Author Topic: Tales From the Set  (Read 21861 times)

FroHam X

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Tales From the Set
« on: May 05, 2010, 11:12:54 PM »
Here you go, CSS and potentially 1SO. You now have a thread to talk about your stories from makin movies / makin song / and fightin round the World!
"We didn't clean the hamster's cage, the hamster's cage cleaned us!"

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CSSCHNEIDER

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Re: Tales From the Set
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2010, 04:18:17 AM »
Leaving for set.  Day 1 Begins...

See you in another life.
Taste is discerning, not all encompassing.

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Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Tales From the Set
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2010, 04:41:13 AM »
Looking forward to reading your views

1SO

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Re: Tales From the Set
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2010, 05:48:49 PM »
Was going to appear on camera today.

However...

During first scene this morning I had to tell the director to get off his phone because we were rolling.  He didn't take that well.  Later in the day when he saw it was suppossed to be me as "guy in car" he decided to go with a different crew member.  I'm not the least bit burned since I don't see this being a film that will be seen by many.

What's interesting is what the director said to me when he was taking my head off.

"You are never waiting on me."

What's interesting about this argument is that the job of our department (Assistant Directors) is to give the Director as much time as possible to get what he needs.  Every decision made by him adds time to our day.  Everytime he asks for another take, or a new angle, we are now losing time granting his request.  We worked 14 hours instead of 12 yesterday because he spent two hours getting a shot where an actor pulls up in a van.

So either...

A) He needs to own it and admit that we are always waiting on him.  That, by the title of his job, he is precisely the person we all wait for.

or

B) He is not a real director.

FroHam X

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Re: Tales From the Set
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2010, 06:13:44 PM »
I find it funny that 1SO is getting into arguments with directors. He's probably sitting there on set thinking "My god, I should direct this an then maybe it won't be awful."
"We didn't clean the hamster's cage, the hamster's cage cleaned us!"

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1SO

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Re: Tales From the Set
« Reply #5 on: May 06, 2010, 06:24:26 PM »
I find it funny that 1SO is getting into arguments with directors. He's probably sitting there on set thinking "My god, I should direct this an then maybe it won't be awful."

I would have asked for a better script.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Tales From the Set
« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2010, 07:16:47 PM »
Well the top dog always has to have enough underlings to blame to make himself look good.  ;)

FroHam X

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Re: Tales From the Set
« Reply #7 on: May 06, 2010, 07:42:22 PM »
I find it funny that 1SO is getting into arguments with directors. He's probably sitting there on set thinking "My god, I should direct this an then maybe it won't be awful."

I would have asked for a better script.

lol. You are a funny guy 1SO. I guess this is part of the job. Accept your paycheck and try to get into a better position next time.
"We didn't clean the hamster's cage, the hamster's cage cleaned us!"

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CSSCHNEIDER

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Re: Tales From the Set
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2010, 06:07:12 AM »
"Screws fall out all the time, the world is an imperfect place." - John Bender, The Breakfast Club

I was out on the front lawn of the crew house before 6AM helping the camera department load their huge camera package into the truck.  

To get an idea, this is roughly what they have:

1 Arri 535 Body, in Body case.  The case also contains many accessories such as sliding base plates, quick release plates, 12 inch mounting rods, 6 inch mounting rods, a focus whip, battery cables, battery connectors, battery chargers...

I believe they have 8 1000 foot  magazines, meaning they hold 1000 feet o film.  There are two mags per case, 4 cases in total.

Lenses, a full set of Zeiss Primes, I didn't see a zoom, but its about 8 lenses, each large than your two fists put together.

1 Tall Tripod and 1 Short tripod, each in a case.

2 high hats, which are low mounting plates for the camera.

And the list goes on and on.

We  get everything loaded and ship out 10 minutes early!  Good stuff.  Get to the first of three locations for the day.  That's 2 company moves, including our crew of about 30 people, actors, equipment, food, you name it.

The first location is pretty simple, and having talked it over extensively with he DP it was pretty easy to pull a small selection of gear from the truck to accomplish the first 4 shots of the day.  Still, though its not a terrible amount of gear, its a lot of hauling things from place to place.  And film equipment is caught in the mother of all paradoxes.  Film gear has to be portable, there for it needs to be sufficiently light to carry in hand, or on hand carts in large quantities, and ultimately in a large truck with literally TONS of other gear from things as small as thumb tacks and scotch tape to lights that can only be lifted by construction cranes.  But, film gear also has to be sturdy and rugged to bear the wear and tear of the average shooting day, and carry heavy, heavy loads and not malfunction and hurt a member of the production.

But, it was a lot of fun, it was really misty and beautiful on the pond we were shooting against.  We finished, wrapped up the gear fast, and got to the next location nearly an hour ahead of schedule.   Did two shots on the second location, wrapped out fast and landed at the third and final location for the day.  Again, really great prep work by the DP, EO and myself made for a relatively fast transition to the heaviest shooting location of the day.  We got things going fast, and stayed ahead of everything the schedule had...  until the camera broke.

Yes, we live in an imperfect world, and screws fall out, or in this case the camera registration malfunctioned, causing a MASSIVE jam in the film gate, and the camera seized up.  I've seen cameras jam before and seen them fixed within minutes.  This was another story.  When it was relayed to me that the camera had jammed, I thought "No big deal" after waiting for 45 minutes for the camera to be fixed it really hit me that we had hit a wall.

A new camera was immediately dispatched from the rental house in NJ (mind you we are shooting in NC) and will arrive by plane tomorrow morning.  We lost 3 hours of our day, and everything had been going great.  So, we have a hard, but short day tomorrow since we absolutely have to wrap out this location tomorrow night at 7pm in order to make our 7 AM Call Time.  In essence we're going to have a tough day, but it'll be a ton of fun.   The important thing is that no one freaked out, everyone handled the bad news very well, and we worked around it.  We'll figure it out and succeed no matter what, and this film is gonna be really funny, so I'm still rocking and rolling with excitement.

Now to play cards with the camera and lighting teams before crashing on my mattress.  Be well.  
Taste is discerning, not all encompassing.

It's Not What You're Like, It's What You Like

Know the Difference Between Arts and Crafts

"Pain is Temporary, Film is Forever..." --John Milius

Winner! BFCS Iconoclast Award 2007

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Tales From the Set
« Reply #9 on: May 07, 2010, 09:38:27 AM »
Good luck tomorrow, sounds like you've got some efficient timing down so hopefully tomorrow will go smooth.