Wednesday, November 26, 2008

day seven/eight/nine: Expediency

I can tell by the looks on your faces: these daily trip reports are going into oh-my-god-long territory. But I can't help it. It's all so damn cool to me.

Anyway I'll keep this one super brief, and hopefully talk about some more interesting stuff than how I spent two hours today setting up tables, chairs and popups for lunch.

Day seven was filmed at a local "hospital". It was really more like a block of medical offices than a real hospital, although we had a bunch of extras dressed like doctors who made it look otherwise. Ms. Cho was back on-set that day (oops, I said no names didn't I?) so we PAs were charged with keeping her happy. But she was already happy, so our job was done!


My favorite part of the day was watching the first scene-- where the main character's grandma has to hitch a ride with some bangin' Latinos in a low-rider, so she busts out with all-Spanish jive talk. Just like the scene in Airplane.

The actress who played Grandma was so nice in person, it was too weird to hear her talk about "bitches" and "ese's" and "scrapes", which due to my whiteness I didn't even understand. (a scrape is a lowrider fyi)

Oh yeah and that day, I officially got a job offer from Key PA. If I keep up the good work, he's going to bring me on with him for his next project-- as a fully paid production assistant.

SCOOOOORRRREEEEEEE!!!!!1

Yes, the one was necessary. I'm still frickin' elated.

Day eight of work came three days after day seven. The way our schedule works is this: we shoot Saturday through Wednesday, twelve hours a day, and then take Thursday and Friday off. On Wednesday everyone says "TGIF", and on Saturday everyone asks how your weekend went. It's very weird. But I'm getting into the rhythm and it kinda works in an off-balance sort of way.

The first thing we filmed was a main character (I won't say which one) getting hit by a car. It's played for laughs, so don't worry-- there weren't fake bodies and pools of blood. Unfortunately. What we did have was a stunt double, Simon Rhee, whose resume is incredible. He worked on Charlie's Angels, Rush Hour 3, Blade, Tropic Thunder, Heroes, 24, Collateral, and Escape from L.A., to name a few.

He seemed like a pretty intense guy. I didn't really talk to him, but I don't think anyone else did either. And when the car hit him, and he flipped through the air, it was coooooooool.

Day eight was spent in a parking lot outside the Galleria at Wilshire, using the lowrider from day seven (as the homies were dropping Grandma off at a wedding), and a limo (for the bride and groom of said wedding).

I met a new PA intern, a kid from Temecula who is already leagues better than The Fellow Intern. His voice cracked at the end of the day and I called him Peter Brady... the name stuck and now everyone on set calls him Brady (or Brady Bunch). I'm proud. I gave a nickname. When was the last time you nicknamed somebody? hmm?

Day nine we hung out in the same parking lot. Sunday. The big deal that day was the arrival of our product placement car: the Hyundai Genesis. I'll take a moment for you guys to ooh and ahh at the beautiful new Genesis.


oops, I mean


Just kidding. Don't fire me, corporate Hyundai overlords.

Here's my thought for day nine. There was a big flat-screen TV over the entrance to the mall. It showed ads for Quantum of Solace constantly throughout the day. After about the fifth time, I knew every action sequence and crappy, self-aware Bond quip by heart.

My question to you (readers? hello? ...bueller?) is whether or not I should actually shell out twelve bucks and go see 007 in theaters. It looks entertaining enough, but I bet there are a few better movies I could see instead.

Yeah, that was pretty much the day. I left early and missed the next day of work for a midterm.

But I already booked my next gig, so it doesn't matter how much I miss from here on out! It's official: I found my first "in"!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

score!

Dead Stars Love To Help Celebrities With Matching Initials

Since my full name is actually Ignatius Iggleston III, this is huge news! Looks like it's all meant to be.

day six: Short and Sweet

(one - two - three - four - five)

Our call sheets for day six-- a Tuesday-- listed the weather as "Smoky". Twenty miles away, wildfires were raging through suburbia. Somewhere a mother of four was standing in a street, silently holding her children, watching her last hope for an easy life billow, drift and curl up into the ashy sky.

When I arrived on set, people were lighting up cancer sticks and commiserating about the air quality.

In Los Angeles, self-absorption is the drug of choice. But instead of funneling through back alleys and creeping out of seedy apartment buildings, it's sold on billboards and television screens. You deserve this... you need that. You aren't cool if you don't talk like him, wear those jeans, watch this show, look like her. But don't worry, because you probably do. You're part of an elite. You live in L.A. after all.


Self-absorption is the only drug for which the most helpless addicts are rich, famous, and powerful. If you aren't high on self it's tough to succeed in this town-- because the junkies have the keys to the city.

So when I spend time on set with Hollywood pros... getting coffee, bringing people water, picking up dog shit, pointing fans, fetching jackets and feeding parking meters... it's tough to feel like I fit in. I'm just Iggy, after all. Nothing altogether special or deserving about me. I'm doing work that I should be doing, with no experience, and I can't get too full of myself about that.

But every day I spend with Key PA is a day to gain his trust and move up the ladder to handle bigger, better tasks.

After the end of day five, we were all on edge hoping that we'd be allowed to film inside the house that day. Luckily for us, our enterprising locations producer had gone to Ralph's and bought a large "gift basket" for the family who owned the house. I think it was the gift basket that did the trick. It didn't work for Michael and Dwight, but somehow it worked for us: we were in.

To be honest, not much interesting happened on day six. It was the first day of work for our (arguably) most famous cast member, a stand-up comedienne who did "vulgar" way before Sarah Silverman made it awful. I got a picture with her on my cell phone camera. Right after I did, Key PA called a full production-assistant huddle.

"Guys... no pictures with the cast. For the love of God. Are we tourists?"

Then we all had a good laugh at Flood's expense.

But I spent the rest of the day nailing everything else I was told to do. I helped corral cast members into the house for their scene (which was filmed entirely in Korean) without being asked, and got big thanks from not only Key PA but our first assistant director as well. (The 1st AD is my boss's boss's boss. Score.)

Stand-up Girl's scene involved lots of ritual dancing, loud drumbeats, and a baby. I read the script for this movie, by the way, and I'm still not really sure why some of these scenes exist. It's a pretty weird story. I almost want to say that, but the truth is it's actually a super conventional story with weird trappings.

After that scene I had to leave for practice, so my day six came to a short, but sweet end.

Friday, November 21, 2008

day five: One Scene, Twelve Hours

This is what I get for slacking so much on these updates.

It's been five days since "day five" and a lot of what actually happened has faded into the gray aether of my terrible memory. I'll do my best to put together the story but it's like a chronic drinker trying to describe what he did last Thursday... after the two Jaegerbombs, it all gets a little fuzzy.

I remember a name, though. It was "Blood" or "Crud" or something like that-- and people were shouting it all morning. Actually no, I'm pretty sure it was "Stud". That must have been it.

Check out days one, two, three and four if you need a refresher. Hint: It's always best to start at the beginning.

(And welcome to you if you're visiting for the first time-- here's a link to my very first post, explaining what this mad blog is all about. Plus, this update won't make much sense unless you read the other days' posts too. Feel free to leave comments and hang around!)

Okay, let's give this a shot.

----

Call time was 6:30am, and I showed up at 6:10. Hey, not bad, I thought. I'm twenty minutes early and nobody's paying me to be here.

Then I walked into the production trailer with a couple other PAs, and Cosa Nostra's favorite production coordinator casually tossed this off: "Hey PAs, let's try to arrive ten minutes before six, not ten minutes after." Oops.

Most people are pretty friendly on set-- surprisingly so, given all the horror stories I've heard about working in Hollywood-- but there's definitely some passive aggression.

I remember my first day at work, I was standing next to the script supervisor on set (a Hungarian woman who seems to wear red clothes every single day) when she was called on to feed lines off-camera to the actors. I wanted to make casual conversation, so I said "You get lines... Lucky." Harmless comment, right?

She didn't even look up from her clipboard. She waved a hand in my face and said "Please don't."

Seriously. "Please don't"?

That's cold, man.

Speaking of temperature, another thing I remember from this day is that it got hot. Really hot. The first four days of work were bitingly, stingingly, hair-raisingly, nipple-hardeningly cold. It was so cold, in fact, that I had to invent a new word ("nipple-hardeningly") to describe it. But on day five, the inside of the house where we were shooting was absolutely sweltering.

My job for the first hour of the afternoon that day was to turn on a fan and point it at the actors and head honchos. As Key PA wisely told me, a cooler director was a happier director. Yep, another hugely important job for Flood.

But being inside the house with Key PA meant I could watch the action up close, and it also meant I could jump on things and try to impress him with my "work ethic".

I remember one time where the call came over the radio: "Anyone have eyes on [Lead Actor]"? Key PA heard it and started looking for him; I did too. I found him in the kitchen, watching a take on the monitor.

"Yeah he's in the kitchen," I replied into my headset's mic. I turned around and Key PA was standing right behind me. A grin broke out on his face and he clapped me on the back. "Alright Flood! That's what I'm talking about. Way to jump on that."

There were a lot of hours spent in the house that day. Only two scenes were scheduled for filming: a family gathering with ten(!) characters in the same room, and a gossip scene with three of the women, which was to be filmed entirely in Korean. We only got through the first scene that day. To keep the lighting consistent, grips had set up massive spotlights outside, pouring 80,000 watts of "daylight" through the windows. It was a really strange effect; when the hours started to pile up and the sky grew dark, it still looked like daytime inside. Pretty cool.


You could feel the heat from the lights all throughout the house. It was like being inside an Easy-Bake Oven. If only there'd been people around whose special job it was to point a fan at the PA interns.

After the shoot was finally over (around 6:30 pm), we started to pull up all the layout board that we'd laid on the floor of the house to prevent damage. That was a long process. But it was interrupted when the locations crew came in with deathly grave looks on their faces.

Apparently, the old Asian woman whose house we were completely owning-- tracking dirt, moving furniture, and shuttling almost a hundred people through constantly-- had been so afraid of getting in our way, she'd stayed locked in her bedroom all day. She hadn't eaten, drank, or even gone to the bathroom in twelve hours. Ohhh shit.

When the rest of her family got home that night, they were, uh... a little pissed. They'd all piled into a car and taken off with the old woman, without saying a word to any of us. The locations people had tried calling them, but they weren't answering their phones. And we still had another full day to shoot at the house.

Would they even let us in the next morning? Or would we be, as they say in Korea, completely and utterly 성교하는?

Tune in next time to find out! Same Iggy-time, same Iggy-channel!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

day four: Trial and Error

Get caught up: day one, two and three.

-----

6:10 am:

I'm a commando in the jungles of Vietnam. The air is sticky and bugs are everywhere. I'm leading a POW through the warzone, chopper blades beating overhead as my team gets ready to extract us from the shit storm. Suddenly gunfire erupts. My vision swims red. I hit the dirt and my eyes snap open. The gunfire dissolves into a steady beat of vibration-- it's barely light outside the window, and my cell phone alarm is pulsing under my pillow, against my eardrum.

Time to wake up. Work starts at 7.

6:47 am:

I pull into the crew parking lot. Everyone else is already gone. Turns out when they tell PAs to be there half an hour earlier than call, that isn't a goddamn suggestion. I get chewed out by the one remaining guy, a production coordinator who wouldn't look out of place in the back room of Vinny's Pizzeria with a few members of Cosa Nostra. Then I get loaded into a passenger van and make the four-mile trek to our location: a two-story house, in a quiet neighborhood in K-town.

8:02 am:

Stress level on set is high. The locations people are frantic, because the house is full of antiques-- the rug in the living room by itself is worth more than the entire budget of the film. We don't want to damage that.

Our principals are setting up a scene in the bedroom upstairs. I'm talking shop with the casting director, whose career was made a few years ago when he discovered a major star in a shoestring-budget indie movie that went on to become a pop culture phenomenon. Without naming names, I can tell you that you're a freakin idiot if you don't get who I'm talking about... GOSH.

Then without warning, Key PA is breathing down my neck. I'd been told to "lock-up" the front door during the rehearsal, basically to keep it quiet and make sure nobody passes through-- so I know what's coming next.

"Flood. Pull your fucking head out. When I tell you to do something-- what, you think I'm just full of shit? I'm a bullshit artist, right? Do your job or I'll find someone else who will. Get moving."

9:37 am:

I'm setting up tables and chairs in the backyard. PA Nation is helping me out, along with the other intern, who I'm honestly starting to dislike more and more as the show moves on. Whenever anyone talks to him on the radio, he responds with "Copy copy!" in a ridiculous sing-song tone. Plus it's the way he tries to suck up to Key PA, thrusting himself into situations he doesn't understand so that he can "take the initiative", and inevitably making things worse along the way.

Naturally, Key PA is impressed with the other guy so far. As for me?

"Flood!" He motions me to his side, drilling me with a thousand-yard stare. I jog over.

"What the hell is this?" It's a director's chair, folded correctly and stowed correctly-- or so I thought. I tell him as much.

Key PA has a way of sighing and rolling his eyes that makes you feel like the biggest flooding idiot on the planet when you screw up. He calls over another PA. "Kurt... please show Flood how to fold up a director's chair." He strides away. Over his shoulder I hear him mutter "Jesus Christ."

The PA heads over, barely hiding his smirk. Yep, the intern screwed up again. Thing is he can't really lord it over me too much-- see, his name isn't Kurt. It's Kyle. Oh well, close enough.

10:12 am:

Things start to look up. I'm standing in the back room with "Tina", Bobby Lee's fake wife. Despite my failures thus far, I've been given the task to cue her when to enter the scene. I nail it every time and don't screw up a single take.

By the way, almost every Hollywood actor I've met so far has been similar in some strange, indefinable way. It's a quality they all have-- a strong self-confidence, a powerful "persona" that they project even while not on camera. "Tina" was no different. She was drinking water out of a bottle with a little straw. Her assistant glared at me when I moved her sandals out of the walkway, and quickly moved them to a different spot as if to say "I decide where Tina's shoes are going to sit, damn it."

This scene is pretty funny. I'll enjoy this one when I actually see it in the movie.

12:46 pm:

Lunch. The past few hours have helped repair my damaged rep, but it's still tough to win over Key PA, who seems to be on a mission to baptize me into Hollywood with napalm.

2:23 pm:

"FLOOD!"

Hearing that simple word makes me spring to attention. I run down the street, where I've been posted on a lock-up, toward the crew. Our 1st assistant director is motioning toward me, and the whole crew is looking on. I'm preparing myself for literally anything.

"We need a PA to open the door for Brian when he walks up and rings the doorbell. I'll cue you when he gets there." I notice that she isn't asking me-- she's telling me. "You got it" I respond quickly and head into the house.

The director calls "action". Outside, the lead actor nudges his Hyundai ten feet forward into the frame, gets out, helps his new girlfriend out, and heads up the walk toward the front door. I'm sweating buckets, my knuckles white from unconsciously gripping the door handle. Lead Actor is on the front porch, and 1st AD still hasn't cued me.


I'm staring through the peephole at the two actors as they shuffle uncomfortably-- then Lead smiles and rings the doorbell. Still no cue. Did I miss it? Time seems to stop. In slow motion I see Lead bend over and pick up his new girlfriend. He's holding her in his arms and I'm completely confused. Maybe I should have read the sides--

"Okay Flood, open the door" comes the whisper over my headset. I immediately swing the door open. Lead steps through the threshold carrying his "gf", pretending to greet a loud Korean family, when it's only me staring blankly back at him. "Shut-shut-shut-NOW" comes the order, and I'm not ready for it, but I'm not an idiot either. I shut the door. Lead and I look at each other a few long seconds. Was that it?

Then I hear "Cut! Perfect. Going again."

So we do it again for the next hour and a half. I don't mess up a single take. I'm not sure if Key PA notices, but I know the AD definitely does.

5:08 pm:

We're moving a block down the street to another house, just for a couple of quick exterior shots. Nothing too complicated, so I stay behind to firewatch. It's the last time I'm going to see Key PA and my other fellow on-set bitches. He comes by my chair, shakes my hand and thanks me for stepping up the second half of the day. I tell him I usually start slow in the mornings. He tells me to fix it.

The trick to pleasing him, I think, is to convince him that you understand exactly what he says, the first time he says it. As long as you can pull that off, you can still go ask someone else for help after he leaves, while avoiding looking clueless in front of him.

These Hollywood types are all about getting things done ASAP. "Right now" is a phrase that makes a lot of people happy on set. If something is being delivered you don't say "It's on the way"... you tell them it's "flying in". The PAs are mostly responsible for making sure things move quickly on set-- thus the reason why Key PA is constantly in my grill. And I get that.

In fact, I'm starting to like it. I love rising to a challenge.

6:33 pm:

That's a wrap for day four. It's a Sunday evening, and I have to be back here the next morning at 6:30 am. Ugly, but that's how they roll in this business.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

day three: Lather, Rinse, Repeat

I know all of you guys are waiting with bated breath for each update. Sorry this one took so long-- I've been busy, you know, working.

Here are the links to my first day and second day as a real live PA.

Sadly, day three's report isn't going to be a barnburner. Actually, I could probably write it in one good sentence. But lucky for you I'm going to spend twelve paragraphs on it.

My call time was 8am and I showed up at 7:45, keeping my streak of "not being late" alive. For those of you who know me well, it's already impressive enough that I've gotten the streak to three days. Within half an hour, everyone was on their way to a small restaurant in Koreatown's most stereotypical district, for a massive dinner scene with most of the main cast. One PA was sent to base camp at the local mall to keep a firewatch on the expensive shit.

I will give you one guess which PA they picked for that job.

It wasn't all bad. I did busywork for a couple of hours, set up the lunch area with a bunch of tables and chairs. I helped the 2nd AD with a fun little task: went through the entire script and marked down all the instances of product placement. Any car was a Hyundai, any drink was Hite beer, and any beauty salon was the Face Shop.

Then I sat around for a couple more hours. Finally they finished the big, epic, probably hilarious and memorable restaurant scene, and the crew headed over to my location for lunch.

Lunch ran until about 3. Finally it was time to shoot in the city market. Art department had decked out the lobby to look like an airport security checkpoint-- they had a metal detector and Korean Air memorabilia set up in the very center of the mall. I went around with the AD and DP while they took a quick walk around to each shot location, and took notes for the other PAs.

Then they were all set up and ready to film. The actor was in place. Lights were up. Mr. Key PA was getting that "shoot is about to start" anxiety in his eyes, and the director was calling out for last looks.

And it was 3:45, so I had to leave to go to a class.

That's how the day ended. Pretty much a sequel to day two: hours of waiting for no action. I managed to sneak in a couple important things, but for the most part I felt like a retarded albino howler monkey could have done my job, and also had enough spare time to bang out Act I of King Lear on a typewriter using only his forehead.

Don't worry, readers. Day four was far better and more fun than this-- and that report is coming up next. Keep it real and keep it here.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

day two: Great Expectations

My father's family name being Iggir, and my Christian name Ihgien, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Iggy. So, I called myself Iggy, and came to be called Iggy.

For my first day's adventures, go here.

Day two began an hour later than day one-- at 7:30am. It seemed like child's play to get up at 6:15 that morning. Probably because I'd knocked out around 11pm the night before.

Given that my first day had smashed all expectations for being a PA on a real movie, my anticipation level for my second day had been steadily rising ever since the director called "wrap" the night before. I was pumped and ready for another incredible experience behind the camera.

We were in a different random parking lot than yesterday, still in the middle of K-Town. I met some other production assistants and various crew members, got my "name" out there and such. By this time, "Flood" had caught on. The uninitiated would have thought there was some kind of disaster on the way every time I was called.

I grabbed breakfast (delicious eggs and ham) and got set to load up the steakbed truck.

And then suddenly, everything ground to a halt.

There was drama on the set. People threatening to quit. Some major shakeups seemed inevitable... PAs were talking about allegiances. Politics were in the air big-time. So we waited for the situation to resolve.

And we waited.

About an hour passed... during which nothing happened. During which time I had the bottom-of-the-barrel job of feeding the meter where the 80-footer truck was parked. Hey, that's what they pay me for. Not.

Then the crew left for a driving shoot. I guess things were gonna press on for the moment. And with that, The Fellow Intern and I were sent off to base camp to "firewatch". I didn't know what it meant either, but I thought it sounded pretty cool.

Well, you may be able to tell already-- "firewatching" is far less exciting than it might ordinarily sound.

It basically involves standing around (or sitting) and watching something expensive, in the hopes that said expensive thing will not be stolen or harmed.

So TFI and I sat by a grip truck for nearly four hours, while all the filming was going on somewhere far away from us, in the Koreatown ether.

Finally the crew showed up at base camp. We ate lunch. And by the way, lunch on set is DELICIOUS. Really high-quality stuff, and they serve it on actual dishes, with actual silverware.

By now it was 4pm-- and I hadn't seen a millisecond of action. That would change soon as the crew began to pack up, sucking on last-minute cigarettes that are an absolute staple on set, and piling into vans bound for City Center on 6th, where we'd firewatched for half the day.

The entire crew was on its way. All except for one PA, whose godly mission it was to watch the crew parking lot until security showed up at 7.

Which one do you think it was?

7:30pm, the van pulled up by the mall and I hopped out. My earpiece crackled "Okay guys, let's go once more!" Ahh-- Action! I quickened my pace. The entrance to the mall was on the other side of the damn building, and I still can't see why the driver dropped me off way back there.

I finally hit the double doors, burst into the lobby and headed straight around the corner, following a trail of wires and just-milling-around department interns. In my earpiece I heard "MOS please." What the hell does that mean, right?

Well as I found out about three seconds later, MOS means "if you don't freeze right fucking now, rook, you're never working in this town again."

So I froze.

And the director's voice came over the walkie. "Alright, good take. And that's a wrap!"

People around me began to clap. The interns started shuffling towards the doors. Grips packed up their rigs. And all I could think about was how great my expectations had been for day two.

After PA Nation helped pack up tables and chairs, and fed the entire crew by bringing everyone pizza, that was the end of my second day on a movie set.

No word came down from any key players about the drama that had nearly derailed the entire production that morning. We didn't know anything, and didn't want to ask. The days that followed would serve to bury the crisis as though it had never happened. 

But I did discover that The Fellow Intern knows how to hypnotize people. What a random ability to have. And yet-- I must put this knowledge to use somehow...

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

day one: Iggy in Filmland

Before I get started with this series, here's a quick disclaimer:

I'm not going to name any names, and I won't go into too much detail on the day's actual "work". Only because this project is still in production, and even though I'm not under any kind of contract or gag order, it's really the only prudent thing to do. Don't worry, though-- there's still plenty of cool things to talk about.

So here we go. Day one of my first real experience on a movie set.

I woke up bright and early at the inhuman hour of 5:30 am. Call time was 6:30, so I probably should have been up even earlier. I stumbled out of bed, ran a comb through my hair (or not) and jumped into my car to make the jaunt over the 10 freeway to a random parking lot in the middle of Koreatown. This parking lot was known as "base camp".

For those who are unfamiliar with filming terms, like I was, base camp is the place where all the production trailers, wardrobe/makeup, flatbeds, and catering are located throughout the day.

I grabbed a cup of OJ and a cold donut, and milled around with a few other bleary-eyed crew members until about 6:45. The 1st AD (aka the first assistant director, who's responsible for scheduling and organizing the entire crew) called a meeting for everyone, and we quickly went over the schedule for the day.

That's when I met my immediate boss, the key PA (production assistant). Really great guy who knows EXACTLY what he's doing, despite having been a PA for only three months. He wrangled up the other interns and briefed us on a few things we needed to do.

Each of us was presented with our own official walkie-talkie and headset, along with a packet of sides, which are basically the script revisions for the day's shooting. We were also given two fully-charged walkie batteries (referred to as "hot bricks"), with the knowledge that any PA must be prepared to swap out a battery for any crew member who needs it.

We also learned some other cool filming terms: (translated into whitey English)
"What's your 20?" - What are you doing right now?
"I'm taking a 10-1" - I am currently using the restroom.
"Copy that" - I understand.
"Standby" - Remain stationary and wait for a signal.
"Flood, go to 2" - Flood, switch your communicator to channel two.
"Rolling rolling" - The camera is rolling. Please do not fuck up the take.

After barely having time to digest all of this information, we were called out to set.

The first set-up (or location for one camera shot) was at a Tofu House. I didn't do much here; moved coolers and directors' chairs around, searched the flatbed for an extra set of sides (didn't find any), and froze my ass off in the 60-degree L.A. air with a wind chill of -42. God it was cold on Sunday.

The next set-up was across the street, and here I got a lot more to do. I was given the special intern task of moving the monitor from location to location, and setting it up so that it got live feed from the camera. This put me literally RIGHT next to all the action. I was feet away from the DP and the director, and often stood right next to the lead actors as they watched their own takes on the monitor.

After watching one of his better takes, Bobby Lee got excited and hugged me. "I did good!" he shouted, beaming at me. I flashed him a thumbs-up and said "Cool". Because I'm a smooth guy.

At another set-up I was called in to be a stand-in for Mr. Lee, sitting on his mark as they adjusted the lights and focused the shot. They weren't filming, but I still sat there thinking "God I'm on camera right now. The director and the DP are staring right at me. Just be cool". Then Bobby came over and they kicked me out.

He was a totally nice guy, by the way. Seemed to be in great spirits, and plus, during lunch he couldn't stop talking about Fallout 3. Apparently he's a huge gamer-nerd. He gets props for that.

Okay, here's my last Bobby Lee story: at the end of the day they had to paint his thumbs flesh-colored because he had all these bleeding cuts on them. I asked him "How did your thumbs get so bloody??" and he said "I bite them cuz I get so fuckin' nervous!" I had to hold the make-up paint set as the lady painted his thumbs.

But the last part of the day was, by far, the best.

It was after 5 pm; we'd been working for almost twelve hours. Finally, we were down to our last set-up. It was a street scene, filmed at the corner of Wilshire and Vermont.

Mr. Key PA had liked me from the start (as did most of the other crew members-- whether they thought I was good, who knows). I know he liked me because he'd already given me a nickname: "Flood". It wasn't a mysterious nickname. I was wearing a T-shirt that just said "flood", right across the middle, and so he started referring to me by my shirt. After three days of filming, most people on the set know me as Flood. Oh, well. The key grip calls me "Boy Wonder", but that one hasn't caught on... so it could be worse. At least I didn't get "Short Round" or something stupid like "Iggy".

So he gave me a pretty important job: wait around the corner and tell the background (extras) when to walk into the shot. I had to shout "Rolling rolling!" and "Action!", and then when the shot finished I had to say "Cut! Back to one!"

I did a good job doing that, I guess. So then I got to cross the street with the lead actor, and give him the signal to start. This job was even more important, for obvious reasons. While doing that I managed to talk to him a bit. He's a really enthusiastic, positive guy, and didn't laugh it off when I asked him what it was like to be "the big star". Every time I've seen him since then, he's greeted me warmly.

A few background actors came with us too. During one take, some of the background didn't hear the call to "Action", so I let them know we'd started. Key PA noticed and was impressed-- he had missed the call too.

After the shoot was over, he was telling everyone how "Flood came through in the clutch".

And that was the end of the day. 7:30 pm. Thirteen and a half hours after I'd showed up to work. Long day... but 100% cool.

Day two's update is coming up next.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

coming soon

What's up guys. Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days-- I've been insanely busy working 12+ hour days since Sunday. I would update now, but for two reasons:

1) There's way too much to talk about. That wouldn't be a problem, but
2) I'm goddamn exhausted.

So stay tuned, lots of new content is coming soon. I won't outright say "tomorrow" but you might want to check back, say, in roughly twenty-hour hours.

FYI: working on a film is crazy times. Completely fascinating, but also an eff-load of work. That being said, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything... It's been a blast. And I've only worked three days so far, out of 22 total. (That leaves nineteen days to go, for you fellow north-campusers.)

Bring it on.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

live update from the field

Hi guys, Iggy here. Believe it or not, this is a first-- a special field report from inside the production offices of the movie I'm working on! Yes indeed. Can you feel the excitement?

So far today I've had one big, major task. The 2nd AD gave me a list of all the crew people involved with this movie-- probably about a hundred people, not even including the cast. I had to call each person and invite them to a special event tomorrow: the official Korean "blessing" of the film production, including lots of food and apparently, a pig's head.

I was on the phone for about two hours straight, but I did it. Called everyone. Even a bunch of people who were actually in the office while I was making the calls. Whenever that happened, we would laugh awkwardly and then hang up quick.

Clearly this job was life-or-death important.

The good news is I'm meeting even more people today, and they seem to like me well enough. I'm working hard, and that's what counts.

This could really be a big opening for me.*

I mean, I've already gotten a business card from one of the producers who offered me a job (maybe) after this project wraps. I'm getting phone numbers, and on top of that, most people here actually know my name.

Just now the art director walked in and took a picture of me smiling. It was for the dentist's office scene; they need a bunch of pictures of "customers" with big smiles, just for decoration. So I guess I might actually be in the movie now. Cool shiz.

Iggy's quest has officially gotten off the ground!

*that's what HE said.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

a day which will live in infamy

Yesterday was an eventful day, both for Iggy's Quest and for the country as a whole. I'm going to assume that you, the reader, know what-all-went-down with the election.

What I'm most struck by, and encouraged by, is the sheer landslide of electoral votes that painted this country blue for the next four years. This truly was a youth-determined election. I didn't expect it to happen so soon, but I knew it would: our generation has The Power. We are the crucial 18-34 demographic... we are the lords of our culture. And we just showed our force by electing Barack Obama with over two-thirds of the electoral vote. Now let's hope we did it for good reason, and not just to prove that we could.

But it's not all good news from the polling booths. In California, what I thought couldn't possibly happen, happened. Proposition 8 passed. Activists in (where else?) San Francisco have already drafted a lawsuit to try to get the courts to overturn the amendment again, but all of a sudden I'm a lot less hopeful. I guess we like our Obama here in Cali, but not our homosexuals.

Moving on, to smaller and better things.

Yesterday was a GREAT day for my quest. I actually spent a whole day (and I mean an entire day) working on a movie. Not only that, but they all liked me well enough that I'm going to work on most of the shoot from here on out, until they wrap in December. :D

I showed up at their production office at 8:34 am. It was already a stressful day, as I'd left my apartment at 8 and had to fight retarded L.A. traffic down Wilshire-- and call time was 8:30. ("sharp".) I was convinced that I'd already ruined my "first impression"; but as it turned out my boss wasn't there until 8:45.

At 9 am (sharp!) most of the crew left to go on a location tech scout. What this means is, you drive around to all the filming locations with the key creative and crew people, and work out all the issues and preparations you need in order to shoot there. Luckily for me, my boss couldn't (or didn't want to) go on the scouting mission, so I was sent in his place.

It was me, in a 15-person van, along with: the director, a producer and a production manager, the art director, the director of photography, the head production designer, key grip, gaffer/best boy, and the location manager.

For those of you playing at home: that's a lot of important people. And here I was, a "location intern" on my first day, sitting in the back with a legal pad and pen, with my only instructions to "write down everything".

Luckily... I don't think I did too badly. We went to a lot of different locations-- mostly in K-Town, actually, but we also went to LAX-- and I took a lot of notes. My location manager said I did a really good job and probably got a lot of stuff that she missed. By the end of the day I was at least on speaking terms with the entire group of people. There was definitely a little bit of awkwardness (I got the feeling several of them didn't really understand why I was there at all, and I can't blame them for that) but fortunately, everyone was really nice.

One location they wanted to use was an old Asian woman's house. In order to go inside, we all had to take off our shoes. So the director and DP walked inside, clad in socks, while we all kicked off our kicks and pumps; the DP had his little viewfinder out so he could look at shots. Then suddenly there was a cry. Apparently the director had found some... doody. Turns out, yep, there was poop scattered all across the hardwood floor of this old woman's living room. It nearly made our DP drop his viewfinder. That would have been an epic disaster for the man, I think.

There was another moment when he was setting up a shot outside an apartment complex, and this big, ugly, crazy guy walked into the shot and started doing a big, ugly, crazy dance. He then walked away, laughing maniacally. The entire crew had a moment of worry, mixed with "uh... wtf?" as you can only have when confronted with a big, ugly, crazy guy.

But overall I would call the day a complete success. I could talk more about it, but I think this entry is already pushing it for the interest/boredom ratio.

And in any case, this wasn't the last day I'll be working on this movie, by far. I go back on Thursday. :D

Oh yeah...

This is the movie we're making. I recognize a lot of names in the crew listings now. Obviously it's still in pre-production so it won't come out for a while... but when it does, GO SEE IT!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

more quest progress

So it looks like I'm getting work on a feature film production. I don't know much about it (and it's almost certainly not a *major* movie, so don't get too excited), but I'm supposed to get a call tomorrow morning to let me know what's going on. I'll probably have to start working tomorrow, too. My official title, according to Craigslist, is "production intern".

That was fast!

a saucer? you mean from up there?

It's the day after Halloween and all I can do is wait for the Christmas season to start. By far the best time of year. The lights, the decorations, the weather, the overall feeling of joy and goodwill in the air. Plus if it were December, I'd have skipped a whole month of having no friends and doing nothing with my time. Let the Christmas bells ring!

In blog news, look for something new and awesome to appear very soon. Sound intriguing? Good. I have you right where I want you. Be sure to check back often-- you never know when I might drop the AWESOME right on you.

Anyways.

I'm starting to branch out and look for work on film productions. A couple months ago in this blog, I explained the whole purpose of a P.A. (production assistant), and basically that's what I'm trying to go after. It's not a noble line of work-- the typical P.A. spends his day waiting in line at Starbucks three times in a row because the director can't decide which mocha latte is right for him. And that's not too bad an assignment.

But you have to start somewhere.

I often wonder whether I'm really cut out to be a director. Running a small army of crew, making a thousand decisions a day, dealing with power-hungry stars who want to cut that brilliant (and necessary) rape scene because it would make their character less sympathetic. Sometimes I don't know if people would listen to me and respect me. I'm just Iggy, after all. Just some guy with wild hopes and a Blogspot.

Who knows if the films I'd make would even be any good?

I worry about that sometimes. Then I pop in "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and I feel a little bit better about things.



And remember, my friends: future events, such as these, will affect you... in the future.