Forum/On-Set Conditions
On-Set Conditions·Set AITA·@setsurvivortips·20d ago

Set AITA for walking off set after hour 16 with no meal break?

Need some perspective on this because I'm still second-guessing myself. I was on a micro drama shoot. Call time was 6am. By 10pm — hour 16 — we still hadn't broken for a real meal. They'd put out some granola bars and chips around 2pm and called that "craft services." At 10pm I went to the AD and said I needed to eat an actual meal or I was done for the day. He said "we're almost wrapped, just one more scene." I'd heard that twice already. I said I was leaving, packed my stuff, and left. The producer texted me an hour later saying I was "unprofessional" and they might not pay me for the day. They did pay me eventually (after 3 weeks of emails). But I'm not getting called back for their next project. Was I wrong? Part of me feels like I should have just toughed it out. But 16 hours with no real food is genuinely unsafe.

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@microdramaburn19d ago

NTA. 16 hours with granola bars is not a gray area. The fact that they threatened to withhold pay tells you everything about the kind of people running that set.

@safetyfirstalways18d ago

NTA. And for anyone reading this who hasn't been in this situation — the 'we're almost wrapped' line is the oldest trick on bad sets. They say it at hour 12, hour 14, and hour 16. Set a hard out time at the start of the day and stick to it.

@atlactorlife17d ago

NTA but I'd have given a 30-minute warning. 'I need to eat a real meal in the next 30 minutes or I'm done for the day.' It gives them a chance to actually wrap your scenes. Walking out with zero notice can burn bridges even when you're right.