BLIND ITEM REVEAL:

The producer on this project was @rydenardo. The DP, Steve Carmona, asked me several times to assistant direct the project & I expressly turned it down each time, I've never been an AD.

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Steve wore me down by circling back several times to convince me that the pilot was shooting w/ a skeleton crew, that I would not encounter any issues with AD'ing this - though I am not, nor have I ever been an AD.

Not even a 2nd AD.

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So this also entailed me creating the shot list daily, which wasn't an issue, but then the DP did not adhere to the shot list at all. Which created confusion, wasted time on set (while he rearranged the shotlist between scenes everyday), & so we were basically shooting run-n-gun.

After about the 3rd day I saw that there was a much more efficient way of shooting this, & that would've been with a real assistant director. I call around to check the avails of a dozen people.

An AD by the name of Matt McCann sd that he'd step in & replace me & restore order.

I have a chat with @rydenardo & producers, & with a thorough explanation, I address my concern about the situation, about the crew being MUCH bigger than what I was told, about there being no 2nd AD to assist me, & feeling that the project was out of my scope.

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I explain that I've already done the leg work & found a competent replacement with years of experience. Someone who'll come in & rock it for the same day rate, as a favor to me, & I will take another job.

The producers respond "No."

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So I'm not sure how else to express that this shoot would be better off with someone who can create a shotlist that the DP actually adheres to. And AD who people are actually listening to. The entire situation would improve with Matt.

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Producers respond, "No."

Producer's excuse, "Continuity."

Which made absolutely NO SENSE because the DP wasn't following my shotlist anyway!!

He was winging it everyday! What continuity?

I literally suffered through the process.

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By the 2nd to the last day of the shoot, I finally just came right out and suggested that I wasn't really needed. I was doing the tasks of a glorified PA and printing sides at that point because the more I tried to AD, the more I was being straight up ignored.

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So the DP Steve, after offering us the info that he'd been out until 3AM drinking the night prior, finally offers to do the shotlist for the very last shoot day.

He arrives to set the next AM - he didn't do it. There's NO SHOTLIST. There are 20+ background talent & no shotlist.

After suffering through a week of this, voicing my very valid concerns & relying on the DP to create a much needed shotlist for ONE day, the DP walks in willy nilly 100% planning to shoot the day run-n-gun.

Quietly fed up, I pull producer @rydenardo to the side & for a sidebar.

First thing that AM, I tell @rydenardo that it's probably best that they just release me right then & there, let's just call it a wash - no pay for the day. I'll go home, no harm no foul.

There is literally NOTHING for me to do at this point. What are we shooting?

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The only person who seems concerned about any of this is me, as @rydenardo explains that I can just sit on sidelines and watch, and get paid for watching.

WHAT???

What in the mansplain fuck? I mean, you can't make any of this up.

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Instead of turning around walking the fuck out like I should have done, I sat on the sidelines confused & wondering WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON???

WHO DOES THIS SHIT???

Turns out there was whole little diddly planned at the EOD & thus the reason they needed me to stick around.

Remember when I posted about that time that producers created a whole situation where a background actress needed to come to my house to get her purse that was supposedly left on set?

Yeah, that was this shit!! All of that was planned.

They needed me to be there.

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They needed me there to enact that situation at wrap, and if you recall when I initially posted about it, that shit didn't work at all.

She did not get anywhere near the inside of my home, instead, she got turned away in the hallway.

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I basically threw her shit out the door & that was THE END.

So let's explore all of the wrong shit that occurred during this scenario, shall we?

Let's see. LISTEN TO YOUR CREW when they are expressing LEGIT concerns about what is working/what is clearly not.

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I mean Jesus. I stopped counting all of the ways I tried to help make the situation better, beginning with the fact that I turned the project down several times in the first place.

But notwithstanding that, I was clearly uncomfortable once there. I voiced this 80 different ways.

But because women in film are sometimes perceived as 2nd class citizens, looked at like we're difficult when we speak the fuck up for ourselves, my concerns were ignored daily.

It was a case study in how many different ways the producers could keep me in an untenable situation.

I can only hope this thread is read by women in media, broadcasting, advertising, entertainment, & after recognizing that this type of scenario is not unique AT ALL, internalizes that it's 100% OKAY to speak up for yourself, stand up for yourself, create boundaries for yourself.