R. has worked as a set photographer for various Romanian film production companies and movie studios. Dissatisfied with the work conditions, he agreed to give this interview in order to speak about the power ratios that define the work relations in such environments.

What’s the most recent project you worked on?

A commercial filmed by some foreigners in Buftea, at MediaPro Pictures. A more ambitious project, with a big team, on which I worked for a week. I’d start in the morning at six o’clock and work for twelve hours, but the schedule wasn’t always observed. There were days when I worked from six in the morning till two a.m.. Overtime wasn’t paid for.

Did you sign any contract with them?

I did sign something, but I never got any copies back. It’s as if I hadn’t signed anything.

What’s different when you work with a foreign film crew?

Generally speaking, the relation with film crews is more or less the same, whether you’re working with foreigners or Romanians, but there are certain complexes at play when it comes to westerners, which we haven’t gotten over yet. I thought this only happened in the nineties, the way we regard each other, I mean. I’ll give you an example. There were two tables of food on set. The foreigners, the ad agency representatives and the department heads had espressos, fruit, natural juices, and all sorts of other things on their table. At the other table, where the rest of us ate, there was a bowl of chips, very bad coffee, and Coke. The way the tables were set up is relevant, because it indicates what the class difference is. And you could feel this in other situations, too. And, anyway, since we’re talking about foreigners, most of them come here because the labor is cheaper and they don’t have to pay extra for the overtime. They couldn’t afford to do this abroad, where they have unions. At a certain point, I overheard this conversation between a second unit director and the agency, in which the director was asking the agency to pay the electricians as soon as possible, because they have their own union and they’re going to start getting vocal about it.

While you, as a photographer or an actor, can have the payment postponed because you are in no way represented by any unions.

Exactly. And since you mentioned actors, in one of the commercials I worked on, the director decided to change one of the scenes and film one of the actors only from behind, instead of filming his face, as had been initially agreed. So they only paid him half the money. As if he’d only brought half his body to the shoot.

An interview by Ionuț Sociu, summary translated by Ioana Pelehatăi