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...