That’s A Wrap!

Today was the last day of shooting for our image piece.  Four non-stop days of stairs, moving equipment, up before the sunrises, gorilla tactics, interns and back to the station for logs.  After this many 12hr days i thought for sure i’d be more out of it by now, but i’m not as bad as i could be.  Now, i may not look as great as normal..i mean if you ask my boss she’ll promptly tell you how all of us look like we’ve been at an all night lock-ins for a week straight.  However, i’ve seen production stills where i’ve looked much worse on set… much worse.  All in all it went rather smoothly for a spot that wasn’t given the maximum amount of time to develop in pre-prod but came together right when we needed it to.  Beyond the rookie mistakes of not having a few extras show, the correct battery adapter, the gels or ya know the lap top needed for the shot the only major problem was on day two right around 4am, aprox. and hour and a half before our call time.

Not being a morning person…at all…the first day of waking up a little before 5am to drag myself to set at 5:30am was horrible, but i was definitely on time to avoid missing the crew call completely.  Mission accomplished, to our first location check, last minute change to get better view check, beautiful sun rise check, dying battery check, just change it out for the other kind with the adapter… oh crap, i’ll be right back…who took it out of the freakin camera bag.  Run down 7 flights of stairs, across the way to van, make it to station run upstairs find adapter, run to van, hit every red light, make it to location, run up 7 flights of stairs…nope, make that 3 and try not to die on the remaining 4.  We got the shots, you were worried, i could tell.  One more location then back to the studio to do a log, review footage and set up the steady cam (which might i add is awesome) to get some weather center footage. 12 hrs later i’m on my way home so tired i might just die.  Couldn’t make myself go to bed at 8:30p though, watched Step Up 2, the streets.  Don’t judge me.  Not a good story, but please don’t talk trash unless you can pull the dance moves these kids were doing… not easy i know, i’ve taken a break dancing class.  Again, don’t judge me, and you can stop laughing too.  Now pumped and maybe thinking about learning some of the aforementioned moves… i can’t go to bed, so i make a few phone calls, that helps a little and somewhere right before 11p i’m out.  

Day Two,

I am woken up by the sound of my phone ringing and i look to see what time it is thinking it’s my alarm.  Oh man it’s actually ringing and that’s a work number!  I slept through my alarms and missed my crew call!  (I’ve done this before, the writer and director of the short then came to my house rang the bell and when i didn’t hear that found my bedroom window.)  i panic and answer to find out it’s my supervisor and he’s calling to tell me our actress bailed and i had to find someone else.  It’s 4am!  WTF.  For the record, i don’t care what the heck is going on never cancel one and a half hours before your call time, especially if it’s at 4am!!!  She’ll never be cast again!  i wait until about 5:15 and give the beautiful, talented, gracious, Ashley a call and she agrees to save our asses.  The location of the unmentioned coffee house we were to be at was great, the people that work there not so much.  Ash was perfect for the roll of “girl checking weather on lap top” …shit the laptop, i’ll be right back, why didn’t this get put in the van!  Beautiful shots captured and back to the station….i get to do more logs, but i’m out a little early today and i get to come in later tomorrow.  Obviously i’m going to go see the free sneak of “American Teen” with the boys at 7:30pm….what oh the tickets were for August 5th.  UGH!  Sorry i needed sleep.  Flare bar-tending competition at Sherlocks instead…awesome.  Anything to stay out of the house, because oh yeah the A.C broke in the dead of summer.  Perfect.

Day 3

A later start and Dolly is biting at the heels of the Texas Coast….aka my old hood.  I get a phone call later that informs me my parents house is beginning to flood and the power is out.  (the power was still out today as of 6pm, not fun in the very humid South Texas.)  Meanwhile in ATX we begin to feel the wrath as well and have to think fast to fit in the days shoot and what to do in case of rain in the morning.

Day 4 (today)

Solved and solved, Dolly decided to cooperate and we wrapped today and even got all our pick-ups done a day early.  Crazy lady from 7th and Congress was there today too!  Lucky for the both of us she was quite today and didn’t try to rid us of the “poison”  Come to find out, after further research, she used to be a UT Admissions Counselor, lives off a pension from the University and has a photographic memory…crazy!   

After all that i must say i’m itching to shoot something more narrative again, with lots of crazy lighting set ups.  For now i’ll catch up on some sleep and enjoy my late start tomorrow.  Happy Friday to you all.

~ by mprint on July 24, 2008.