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IATSE’s Hollywood locals have declared war on this producer over issues of unfair labor practices. Larry Levinson Productions has subsequently fired and replaced all their crews which were repped by IATSE on LLP’s big budget mini-series Mega-Storm, which NBC is reportedly purchasing. Picket lines have formed at LLP’s sound stages in Simi Valley and at the location of the shoot. LLP has been a long-time IATSE holdout, and I know Local 600 has been after the company for a while. Levinson does all those low-budget Hallmark movies non-union. But Local 600 and the other Hollywood locals are joining to try to organize more work like they claimed they would during the recent contract ratification campaign. I hear that, now that LLP is doing larger projects with bigger budgets, it’s become a prime target for the IA to organize.
IATSE accuses LLP of asking their crew to work 16+ hour days, over often 6-day weeks, with less than safe turnarounds, all for close to minimum wage and without future job security. IATSE is fighting for fair labor practices. LLP has signed contracts with both the DGA and SAG, but has been quoted as saying it will never sign with IATSE. The fired crew is now on strike and the production company has brought in scabs to complete the show. IATSE claims many are inexperienced office workers. The picket lines form at the anticipated crew call and wrap times in an attempt to identify and contact the scabs.
Pickets also are expected at NBC in the next few days. The union is trying to pressure NBC not to purchase product from this content producer and its members are pledging to boycott any programs purchased without a fair labor agreement signed by the producers and IATSE.
Posts like this are appearing on various network website blogs and job boards pertaining to the industry:
“Movie of the Week and DVD content producer Larry Levinson Productions (LLP) has been taking advantage of an overly competitive job market in the area of Film and Television crew. As with any industry where there is a large number of workers and a few jobs it is necessary for the workers to bravely unite to demand that livable and fair wages be paid. This has happened as IATSE and non-union Crew are now STRIKING against this treament from LLP. The Network television mini series “Mega Storm” is reported at $9 Million dollars in budget, yet they were paying many of their key crew positions less than $10 per hour, having them work 16+ hour days, and 6 day weeks, without overtime on the 6th day, and without adequate rest periods between shifts. Please support the Workers as they attempt to get Larry Levinson to the table to negotiate fair wages and work conditions. Post your concerns at NBC’s website, and spread the word. Join the picket lines. For information on picketing locations and times, and for general updates on progress join StrikeLLP@gmail.com or call an IATSE representative for more information. PLEASE JOIN OUR FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF WORKERS, THE GOOD OF THE NATION, AND THE HEALTH OF OUR ECONOMY.”
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A lot of this complaint sounds like bitching that the rules let producers do ANY low-budget, non-union work. Well, sorry, but that’s the way it works. And if it was different, indie cinema would be even deader than it is now. In regards to the budget, $9 mill for a mini-series is not that much money. TV shows, especially dramas, can go for $1-2.5 mill per episode, and that’s after the far more expensive pilot.
The hours do sound crazy, but that could be talked out without a picket line. Larry Levinson is one guy, not Warner Brothers. Don’t confuse the medium-sized shops with the giant behemoths. And NBC? You want to march around like idiots on their doorstep because you heard a rumor someone who works there is THINKING about buying a show Larry’s producing? NBC is not the droid you’re after, either.
The unions are pulling the trigger on the picket far too quickly post-strike. What they haven’t realized is that if they protest every two weeks, people stop paying attention. They’re in danger of becoming the unions who cried wolf. And we all know how that story turned out.
i’m not saying we shouldnt go after this guy, he’s a leech, just that lets not bend the truth. 16 hr days? six days a week? unsafe turnaround? hold it a sec….i’ve worked on about 25 llp jobs over the last 5 or six years and rarely went over 13 hours. and always got at least 11 hour turnaround (mostly 12 hrs) – which is more than the union will allow – on union jobs more than once i was asked to do 10 hr or less turnaround.
again…i’m all for busted up LArry Levinson..and you will see me toting a sign on the picket line.. but let’s just not sink to his level. have a great strike!!
Great, is The Asylum and Bleiberg and New Concord (if it’s still around) next? The low-budget shops have been run like this since forever. I’ll be interested to see if IA is actually able to organize them. These shops make shows that are eency, I’ve worked on a few of them — If the neg costs exceed $2 mil it’s the biggest film they have that year. Most of their stuff is under-$1M knockoffs of popular titles, like, oh, “Transmorphers” or “Snakes on a Train.” A lot of this stuff ends up in the foreign market and late-night scifi channel.
OTOH, while they make small producers making downscale product miserable, the wholesale capitulation of Labor to the BIG STUDIOS continues unabated.
“Meteor”, the first NBC miniseries produced by LLP and RHI, was also made without a fair labor agreement. Don’t watch it!
Its true LLP has been doing illegal and down right abusive practices for years SHAME ON LARRY!!! 16hr days
Tried to contact “StrikeLLP@gmail.com” via E mail but only got a “NOTES FROM LINE”. Nothing about where MEGA STORM is being filmed or who is the IA rep at the “LINE”.
Anyone know where this being filmed? Might help to get more IA support out there if they let their members know!
Ok, second time trying to post. The information in the blog is completely bogus. The crew never did mulitiple 6 day weeks. The crew never was forced to work 16 hour days. All locations are in the zone. 9 million dollar budget?! No way. Less than half of the entire crew walked out, and the ones that did just want to flip the show to get their days. No one has been fired, they walked off the job and when they did, they had never even raised a single concern with the producers about any complaints that they may have had prior to doing so.
Everyone who is defending this jerk off production has to be people who worked as part of the production team. No one who actually lifts a finger to get things done on set can agree that this company is fair. Not a grip, an electric, a camera op or camera assistant or PA for that can say that they got paid fairly. I mean they contract you at $150 for 14 hours. The break down on that is barely minimum wage. Anyone who calls that fair is nuts. I mean let’s face it, McDonalds pays better. And anyone who claims LLP is indie is a moron. I’ve done indie. This is straight up robbery. $8 bucks an hour. Ah being 16 again. I think te guy at Tasty Freeze makes more than I did on that job.
IATSE ALLOWS 19+ hour work days ALL THE TIME.
It’s worse than sweat shops.
Turn around sherm-around…
Everyone, it seems has forgotten BRENT HERSHMAN especially IATSE.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
This is from Time Magazine. Please read it.
Its title:
“The Longest Day” (and remember.. this was a UNION show!)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986226-1,00.html
“Brent Hershman just wanted to get home. He had worked a 19-hour day as an assistant cameraman on the set of Pleasantville, a comedy starring Jeff Daniels, and he had about an hour’s drive ahead of him. When he got on the road, it was already 1 a.m., but he had promised his eight-year-old daughter that he would be home when she woke up.
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Hershman, 35, never made it to the Los Angeles suburb where he lived with his wife and two kids. Exhausted, he fell asleep behind the wheel and slammed into a telephone pole. His death last month has prompted many professionals in the world’s most glamorous industry to call for an end to the grueling hours that are now the norm behind the scenes–a problem that has become even more endemic as studios rush to complete the megabudget “event” movies currently in vogue.
Hershman “was a big guy with a huge smile,” says Bruce McLeery, the chief lighting technician on Pleasantville. “He had been away from home for 22 hours, and the day before he had worked 15 hours.” McLeery understands why Hershman attempted the drive. “Brent’s little girl was sick, and he told her on the phone that he would be there,” he says. But after working so many hours, McLeery adds, “you’re impaired. You might as well be drunk.”
In an industry in which 12-hour days are considered short, Pleasantville was not an especially arduous production. But the fact that Hershman was killed on a relatively routine shoot instead of a challenging picture with big effects only underscores the danger. Says Steven Soderbergh, Pleasantville’s co-producer: “It’s amazing that it didn’t happen on other projects where these specific kinds of abuses are rampant.”….
As a former key crew member I am here to tell you all of what is said above is true. In addition LLP/Mega Storm may be in violation of standard accounting practices. Falsifying time cards and pay stubs is a common practice.
Isn’t Larry the producer who does all those faith and family values MOWs?
Shame on the Halmis and on Hallmark for using so much of that snake’s product for so many years. Scuzbag prodcos like LLP can be a serious liability for a struggling public company like RHI Ent.
How long before Larry grows a conscience and does the right thing? Only the ghosts of Larry’s past, present, and future can answer that now. Stay tuned.
This company constantly does illegal things. I used to work for them. Many of the people that work on the movies are members of some sort of guild or union. Crew members change their names so they don’t get punished by the union for working on these movies. Larry then likes to keep production locations secret so they don’t get any guild or union reps to show up and see union members working. I get it’s hard to get productions jobs in this city since most jobs are going away from LA, but it doesn’t change the fact that Larry does all sort of unethical things to his employees.
He is not a small time producer much to what he wants people to believe. Come on, he owns his own studio and produces between 15 and 20 movies per year.
The Teamsters & IATSE are not lying about the long workdays. Here how a typical shooting schedule is figured out for any LLP movie:
LARRY: Here is a script. Schedule it.
LINE PRODUCER: Okay, It will take us 30 days to shoot this movie if we cut all these corners.
LARRY: Great. Let’s see if we can do it 25 days.
LINE PRODUCER: Okay, after much work, I think we might be able to shoot this movie in 25 days but it will be hard.
LARRY: Excellent. If we can do 25 days, then 18 should be no problem. Go make my movie.
I feel bad for any writers who are being put out of work by the actions of these union members who are exercising their legal right to strike.
LLP ROUTINELY TAKES ADVANTAGE OF ITS CREW! HAVING WORKED MANY OF THESE SHOWS I ASSURE ALL OF YOU THAT LLP WOULD BE BETTER IF IT WAS ORGANIZED. I CAN’T COMMENT ON OTHER LOW BUDGET PRODUCTION COMPANIES, BUT LLP IS DANGEROUS, AND EXTREMELY ABUSIVE.
I worked on this miniseries. I can tell you that the electric crew definitely worked more than a few 16hr days. Which wouldn’t be so bad had we not sat around for the first 2-3 hours of each day waiting for production to figure out what it was exactly they wanted to shoot. It was our turn around that suffered, not theirs. Which, again, wouldn’t be so bad if we were compensated well for it. Let’s face it though, the monetary difference between a 12hr day and a 16hr day is around $20 (depend on your taxes). Not really worth it when all of your gear is soaked, you are tired, and pissed off. This show was by far the poorest “organized” and run production I’ve done for LLP.
To the person who said that no one had approached production about the many problems plaguing this show…it doesn’t take a genius to notice a background actress’s hair is on fire or that rain towers probably shouldn’t tip over into power lines. Did they fire the effects crew? Nope. Production chose to do nothing when problems presented themselves, they chose not to treat their crew properly. They chose to close their eyes and ears to anything that would cost them time or money, and then hid, like little children, behind statements like “No one told me”. If some one has to tell you, then you have no business being a producer or an AD. The crew should not have to tell production how to do their job on a daily basis. That’s not our job.
We struck because production silently said that we did not matter. It doesn’t take that much effort to treat people fairly, to have something for people to eat…even if it’s just the electric crew that is staying late. When you work low budget, when you know your crew is getting screwed… you can do little things, something at least to make it better. If you don’t have the human decency to do that, then… I really don’t know what to say to a person like that besides “No contract, no work”.
Gee I wonder who is posting negative comments against the crew …could it be those higher ups that actually have contracts (DGA etc)And yes the hours were brought up and the unsafe conditions and turnarounds !!!!!
They ought to be grateful in this economy when so many are losing their homes that these whiny bitch losers had a fucking job in the first place. Must be nice to be able to throw a hissy fit and walk off the job. No idea why the expect anyone will hire their lazy asses again.
The low-paid but dedicated crews that for years have gone great lengths for Larry Levinson have finally had enough. When the IA called the strike, many had to walk away from the first job they’d had in months, primarily due to the SAG slowdown. They have sacrificed a lot because LLC will never hire them again, and they know that. LLC has had to go to Craigslist for the bottomfeeder scabs to replace the professionals. Rumor has it that 80% of the footage is so bad it’s unusuable. The director, Brad May is a longtime Local 600 member as well as DGA. It’s understandable that he has a contract to fulfill with LLC…doing it “The May Way.” Let us know how it works out for you.
Hey Dorothy,
Are you a scab or a shill?
Either way you’re a worthless, amoral piece of shit.
By your logic, slaves ought to be grateful to their masters for feeding them. Right? Wrong.
I’ve got a suggestion for you. Now’s the time to turn your life around. Go out and find yourself a real job. And maybe, just maybe, with time you’ll work up the inner strength to look at yourself in the mirror and forgive yourself for being such a tragic waste of a human being.
There’s always hope you fucking shitbag.
“To the person who said that no one had approached production about the many problems plaguing this show…it doesn’t take a genius to notice a background actress’s hair is on fire or that rain towers probably shouldn’t tip over into power lines. Did they fire the effects crew? Nope. Production chose to do nothing when problems presented themselves, they chose not to treat their crew properly. They chose to close their eyes and ears to anything that would cost them time or money, and then hid, like little children, behind statements like “No one told me”. If some one has to tell you, then you have no business being a producer or an AD. The crew should not have to tell production how to do their job on a daily basis. That’s not our job.”
The only problem with that show is that it is being run by a director that changes his mind all of the time (he always has), and that the Gaffer, Key Grip, and DP are too inexperienced to run a crew on a show that complicated…check IMDB, they have only worked at LLP…which is a shame. Anyone in a key position receives a preliminary call sheet for the following days work. They should have had the wherewithal to protect their crew…like UNION keys do. That show should be union, but only because it needs experienced personnel to pull it off.
I saw this ad on craigslist which explains the strike and were it is currently occuring.
Crew needed to join the picket lines outside the Larry Levinson Productions (LLP) stages at 6800 smith Rd. Simi Valley, CA tomorrow @ 11:00am. The crew has walked out from the film Mega Storm for NBC and are picketing with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and the local representatives from every department. LLP is a SAG and DGA signatory which means that the actors, directors, and ADs, are all represented and protected by guilds or unions and receive benefits and fair pay. The management and producers, however don’t believe that their workers and technicians deserve this respect and refuse to speak to the union representatives. These honest and hard-working crew members deserve more.
DO NOT CROSS THE LINE!!!!
The producers have been hiring film students and inexperienced crew as replacements who don’t seem to know the consequences of crossing an IATSE picket line. If you do, you will be discovered, identified, and you will be blacklisted. If you are reading this and you have crossed or know someone who has: IT IS NOT TOO LATE! JOIN THE PICKETERS!! YOU WILL BE WELCOMED AS A SUPPORTER OF THE CAUSE. If not you will you never get in the union and never get union benefits. This is something that may not be important to you now, but as you get older and you start to have a family you might think differently.
Even if you haven’t worked on this film join us and support the workers!
Blacklisted?! It’s illegal for any organization to “blacklist” someone. If IATSE is telling you that they will blacklist anyone that goes to work on that show then they are lying to you. And I defy any IATSE representative to confirm that they will do this, then also post their name, contact information, and union bylaw that states “blacklisting” is part of their organizational practices.
Also, why aren’t the other unions weighing in and condeming this practice?
So the proverbial chickens are finally coming home to roost? Not really. This man and his key henchmen have lived off the sweat of the people for way too long, but why not? DGA and SAG members get theirs and ignore the fact that everyone else around them eats dirt.
DGA AND SAG: DON’T CROSS THE LINE
And how about SAFETY? Having inexperienced people who barely know what to do working on set could pose a SAFETY HAZARD. Someone should contact OSHA.
If everyone would just FOLLOW THE MONEY this scumbag and his company would have been shut down years ago. As for Halmi, he’s one of the gang. Fat cats making money and stashing it outside of the country. Find some of the accountants who used to work for the company. They’ll know the story. Follow the money.
Levinson comes from Texas. He really deserves Texas justice.
The funny thing about Larry Levinson, is that a good 80% of the crews become union members by working for him and getting there days and some, pay there quarterly dues with the money they make working at LLP.
If there was more union work out there I wouldn’t see such an issue, but to strike and convince people to walk and picket with the Economy in the state that it is, is just selfish and just a personal vendetta against Larry Levinson. I am not saying that it’s an ideal work place, but if your so unhappy working such a show, then simple quit. The IA reps know that this show will not flip, nor will any other LLP show flip, they have been after him for years!
The sad truth is that many union members are trying to get jobs on these shows…..due to the lack of work.
and FYI! there is no law that states a Union member can mot work non-union. SO………….good luck!
I have been crossing this line since it started and here is why:
I was already working on Megastorm when I got the call that 85% of the crew had walked and went on strike to try and flip the show. Knowing that Larry had famously fired every crew that had tried it before, I knew it was a terrible idea and chose to keep my job.
It’s true, I have worked long days, but nothing over 14 hours, which is what our pay is based on. Any 6th day worked, I have been paid for and paid well because the whole 6th day is counted as overtime. On a 70 hour paid week, 14 hours a day for 5 days, I get $11/per for the first 40 hours, O.T. 1.5X for the next 20, and O.T. 2X for the remaining 10 hours. A 6th day is all 2X overtime. And after only 3 shows with LLP anyone is eligible for FREE medical and dental care, including eye exams. Everyone from the producers to the janitors. All you have to do is ask.
My keys have been very good about 12 hour turnarounds and said just don’t come in until then. Call time constantly has been pushed to compensate for a 12 hour turn. Transpo should be the ones complaining, but they stayed on.
Having walked around the crew while filming, I have seen the grip and electric crews sleeping on furniture pads, playing games, or smoking pot in the truck. If the show were to flip, these jokers would be replaced anyway with someone worth paying union rates.
Whether having quit by walking away or by being fired for walking, all the crew that walked are now ineligible to receive Unemployment compensation from the state through LLP.
Of all the crew that walked that day, 90% of them were replaced within 3 hours and the show went on and continues to go on. Had I walked, I would have been replaced just as easily.
I go to work everyday with the same job I had since the show began. I never replaced anyone and certainly never replaced any union worker so picketers calling me a scab means nothing to me. Taking my picture and posting or publishing it anywhere without my permission is against the law. Posting and publishing my name and image with the term “scab” is defamation of character and is grounds for a lawsuit.
I don’t even recognize most of the picketers anymore as the crew that walked. I think most of them just paid their rent yesterday and realized they made a mistake. They can’t waste their days standing around anymore and need to find work. IATSE has probably replaced the numbers lost with union members to picket the lines. Who are these people? They don’t know me or why I’m there.
I have to go to work now, but there is a small part of my stance.
Really? Asylum movies at 2 million? LLP getting bigger budgets now which is why they are a target for IATSE?
Global sales numbers are DOWN. Budgets for all these shows are going DOWN. IATSE doesn’t care how much a show has. They don’t avoid shows that don’t have the money. They extort whatever then can.
I produce shows like this. I’ve never worked for LLP, but have for the Asylum and on many MOWs that go to Sci-fi, Lifetime etc. When IATSE comes in, they just worry about the union getting a payoff. They promise crew members instant access to the union with no initiation, then don’t give it to people. Sure, they end up guaranteeing the crew some better conditions and more OT, but they cover themselves first. The impact on the crew is negligible.
These shows aren’t financially viable. IATSE just pushes them over the brink of not being worth doing. When IATSE comes in and tells producers to offset union costs by “shooting less days” or cutting VFX budgets, you know what happens? The films loose quality. Then, the networks don’t buy them. What do they replace them with? Reality shows!
Higher wages for workers DO NOT MAKE THE FOREIGN MARKETS OR NETWORKS PAY MORE FOR THE FILMS! The money does not come out of the sky. Not understanding this is why you guys are grips and electricians and not economists and producers.
If you don’t like it, just don’t answer that Craigslist posting and take one of those awesome union jobs floating around.