C: Is for Courtroom Coercion

Tis the season for pilots. What that means is that the shows you watch on TV, film. If they are good enough or have enough backing behind them, they move on to where you see them. By your watching them they either stay or go. These projects are done either by unions SAG (Screen Actors Guild)or AFTRA (The American Federation of TV and Radio Artists) or non-union. There was a time that I was both these unions and more but I gave up my cards (long story). Though getting my Equity card back was simple enough and anyone can buy into AFTRA. SAG has been my Achilles heel. They say we go through things for a reason and I believe I now know mine. I have always been vocal and have stood up for the underdog. Working Non-Union has definitely shown me who the underdog is and nobody is standing up for them. WHY!

I never knew the plight of being non-union as I became SAG and AFTRA early on in life. I just assumed everyone was treated fairly and reasonably. Not true. In the past year I have been blessed and cursed. In Law and Order CI (SAG) I was hired union as was paid and treated well. The same goes with 3 of the pilots I recently filmed (all AFTRA), and a couple of industrial and a debunked series. However I did a student film through UC Berkley and became involved in a mail fraud case that the police have. It took me almost a year to be paid for a Bollywood film I did. There have been projects where I have never seen the money and some high power projects can take up to 2 months to see and believe me the pay is not that great.

What makes me write this column is I was recently hired through a well known agency to work on a courtroom pilot. I was sent my contract. I agreed to it. Turned down a better paying gig because that meant I would of broken the contract. I showed up at the appointed time and was coerced into signing a confidentiality agreement. The reason I say coerced is because I would not of been paid had I not signed it. Normally this would of been fine except they broke their contract with me and all those who were hired by the same agency. Ironic considering that it was a court show and breach of contract is one of the things they decide. Because I signed this agreement I can not tell you the name of the show or anything about the cases, however, I can say TV is going the way of Borat. In other words completely fake. The cases are suppose to take place in California yet it was NY. Being from California I can tell you the look is very different and there is a difference in clothing styles. The people in the cases are coached by side teams that egg on the litigants. It was nauseating the lengths they went to. This isn't reality unless you are in the Stephan King novel the "Running Man". Jokingly I was picked by the producer to talk on camera about what I thought about the show. Even that was faked. I told the producer I hated the show. She asked me to find the positive only. The problem was, there was none. This is a show for those who have the mentality of Jerry Springer and the tabloids. To get around it without losing my sanity I kept saying it was so real and not like Borat. Anyone who knows me will know I was being sarcastic as I think Borat was the worse piece of film to be shown. Humanity should be up-held not degraded by false reality. It seems people can't tell the difference between real and falsified and some don't care. I do.

The beauty of writing your own column is you have a voice. You can stand up for what is wrong even if nobody listens, but maybe somebody will. Maybe somebody will do something about this. Maybe me. New York is a mecca for the filming community and there should be laws for everybody. Breaching of contracts should be illegal union or non and that is a F.A.C.T.