"Art director making $300 a day is a livable wage."
One thing people don't understand about the film business is it's feast or famine. You may not work for weeks or months so that money has to be saved and amortized.
Then the Obsession crew lives in LA, so they're paying the highest rents, highest gas, highest utilities, highest insurance (to be fair they keep voting for it, but that's another story).
A 14 hour day doesn't account for 1 hour of traffic each way. Indies can routinely go 12-18 hours.
Art department is an especially brutal crew. They are the first to get on set, the last to leave. No set, no shoot.
Then crew heads don't really get paid for their time. Reading the script? Free. Thinking about it? Free. Talking with the director? Free. Creative discussion, creative obsessing, detail planning on weekends. Free free free. The time on the clock is not the time on the job.
$300 a day on an 18 hour day, before gas or any other expenses, is $16 an hour. The off the clock work is double that. So $8 an hour. Now save that to survive the next actor/writer strike.
Is it a livable wage? Sure. In Iowa if you're a mid level stripper. Not a film crew in LA.