Armistice

People, for whatever reason, sometimes feel the need to take a stand.

Most of the time this isn’t about anything really critical – a parking space, which way the toilet paper is hung, what you really meant when you said “fine” the other day. It escalates to a point and then deflates.

But sometimes said stand will take down an entire production.

Actors and directors disagree about stuff all the time, and usually the one with more clout on that particular day wins fairly quickly, unless someone decides not to back down.

Today, our director and our actor (also a producer and said director’s boss) started arguing about what seemed like a fairly insignificant line of dialog, and it kept escalating as both of them decided they were right and weren’t going to back down over this newfound noble cause (totally worth dying -figuratively – for).

While all of us just stood there, doing nothing and waiting. Except now, under the rules of a pandemic gripped city, we couldn’t even grab a cup of coffee and retreat to the staging area to play Candy Crush and wait it out.

Crafty is set up too far away to get there and back at a moment’s notice, and we can’t be close together, so the staging area party is not happening.

So stand there we did. For an hour and a half. While they argued over one word.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I find that the sooner I’m off the stage, in my car, and out of the really uncomfortable PPE I have to wear for 12 hours a day, the happier my ears are.

So the arguing went on until they reached a compromise. They’d do it both ways and see which one worked better later.

Which, of course, was the suggestion we’d all thought of an hour earlier, but, you know.

Filed under: Work, behind the scenes, crew, film industry, television, Work

An unexpected reunion

When I strolled onto the stage, I wasn’t expecting anything other than the normal workday (set it up, break it down, set it up, break it down, lunch, repeat, go home), but I saw someone I haven’t seen in at least 2 years – the Local 80 Goddess.

She’s a good friend, but we don’t see each other that often due to conflicting schedules, so we got to catch up between lighting set-ups, which was nice.

This sort of thing happens a lot in the film industry – we develop occasional friends that we see when we’re on a show with them or when we happen to run into them, not because we don’t like them, but just because there never seems to be time. I’m off, friend’s on a show. Friend is off, I’m on a show. I’m on a show in Utah, friend is on a show in Texas (not so much anymore, of course, but back in the day the LA crews used to travel a good bit more than we do now and it was one more excuse not to be able to return phone calls), and so on. We’re happy when we see each other, but so many friendships (for me, at least) seem to get put on hold and picked up again at the whim of the work schedule.

It’s amazing I manage to keep any friends at all, really.

Speaking of work, it’s starting to slow down a little bit – the few TV shows that were shooting are wrapping up in anticipation of a SAG strike (which is now going to put me out of work even if it doesn’t happen), so I’ll have more spare time to catch up and do the stuff I didn’t get to during the earlier strike-induced four months of unemployment.

At least it’s cooled off some – it even rained a bit today. I’ve got the windows open now and I’m actually a bit chilly, which is very nice. I still have residual brain lag from the weekend heat, and the combination of hot and dry had convinced the neighborhood ant population to invade my kitchen looking for water, shelter, and cheap booze.

I’ve been using the hippy citrus spray, and it’s not working that well, but I’ve always been hesitant to spray anything stronger on a food preparation surface. I won’t have to worry about it for a few more days though, thanks to the rain.

Filed under: Work, film, film industry, friend, grip, Los Angeles, movie, rain, set