More than just being nervous

Tomorrow we start filming the big blockbuster. After getting delayed a week, and numerous script revisions, we are set to begin a film that will stretch out for the next 3 months. It will be the biggest thing I have worked on so far in my rather short career and I have to admit, I am beyond nervous.

Besides the fact that there are huge stars in the film, I am nervous because I have never occupied the position I have on this film. Being the 1st Team Production Assistant brings with it a lot of responsibility, forethought, and anticipation on my part. I know I can do it. I know that it will only be a matter of time before I find my groove and I can anticipate what several actors will want or need. I know all of these things. However, what I am most scared of, is the first week and possibly not living up to the reputation that people have given me.

I have been told on a few occasions this past week, which I have this job purely on the recommendation of one AD that I worked for last year. I didn’t interview because there was not much time, and the team I will be working with took her advice and hired me. I appreciate that faith, but I also know that I was not the first, second, third, or even fifth alternate. That shouldn’t bother me as much as it does because there is so much work going on in the city that good people are hard to find. Especially good people that would be available until the end May. I fit those criteria obviously.

My stomach is in knots right now. I’m trying to think about the first, second, and third things that I should be doing tomorrow morning as I get to set. I can not forget anything. I have to prove to myself, to the person that recommended me, and to the people that hired me, that I can work on a big budget film and I can excel.

Moving up in the world

Saturday night was my last day on the film from hell. This is not to say that it was the last day of filming, but I fortunately offered a bigger, better job and was able to get out of the final week of shooting. Last week was only slightly better than the first, but it could never convince me to stay on with this new offer. On Thursday night, a guy a worked for on my last major film called and told me he recommended me for an upcoming shoot that would last until the first week of June. If I got the job, I would be doing something new. I would be the 1st team Production Assistant, which means I would be in charge of getting all the principal actors to set on time with their Hair/Make-up/Wardrobe all done in an efficient manner.

Being the 1st team PA is a tricky proposition and one that I am looking forward to the challenges it will present. First, you are going to definitely get an earful from the 1st and 2nd Assistant Directors because they have everything scheduled for the day, and for the film to be made on time, that schedule needs to be kept. On the other hand, you have to keep your cool with the actors. You can never let them know that there is pressure to get them on set. Basically, it’s all about channeling your emotions and separating the anxieties that both sides will bring.

The great thing about this new project, besides the job security until June, is that I will be responsible for three very big actors. One of which I met a month ago when he opened the door for me while I was working one day on another film (There was a post about it so if you are a faithful reader of ths: the pa then you know who I am talking about). Besides both of those guys, I will be responsible for a guy that has one of the worst mugshots on the smokinggun.com. The last main actor is definitely a ladies man with an irish accent. He has been linked to a number of leading females and his most recent film had him paired with a 13 yr old actress, with the movie set about 400 years ago.

It will be an exciting four months. This week we have rehearsals and the production company wants me to be around the actors to get to know them better. I’m sure I’ll know what kind of lattes or odd foods that they all like pretty fast.

I just hope the experience is better than this last one.

Enjoying the Craft

The last few days have been better, but things still have to change. Tomorrow we are going to be in the same location for the 7th straight day and the end can’t come any sooner. The director is getting more comfortable with his actors as well as streamlining his thought process, but once we are out of this “comfort zone” we will be moving to exterior locations or even interiors that are less hospitable to a big crew and I just don’t know how well he is going to deal with that.

As for myself, things have been high stress most of the week. Not that high stress is a bad thing, because I can deal with things in high stress situations pretty well, but it does take a toll on your body. Standing most of the day, constantly having to be vigilant about people making noise or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is a difficult mentality to maintain.

For example, two nights ago I had a nightmare that woke me up every half hour (for the 5 hours that I got to sleep). From what I can piece together, the nightmare mainly involved me outside with a large group of people all going towards a large mist. For some reason I knew things were not going to be good so I kept trying to get people to stop walking and no one would listen. It was very eerie. I rushed back inside for what I thought was safety, and the people just kept leaving and going outside. No one would listen. I think I heard screaming. I think I heard the sound of people going outside and then rushing back towards where I was. It’s all kind of blurry, but obviously a result of my work and what it is doing to me.

One of the positives to take from the last week of shooting is the level of acting. The lead male is a pleasure to watch because he delivers each line with a high level of emotion. Before now I had only worked on comedies that did not allow the actors to display their full range of skill. Now, with a serious drama, all three actors work as if that day’s performance is going to land them an Oscar.

12 Days Left.

Making the Day

As many of you already know, I finished grad school last May. Before finishing in May, I made my thesis film with a fellow classmate. Things were chaotic, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing half the time, and somehow the film got finished (well almost, but that’s besides the point). Two days ago, I felt like I was in film school again.

Things, ummm, aren’t going so well on set after three days. When you start a day of filming you get a call sheet that has a set number of scenes to shoot by the end of the day. We call this “making your day.” If you don’t “make your day” it’s a pretty big deal. Well, the last three days, yeah, we kind of, sort of, didn’t come close to “making” our days. Basically the problem lies with the director. He is in way over his head and has never really handled working with a big crew before now. (He wrote and directed a film before this that did well in film festivals but it was definitely made by friends and family.)

The first day of shooting, things were very slow. The second day we got ONE shot off before lunch. BEFORE LUNCH! That’s 6 hours and only one shot. This was not, however, for a lack of trying. One of our lead actors needed to have some discussions with the Producers about the direction of the film (and I actually don’t blame him). Now, after a third day of getting only half of our workload done, I don’t know what they are going to do. They might cut entire scenes for filming. The Producers might tell the director that he needs to get himself together and be much more efficient. If not, then who knows what this film is going to be like in a few weeks.

So, the stars of this film are…

I know, I know, this is the fun part. Alright we have three different eras involved in our little film. The old, the spunky, and the new. The senior member of the cast was immediately known in my mind for doing a movie involving a president and a double for the president (due to the original president’s heart attack during…umm…discreet actions). In the movie, the guy who plays the conniving senator is our leading male. The spunky one with a great attitude has been in an HBO series as well as a popular Nick Hornby book turned film about relationships. The third, and youngest of the actors, is female and was on the same HBO series as the spunky girl. She is mostly known for her rebellious character as well as the morbid theme of the series.

Day 4 is up tomorrow. We won’t make our day, but maybe we’ll get 3/4 of it done this time.

Noticing the little things

Everything about what you see on film or television is contrived. EVERYTHING. If you think you see a huge group of people walking around in the background, and all you can see is blurry shapes, don’t believe they are there randomly. The meticulous nature of creating a film or television show leaves nothing to chance. As a person who has been responsible for placing those blurry shapes in the background, I am starting to pay much more attention to what is happening behind and around the principal actors.

When I’m watching television I look for these “little things.” If people are moving in the background, I try and see if I see the same people over and over. During production, we are given a certain number of extras that can be used. They could be joggers, people in cars, people with dogs or just regular pedestrians who look like they are on their way to work. If you don’t have enough of these people, then you have to “recycle” them as much as possible. Basically, this means you give people starting points and end points in the frame. When they reach one side of the frame, they turn around and alter their gait until the director calls cut. More often than not, you won’t see that same person recycling because of editing. Cutting back and forth between two people in a conversation allows for so much variety that it would just be an odd coincidence to see the same person, in the same outfit, moving in the background.

Another “little” thing that occurs when working so much with extras is the different forms of payment and people you need. For instance, while watching a recent episode of “ER” the final shots were of a main character skating in an ice rink. Skating around her were around 40 or 50 people enjoying themselves as families, couples or little kids. In my mind, I immediately think, “Wow. They had to find a lot of people that were Union actors and who could skate.” (Typically, a SAG actor who can skate is given “Special Ability” pay that is $132.00 and that is $10 above the base pay rate.) Last week, I had to deal with an ice skating scene where we had two teams of youth hockey players and about 10 people who were free skating on an adjacent rink. Before I did any of this work, I may have thought that the rink could be filled with random people from the rink and somehow they were paid a reasonable amount. But no, every part of the scene is constructed and planned. Every person seen on camera is there for a reason, no matter if you see 5 people or 5,000 in one scene, someone in the production had to choose those people specifically for their look and “special ability” talents.

This post is getting pretty long and it is Super Bowl Sunday, so I think I should get to the end. I’ve finished the museum film and I’ll be starting a new one in less than 12 hours. Early call time is never fun (5am) but I hope things will run smoothly. I’m excited about meeting the cast and I’ll give clues to their identities after I meet them and see how they are.

Until then, enjoy the big game or 8 straight hours of “Yes, Dear” on TBS.

Sweep...The...LEG!

Probably one of the coolest celebrity/actor sightings I have had happened the last two days on set. Supposedly this guy has been trying to get a part in the movie so he is hanging around set. I don't know if it is working, but it was VERY cool to see him. From the subject line of the post, I'm sure many of you can guess who I am talking about. Yep, the bad guy from that Kid movie from the 80's. All I wanted to do was shout out lines from the movie to him. He looks exactly the same by the way.

The last few days of work have been going ok. We are shooting all exteriors so we have a lot of extras each day. Basically a lot of people to walk back and forth and around the museum while we (mostly) have no principal actors walking in the shot. They are adding digital animals and other cool efx later. I did get to see the whole front of the museum covered in fake snow the other night. I do have to say that was very cool to watch. The whole process involved special efx guys feeding huge blocks of ice into what looked like a tree limb shredder and out came the snow. That's one thing that I like about what I do, every day we have something new to see and/or deal with. Not a lot of other jobs can give you that. Well, they can, but who wants to get excited about seeing new excel spreadsheets?

Next up: New movie on Monday. 18 days. 3 weeks of 6 days of work each. It's a marathon folks.