Fucked by Hollywood

Alright...This past weekend, I went down to Gettysburg with some friends to be extras in a Civil War movie. We were to be compensated for gas used, and given 350 dollars as a group. Each person would've had 50 bucks added to their name. Also, there was to be a keg of beer provided for a celebration after the shooting was done.

The movie is called Gettysburg: Greatest Heroes and Darkest Times.
It was a blast! I got to lead a charge against field artillery, be a dead guy a few times, play as a few severely injured soldiers, and also march in formation during battle...with explosions and live gunfire (minus bullets or wadding)! It comes out in November. I'm thinking it'll be more like a direct to DVD release or a TV miniseries on PBS...or something. The production values weren't impressive (despite the fact that the guys in control of the situation had directed John Adams). For one, there were about 35 of us trying to represent values of anywhere between 100 and 3500 troops at one time. Also, there wasn't enough gear for everyone! I did a few battle scenes with no gun. Now, I realize that not every regiment during the civil war had every piece of combat regalia, but every single soldier had a gun! Men weren't put on the front lines with nothing and expected to wing it.
Now, today (Sunday) was the final day of shooting. After everything was wrapped up, we got changed into our normal clothes, after spending all fucking day wearing period-style woolen uniforms. It was hot. The leader of the group I was in storms into the changing area, flipping out about missing gear HE brought. Normally he would've been pissed because it was missing, but he was fucking pissed. I found out later (i.e. the car ride home) that he was pissed because noone except the special effects and camera crews were getting paid.

What
The
Fuck?!
I spend two and a half fucking hours driving to Gettysburg (the total cost of gas was around 70 dollars...I still had a quarter of a tank then I filled up before leaving, and that didn't even give me a full tank) so I could do these people a favor by adding a fresh face from their meager lineup. It's not like there were too many people there! God damn, if they didn't want all of us, they should've set a limit. I mean, there was an unwritten limit in the amount of gear that was available. But most of the time, I was sitting around in the heat of the day on an actual battlefield where men had shot and been shot at, waiting to see if they actually needed another dead guy in a scene! But to not pay anyone or compensate their gas...I met guys who drove up from fucking North Carolina that came here just to shoot the movie! They weren't paid! How the hell does that work?
Basically, if the movie does do well and it makes some money, I hope those resplendent cocks choke on their wads of cash. I worked my ass off, added fresh meat to the grinder, drove my car 174 miles (it'd normally be about 136, but I had to pick up and drop off friends in Pen Argyl) with a damned dry-rotted alternator belt, and I get the short end of the stick. No reason for it, either;
Some of the other guys we met had worked with the directing crew on John Adams. They weren't snubbed there! What gives with this whole situation?

 

Humm.... Ever read about Stalingrad?

 

Got your contract at hand? And the law?

The minimum they can do is pay for the gas. But I guess they won't do that unless you have 'concrete evidence' as to how much it cost.

Good luck with it.

 

Even still, if it was written that you were supposed to be paid, then you have grounds for a case in small claims, and the price of gas cold be extrapolated from the national average.

 

that sucks, dude. Now i dont know if i should see it cause you're in it, or boycott it. did they give some bullshit explanation for not paying you or just say that they wouldnt?

 

They pretty much said they wouldn't compensate anyone who was an extra, despite the fact that many of the extras had speaking roles, like I did.
My scene was pretty sweet. I charged toward some field artillery with my friend running along side me as "an agile confederate" (that's what his part was called in the script).
I shout out, "Shoot the horses!" with a military saber pointed at the focus of my rage.
"Yes, sir!" says my buddy as he actually leaps three feet into the air onto a real civil war cannon, complete with a limber box, and takes his shot.
I go to the side of the cannon, saber still unsheathed, and I watch my men charge past me.
"I claim this gun for Company I!!"
And that's my scene. Everyone who watched it told me I was completely badass, and even the directors were saying how great it was.
As a side note, my friend's part on the credits will either be listed as "Confederate Hero" or "Horse Killer". Horse Killer sounds awesome.

As for the price of gas;
I have the receipts. The dates and times sync up with the times I left for Gettysburg, and the time I left for home. It'd be pretty hard for them to dispute that.

What sucks about my anger is that I had a great time doing this movie! I had a fucking blast, and then found out I wasn't getting paid or compensated as I left. I understand completely that the movie was low budget, but god damn...they sent out emails to the people who told them they were interested. The emails said that there would be
A; A keg of beer available on the last day of shooting, to toast the wrap of the film.
B; Monetary compensation for gas
C; Meals (which were provided, meager as they were)
D; Pay according to the size of the group being brought in, and the experience of the group in doing civil war reenactments (since I and my friends mainly do pirate stuff, our promised pay was slightly lower)

I was talking to the explosives and pyrotechnics specialist about what he was doin and how he got involved in the project, and we somehow got talking about how much he normally gets paid to do it. He only works on a movie if they give him a minimum of 150 dollars a day that he's on set, along with hotel accommodations. He was there because they paid him.
The special effects and camera crews were all paid, and noone else was, despite the promises of being paid.

 

Did you sign any forms?

 

Yes. A list was formed, but only to gather our personal information (to contact us for future projects), so there wasn't anything like a written contract for everyone to sign. There were emails to the actors and crews, but only the crews got to sign contracts.
For one of the groups, they said this is normally how the movies they work on are done, but it's the first time they weren't paid.

 

First: That sounds like a killer experience.
Second: It sucks that they shafted you.

If you can reproduce whatever the call was for the crews, actors, cameras, etc that detailed the payment and accomodations, you might have a case against them. You mentioned an email. Is that how they got word to you? Or maybe if it was a newspaper add you could retain the clipping of the add that details the payment break down for use in the case. If it was an email, I'd print it out and even save the file to a disk so someone can still trace it back to the company's server in case they claim you forged it yourself.

 

Since I never got the email, I couldn't tell you. The one who got it is the leader of our little reenacting crew, and he's pretty impulsive and scatterbrained sometimes. He may have deleted the message after getting all of the necessary information from it.
But, if he did keep it, none of us have the money to back up the case in court, but I know the guys behind the movie have more than enough. They dropped at least 10k to pay everyone they had to compensate to get the movie going, and that was just for 3 days of shooting.
I supposed the least we can do is, if they don't end up sending everyone checks surreptitiously, spread the word on how they shaft their actors.