I haven’t had a real situation to deal with for a while, but boooy did yesterday take the cake for the entire year!
The premise: a 4-hour window shoot with a detailed checklist and the cap of 120-150 RAW, professional shots that breaks down to if $3.50/RAW file – abysmal pay to say the very least, but the real kicker is that you are expected to burn entire 4 hours on location regardless of being done with the shot list or not. Time slots are typically to accommodate typical day for a restaurant of also dealing with customers, shitty 3rd party delivery orders, and the usual kitchen confidential things with you being on top of all of that for a good portion of the business day. Rule of thumb is to pack up and go once you fill your checklist and the venue can’t think of anything else they absolutely want you to capture. There’s absolutely zero point in staring at their walls along with them and twiddle each other’s dicks with nothing productive to do. But lo and behold, not at this place!
I walk in after dealing with traffic – get in touch with the bored-out-of-his-mind owner who’s just spit shining the dead bar at 11:20-ish AM. He knows about the shoot. He sees that I have arrived. Past that, there’s absolutely zero activity on starting prepping the dishes for me or anything like that. I take that time to bang out the interior/exterior shots on the list in if 2 minutes, and then the staring contest begins. All the while, owner is oddly fixated on how long I have to be there rather than mentioning even a single time what he’d like me to cover specifically. Alrighty then, wait around I shall.
Food finally starts being rolled out despite the place how having 2-3 tables of patrons – a great sign for me that the machine is in motion and I can be done and out in a reasonable amount of time. Until after the 8th plate comes out to the properly decorated floor and I am informed that to get my minimum of 20 dishes I would have to go stare at the kitchen staff and they could roll customer orders through me- a MAJOR red flag that the restaurant no longer gives a slightest fuck about you being there or how the food will look online on a carrying tray with kitchen tile peaking around the corners for background to every plate. Fine by me though, if they don’t give a shit how their product will look, it’s absolutely above my pay grade to, so I proceed to finish my list. And this is where the shit show really begins:
I’m asking the owner to sign the location release, inform him that I’ve filled my shot list quota, and ask about 3 times if there is anything else he would like me to cover, otherwise I’m packing up and continuing with my day.
“But you’re supposed to be here for 4 HOURS!” He exclaimed once, and then that was his parrot goddamn answer to each time I both explained about the shot list as well as asked him if he wanted me to cover anything else that I haven’t yet (and I already knew the answer was a solid no). He even said that he’s not the owner and cannot sign the release at one point! Lying right to my face just to waste my fucking time there. The absolute nerve of this pendeho! Eventually, this motherfucker fesses up to being the owner, being pissed off at Pop Menu for neglecting his page, AND admitting that they already had all the footage they needed for his place. So, if you don’t need me to be there and do my work – why the hell am I there?? To take your reluctant vendetta about some shitty promo company out on me? Not today, not any goddamn day bruv. If my services are clearly not wanted – I don’t need to be there.
Once his sorry pinchi ass called Pop and 3rd party I worked through – and thank god because extra layers of people to handle bullshit when the pay is a joke is a necessity – I got the normal emailed asking me what happened. I wrote back in a professional manner exactly what the deal was and no further questions were asked. I also added the note about the abysmal pay and that I would never work for Pop Menu ever again.
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