smart one) and I wouldn't expect any issues, maybe from a paranoid handler but not Professionals.

 

[David W. Jones]

Some producers handle things differently.
I have been on set where they provide their product to the crew.
I like this scenario much better than a pissed off producer yelling.

Oh and in the future, just in case it comes up on set, the salad fork is the farthest away from you.
Don't want to enrage a producer in the future by using the wrong fork.

All the Best!

Dave

 

[Elsie N]

I was shooting for a european car company a few years back and my car then was very crappy toyota corolla, and it also got me into trouble when I drove in to a closed proving ground. When people are stressed the smallest reason can start a meltdown. Just SOP, standard operating procedure.

This reminds me of a news story on one of the original big three American networks (this happened before Fox Network was started.) It was some years ago when American cars were being challenged by foreign brands for customer satisfaction and the domestic car industry was in trouble. I think also there was labor strife at the time. The news story pointed out that during a shift change at the auto plants, many if not most of the cars the workers were driving home were foreign makes.

Talk about damning perception. And nowadays when every one has a camera phone and a youtube account, perception is job 1.

 

[AnthonyFlores]

This is something that also kinda annoys me about the industry -- certain talent is marginalized and treated like a commodity (above the line/below the line) and unless you have a big name they act you like you are easily expendable. It's hypocritical, because as much of a badass as you are Zak - I guarantee they wouldn't have acted the same way if James Cameron had been drinking a Red Bull.

In other words, they acted like that because they weren't afraid you'd walk away ...

But this silly little incident actually turning into a great thread. Also, I agree with others - it's bad etiquette for a company to expect their products to be used (soft drinks, energy drinks, etc) and not actually provide them free of charge for those on set.

P.S. - Zak, that's cool about the Steve Nash spot. I just know he has an extremely low sugar diet and Vitamin Water is deceptively high in simple sugar ... big no, no for him. And I feel you on the Red Bull, yes it's not healthy - mostly because of the extreme level of acidity ... but I've been forced to resort to it at times when the only other choices had HFCS or an artificial sweetener. Probably the healthiest source of caffeine is actually guarana because it releases so slowly into the system and doesn't tax your adrenals.

 

[Steve Das]

...they wouldn't have acted the same way if James Cameron had been drinking a Red Bull...

Yeah..good point Anthony.

Reminds me when the then CEO of Pepsi was on the Board of my school and came for their once
a year meeting...he apparently noticed some Coke vending machines. Very soon afterward..suddenly the
Coke machines were replaced with Pepsi ones. At most it probably was 5 machines.
The mentality of some people is that they keep score..and literally count every penny or...quarter as it was.

 

[Paul Hazlett]

Some end clients can be a bit prickly about things like this so I think its incumbent on the prod co./production manager so advise the crew of the do's and don't

I have been asked to dress bus. casual or not to wear certain logo or saying shirts, but the drink thing....without warning in a bit harsh.

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

well standing up to them and holding ground is not an option for me.. not with this production company.. I get ALOT of my work from them...

so i just sucked it up.. and now i know

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

well standing up to them and holding ground is not an option for me.. not with this production company.. I get ALOT of my work from them...

so i just sucked it up.. and now i know

Smart move Zakaree.

I hope that you can take some time now and diversify your client list.

That way in the future you have more smart choices than sucking it up.

On another note ...

I'm surprised how many have responded to the health implications/choices! You guys pay as much attention to your health as I did when I played pro ice hockey. I've kind of quit being that conscious now ... but I'm impressed. Makes me want to do a little homework.

 

[Scott Crawley]

As ridiculous as it is, it should still be common sense and should definitely have been handled better by the production company. It does sound as if they were trying to save face when they came down on you and you handled it as best you could. It sucks, doesn't it?

I hope for your sake the fact that you took it quietly will strengthen your relationship with the guilty party and the whole experience will make them a better producer and employer for you but alas, that is wishful thinking.

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

Smart move Zakaree.

I hope that you can take some time now and diversify your client list.

That way in the future you have more smart choices than sucking it up.

On another note ...

I'm surprised how many have responded to the health implications/choices! You guys pay as much attention to your health as I did when I played pro ice hockey. I've kind of quit being that conscious now ... but I'm impressed. Makes me want to do a little homework.

this is one of the Largest commercial production companies... You burn bridges with them.. your done..
and besides.. I enjoy working with this DP. hes awesome and REALLY good at his stuff

wasnt a big deal. im over it now.. but it was something i never thought about..

 

[Chris Ratledge]

I hope for your sake they're over it too.

I'm not at all surprised that this happened. People are fickle assholes a lot more than I ever thought possible.

I say you're lucky you got hip to THEIR no-no. I suspect that a lot of times one never finds out why people stop calling, chances are something incredibly small and pointless in the grand scheme of things is the reason.

Ultimately this really isn't something you can protect yourself from, you can't please everyone, and you never know what will piss somebody off, and since you don't know, it's always better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

 

[Nick Gardner]

When I was a camera assistant, I was on a commercial shoot on a stage. I showed up and started building the camera. I took the ronford legs out of the Tuffpac tube they came in from the rental house. You know, the ones where the lid is connected by a nylon strap so that when you take the sticks out the lid is hanging to one side and the tube falls over. I was yelled at and threatened with being fired for such a grievous mistake. Some people are just assholes. No shortage of them in the film biz.

 

[Robert Frank]

As ridiculous as it is, it should still be common sense and should definitely have been handled better by the production company. It does sound as if they were trying to save face when they came down on you and you handled it as best you could. It sucks, doesn't it?

I hope for your sake the fact that you took it quietly will strengthen your relationship with the guilty party and the whole experience will make them a better producer and employer for you but alas, that is wishful thinking.

I suspect you're correct about someone trying to save face in front of the client.

I worked with someone very early on who always gave me a heads up about the job and/or client and if there were any issues to be aware of on set. If there was an issue on set, he was incredibly tactful and would say something about the shoot and walk away with you while talking, then out of earshot let you know what was going on. He was totally cool, and kept the good vibes going, especially on gigs with some really uptight corporate clients.

I got into the habit of asking in advance or at call time what to be aware of etc, and it really helped when working with someone for the first time.

 

[Bob Gruen]

Unfortunately it's the golden rule, and they have the gold. It is also unfortunate that crew members are rarely in a position where they can walk out when abused. There was no reason to dress you down when a discreet conversation would have fixed the problem. Many people in this industry do not handle stress well.

I have seen keys stand up when they think their people are being abused, but being a key on an indie is a bit different than a 3 day commercial shoot.

Bob