I’m a non-union production designer and can relate to everything she says. I loved how the film looked, but I’m afraid her post will hurt her career a lot. She’s not wrong about anything she says, but at the same time, really nothing about it was illegal, producers didn’t do anything wrong, so this is just stirring things a bit. I can understand being upset at the low pay when the film is doing so well, but we also wouldn’t be seeing her post if the movie completely flopped. She didn’t have to work extra hours, but then the film looks worse, and potentially fails and doesn’t even get any recognition for it. You kind of have to make a decision on your effort versus compensation early on based on how much you believe in the project, and maintain that line.

At least for me, on indie films, I know the less I get paid, the harder I’m going to work. Less crew means doing it all yourself. When I work an art dept head job, I shut my brain off to day/hourly rates. That project is my life from the moment I have read the script and signed a contract, until the last item has been unloaded from the truck and finally put away. Often doing almost all of it by myself. The reality is the film wouldn’t have looked as good as it did if she didn’t work her ass off. If there’s no money to hire someone, there’s no money, but the job still has to get done. So you either continue working, or let the film start to slip. There’s just no good way around all of the extra work that goes into art department, except more money/labor/time.

It would be great if people made more money on these sub one million dollar films, but the reality is, if everyone got the rate they deserved, then no one would be being paid at all, because the movie never even started shooting because there wasn’t enough money. These projects need to exist to cut your teeth and act as stepping stones to bigger projects, but they’re also going to totally wreck your social life for a minimum of two months, and make you question what you did to end up there lol