Demanding
On the subject of long weekends, yesterday the studio folks decided to play catch up. We had an early call, and imagine my surprise when the phone rang at 7:30. 7:30! This is a TV show. I’ve never heard the phone ring before ten. A Big Studio Exec was on the other end of the […]
Absence Makes the Heart Grow…
Well, not “fonder,” exactly. It makes the heart grow something, anyway. The French have a funny colloquialism: “ponte.” It literally translates as “egg” or something, but it’s used to mean “an extra day off on top of a national holiday.” What does it say about France that they need a word for this? We could […]
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 […]
Bird in the Hand
A reader asks: I am currently working as a receptionist at a post production house in Hollywood. I took this job not too long ago, assuming that as this place is fairly renowned, it would eventually provide me with the opportunity to move on in the business toward some of my real interests: script development […]
Do Not Disturb
Starting a flame war with wannabetvwriter got me thinking about script coordinators. (Turns out, she’s not a script coordinator, but a writer’s assistant. Oh, well. Just another reason to not read her blog.) While everyone’s job requires a certain amount of concentration, there are certain people who you definitely shouldn’t interrupt– the loader, the script […]
Wisdom of the Aged
Whenever I write a woe-is-me post, like Wednesday’s, I get some very thoughtful comments from higher up-types. I recommend you read them. It’s good to be reminded that I don’t know everything. I also received some good advice from our construction coordinator this morning. I was performing a ridiculous task– won’t say what; it’s so […]
Perfection
Following yesterday’s post, I had a few more thoughts on mistakes. I used to be a personal assistant to a producer. He asked me if I ever wanted to be a director, and I said I did. He told me I could never do that job until I could do this job perfectly. This statement […]
Mistakes Will be Made
Yesterday, Shawn commented on a grammatical mistake I made (now corrected): “Kids my age so comfortable and lazy that we can’t even muster the energy to leave the house, much less protest.” Or even do a simple grammar check. It’s true, I made a mistake, and it’s true that I often mock others for similar […]
Holding Back
Many people seem to be under the misapprehension that we in the office like to hold on to things. Several times a day, I get calls asking if a prelim callsheet has been published, or if a package has arrived, or if the latest draft of the script is out. You know what? No. If […]
Something’s Wrong
Every once in a while, when I’m delivering stuff to set, the crew starts rolling before I get off the stage, and I’m stuck until the end of the take (or takes). Yesterday was one of those times. With nothing to better to do, I watched the monitor. After the fourth or fifth “Going again!”, […]
Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed
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 […]
Question for Coordinators
Who decides whether to send a PA or a teamster to pick something up? And why? It seems so arbitrary. Somethings are pretty standard. If it’s too big to fit in a PA mobile like a Civic or a Corolla, the teamsters will pick it up in a truck. If it’s a script delivery, a […]