After almost an entire day wasted sleeping,* I went back to Bones second unit (yesterday was Wednesday, right?).
We had yet another new gaffer (just for second unit, though. No crew changes on first unit that I've heard about), and while he was a bit uptight for the first half of the day, after lunch he relaxed, started cracking jokes, and we all had a great time. We only had about 6 pages to shoot, so no one was in a hurry (to the point that production moved a bit too slowly and what should have been a 9 hour day turned into a 12 1/2 hour day - it's true that the work expands to fit the time allotted).
The only major bummer of the day was that, for some reason, the coffee on second unit tasted like ass (hey, the DP said it, not me). We kept having to walk all the way across the lot to stage 6 (where first unit was) to get decent java. The craft service guy kept telling us that it was Folgers, which 'scored higher than Starbucks in a taste-test', but no one was buying it.
Next door to stage 10, Arrested Development were shooting on NY street - I ran into a friend of mine who's been working on the crew and I took a few minutes to shmooze the best boy in an attempt to get days on one of the only TV shows I watch consistently. I so rarely get to work on anything I like anymore.**
During lunch, I took a 9 am call at Universal, which I instantly regretted; but once you say yes, you can't really back out. Universal's back lot is about five thousand degrees during the summer, and I generally say no when they call me anytime between June and Thanksgiving.
The fact that it's a 9 am call leads me to believe I may be working on the lamp dock, which I ferverently hope as I'll be in the air conditioning all day.
* There was a time in my life when hours like Monday's didn't seem to bother me. Once, when I was trying to get my days to join the union, I worked for 24 hours straight (on two different jobs). Afterwards, I went home, took a six hour nap and then went out to a nightclub.
Needless to say, I can't do that anymore. Nowadays, anything more than 14 hours hurts me bad - I must be getting old.
**That statement makes it seem like I've often - in the past - worked on shows that I liked.
This is untrue. I've very rarely worked on anything that I'd actually want to see.
3 comments:
I WANA BE YOUR SHADOW!
As a long time lurker, let me say that I totally sympathize with your comment about longer hours being a bigger pain in the ass than they used to be.
As an editor, I generally start later than you guys, but then again, we don't have the Teamsters to protect us against overzealous producers. I worked on one show which my daughter uses as a benchmark to this day, some 12 years later. I would regularly drop her off at her school and go off to work. The next time I would see her is when I would return from work in time to see her leave for school the next day!!
I can't do THAT anymore. Too old!
You do realize, of course, that they day you get a job working on the set of "Veronica Mars" that it's "Bring Dave to Work Day" - do you not?
Oh... and it goes without saying that if you ever work on a project which involves Elizabeth Hurley that I shall be killing you and assuming your identity. :-)
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