I just threw my gloves down in disgust.

A rigger on the movies has two general responsibilities. Pre- rig the next location in advance of the shooters, and "baby- sit" or "wipe their prima-donna asses" depending on who you talk to. Today was an unfortunate yet classic example of the latter.
When we left work yesterday, we were told our call the next day would be 7am at the stage in Beverly, about a half hour ride from my house at that hour. Later that evening I got a call alerting me that the call had been changed to a 6:30am PRE-CALL on set in Manchester by the sea. About an hour and a half drive at that hour. Bollocks! This kind of abrupt change usually means there was trouble the evening before and there'll be trouble in the morn. We had the crew van driver stop at set instead of the customary catering, because a pre-call means you hit the ground running and get breakfast later. We get to set and start working on the things that obviously need to be done. Nothing crazy, just stuff shooters usually do to start the day. We notice that there are no actual shooters here lighting with us, save Geoff D. Whose first day it is. As the lighting starts to shape up, the shooters casually roll in, some still eating the catered breakfast. Wait a minute! Wasn't this a pre-call? Didn't I get up at 4am? We thought it was a pre-call. The shooting best boy was there. Apparently the rest of the shooting crew didn't get the invite. The Nerve! We interrupt our work schedule, get up early and drive an extra hour to help these clowns out and they stop by after nosh. The icing on the cake. We ate a full 2 hours after pre-call. If I was a shooter on this show I might have fainted from the malnourishment. LAME, lame,lame.

For an Electrician, the throwing down of the gloves is done in response to only the most egregious of indignities. Jokingly, I throw my gloves down 2 or 3 times a week. Today's the first time I ever meant it.

The pictures are of some fool trying to get to know the movie hawks just before feeding time. An unfortunate choice.

The Week in Coffee

This crew drinks a lot a Java, man.
My day starts with two cups of Equal Exchange Organic Colombian. French Pressed of course. One with the morning news one for the road in my very spiffy FlatBlack(very nice local spot that we were actually banned from by production. It was the fancy danishes that did us in.) travel mug. I hop in the car with Mark, we pick up Justin and we head to Starbucks in Beverly, minutes from the stage we've been spending most of our time at lately. At coffee break we head to The Daily Harvest for some of their fine Atomic Cafe. This is my favorite coffee of the day as this is the time we get to read the paper and discuss the news of the day. This place is great. We sometimes call it the Milf Cafe. After lunch there is coffee. If were on set this is the time for the espressos and cappuccinos. you're pretty much on you're own for the afternoon coffee. Sometimes I pass on that one. Lately I've been grabbing a grande latte for the ride home. Roger was shocked to learn about the extra Starbucks. He acted like a jilted lover. On top of that, it was "corporate coffee". He threw his gloves down in disgusted. I felt dirty.

Tomorrow were back on set in lovely Manchester by the sea. On set with the shooters. That's definitely going to mess with my coffee. But trust me, we'll find a way to get to The Kitchen Witch. Best coffee(and loveliest ladies) in Manchester.

The Week In Review

Another good week on the job. The only minor complaint is about the early starts. 6am tomorrow which means up at 4, out of the house at 4:30. Got a lot of sleep this weekend so at least Monday shouldn't be so bad.

We're just about halfway through shooting. Just about time to start worrying about the next job. Everyone is predicting a little slowdown after this round of films. We'll see.

The panel turned out to be not so bad. Got treated like kind of a celebrity for a few hours. Got lots of cool shwag and fantasized about being there with my first film, which was cool. The discussion was fairly interesting if not very in depth. I'm not sure I did a great job describing the job, but it didn't really seem to matter as people were much more interested in talking to the other three panelist, and AC, a production designer and the union rep. The truth is that I'm an grunt. My job isn't really that sexy to the outside world. Thats OK, I like it

Friday

another week is coming to an end. The weekend might be interesting. The very cool Boston Independent Film festival is in town and I'm going to be participating in a panel discussion about breaking into the film business around here. Thats going be hard. Besides the public speaking thing, I feel if I'm really honest, it will just bum everybody out. More on this later.

Day at the Beach

We started early yesterday, but we ended early as well. If I told you how early, I'd have to kill you.
what happens in rigging, stays in rigging. That's the rule.

The male lead of this film is kind of a jerk. My boss Roger and I were waiting to use the expresso maker. The two leads of the film were chatting about god knows what in front of the machine. This is not unusual. It seems the people who are not pressed for time(non-technicians) are the ones who spend the most time chatting and thus blocking access to crafty for people in a hurry, which Roger and I were not. But you get the point. After waiting for more than a few minutes while they ignored us and chatted, Roger decided to use the expresso maker. There was an empty cup in the machine, so Roger used it. After a few minutes the star is in a rage...

"Who stole my fuckin coffee?"

The star sees Roger enjoying his cappucino and angrily accuses.

"You fucker, you stole my coffee"

Roger calmly explains that we had been waiting for a bit to use the machine and when we did there was just an empty cup there meaning that the machine was probably not turned on when the star wanted to use it. The star looks kinda confused.

"That fuckin coffee machine sucks!"

Then he stomps off. Wow! I think that young man has anger issues.

Electric Dreams

where you been?

It has been a while, hasn't it. I was torn for a while as to whether I had anything to write about or not. The mega-movie certainly was an adventure unlike any I've ever encountered in this business. The moderate, big budget romantic comedy has turned out to be the best job I've ever had. Its not all shits and giggles, but it is a job that works on a lot of levels.

1) We care about Coffee. We never miss a coffee break. We talk about coffee. We strive for the best coffee available. So much so that we've been banned from several fine coffeehouses that were deemed " too expensive" by production. Seriously man, some days we've spent more on coffee break than lunch. Yesterday afternoon we had ice cream instead of coffee. Most of us grabbed a coffee from craft service when we got back to set.

2) I feel pretty confident that I'm going to get home alive and with all my fingers and toes every day. That was an issue on the mega-movie. I wonder if they've settled down at all. Except for the fact that I suck at basic household wiring, and I'm due for a big shock at some point. This gig is pretty smooth sailing.

3) Books, books, books. The story or whatever involves a publisher. There were thousands of unwanted books at the end of the shoot. I helped myself to a hundred or so. Love the perks of this business. I think at a brief point I became addicted to the books on that set. I wanted to read every ridiculous book they had.

4) The beauty. We are filming primarily on the North Shore. We are taking some of the most beautiful little seaport towns and turning them into Alaska(seriously). The views are breathtaking.

I really like being an electrician in the movies. I just gotta get a lot better at a couple of things. But I definitely feel better at the end of the day. unfortunately, my day is just starting and I gotta go.

Hi Nancy!

Is there a heaven for a grip?

I could get used to this.

The first day as a rigging electric on the big budget romantic comedy with the A-list starlet. We showed up at the stage, waited an hour for a truck to show up. Then we went to breakfast. Came back to the stage. No truck. We wait another hour, build some shelves and then went to lunch. Its probably become apparent that food is important to me, so I like the direction we're going in. After lunch, Mark and I, having been left to wait for a truck were not sure really exist are told it will not arrive until the end of the day. We decided to go to the mall. Its a little known fact that a lot of technicians are shop-aholics, and Mark and I are no exception. I purchased a spiffy new pair of hikers. If your going to do this job, your going to spend a lot of time on your feet. The shoes are important. Mark went off the deep end and bought the new macbook pro he's had his eye on for a while. Nice. The truck finally arrived at 5pm. we put in 2 solid hours of work and called it a day. Electrics work at a different pace than grips and we try to avoid carrying heavy stuff. I'm much more philosophically aligned with this way of doing things. I'm not totally trying to avoid hard work. But I'm not trying to kill myself either. I'm really looking forward to being an everyday electric for the next 9 weeks as well as going forward. I'm not totally ready to declare myself retired from gripping like Mark is. You never know what the future holds. But this is they way I see my career going, and I hope it continues.

I do forsee a "grip problem". The rigging grips on the shows are my boys. Guys I've worked with a lot. They are all awesome guys, but they are going to ride me hard. To them I am the greatest disappointment. A legitimate grip turned "maggot" (popular grip term for electrics, because they cluster to cable like a ...). Seriously, theres a lot of love between me and those guys. But practical jokes are very popular on a film set and I'd be wise to watch my back at all times.