Movies is fun!

Worked all day Saturday and 1/2 day (or 3/4, depending on how you look at it) Sunday on a music video and it was AWESOME. I really liked the band (maybe you always do if you work with them? I have to say, musicians kick ass -- the 2 bands I've worked with have been just sweet and pleasant to work with and make you HAPPY to work for free to help with their video -- unlike a few actors I've worked with...). The band is Limbeck, check them out at http://www.myspace.com/limbeck and listen to Big Drag (currently their default song when you get there). I will reiterate -- they were a PLEASURE to work with, totally adorable and sweet guys who worked their asses off and stopped to say thank you when they didn't have TIME for such niceities because we were rolling! Please check their tour schedule too, as they are coming to the town of my one reader and I think you should go -- from what I could tell, they should be really good live. I'm hoping they'll be able to put the video online eventually, but they are on a label, so I don't know how that works (but you can find just about anything on youtube -- or could, until they became google and started getting sued...). I like the song. Actually, I should clarify -- we shot TWO videos, but the other song isn't up there and -- I hope no one sees this and hates me -- the concept just didn't do as much for me. But I am very excited to see both.

Funny: I got the call sheet on Friday afternoon finally, and I was listed as Electrical (job title). Um, that could mean plugging crap in, but I had to ASK what all that entails, being pretty sure it was not a job I should have. It means running a generator if you have on (we didn't), metering I don't know what for power, dealing with blowouts, changing lamps (bulbs), etc. Um. Yeah, I didn't do that. They actually had an electrical problem with the house we were shooting in, and we joked that I better go fix it. We very funny, you know.

I got to do a bunch of radom grippy/PA-y stuff that day, and it was all fun. The key grip was great and hopefully another new contact I can work with more. He got my card before we left. Sweet. This one was more memorable because there was a TON going on and the video is going to be realy cool. The whole thing is in 2 long takes (which will reportedly be edited to look like 1), with the singer walking around, singing his song, and weird things going on around him, kind of a party/circus atmosphere. There are 360 degree turns and all kinds of quick changes -- he walks out and the band is playing at one side of the yard. The camera turns to another guy very briefly, and comes back to the entire band now on dollies rolling across the yard. The camera follows the singer into the street, where he's suddenly joined by the band playing different instruments. There are people all around doing all kinds of things and NO CREW popping into the frame ;) Done all handheld. I saw some of it on the monitor and it looked great.

Sunday was my Big Day, though. I was the dolly grip! You don't understand the implications of this situation, so I will explain it to you. We shot on 35mm. I have never done a damn thing on 35, probably because no one uses it except frigging Hollywood (that might be a slight exaggeration, but I'm not even sure). I can't find it just now, but I once saw a comparative cost estimate per minute of video, 16mm & 35mm, and it costs exponentially more. Only 2 other things I've done have even used 16 -- a lot is going to video now. So we have THREE ROLLS of film at less than 4 min each. The song is longer than each roll, so they have to stagger it. There is ONE TAKE per shot (OK, I'm not 100% with the terminology yet -- you set up, practice your ass off, do ONE TAKE, and that's it, then you set up the next thing you're going to film).

We were shooting in a bar, with the dolly behind the bar and the band sitting at the bar. OH, perhaps I should explain that a dolly is a truck thingy that, in this case, carries the camera and operator back and forth so the camera can pan across a certain space. It has a handle thing to push/pull it which is this case was NOT RIGID (makes it harder not to jerk when you start and stop). It can be on a set track or just wheels so you roll around. There wasn't enough room for track behind the bar (if you need a full description of how much more it sucks running a dolly without track than with, I can tell you, beause I've done each once now). We also didn't have quite the proper flooring, called dance floor, which I would imagine is pretty thick and I know is very smooth. We used 1/4" luan, the flimsiest crap known to man ;) (I don't know if it's ever used in any sort of real construction -- I would guess mostly temporary set walls? I suppose it's plywood, as it is in plies, but it's floppy, man) So we had that flimsy stuff on a 100 year old floor (my est.) with uneven rubber matting under it and a NOTICEABLE indentation toward one end. And I had to push this thing back and forth for almost 4 minutes and be TOTALLY SMOOTH THE WHOLE TIME OR THE MOST EXPENSIVE SHOT I'VE EVER WORKED ON WOULD BE RUNIED. Oh my god! I think I did OK. People told me I did OK. I'm still freaked out. But don't get me wrong, it was the kind of freaked out that's fun and exciting while also making you pee your pants ;)

Anyway, that's about it. Worked with a couple other people I worked with before, met a few new people I hope I get to work with more, maybe even made a new friend... (Shout out to Amy, CIA agent, in case we ever are friends and she reads this ;) ). Good times.

I also learned that if I am EVER in a position to specialize (ha), I want to do music videos as much as possible. I mean, I like features and shorts and would gladly take money to do commercials and anything else (yes, even reality TV, probably), but my favorite so far is definitely music videos. I'm going to keep bugging this director too, because he does a lot of them, and as the guy who referred me to him said -- and I agree from what I know -- he seems to be really up-and-coming.

So there's my ashcan rave -- it's so good to have a REALLY good film experience once or twice a year to remind me, THIS is why I'm doing this! Not that I ever really doubt why I am, but the really good experiences make it clear that I have to do whatever it takes to do this for a living, so I can actually wake up at 6 and say, godDAMN, it's early -- but I'm makin' a VIDEO today!