Double the Standards, Double the Fun!

I was overcome with curiosity by my fellow PA’s statement yesterday, “You don’t know who I know. I could make your life a living hell.” (Seriously, though, he’s a nice guy. This is waaay out of context.) I knew he had been hired because the coordinator was told she had to hire him. So today, […]

I Don’t Wanna Be That Guy

They say you hate in other what you hate most about yourself. I recently came off a show where I had one of the worst bosses of my entire life. Besides having the emotional maturity of a four year old (he once yelled at the script coordinator for bringing him pages, when we had just […]

Really Writing

I walked into the writers’ office yesterday and saw a ping pong ball and two paddles sitting on the assistant’s desk. I paused, staring at the ping pong ball. This was one of those moments you see in indie movies, where the character is contemplating his life, but you don’t know exactly what he’s thinking […]

Where It’s At

Yesterday, Nathan wrote, “You want to write… write!” This is the best, most important advice any aspiring writer can get. But if you’re sitting at a desk in Nome, Alaska, typing away on an Underwood by candlelight, filing your scripts in a drawer, you’re not going to have a writing career. There’s an old saying […]

There Must Be Some Way Outta Here…

Do you ever have one of those days where you look around and think, “What the fuck am I still doing here?” I’m having a day like that today. People always like to tell you, “You have to pay your dues.” But they never tell you how long you have to pay your dues for. […]

Wanna Know How Sausage is Made?

My freshman year at film school, I knew at least a half dozen people who dropped out of the program, if not college altogether. Even more changed majors in the years following. After picking films apart for class after class, they found that they just couldn’t enjoy going to the movies anymore, which was probably […]

Making Movies for Fun and No Profit

First of all, Ken Levine somehow stole a blog post idea directly from my head. (This fits with my theory that Rupert Murdoch has a chip my brain, and he’s stealing all my good scripts before I even write them.) Ah, well, it’s probably for the best– he’s a better writer than I am, anyway, […]

Set Visits

I was walking a friend from out of state one day, and we saw a line of unmarked, white trucks along the side of the road. My friend said, “It looks like there’s a circus!” Did I mention my friend was from out of town? To an Angelino, those trucks are the surest sign that […]

Job Well Done

Some days, you can be proud of the work you’ve done, knowing that you’ve contributed, in some small way, to the production. Then there are days when you drive two and a half hours to pick up a DVD with a three second vanity card. I don’t understand why it wasn’t just uploaded to a […]

Success

I’ve met Bryan Singer twice. The first time, he came as a guest judge for a student film competition at my school. This was before X-Men had come out, but he must have been in the middle of post, so it was pretty cool that he came by. Of course, at this point, Singer had […]

You’re Fired!

I once worked for a guy who told me that he’s never had a job he wasn’t fired from. This was a point of pride for him, as it “proved” he had an entrepreneurial spirit, and he would never be successful until he started his own business. He seemed to be right. He started his […]

10-1

Anybody who works on set and who is slightly immature, by which I mean grips, just giggled at the title. You see, channel 1 is the main production line on the walkies. Anyone could be listening, so you shouldn’t say anything that you don’t want other people to hear. You’re also supposed to follow certain […]