Tale as old as time

Well, I just got done working as a PA on a short film called The Bedwetter. More information on the film and the production company here:

http://www.greeniefilms.com/films/works.htm

They loved me :). And it was possibly the most positive group of people I have ever worked with. Anyway, I spent 5 long days with them and it was a wonderful experience. My duties ranged from daily errands, grip work, cake decorating, properties coordination, and child wrangling.

The film is very promising in terms of quality, and I have been promised invitations to all screenings and festival showings :) I can't wait. The writer/director of the project thought I was one of the best things on the face of the earth and has eagerly agreed to be a reference for me to help find future work in the television and film industries. It's really nice to feel appreciated.

One of the other crew members gave me a hot tip on some shoes I should consider buying since my feet have really been killing me (as a PA its poor form to ever sit down when it is not an official meal break, so working 12 hour days can be really rough on your feet). The brand everyone recommends is called Red Wings - they run a bit expensive, but apparently they really do the trick. As soon as I have a job (and if it is in this industry) I will be checking them out.

Also, just a shout out to how small the world his, Michelle and Barbara (the two women in charge of The Bedwetter) knew 1 other grad from Carnegie Mellon - and that is actually why they opted to hire me off of my craigslist inquiry. Her name is Maxine Lapiduss--sound familiar? She was the woman I was planning on working for when I moved out here. Hah.

I got home on Monday at 3:30 PM, talked to my mom on the phone, and immediately fell asleep. I didn't wake up until 11:00 AM on Tuesday. I suppose that's my body's way of telling me I was exhausted. I took yesterday as a rest day. Built a shelf, did some cleaning, unpacked my books, etc. It was nice to get a break.

Today I woke up, showered, cleaned, and went to see a matinee of Funny People all by myself. Just an hour ago, I threw a load of laundry into the washer, and Sam and I were watching a bit of TV. All of a sudden we heard a crashing banging which I immediately thought was someone breaking into our apartment. We both shot up and ran down the hallway to find that our washing machine had eaten itself.

Unfortunately my clothes had not reached the rinse cycle, so I rinsed them out as best I could in the shower and threw everything into the shower so we'll see what happens. I have already filed the maintenance request, so we'll see what happens. UGH.

TTRs:

Crafty: pet name for craft services (industry catering)

Flag: A rectangular metal frame lined with black soft goods, used as a light blocker

C-Stand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-Stand

It's not all glitz and glamour...

So if the day I worked on the independent horror film was fun, last monday was AMAZING.

I know the second second assistant director on Californication (who has now moved on to work on Grey's Anatomy) whose name is AK, so I emailed her to see if she knew of any work out there. She said she didn't have any paying jobs (Californication actually stopped shooting its season today), but told me I would be welcome to follow her around on set one day. So I did - two days ago!

It was possibly the most fun day of my life. I got to watch David Duchovney work on set alongside Natascha McElhorne and Madeline Watkins (who also goes by Maddie). Funny enough there are actually two Maddies in the cast.

Anyway, rather than just shadowing the AK they put me straight to work. I got to work on my first real television set! Still unpaid, but invaluable experience. I got to work right alongside the other PAs, facilitating the shoots and working the trenches. The first half of the day was on location in Venice (which is beautiful with its little canals and bridges everywhere). I got to be on radio so I was always in the loop. My call was 9 AM and we were in the first location until about 2 PM. At the first location, I was positioned near a construction site. When the first assistant director announced that sound was rolling over headset, I would yell out "ROLLING" at which point the construction workers would hold what they were doing so they wouldn't make any noise. The production manager arranges this ahead of time, and the construction crew is paid to offset the time they lose in their day. When they were finished filiming, the first AD would annouce "We're cut" over radio, and I would shout that so construction would resume. The order of radio commands goes:

"LOCK IT DOWN" - everyone gets into their 1st position
"SOUND IS ROLLING" - which means sound department is up and running
"BACKGROUND" - something I would also yell out loud to cue any extras we are paying to start their action, for the first shoot I was in charge of cueing a dog and dog walker to begin making their way down the sidewalk.
"ACTION" - scene commences
"CUT" - scene ends
"BACK TO ONE" - reset so we can shoot again

After shooting at the Venice Canals, we moved to a second location on Venice beach. In the TV show, this is where David Duchovney's character lives. It was the scene in which his character is getting arrested (I am not sure for what). It was a very public area, so most of my job was keeping bogies (people who shouldn't be around) off the set and out of the scene. However, we couldn't keep the paparazzi away, so the shoot hit several gossip blogs:
http://bauergriffinonline.com/2009/07/duchovny-cuffed-for-californic.php
Anyway, for this shoot, I got to cue a speeding cop car and 15 background (extras). It was AWESOME.

All in all, the outside shoots spanned from 9 AM - 8 PM, and -my mom will be unhappy to hear- I got really sunburnt. No one on the production team hesitated to point it out. The second half of the day was on stage, so we got to go back to the studios to work. It is remarkable how quickly the departments can pack up their gear, we were out of the on site locations in less than 20 minutes. David and Natascha were done for the day after the outdoor shooting, so the evening work was all with Evan Obrient. When we got to the stage, we were really overstaffed in terms of PAs, but I hung around until they were done so I could get everything out of the experience possible. All I really did there was eat dinner, call out "ROLLING" and "CUT", and make sure the AC was off when they were shooting. We finished filiming around 1 AM.

The last thing PAs do is get the sign out times from every department. The way they do time on their timecards is a little bizarre. If you stay after midnight of the day you were called, instead of doing standard military time that would go back to 0 (midnight) after hour 23, you go into hour 24 and hour 25. And istead of minutes or fractions, you use decimals to the tenth of a unit, each representing 6 minutes, rounded up. SO, if you were called at 9 AM and your day ends at 1:15 AM, your sign out time is 25.3. I thought it was both hilarious and stupid. But whatever floats their boat. I will do sign out times on an abacus if that means I get paid someday.

Craft services - the name for the food service used on set - is possibly the best perk of working in the tv/film industries. AK says that when she is working she MAYBE goes grocery shopping once a month. You are provided 3 meals a day, and there are always snacks and drinks. It was pretty nice. Lunch was lobster and filet mignon (so were not talking pizza and soda here).

Anyway, I'm glad that I liked it, because it means I'm not chasing after something I will hate. It's hard to stay standing for 16 hours, but the people you get to work with make it worth it. All in all a great experience.

New TTRs:

Last looks: last minute hair & make-up touchups right before we are rolling

Bogey: stray person on site or set or frame

I have more - I wrote them in an eNote on my phone, so I'll catch up with them later. Take care everyone!

Post Mortem

I live to tell the tale of my first day on set!

Gut reaction:

• very low budget (but NOT no budget)
• very nice people
• love the director of photography & head of SFX makeup
• other PAs were nice
• a bit unprofessional
• people seemed impressed with what I knew and how I worked

I don't know if I would work for them again or not - I guess it depends on how bored I am.

BUT! New TTRS:

Striker: Extension cord

Strike: Turn on

Screen Frame: What is in the picture/shot (called out to calculate sound boom placement)

Tomorrow I am going to be on the set of Californication (a hit Showtime series). I plan on watching an episode of it today so I have a clue of what is going on. I will be a volunteer PA/shadowing the 1st assistant director. She's an alum which makes it more understandable as to why I have this awesome opportunity.

Well, I have to rest today as yesterday was a 14 hour work day and tomorrow's going to be the same.

I am starting something new!

New idea to help me learn the ropes in LA and perhaps share a little of what I am picking up with you. I am going to start making posts with Terms To Research (TTRs) in them. I will include any information I can find, and if you know anything about it please feel free to add and comment. I hope it can be the beginnings of a personal entertainment glossary.



Today's TTRs

Vault Runner:

A (B) Roll:

ACDSee:

Grip:



Dad: I know I owe you a phonecall. I promise you'll hear from me tomorrow.