Announcements
- Bectu
- May 27
- 2 min read
End long hours culture in film & TV
“I cried at work from pure exhaustion, it was humiliating. I never see my family, I neglect most of my personal life to be able to keep up with the hours.”Anonymous
Behind the glitzy image of film and TV is a workforce pushed to the limit. Workers are routinely asked to "break turnaround".
A worker is considered to have ‘broken turnaround’ when they are required by their employer to return to work within less than 11 consecutive hours in each 24-hour period. This is in breach of workplace rights.
Freelancers across the industry are routinely working 14-16 hour days, often with little rest, few breaks, and no meaningful increase in pay. Long hours culture is the norm.
Bectu's Broken Turnaround survey revealed widespread breaches of basic turnaround times, alongside testimonies that expose a culture putting workers at risk.
Despite years of promises, the industry has failed to act.Talk of work life balance means nothing without real change. Enough is enough.
We are calling on the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (Pact) and the wider industry to:
Enforce safe working hours and proper rest periods
Guarantee regular, protected breaks
Make overtime voluntary, not expected
Apply premium penalty rates to minimise its use
Commit to collective agreements that protect crew
Sign this petition to demand safer, fairer working lives for everyone behind the camera.
Why is this important?
Long hours are dangerous. Fatigue leads to accidents, harms mental and physical health, and puts lives at risk on set. Enough is enough.
SIGN THIS PETITION to demand safer, fairer working lives for everyone behind the camera.
Why is this important?
Long hours are dangerous. Fatigue leads to accidents, harms mental and physical health, and puts lives at risk on set. Enough is enough.
Remi Adefarasin OBE, BSC accepts his Lifetime Achievement Award.
On Saturday 7 February, GBCT member Remi Adefarasin humbly accepted the BSC Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony hosted by Edith Bowman, which took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.
Congratulations Remi.. The GBCT is privileged to have your support as a member.
Extract below taken from Cinematography World (November 2025)
Remi’s journey in the field of Cinematography began in 1968 when he was accepted as a trainee for the BBC’s film department at Ealing Studios. His first summer in the job saw him assisting cinematographer Alan Jonas on the BBC project “The Borderers” an almost-Western set between the frontiers of Scotland and England in the sixteenth century.
Remi became hooked and spent over eleven years as a camera assistant working on documentaries, music programmes and of course his favourite, dramas. During that time he spent five years with Brian Tufano BSC (Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, 2020) who Remi credits as teaching him a great deal.
In 1979 Remi was promoted to cinematographer and stayed working for the BBC until 1995. During his time as an in-house BBC cinematographer, he worked with directors ranging from Mike Leigh, Anthony Minghella, Adrian Shergold and Angela Pope on projects as wide-ranging as “Doctor Who” and “Hi-Di-Hi”, to critically acclaimed Plays- of-the-Week including “Memento Mori” (for which he was nominated for a BAFTA in 1993) and Mike Leigh’s “Home Sweet Home”.
In 1997 Remi shot the BAFTA-nominated “Sliding Doors” and it was this film that brought him to the attention of director Shekhar Kapur who asked if he would shoot “Elizabeth”. “Elizabeth” would go on to win the BAFTA for Best Cinematography, as well as the BSC Cinematography in A Feature Film Award, however it would be his nomination for Best Cinematography at the Academy Awards that would add him to the history books as he became the first black cinematographer to be nominated in the category.
Since “Elizabeth” Remi has continued to build an extraordinary body of work working with some of the biggest directors and stars in our industry including “Band of Brothers” (for which he was Emmy-nominated): “Match Point”; “Onegin”, “About A Boy”; “The House of Mirth” and most recently the BAFTA-winning TV Series “Mr Loverman”.
In 2012 Remi was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
