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.
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