The Crews Are Not Alright
Why the IATSE Strike Needs to Happen
Despite the fact that pretty much everyone in America watches *a lot* of TV, not to mention the ever greater numbers of Americans who work on sets, the act of producing television is a mystery to anyone who doesn’t live in our weird little world. This alienation between the customer and the product makes it much easier to ignore the casual labor abuses that go into making it, so I thought that in order to demonstrate exactly why the upcoming IATSE strike is so desperately needed, I’d tell a little story about the worst night of my career.
Enjoy.
“Mar 6, 2019 · 🌨️ · 7° (feels like 2°)”
The show was Mr. Robot’s fourth season. “Not Found” was a tribute to the legendary “Pine Barrens” episode of The Sopranos where Chris and Paulie get lost in the frozen woods of rural New Jersey, but in our case, Rami Malek and Martin Wallström’s characters were wandering the deep woods of rural Connecticut on Christmas Eve. This meant three days of shooting in the woods through late-winter nights, and I was warned by Rachel, the Key Set PA, that it might be deeply unpleasant work. I was new to New York production and eager for the gig, so I dismissed those concerns.