Observations from Week 1

Yes, I know, I’m sorry I haven’t written anything in awhile. This week we started filming and the days preceding the first day on Wednesday were very hectic. The office was buzzing with many things to do and little time to get them done, and I was thankfully going to be out of there soon enough.

Tuesday was my last day in the office and it couldn’t have come a day sooner. The girl who replaced me is very nice and cool, but I already feel bad for her since she now has to deal with the constant phone calls and micromanaging of the office. Such is life, what can you do.

Wednesday was our first day and the city suddenly had a chill in the air. We were shooting on the upper east side near the 60’s which wasn’t too bad, and the side street we were on wasn’t too busy. Luckily we had traffic control police to close the street for any extended period of shooting. The day went mostly well as far as first days can go with a new crew. People are still getting accustomed to each other and some are in charge of things that they have never gotten to do before (like me) and so it has been quite an adaptive process.

Here are some of the highlights of the past two days.

Thursday

We shot all day in Chinatown which can be a tiresome prospect unto itself. Getting people, mostly people who can speak about the words of English, to understand you when you tell them to hold on the corner for a shot, is nearly impossible. Providing what we call a “lock up” is hard enough with any city dweller mainly because no one wants to be told what to do. Everyone is late for something. Everyone wants to walk around ten orange cones stacked neatly across from each other blocking the way. This is the life of a Production Assistant. Sit, wait for the cameras to roll, and try and hold people from walking directly into the frame. People hate us when we do it, no matter how nice we are, and unfortunately, things happen that are out of a PA’s control.

Take, for instance, one piece of Thursday night. A woman was approaching a corner of the street which I had my back to. The PA standing there asked the woman if she could please wait for thirty seconds and then she could cross. We needed the street to look empty like it was in the middle of the night. This meant no one could pass through any part of the 6-point intersection (it sucked to deal with). This woman was on her cell phone. This woman did not want to stop. This woman decided to cross the street in the middle of the road.

At this exact point, a man driving a black Acura was driving down the main cross street, probably rubber necking to see the film being made (and how you could you miss us with a huge spotlight on a crane suspended 50 feet in the air), going about 30 mph. He looked at us, and then he looked at her hitting his car…She never knew what hit her. All I heard was a loud thump and screaming…enough screaming to make your body shake. The woman was hit dead on at full speed and the man didn’t skid. He hit her and she flipped onto the hood of his car and then fell back on the ground. It was an ugly scene and I’m glad I didn’t actually see her get hit. Other PA’s did though, and they said they were afraid of nightmares from the images.

Friday

Nothing terrible happened with pedestrians. Overall nothing bad happened at all really. It was a mostly chilly day with a lot of wind during the afternoon but it died down a bit late at night. We were in the meatpacking district for the day and night which was cool. Friday night in the meatpacking district wasn’t exactly quiet, but it worked out well. I did get to pick up a new actress to our film so she could come to set and meet everyone. Most guys would know her from the film where she starred as the girlfriend to the girl who was in “Let it Ride.” If you can follow those pieces, than you can figure out who she is. She was nice enough, but from a few choice things she said in the car, I can tell she is going to be a handful, and possibly might be a prima donna. We’ll see soon enough. She starts her scenes on Monday.

One other fun thing that happened last night was that we went to one of the main actor’s girlfriends bar that she works at. If you have been following my stories, he was the one who invited me to hang out at his place a few weeks ago. Pretty fun to drink with a cool actor. He didn’t drink though. He says he doesn’t have any drinks while he is working. So I guess we won’t see him drunk for a month or so.

Whew! That was a lot to write. Sorry it was so long, but when I don’t post, things accumulate. Week 1 is done. Now, we move along…