Monday, July 12, 2010

Sheldon Robins

Submitted 4-26-12

"To Whom it May Concern

In every story there are two sides. Your company have elected to post untrue statement about me and I kindly ask that it be removed. As a result of a line producer stealing from production it created a financial strain. I will not state his name as we have moved on to many other successful productions learning our lesson on who we hire. Please allow us the same courtesy. If you notice the person posting doesn't show or state his name. Please remove this post or allow the truth for both sides to be listed.

I will await your response before taking further action if this is not removed.

 S. Robins"

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Submitted 7-7-10

Back in February I worked on a pickup day on a movie called C.L.A.S.S.  The producer, who is also the writer/director/actor etc. is Sheldon Robins.  I was covering for a friend on the shoot who had Jury duty (lucky him) and I showed up to the set unawares of what shady practices were really going down.  The first half of the day was pretty normal and it wasn't until the AD called grace for lunch that things started to get weird.  First off, lunch was served from El Pollo Loco without silverware, so the whole cast and crew had to sit around eating comfort fast food with their hands like medieval barbarians.  At that point I was a little perturbed, but still on board for the rest of the day. As the day waned on, there was no end to the shooting in sight.  We ended up putting in a solid 16 hours without OT.  I was promised at the beginning  of the day that I would be paid in cash, but near wrap I overheard the LP talking about needing to cut checks.  I asked her that I would like to be paid in cash, but she jest referred me toSheldon who said that no one was getting cash and that the checks would be fine.  I took his word for it, but oh was I wrong to trust.
        I deposited the first check the next day only to have it bounce by the end of the week, costing me both the lack of payment but also a bounced check fee from my bank.  I called Sheldon and the Production company the movie is being made under and was told that the account had been reconciled and that I should redeposit my check.  I did so only to have it bounce again which resulted in another bank fee.  At this point I was pretty lvivd so I tried to call Sheldon who after not picking up told me through a series of texts that he was at Cannes promoting the film and wouldn't be back for a week or so.  I found it humorous that this guy that seemed to be having such financial trouble paying his crew was able to fly himself to France for several weeks at a time.
        Once a week or so had passed I started calling and texting Sheldon who would either ignore my calls or told me to call the office.  I called the office where the secretary told me I would have to talk toSheldon.  She would patch me through to his work line where I would get a voicemail.  For over two months now I have been trying to get ahold of Sheldon only to be told he's "In a meeting" or "Out of the office" on a daily basis by the secretary.
       After four months of waiting and calling I dropped a line by the Line Producer from the shoot who called me back saying that I wasn't the only person from that day that hadn't been paid and that she wanted to reassure me that this wasn't the way she did business.  She even gave Sheldon a call for me, but no luck.
       So as of now, five months later from the shoot day, I still haven't been able to get a ahold ofSheldon or anyone at the office for that matter that can help me with my issue.  I had to eat the bounced check fees and the lack of an expected paycheck.  I really hope that others out there will read this and realize what a shady character Sheldon Robins is and that they should never work for him in the future or support any of his endeavors.  If you see the movie C.L.A.S.S. on the shelves anywhere, make sure not to get suckered into supporting cheapskates like Sheldon.  People like him prey off of the hard work of film industry professionals and leave a trail of lies and deceit behind while seeming to come out squeaky clean.

2 comments:

BrwnIdBeauty said...

I was on that same production. I ended up going straight to the EP to actually get paid since Sheldon was doing the same thing to me.

Unknown said...

Yea this guy completely screwed up a production I was on 2 years ago as well. It ended up being a nightmare undoing the damage he caused at the eleventh hour before we started shooting. Stay away from his productions.