Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Negative effects of 6 day weeks

I feel like one can expect 6 day weeks to garner more work produced for a few weekends, but after a while that benefit fades into just taking productive hours from one day and moving them to another. My maximum production efficiency with the most usable work produced is 50 hours/week over 5 days, and honestly of that 50 I expect that I'm only REALLY productive for 6-9 hours/day but those productive hours shift from day to day and the 9-10 hrs caters to that.
We don't need just "FX elements" we need "good/final FX elements". In order to create that an artist needs creative energy and mental focus. There's only so much of that you can squeeze out of yourself a day, if you squeeze that extra back up energy it just takes some from tomorrow. Each day it takes some from the next day until you basically come it tired and useless. Unable to crank out final work in a timely manor just be as good as our auto pilot is. Managers often feel better about having artist around for longer/more hours. They feel like if they're in their seats they'll get more work done, and all time in a seat is equal. That misconception is why we work the way we work.
Our goals are the same, produce the best looking work in the fastest way possible. Get shots to final with the least number of hours. For weaker artist, or anal Sups/Directors that's done by producing the most iterations possible so that the notes can clearly define the direction. Iterations need to be done b/c there are things in the shot that are not right. Good artist can give themselves notes and final a shot with minimal iterations, when they have the creative energy and mental focus. This saves time in dailies and across the board and ends up working out for both the artist and the company.
The hard thing, from the companies perspective, is the weaker artist who need more iterations to get their shots to final. In that case the company might feel the need to ask them to do more hours. I get it, but across the board 6 day weeks, seems to be more costly than it's worth for both the artist and the company. I normally reserve the 6th day for the final 2-4 week push.
On this current show, after many 6 day weeks, I feel like I come in and don't have my usual artistic power to make final looking work with ease and crank out whatever is asked of me. I feel drained and artistically weak. I can't think of what to work on next, when I render something I sit and think, lose my train of thought and am comparatively unproductive. My joy in this occupation is cranking out work I'm proud of faster and better than expected.
Only the managers will know what works best for each artist on each show. There's a lot to consider on their part, and that's not my expertise. I only know management of myself. I hope that my perspective is helpful to you on  future shows.

9 comments:

Allegro said...

Yeah dude, I'm right there with you. I've been on 60 hour weeks for 4 weeks now.... and the ability to stay productive definitely starts to dwindle after doing OT for extended periods.

What I don't really get is *why* this is such a standard thing in this industry. I mean... it's just not economical to pay x artists for weeks of overtime when they could have just hired an extra couple of artists to do the work during a night shift (assuming there's no more floor space for them during the day).

I'm really having second thoughts as to whether I'm up for these types of weeks for the next 40 years...

Mark Schoneveld said...

So glad I don't have to work 60 hour weeks, like, ever. However, I end up working that much or more on stuff anyways, if you include projects. Almost all of which is online. Easy to burn out at this rate.

Dje said...

So true !!
I m pretty scared about that, because on my current project we just start the 6 days week rush ! And not for 4 or 6 weeks but for 12 it s gonna be hard... :)

Vitor said...

That's a little scary to ear that.
I have some friends in the industry working day and night, it seems it affects everyone. Why is that? Why this need to suck all the blood of the artists. Does this work? Is this the way to go? How does this started?
I'm just very inexperience and I'm still a student but I'm always earing things like you said David all the time from a bunch of different artists.
Really hope someone can put some sense in this.
Cheers

Mel. Star. said...

Oh will you PLEASE preach that gospel truth! I couldn't agree more with this. I've seen productions run to a screeching halt when the director of the project insisted that everyone show up for twice the amount of time they were used to coming in.

Oh the agony.

It was horrible. At first more shots were coming out but after a while, everyone was just demoralized and the quality of the work suffered. Even now, we're going back and fixing things that we did during that time.

I can understand that final push. That's ok. But to drastically increase hours in the dead middle of production? Blasphemy.

Scott Turner said...

haha 6 day weeks...you guys are lucky..i spent the last 5 weeks doing 7 days a week literally 14 hours a week.

its all calmed down a bit now but thats because I fkn quit. The other poor bastards are still working the same hours

Its simply ridiculous and endemic. What happened to that open letter by the Strachan guy.

I frikin love doing 3d. But theres better money, more creative control and easy hours doing straight programming

Scott Turner said...

You know i got a family. 2 kids and another one en route for September. And jackass director shows up at 10pm last friday and wants to 'experiment with fluids' until 4 am. Hadn't seen my wife in 5 weeks except in the dark at 4 30 am.

Its simply not worth it unless your cut a percentage

Steve said...

I've heard DDs management has gotten better over the years. Is that true? DW seems to understand that artists need to be refreshed and have a calm working environment. Are 60 hour work weeks common, even for very quick artists?

David Schoneveld said...

DD I've not done any OT (other than regular 9 hour days)
DD is a per-show company. Each show is almost like its own company within the DD umbrella.
So while I may have it good, others might be working like crazy. All show dependent.