MAJOR warning about this lister below:
I shot at Emmanuel’s location for a short film for three days this past January. I then booked one more day on March 24th and told the host I would doing some reshoots on this date. 12 hours before the shoot on March 24th, I get a very strange message from Emmanuel through Giggster claiming he has to make a last minute cancellation because of an emergency in which in the location was damaged (car accident). Now, I understand that emergencies happen, but of course I have other money tied up in this shoot on March 24th, so I feel I need to speak with Emmanuel on the phone to properly understand what is going on. He does not answer after multiple attempts to call him.
From this point, all it takes is a ring of the location’s doorbell, and conversations with the folks who answer the door - the lister’s brother, and one of the other tenants in the building - to understand that Emmanuel is about to board a plane to Iceland, and there is in fact no emergency at the location. Additionally, I can clearly see that there is no damage to the exterior of the location due to a “car accident.” These two also tell me that Emmanuel has a tenuous relationship with his landlord about renting this space out for productions in the first place.
It seems clear to me now that Emmanuel made an unjustifiable, last minute cancellation, and then lied about why. This accident clearly did not occur on the day the cancellation was made, and if it occurred sooner and the location was still being repaired from the damage, why wouldn’t I have been told until 12 hours before the shoot? I also confirmed with Emmanuel three days before March 24th that the shoot was still on. This lister’s behavior is deceptive, unprofessional, and downright irresponsible. This incident shows me he has no regard for the productions renting his space or the people working on them. I cannot conceive of renting his space again for the remaining day of shooting I need, because I cannot risk another last minute cancellation. As a result, my continuity is royally messed up - I have to shoot at another location.
Though Giggster refunded the cancelled March 24th booking, Giggster has put it on me to recoup any additional losses from this date (crew flights, catering deposit, etc.) from Emmanuel, and of course he has not reimbursed me. In a continuation of his duplicitous behavior, Emmanuel also proposed to Giggster (in an email exchange they shared with me) a conditional deal in which he would reimburse any losses from March 24th, as long as I shoot at his location again for a “discounted rate.” Wow, what a great opportunity!
Book with Emmanuel at your own risk. Giggster claims that they will be deactivating this user’s account, but are first waiting to see if he can supply any proof for the fake emergency. Let’s hope they follow through with this deactivation, because it’s a tragedy to me that a person who exhibited this unprofessional behavior still has a functioning account, where they can be permitted to jeopardize other productions.
P.S. - It wasn’t exactly a breeze shooting here in January, either. We’re talking noise the host claimed was out of his control, AND a text message an hour before one of our wrap times, saying the power would be TURNED OFF *exactly* at our wrap time because of some “maintenance.” Huh??
Phew, I think that’s everything. Needless to say, this person is not a liability your production needs.
