A friend of mine wrote in response to yesterday’s post:
What’s the difference between a grip and a PA?
A PA can spell “grip.”
Now, I like grips, but I had to laugh at that.
It’s strange how making fun of each other is a way of bonding on set. People are constantly busting each others’ chops. Within a department, between departments, up the chain, down, whatever. And man, you should hear what our writer’s assistant says to the showrunner.
Just the other day, my boss showed me a picture of his kids. I said, “Cute. Take after their mother, do they?” He gave me a little swat on the back of the head, but was clearly amused.
Why does this work? Shouldn’t I be fired for something like that?
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On a completely unrelated topic, you should check out the On Set Podcast. It’s a great little program where they interview real crew working on real movies and TV shows. It’s fairly new, so there’s only a couple of episodes yet, but still worth checking out.
They actually asked to interview me at one point, but I said I needed one of those voice modifier things. They felt that wouldn’t fit well with the general tone of their podcast. Alas, you’ll have to wait until they find some other exceptionally eloquent and erudite PA to interview.
7 Responses
I think MirrorX hit the nail right on the head. When we’re working, our team is much like what you describe – but it’s based on a familiarity, friendship and sense of family that we’ve developed over many many long hours working and bonding together. Heck, if I didn’t get teased a bit by the crew, I’d think there was something wrong or I’d upset someone – and I’m one of our showrunners. And when we’re done each day, we spend what few hours are left hanging out together. It’s definitely an interesting and amazing experience!
When your working on a job 60-70 plus hours a week with the same people for months on end you end up as a a little tight family like unit. As with every family you have the little brother that you just dont get along with, you have the bitchy older sister, the uncle that is slightly out of control.
Insulting each other is a huge part of the culture that is working on set. It stops people taking themselves and the job too seriously. You have to laugh at work, and a bit of friendly banter and winding each other up is the release everyone needs to dispell any tension and stress that can very quickly lower the tone of the set.
As an electric one of my favorites is the grip song….
I’m a grip, I’m a grip
Give me a G
Give me a R
Give me a…. (look arround confused, then shrug)
I’m a grip, I’m a grip
Give me a G
Give me a R
Give me a…. (look arround confused, then shrug)
What does a sound man’s children do for fun?
They watch other children play.
With the hours we work and the amount of time we all spend with each other, if we didn’t bust each others chops I think we would all go mad. The Industry breeds sarcasm in self defense. It’s just bad when people forget to stop in the real world.
Why do sound guys always say “Test one two”?
Because if they counted to three they’d have to lift something.
I work in post, so I like to make fun of animator-drones. 😀