The big shoot? and prospects for the future

So I know the work of a menial PA now.

I got back from the Nick Jonas shoot with the feeling I experienced a little bit of an anticlimax. Everything was very professional and everyone there was good at what they did, but it just a very simple shoot and not too exciting. I didn't have to work very hard (which is kinda nice) and it was a pretty short day.

I got to the sound stage at 6am and helped unload the truck and then hung out for a little while. There were two grips and two electricians who did all the rigging and lighting and they did not need any help. So the other PAs and I hit up the breakfast catering. Now that part was exciting - Eggs, bacon, french toast, omelets and a wide assortment of donuts and danishes. At around 9:30 or 10 the camera and lighting was ready to go, so we started the shoot. I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about whats in the video or the details of the shoot, so I will just be vague and give the bare bones of what happened. For the morning we had several actors dressed as a doctor or a firefighter or other characters do a little performance in front of a back drop. There were about 10 of these and each took about 20 minutes. When we got through all those we had lunch. After we ate, Nick arrived and he did his thing. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Young and good looking but nothing too special. I didn't get to actually meet him, but we did the universal man to man head nod, the form of acknowledgment that every guy knows and recognizes. We filmed him for about an hour then broke down the set and left. By the time it was all said and done I was out of there by 5 pm. Good Deal. My job for most of the shoot was to sit at a specific area and not let people walk by or else they would get in the shot. I also got things if needed like chairs or other random things. Easy enough, kind of boring.

I did benefit from this shoot in several ways. Firstly, I will get paid. That is always a benefit. Secondly, I met some people who may potentially help me in my career. One was Mike, he was the Executive Producer and I think he is a head of the production company who was in charge of the shoot, Three Foot Giant. I have a pretty special relationship with him because his kid is in class with my nephew. We actually met for the first time at their holiday recital, so we have that connection. The other persons name was Craig, a producer and the person who called me before the shoot. He is a pretty young guy and we got along well. At the end of everything, as I was leaving, I told him thanks for having me on and that I was interested in getting into the office to start learning all that stuff. He told me he would think about it and see what he could do. He seemed pretty earnest about it, so maybe something will come of that. Fingers crossed.

I've got some more good news. A little while back I applied to an internship with a production company called Aid+Abet Productions and they sent me an email to arrange an interview. SWEET! I had hoped this would come through, but with all the other things I applied for in the past 6 months, I didn't expect too much. The interview is set up for January 6th, which is the day after I get back to LA from the holidays in Houston. I am excited about this, it could be really good experience and a step in the right direction towards my end goal of being a producer.

So I have some good prospects for the future, as long as I play my cards right.


-Things I have learned: The relationships you build will be more important than you know and may come from the strangest of places (my step-nephew's classmate's father?).

-Plans for the future: To go home to Houston for the holidays. But it is not going to be all vacation for me, I am going to prepare for the interview as much as possible and learn as much as I can about the production company to be as ready as I can.

Big man in charge

Those three long nights are behind me and I finally have a film production under my belt. It was a pretty good shoot, we shot a short film that will eventually be a part of a longer film. The script is pretty decent and we got some good stuff, so I am excited to see what the final product will look like.

In my limited experience, I would have to say this was a pretty small shoot, a crew of about 30. I worked as a Grip/Electric (just as I thought...) and was pretty much key role in the grand scheme of things. There were only two of us, me and another guy named Lianto, who were working as G/E so we pretty much made all the lighting needs happen. Lianto was technically the "key" grip but we were pretty much equals. He actually wants to work in the sound departent, but he has experience as a grip and did know a lot about the position, so I was able to learn a great deal from him and we worked well together. The DP would tell us what kind of lighting he wanted for the scene and he would leave it up to us to figure out how to rig it up. It was a lot of hanging lights from the ceiling of a warehouse. Here are some pictures of me on the job -

http://twitpic.com/t64yy
http://twitpic.com/t655y

It was actually really cool to be in the position I was for this shoot because I had some authority on the way things should be. They would send us some PAs and I would tell them what I needed them to do. Then they would come back to me ask what I wanted them to do next. It was really cool! I was basically the one who decided how to rig up all the lights and did most of the handy work while Lianto was the technical knowledge behind it all and the PAs helped us.

It's going to be kinda tough for me to go on a bigger production and be just a lowly grip or even a PA, with no authority, just a work horse that obeys. But this shoot made me realize how important the lower people are, especially how important it is to just listen. I think there were too many people on this shoot who were trying to be "Chiefs" and not enough "Indians". Too many people who were trying to put there two cents in and not listening to the way the people in charge wanted it. Some of the PAs were doing it to me and it definitely made my life more difficult. It was good to see things from that perspective and it will make me a better worker on future shoots.

I have some more news on maybe my next job. Through some good luck and some contacts, I met a guy named Mike, who is a producer of music videos. Big time music videos. We got to talking and I told him about what I've been doing out here in LA and what my career aspirations are. He seemed to take a some interest and asked me about my availability for Tuesday the 15th. I told him I was free. He then asked if I was interested in working that day on a music video, and not just some random person, but a Nick Jonas (as in The Jonas Bros.) music video. Pretty big time. I, of course, said I would do it for sure. So the shoot is supposed to be tomorrow. I don't have the details about it yet (typical), although I did get a conformation call about working on it a couple days ago. So I will eagerly await the details. This could be a big step for me, even though I am most likely just be a work horse PA. Regardless, I am excited.

-Things I've Learned: What its like to work on a film. It's different from a music video, although a grips job is basically the same. I gained a lot of experience in being a problem solver as to how to rig lighting to look the way it needs to, something you can't learn until you actually do it.

-Plans for the Future: Work the next music video. I also have plans to go home to Houston for about 3 weeks for the holidays, so I probably will not be doing a lot of work during that time.

They be callin' me!

It is becoming very apparent that having good contacts pays off.

I got a phone call from a guy named Kirk saying he might have a gig from me. I met Kirk on the Joshua tree camping adventure, he was the sound guy. I guess that experience was more valuable that I originally thought. He said he is working a film this weekend and they are looking for more help. So I got the contact info for the producer and sent her an email saying I was able to work if they needed me. Well, she called me less than an hour after the email was sent and said that I was on the job. Sweet!

It is going to be this Friday, Saturday and Sunday although its not going to be during the day. It is another night shoot, 5 pm to 5 am on each day (ie. night). It's all good. I'm not sure what they'll have me doing, but I'm pretty sure I will end up doing Grip/Electric (at least if I have any say in it...). There's only one bad thing, no pay. It's good they were up front about it and it's OK because this will be the first "Legitimate" film I work on. I will be gaining good experience. And supposedly the script is really good. I am supposed to be getting a copy of it, so I am eager to check it out.

I also got another good phone call a day or two ago. My manager from the internship I worked last spring for SXSW (South by Southwest) called me up and asked if I was willing to come back and help again this year. They called ME! It would mean I would have to drive back to Texas but I would be willing to do that for sure. Last year I got to see tons of films and live music for free. And I got to go to several conferences and talks by industry experts and innovative thinkers. It's like a melting pot of Music, Film, Technology and everything awesome. Here is the website - http://www.sxsw.com. As with a lot of the things I do now-a-days, I'm not sure what they'll have me doing, but I whatever it is, I will rock it. I am really looking forward to this.

So I guess I have been leaving good impressions on the people I work with. I will continue to work hard with everyone I meet and hope that they remember me, even if it means I have to work all through the night....



-Things I've learned: Work hard at everything you do, you never know who will notice and where it will lead you.

-Plans for the future: To work hard on this film this weekend. It will be nice to meet some more new people and work with them. Since this is not payed I can only hope that it will lead to more work.

Getting used to the hard work

I really love working on the crew for movies and music videos, but man, it can be some hard, physical work.

I just got off a two day, or should I say "night", shoot for a music video. It was with a lot of the same crew that I did the Paypa music video with a week or two back. That's actually how I got the gig, so my few connection have already started to pay off.

This time around it was for a Jazzy style artist named Reem and her song "Turn Upside Down". There were two night shoots with crew calls at 4p.m. and supposedly ending 4a.m., but it really ended at around 6a.m. Yea, that's pretty long night, working for just about the whole time. The sun was coming up as I was getting home. But it was all fun, too.

The shoot was again another step up for me, the biggest one I've done yet. It still wasn't a really big budget, but a step none-the-less. I worked as a full grip on this shoot*. On the first day we were at a loft near Marina Del Ray where we got various shots of an actress and actor doing their thing and a few shots with the artist at a piano doing her thing. The second day we went to a roof top in downtown LA and got some really cool shots. The best thing about it was I got to see a crane in action for the first time. We got some swooping shots, high angles and even one where the camera went off the side of the building. It was awesome! The operator was good at his job and made it look really cool. The style of video is going to be a Noir looking, Sin City type of video, where it is all in black and white with accents of red. With the way we set up the lighting, it is going to look classy.

Another first for me was I got to experience catering. We were given a "lunch" with a very welcomed hot meal (it gets cold on a rooftop at night this time of year!). There were also sandwiches and snacks to be eaten whenever there was a rare free moment. I was very grateful for all that food, it definitely kept me going.

One thing that was problematic for this shoot is that it moved along really slow. For some reason it took forever to set up the shots, or at least longer than normal (or at least what I, in my limited professional opinion, consider normal). They ended up looking really slick and artistic but they were shooting as if we had all the time in the world and not only two nights. Another oddity to this music video is that it was shot in small clips as bits and pieces. For all the other videos I have worked there has been several shots where the entire song was played (and got stuck in my head) and the artist performed and there was lots of coverage. But on this shoot I don't think there was one time where I heard the whole song all the way through. I guess the director knew exactly what he wanted for each specific part of the song, but it just didn't seem like he covered the whole thing. Oh well, not my problem.

All in all it was a good experience, even if I did have to work my ass off in the wee hours of the morning.


-What I have learned: More about what it takes to be a grip. There are a lot of odd names for the equipment that we use and there is a lot of equipment to be used. I have come to like setting up the lights as it is definitely a crucial part of the production, although the long hours and back breaking work makes me want to venture other routes. I don't think I can see myself working as a Grip for the rest of my life. In the end, I think I want to try to be a Producer, so I need to figure out how to learn that job, but I think all this experience on-set will eventually benefit me in the long run. Plus, its fun to be there where all the action happens.

-Plans for the future: Land more work? Maybe get more experience? Yes, I think so.





* I want to clarify what a grip does. We are the ones who are in charge of rigging up stands and other parts for the lights. It's the electricians that are in charge of setting up the lights. It's kind of like the electricians are the ones that bring the lights and the grips are the ones that hold them up. So the hierarchy is: Gaffer- decide where lights go; Best Boy Electric (or just Best Boy)- In charge of lights, Gets the lights in position; Electrician- Helps Best Boy; Key Grip- In charge of Grip equipment (stands, ect.) to support the lights, works with Gaffer; Grip- Helps Key Grip in setting up lights and other necessary stuff. The position I have been doing for most of past work has been G&E (Grip and Electric) which is sort of a combo of both.

Glad I got through it

I guess I will be apart of some good productions and there will some that are bad. The camping adventure in Joshua Tree definitely fits into the latter. Yea....

Preface:
Before I go into detail about my experience, I want to say that I really did end up enjoying working with everyone in the production. They are all good people and fun to work with and fun to be around. I am glad that I went and was part of the film.

That being said...

The production was pretty much a disaster. Well, I shouldn't say disaster. Let's just go with really bad. REALLY bad. The director/writer/editor, Keith, was grossly under-prepared. He is a very creative guy and an awesome editor (he showed us some of his work, he's been doing it for 20+ years), but he was not ready to make this film. To his credit, this was the first thing he ever wrote or directed and the script had only been finished days before we got there. But that begs the question as to why we went though with the thing? Why not push it back a little? Why not be a little more ready? There might have been some reason for the madness, but I can't even guess. Half way through I thought there was no way a complete product would ever come of what we were doing. He kept on forgetting what was in the "script", what we had shot and he didn't have any plans for what we were going to do next. There was no plan or schedule. We had to re-shoot almost everything we shot, some of it three times. It was always "Let just go with this and see how it turns out". Very frustrating.

The writing was pretty amateur, too. The movie was supposed to be along the lines of "Paranormal Activity". I guess they were trying to cash in on that bandwagon. The story was a young married couple just bought a house on some land and the house is haunted by a little girl. The woman gets possessed and some other scary stuff happens too, but overall it was mediocre. I will say that some of the scenes we shot were pretty cool and will end up looking scary. Like I said, Keith is a creative guy, so there will be some good parts, but overall, I'm just not sure.

And the equipment we were using was dreadful. We were shooting on a consumer level High-Def camera that was specifically bought for this shoot. It just wasn't working for us. We tried to get it to do what we wanted, but a lot of the time the picture simply did not look good. We needed something just a little better. The lighting equipment was atrocious. It was basically three flood lights on stands. What can you do with three flood lights on stands? Not much. I tried hard to make it work, but I am just one man. And not a super experienced man. At lighting, that is.

The crew was really small, but that isn't a big problem. They were all good people and were really nice. It was Keith, a sound guy named Kirk, the two main actors Lisa and Jared, a supporting actress, who came for one night, named Alex, and then me. What about all the other positions needed for a film? Aren't there a lot of jobs that need to be done? Yes. There are. And guess who filled in all of those? Yep, me. I was hired on as a Production Assistant but really I was the Gaffer, Grip, Assistant Camera, Script Supervisor, Craft Services, Art Department, Driver, Rigger and probably other positions I can't think of right now or didn't know I was doing. Over worked and under appreciated. But it ain't no thing. I handled it like a champ. I worked really hard and did the best I could. That's the way I would do it, regardless of who I work for. Its just how I do, baby.

There was another guy there, but I'm not sure I can classify him as a part of the crew. His name is Dennis Woodruff. I think he was technically a producer, and he did a little acting, but really all he did was get in the way. He came across as a crazy person. A legitimately crazy person, I kid you not. He would tell us all these odd-ball stories about how he has made 30 movies in the past, how he knows Steven Spielberg and other famous directors and actors, how his dad was a cinematographer for John Ford and other classic directors, how his grandfather built the Hollywood sign and other wacky stuff. It's just hard to believe someone like him when he tells you things like that. Then I looked him up and was shocked. It turns out majority of the stuff he told us is true. The other stuff I couldn't find (or didn't look hard enough...) but it very well could be true too. Google him. You can see how crazy he is and the bizarre past he has. I kind feel privileged to have worked with him, even though he was such a pain in the ass.

Despite everything, I truly am glad I worked this production. As I have written, a lot of it was awful, but I did get pretty close to the people I worked with and in the end it wasn't so bad. I guess when you go though something like that you have no choice but to come together and make the best of it. Joshua Tree is a very cool place and I am glad that I got to visit it. I think I will come out this a better person. At least I hope so. And I got paid. So that is good. Yea, that definitely helps it not be so bad.

On another good note, I have more work. I got a message from the DP of the music video I worked a week or two ago, saying he was working another one and wanted me to be on it too. He gave me the contact info of the producer and she pretty much told me I have the job. I'll be a PA again. They still have to send me the details, but it's typical to wait till the last minute.

-Things I learned: How not to make a movie. You must be prepared. It is crucial. I did get a chance to figure out how to make it work when there is basically nothing to work with, so I guess when there is the proper equipment I will be able to make it work even better.

-Plans for the future: To work this music video, if they ever let me know whats going on with it...