Cancellations!
Bad luck seems to with me at present. Fortunately I’ve had my regular productions in between to tick me over but it seems to be the smaller productions who are messing me around.
I was booked onto this new production for one day on a Friday and didn’t think much of it, new productions occur all the time and most have working titles so wouldn’t have known much until I got there anyway. The day before the shoot (Thursday), I had a text from my agency claiming the production was going over and they’d be in contact later with the call times. Again, it happens, didn’t think much of it again.
Then about 7pm, I received a call from an unknown mobile number. Turns out it was the 2nd AD from the production I was working on tomorrow.
“Hi Matt! Just checking that you’re still with us tomorrow, Sunday and Monday.”
“… What?”
This was news to me. I even asked him to hold the line while I frantically checked my messages, paranoid that I’d made a huge mistake double booking myself as I have a part-time weekend job. Turns out I was right, I had only ever been given an equiry for the Friday. I explained my situation that I could work Monday ok, but I have a prior commitment on Sunday but free from 4:30. He was visibly displeased at my flat “I’m sorry I can’t do Sunday” answer and my unwillingness to ring my boss and book it off (as it was my last working day), which frankly I found rude because if they wanted me to do three days, ask me more advance that 7pm the night before!
So the call ended with him having to go back to my agency and iron things out. An hour and a half went by and I didn’t hear anything. I rang the emergency number (basically an out-of-hours number for certain situations) and my agent basically said she was still waiting to hear back from the 2nd AD.
9:14pm I get a call from the emergency number. Basically because I couldn’t do the three continuity days, I was now cancelled.
I was not happy.
My agent was lovely and sympathetic though. She even explained that she wouldn’t even bother chasing them for half-day cancellation fee as they were frankly a suspicious company and have even been reported for taking on members of the public for cash-in-hand. This is all I needed to know. A production company that’s willing to break laws to keep costs down will look for any reason to not part with any cash. It’s an awful side to the industry, but it does happen.
Oh well. On the bright side I get a lie in tomorrow.