Falsifying Documents

Between Links and Box Office, I post this short observation:

Over the past week, I've received a number of gripes regarding too-short schedules and artists working unpaid overtime to keep up. Most of the uncompensated o.t. is taken home. Most is on production boards, but not all...

Everybody knows the drill: they get three weeks for roughing, three weeks for cleaned up and revised final. And sometimes this 3/3 deal is 3/2 or 2/3. And yes, depending on the production and the budget, basic mileage can vary.

Some shows are more sane about scheduling than other shows. And some artists figure out how to get the work done without pulling all nighters or long weekends by simplifying, or doing their first pass as clean as possible and hoping the revision notes aren't killers.

But many just suck it up and keep nose to the grindstone until ten or eleven at night; others resign themselves to working weekends; still others figure if they miss their finish date by a day or two, the production manager will agree it's no big deal.

Naturally there's a lot of time-card falsification. Everybody writes down 40 hours because it's part of the "get along, go along" ethos.

But just so we're clear: time cards are official documents, and falsifying time cards ain't legal.

Just so we're clear.