Great day, bad coffee.

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.

Next time, Just Say No.

I had almost forgotten why I hate rap videos so much (I've managed to not work one in years), but yesterday reminded me all over again.

Call time: 7 am
Wrap time: 3:30 am

Highlights of the day: One of the rapper's "posse" threatening the craft service girl because she 'disrespected' him by telling him he'd have to wait a few minutes for coffee.

Another one of the "posse" telling the transportation co-ordinator that they felt the lighting trucks should move because they didn't want to park a block away and walk. They threatened him when he suggested that they park in crew parking with everyone else.

Yet more "posse" eating ALL the food that had been set out for second meal - before the crew got to eat. I'm fairly certain they threatened someone, I just didn't hear about it.

Can you tell that most rap video problems are "posse" related?

Luckily, it was my turn to be "truck bitch",* so I managed to avoid any direct contact with the rapper, his friends, associates or assorted hangers-on. Thank goodness.

Now I remember - very, very clearly - why I hate working on rap videos so much.

On the bright side - there was a little stray dog hanging around the trucks all day. He was dirty, skinny and afraid of everyone (but he was very hungry and we were feeding him, so he hung out). At some point during the day he fell in love with one of the production assistants, and followed her around looking cute (he even let her pick him up and pet him) until she decided to take him home with her; so the day worked out really, really well - at least for the dog.

At the end of the night, I overheard about three of the production staff telling the producer to lose their phone numbers if this was the type of job he was going keep getting.

Ouch.


*"Truck bitch" is the person who stays in the truck all night - putting things away, prepping lights that are called for so they get on set faster, and going on the coffee (or in this case, food) runs. It's boring, but sometimes it's the best place to be.

Timing really is everything.

I'm off to an out-of-state wedding. I'd been bitching about having to go (not so much the wedding - more that I really hate flying), but now it's starting to seem like a great idea to get out of town for the weekend.

The air in Los Angeles is about 45% smoke today (there's a layer of ash on my car right now), it's hotter than hell, and the sky is a really gross color.

Hopefully, this fire will be out by the time I get back on Sunday night, and no one in or near the burn areas will lose homes, pets or loved ones.

Fun things to do with idle days....

In Los Angeles any fruit which is accessible from a public area (sidewalk, parking lot, etc), and can be picked without trespassing is, by law, public property.

Fallen Fruit is a website which maps locations of publicly available fruit.

Since I'm not working today, I'm off to pick some free avocados!

I'd like your finest fried food, please

Saturday was a girls' trip to the LA County Fair!

I hopped in the car with a few friends and we headed out to Pomona (drive 10 miles past east bumfuck and make a left). We got to the fair about 11 am, and it took us a full hour to get from the car through the ticket lines and into the fair itself.

The LA County Fair was enormous. It had to be over a mile from one end to the other, and the trams were too crowded (and the line for the chair lift was too long), so we ended up walking all day.

The midway was colorful, but I skipped the rides - a few years ago, I worked on a commercial with a bunch of carnies and they scared me so bad I'll never again set foot on anything they've touched.

Instead of sitting on the ferris wheel, I decided to spend the day eating deep-fried food.

The deep-fried snickers bar was not really my thing. I'm more into a food that would be healthy were it not fried - that way I don't feel so bad about eating it.

Over a span of about 7 hours, I ate the following items that had been deep-fried: An avocado (not so good), artichoke hearts (not bad with hot sauce and vinegar, awful with that horrible packet of ranch dressing), an onion (very tasty), and a banana (very, very tasty).

I also had some beer, some wine, and at least a gallon of water.

The official temperature was 85, but with the asphalt and the crush of humanity, it had to be over 100.

I spent a lot of time in the barns, looking at the cute baby animals and getting the hell out of the midday sun.
I also watched a horse race from the outside rail of the track - right next to the winner's circle (where the poor panting, shaking winner had to have his picture taken before he was allowed to go back to the barn and rest), and I got to pet one of the Budweiser (tm) Clydesdales.

On the way home - stuck in traffic, of course - we started talking about what LA will do if the "Big One" hits us.

We, as a city, have always been told that after a large earthquake, we'll most likely have to fend for ourselves for a few days (this was true in 1994 - the power in Hollywood was out for a week, and although there wasn't looting, no stores were open), so we need to have supplies laid in.

After I got home, I surveyed my 'earthquake supply closet'.

One bottle of diet peach Snapple
One half-eaten box of Ritz Crackers
One can hearts of palm (which I ate while contemplating the shitty state of my disaster supplies)

One half box of bandaids.
Empty tube of neosporin.

Compare this list to what the LAFD tells me I should have.

Yikes. Were 'the big one' to hit tomorrow, I'd be totally fucked. So, Sunday I went out and did some of my earthquake shopping. I got six gallons of water, a bunch of canned food (all low-sodium. The LAFD recommends only low sodium food so that you don't drink too much water), some peanut butter and two boxes of a cracker brand that I don't like (Wasa rye) so I won't be tempted to eat it.

I still have to stock up on first aid supplies and a camp stove, though. That'll be another paycheck.

Friday Photo

View
Originally uploaded by Peggy Archer.

View from the roof of Hollywood Center's Stage 6.

Never Believe Anything I Say.

At the last minute, I got added on for one more day.

Since I've been the "up high guy" for the whole rig - running cable, dropping out power where they need it, etc., the gaffer insisted that they keep me on for the first shoot day, just in case they needed me. I didn't do too much work (well, setting up my hammock was work), but the day was kind of fun anyway. Three camera shows are new to me. I've rigged and wrapped them, but never been there on a shoot day.

They work much differently than single camera shows*.

The cast came in at call, rehearsed all day, and then, about 7 pm, the audience came in and were seated in the bleachers. A 'warm-up' act (some stand up comedian) kept the people laughing while we finished getting ready for the shoot. Then, they introduced the cast and started shooting.

What seemed so strange to me is that they shot it in sequence - like a play. They'd start the scene and run it to the end. When it was time for them to move into the next room (the sets are end to end with the open sides facing the bleachers), the director would yell "Reset!" and the camera operators would push the cameras (they're on these big wheeled platforms) to the front of the next set where they'd do the next piece. If there was any amount of down time between scenes (such as a big wardrobe change or a set redressing, the comedian would come out and 'work' the audience. He'd tell jokes, give away t-shirts, and generally distract the audience from whatever boring technical shit was happening. When they were ready again, the bell would ring, the AD's would call 'rolling', and they'd do the same weird thing all over again.

Freaky.

In movie world, you start on one set, shoot until you're done, and then move on - relighting every time the camera angle changes. To see something shot in sequence like that was odd..

Oh, the show's called "Lucky Louie" (airing who-knows-when on HBO), and the lead actress is also the voice of Bobby Hill.

TIP: should you ever be in the audience of a sitcom, bring a sweater. As soon as the cast walked onto the stage in the morning, the AC got cranked up to 'frozen tundra'. I had the heat rising off the lights to keep me warm, but I saw a few of the audience members shivering (the other crew members, being 'three camera' veterans, had all worn sweaters into work).



* Sitcoms are called "Three Camera Shows" (although this one has four), and are shot in front of a live audience.

"Single Camera Shows" (although most use two cameras) are shot more like a movie, and never, ever have an audience. One hour dramas are "Single Camera".

Look out world, here I come.

Today will be my last day on the sitcom - the rig's done, the prelight's finished, and they'll only keep a small crew on for the rest of the show.

About fucking time too. I'm so ready to move to something else.

The film industry creates adrenaline junkies - I've gotten used to a new place every day or so and after two weeks of staring at the same four walls and six people*, I'm going nuts.

The one thing I have been liking a lot has been the short days (although the long days do pay well). We've been working 10 hour days every day, meaning that I've been able to go out with friends, rent videos, brush the cat, etc.. All the things I normally can't do when I'm at work from early morning to midnight.

Best video rental of the week: Layer Cake. Damn, what a great movie. I think I'm going to have to buy it next time I'm at Sony.


*Don't get me wrong - I really like this group of guys. If I had to get cooped up on a stage for two weeks, this is the group I'd have chosen.

It's true.. We are all evil.

Yesterday was rehearsal day - three camera shows rehearse and light for the first part of the week, and shoot Fridays in front of a live audience.

One of the guys has his grandma in town from the midwest, and he brought her to the set yesterday - just so she could see what a TV set looks like.

The scene being rehearsed yesterday was one in which the lead actor repeatedly uses the word "cunt". I think he said it at least 30 times, as they kept running that scene over and over.

Did I mention that his grandma is the religious type?

He said he warned her that it was an HBO sitcom, so there might be some bad language, but still - of all the scenes they could have been running they chose the 'cunt' scene.

Grandma left pretty quickly.

Why is that damned sun so bright?

Out WAY too late at a post-Emmy party (where some bitch spilled an Appletini down the back of my dress, so I was sticky and smelled like that nasty apple pucker all night).

Good thing I don't have to be at work until 2 pm.

Friday, I had wondered why the DP wanted to come in to work so late, but now I'm glad.

Friday Photo Sequence

Here's the rig day by day:

Day 1:



Day 2:



Day 3:



Day 4:



Day 5:



Day 6:



Day 7:



Day 8:




Monday's a prelight day, which means we'll tweak the lighting all day.

Tra La La.... Wheeee!

Day two of the paint fumes.

I'm pretty sure the set painters aren't supposed to be spraying lacquer while we're working.

It got really bad today - there was a haze of paint all through the stage, and production are dragging ass about buying us respirators, so at lunch I walked over to a nearby paint store and bought my own (hey, my lungs are so worth thirty bucks).

One of the other guys told me I should have made production buy it for me, but god knows when they're going to do that. They certainly didn't have them by the end of the day, and I wouldn't have made it the rest of today without one - one of our guys had to go home early, as did one of the grips.

The really scary thing is that not one of the painters were wearing masks. Not even the shitty paper ones.

I don't know how they do it. After about 15 minutes of breathing those fumes, I see Care Bears (TM) dance the can-can on the tops of the set walls while they sing the theme song from Moulin Rouge.

Look at all the pretty colors!

Today was the day the painters started spraying the sets.

The fumes wafted up to the top of the stage, and even though the exhaust fans were running, we all got a contact high.

I hope I didn't kill too many brain cells.

Dammit, I scrubbed myself raw in the shower and I can still smell paint fumes.

That's Inches, not Centimeters.

Somewhere along the line, someone mismeasured something.

Three camera shows have an audience, who watch the show from bleachers erected in front of the sets.

On this show, the top two rows of the bleachers have a great view - of the back of the lights.



Oops.

Keep in mind that there will be a drape of black fabric behind the lights (a 'teaser') which will hang about a foot below the bottom of the lights.

There was a big discussion about it at lunch. They're either going to have to rebuild the bleachers (not an easy task), or the grips are going to have to raise the greenbeds - that suspended walkway the lights are attached to (also not an easy task).

Either way, someone's going to be pissed off in the morning.

So that's what we were supposed to learn today.

One of our crew got injured on the way into work. He staggered in (right at call time - that's dedication) post accident - with two black eyes and a broken nose - so, less than five minutes into the day, he was off to the hospital and the remaining crew were frantically making calls to everyone we knew in an attempt to find another body for the day.

Everyone any of us knew was working (it's really busy right now), so we got permission from our call steward to 'pull a permit'.

In busy times, non-union workers are allowed to work union shows as 'permits'. Thirty permit days in one year makes one eligible for union membership. Needless to say, there's no shortage of folks who are willing and eager to get permit days. Also needless to say, we found a permit very quickly.

Our permit showed up just before lunch - and within 10 minutes of climbing the ladder into the perms was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital.

Here's what did it:



In order to lift - two at a time - coils of cable that weigh about 90 lbs each 40 feet in the air, we use an electric hoist and a pulley (in this case, a hoist and pulley which clearly saw some action prior to WW2). The pulley is hung from the roof on a reinforced beam called a 'high hang'. The hoist operator pulls the cable up to the perms, where whomever's 'catching' grabs the coiled cable, pulls it onto the walkway, unties the rope and then sends the rope back down for the next coil of cable (or cable cart, distro boxes, case of bottled water, boombox, whatever).

Our permit - while attempting to catch a load of cable - got his hand caught in between the pulley and the rope.

The edges on the pulley are sharp (I'm not sure how well it shows in the photo), and combined with the fact that the rope was holding almost 200 lbs of cable as it squished his hand against the hardened steel, gave him an inch-long gash on the knuckle of his index finger.

He should have a) been wearing leather gloves and b) grabbed for the coiled cable in the center of the coil and not at the rope directly under the pulley.

I understand the desire not to loop one's arm through center of the coiled cable. When you're 40 feet up in the air with the safety rail removed (so the cable can easily be swung over to the walkway), the last thing you want to do is grab onto the very thing that might pull you off the catwalk to your death, but that rope/pulley/hand combination is bad news.

It really is true that you learn something new every day.

Our permit learned how not to catch cable.

We learned not to let a permit catch cable.

The good news is that the cut's not bad. There's no nerve or tendon damage. He's going to hurt tonight, and the guys are now calling him 'Stumpy', but he'll be fine.

He'll also be much, much more cautious in the future.