The Check Doesn't Lie, but Your Memory Does
Convention work pays per call. You work a three-day show at the LA Convention Center, then two days at Long Beach, then a hotel load-out on Sunday. Each call has a different rate depending on the show, the union call type, and whether the venue is signatory. By the end of the week you have five calls across three venues, two different rates, and somewhere between four and seven hours of overtime distributed across three days.
The check arrives three weeks later. Without a daily log, you are comparing a paycheck against a memory.
The Calculation Chain
Three calculated fields do the arithmetic automatically. ST Pay = #{rate} × #{st hrs}. OT Pay = #{rate} × 1.5 × #{ot hrs}. Total Pay = #{st pay} + #{ot pay} + #{comp} + #{parking}.
The 1.5 multiplier is hardcoded because IATSE scale and most entertainment industry agreements pay a flat 1.5 for overtime regardless of which hour triggers it. Enter your straight hourly rate, enter your hours split between ST and OT at the start, and the math is done. At the end of any period, summing the Total Pay column gives you your gross earnings before deductions — the number you compare to what the payroll company issues.
Comp is separately tracked because comp time adds to your total earned on that call. When you bank comp hours against a future day off or receive comp payout at the end of a season, having it entered per call makes it reconcilable against the payroll record.
Parking is the reimbursable expense that always gets forgotten. Convention center parking in Los Angeles runs $20-35 per day. Across a week of calls at LACC or LBCC, that's $100-175 out of pocket. Entering it on the call record means it shows up in the Total Pay number and in any expense reimbursement claim you file with the production.
Venue Roster: ACC Through Sheraton
Nine venues plus Other: ACC (Anaheim Convention Center), LACC (Los Angeles Convention Center), LBCC (Long Beach Convention Center), PSCC (Palm Springs Convention Center), PCC (Pasadena Convention Center), OCC (Ontario Convention Center), JW Marriott, Hyatt, Sheraton. This is the specific call territory of a Southern California event worker — the venues a grip, AV tech, or stage hand actually works across a given season.
The dropdown means venue entry takes one tap rather than typing a full venue name on a phone at wrap time when you're loading out at midnight and want to go home. The Show field carries the free-text show name — "CES," "NAB," "NAMM," "corporate Q4 event" — which is the human-readable identifier for sorting the log by client or production type.
Day of week as a separate multichoice field is the weekend marker. Saturday and Sunday calls typically trigger different rate structures under most entertainment union agreements — the venue roster and day combination tells you immediately whether a given call is straight-time territory or penalty-day territory. It's also how you confirm that the record showing three consecutive Sunday calls actually happened without misremembering the calendar.