The Third Man on a Thursday

So I went into Mole today around 11 to get as much done before the weekend as I could for the class on Tuesday. I swapped out the set windows, got the gel rolls we needed, called rental for some 20Ks and 10Ks and painted part of the set. I got a lot done, so now I just need to prep everything on Monday and the class should be good to go.
I am really excited about Monday because I am going to be taught(fingers crossed) how to operate a Carbon Arc. It turns out that only 3 people in the entire Mole-Richardson company(a company that once manufactured arcs) know how to operate them... and the one that does it the most is out of the country(Larry). I will be the 4th person at Mole who will know how to operate an arc and I am very, very excited. It is a dying art, only a hand full of guys exist in the industry, I'm told, and I look forward to the opportunity to become one of them.
Today was also pay day- yay!

I came home and finished watching The Third Man. All I can say is "WOW!" ...I had seen most of it before, but never finished it, boy is it a beautiful film. Not only is the acting incredible, but it is one of the most visually elaborate and fine-tuned films I have ever seen. Talk about a movie to set your lighting standards by. I love it, what a perfect way to tie in the theme of learning an old art like the carbon arc by watching a film that taught so many people how to light! I agree with Roger Ebert who says this is among the top ten best films ever made!
Matt Elium and his dad treated me to Roscoe's tonight for dinner- boy was it good... as always! They were down here working on a small TV show pilot thing his dad is putting together. It was good to see him and to talk about LA and San Francisco and everything. One thing that came up, something that I am still trying to understand, is how fast I seem to be "moving up the ladder". I don't really understand why it has been so easy(I'm sure a lot of it is being lucky) or if it means anything. It is just kind of odd to me, I don't really understand it, but I'm just gonna go with it, see what happens.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
When lighting, start with bigger units and scrim down. You can always lower the intensity of a big light but you can't make a smaller light brighter. However, the saying goes: What do you call a light with too many scrims in it? The wrong light.