Reading Material
I’ve been gearing up for the next TAPA Networking Event (Saturday, March 31st, mark your calendar!). We’ve got some guests lined up, including an Academy Award-nominated animation director. Names and location will be announced as soon as everything is finalized. In the meantime, I thought I’d share some stuff from around the internet that I’m […]
Let Me Get Back To You
There’s certain key phrases every PA should know: “Yes.” (Except when the answer is No.) “It won’t happen again.” “It’s Thursday. Yes, payroll checks are coming today.”
Here’s another one to add to your quiver: “I’ll look into that.”
Crew Call Episode 003: Set Lighting Technician Michael Taylor
This week, we’re joined by set lighting technician, Michael Taylor, aka The Hollywood Juicer. Along with being an electrician with decades of experience on sets, he also writes the Blood, Sweat, and Tedium blog, which regular readers of TAPA are very familiar with. Mike tells us about the difference between single camera and multicamera sets, […]
A Link to the Past
It’s finally hiatus! So, instead of writing a post, I’m just going to recommend a bunch of links. First up, some fellow below-the-line bloggers have plugged my Kickstarter campaign for Crew Call: The Below the Line Podcast.{{1}} Mike Taylor was kind enough to be the first test-case guest. He seems to think he didn’t do […]
Out Times
Marvin asks: What is the process of getting “out times” from the working trucks? One of the more important aspects of the [glossary slug=’production-report’]PR[/glossary] is recording the times every member of the crew started and ended their day, along with any meal penalties, NDBs, and stuff like that. As I’ve explained before, each department is […]
Don’t Be Dumb With Your Smartphone
Michael Taylor is an old curmudgeon, but at least he admits that he is a curmudgeon, cf. this week’s Blood Sweat, and Tedium. In it, he complains about the ubiquitous use of cell phones, not just on sets, but everywhere in modern society. While I don’t remember ever not having a computer in my home […]
Many Departments, One Screw Up
Over at the Hills are Burning blog, AJ has a great post about how you need to take responsibility for your own time card. Basically, the best boy grip on one of her shows told her he doesn’t bother keeping track of in and out times on his department’s time cards, because all of that […]
What Is Success?
Mike, the Hollywood Juicer, sent me an interesting blog post written by Gorman Bechard. You should read it. Seriously, click on that link, then come on back. I’ll wait. You’re back? Great! Some of you, I’m sure, cheated, expecting that I would quote the relevant parts to explain the point I’m getting at. Well, I […]
Quoting Smarter People
Michael the Hollywood Juicer made an interesting a comment on yesterday’s post, and I’m certainly not above reprinting someone else’s work and calling it a day: TAPA is dead right — almost everybody in the Industry is happy to to talk about what they do (witness all the Industry blogs out there), and most are […]
Tiers
The Hollywood Juicer wrote about a director on his blog recently: it seemed clear that he considered the camera operators and production support people (ADs, script, and camera coordinator) to be “the crew.” The rest of us – the juicers who sweated atop 12 step ladders re-hanging heavy lamps on a swing set after the […]
New Year’s Links
Like many Americans, I’m busy looking for a job. I’m just more used to it than most. So, instead of writing a real post, here’s some links! Cracked has the most inspirational, patriotic piece of writing I’ve read in a long, long time. Ken Levine complains about Standards & Practices, as well he should. He […]