Monday Sept 18th, 2006:
I went into Mole and finished my prep on the stage for the class. I got my coffee in the morning to help me get over my tiredness from the shoot the day before. I painted the set, ordered some 10Ks from rental, got the Carbon Arc out, and just made sure the stage was ready. Malibu Rob Hauer stopped by to visit for a bit, he got a call and may have gotten "us" another job, as he put it- a very good sign that he might take me on his next project. I also got a call that day that a friend of mine just got on as the cinematographer for this feature, so he's going to try and get me on. The camera was dropped off just before I left and then I went home and relaxed... went to bed super early because...
Tuesday Sept 19th, 2006:
Call time is 8AM, but I got there at 7:30 so that I could get trained on the DC generator and the Carbon Arc light. Big Mike Martin showed me how to run the van generator on single and triple phase AC power as well as DC power- what the arcs need to run. He then showed me how to load and trim the carbon rods, how to strike the lamp, and how to maintain the lamp as the rods burn.
Malibu Rob was there to help me with the AFI class and to meet Allen Daviau. The class screened some scenes from Avalon and discussed Allen's approach to lighting the scenes and choosing colors, etc and then started setting up some scenes to shoot. We broke for lunch and then I fired up the arc and we did a few shots with it at the end. We had to turn it off sooner then expected, however, because one of the cables was smoking. It was too bad, too, because the arc in the lamp was perfect and I struck it at the perfect angle with the right amount of force. Mike Hodgens(another arc operator and big guy at Mole) came over in the morning to check on my progress and said I was a fast learner- yay!
Then after the class, my friend Edwin, who just go the feature, called me to ask if I could help out that night on the shoot. I said that I would, though it was going to be a late night- he sounded like he needed help with it. So he picked me up and we went out to the guerilla shoot(no permits- yikes!) and helped them. I don't want to sound full of myself, but I have no idea what they would have done without me!Wednesday Sept 20th, 2006
So Edwin dropped me off at 5AM, I had to wake Andrew up so he could let me it- they installed a new gate and lock as part of the remodeling to our building. And then I slept till noon, Andrew came home from work and we went to lunch(breakfast for me), lounged around and watched Mrs. Henderson Presents and then he left for a few hours of projecting at USC and now I am doing chores.
PhillM tip-of-the-day:
Please remember... try to stay in your own department unless you are asked to help. Offering to help is good, but don't take it personally when someone tells you that you can't do anything to help. Having too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the soup, as they say. I(no offense) don't trust a lot of people with lighting or grip equipment unless I know that they know how to use and treat the equipment. Just be cautious, there is a big territorial thing with a lot of crew members, so try not to step over those boundaries.
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