“There’s no business like show business”
I’ve been banging-on about this for years and years… I wrote this piece in 2015, for instance:
And it’s getting worse.
A recent contract I had on an Outside Broadcast series consisted of rostered 80 hour weeks, made up of 12-hour days, 6 days a week, plus the travelling time by crew bus from the hotel to unit base. Well before the 3-month gig was over, we were all utterly exhausted; the schedule making a mockery of both the production company and the broadcaster’s outwardly compassionate statements on ‘modern slavery’.
I’d like to know that my generation of industry professionals will leave a legacy of better working conditions for the next generation… But we certainly won’t with this clear and present danger.