Even when the crew has a night call, someone has to open up the office during business hours. And, as usual, by “someone,” I mean me.
The morning shift on a late call offers very little to do. After turning on the coffee and setting out the bagels (both vitally important to the running of a TV show, let me assure you), the morning PA will go through the paperwork in “[glossary slug=’the-football’]the football[/glossary].” It’s not an actual football, of course, but a case or folder containing all the time cards, exhibit Gs, and so forth needed by the coordinator, UPM, and accountants to complete their production reports.
(I assume it’s named a “football” after the term used for the suitcase containing nuclear launch codes that the president always has nearby, once again demonstrating Hollywood’s complete lack of perspective.)
But after that, there’s not much to do but update your Facebook page, or maybe write a blog entry. The crew’s not filming, so they’re not calling and asking for things all the time. Half the office staff comes in late so they can close up shop after wrap. The producers never come in before ten o’clock, anyways.
Basically, your job is to answer the phone, so no one thinks that your show is populated by a bunch of layabouts who don’t crawl out of bed before noon. It’s like that time in college when you drove to Vegas for the weekend, then tried to convince your mom you couldn’t answer the phone Sunday morning because you were in church.
Not that that happened to me in any way.
4 Responses
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I’ve always heard it’s called a football because it gets passed back and forth.