Martini, Shaken Not Stirred

No, I didn't get assigned to the next installment of the Bond franchise. And no, I haven't been shaken by my work so far as to put my entire life (starting with this blog) on hold. At least not yet. Martini is the designated name in film speak for the last shot for the day. Seeing as I have finished my first week (or two), I figured it was appropriate to update those still reading my blog on my latest.

Upon returning from my trip home, I began my shadowing on the film "Premium Rush"—starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Day 1, I felt like I went from 0-60. I figured I had learned all I needed to learn, and that I would be able to put it in cruise control for the rest of the week. How wrong I was! First of all, I was initially signed onto this shadowing gig as a shadow of a second-year trainee, who's running 1st team stunts. If you were paying attention to my earlier blog posts, you'll know that 1st team involves handling all the needs of the principal talent. So 1st team stunts handles the needs of all the principal stunt talent. You know when you're watching a movie and a character's running through a crowd of people? Stunt people. Or through a busy intersection? Stunt drivers.

So for the most part, I was helping out with that—the bulk of my day came at the beginning and end of the day when I had to assure that the stunt people's walkie-talkies were checked out and checked back in (because all the stunt people need to be kept in the loop for obvious reasons). But when I wasn't doing that, I tried my best to avail myself to the rest of the crew. I perfected the art of being actively-passive. I didn't want to get in the way, but I wanted to be there when someone needed something. As such, Day 2 took me from 60-120, Day 3 to 180, and so on. Needless to say, I'm moving pretty quickly right now and just hoping I'm hanging onto everything I've learned.

At the conclusion of my shadowing week, I found out that I had been hired by a two-day Converse commercial shoot. The assignment didn't compromise my #4 spot for a big project, which is good, but it gave me my first opportunity to be out on my own. The commercial was shot by Antoine Fuqua—who directed, among other things, "Training Day"—and starred Dr. J and Jim Jones. Day 1, I was asked to stock the talent's campers with sodas and such. While in Jim Jones's camper, one of the fridge door shelves somehow came loose under the weight of some seltzer waters and one exploded upon contact with the ground. Stifling the urge to say something loud and obscene at the catastrophic flood I had inadvertently unleashed upon the camper floor, I sprung for the roll of paper towels I had also brought for stocking. On my first pass at mopping up the mess, I leapt up quickly to discard the waterlogged ball of Bounty and smashed the back of my head into the underside of the camper table. This time the urge was too great. "S***!" I was convinced Jones was going to materialize at that point to see me simultaneously mopping seltzer water from his floor and blood from my head. But fortunately my head wasn't bleeding, the seltzer water got cleaned up, the fridge got stocked, and I got the hell out of there just as Jones and his entourage rolled onto set.

Once we were set up, the 2nd AD called for a safety meeting and then called me on the walkie talkie. "Ok, Dixon," he said. "For the PR, safety meeting was called at 6:25. Make a note." Hunh? PR? I know I've been trained for this, but I was under the impression they already had someone to do paperwork. I thought I was just hired as an extra hand. "...Noted," I replied and tucked it in the new expansion of my throbbing head. I finally tracked down a copy of the PR (production report, b-t-dub), made a note of 6:25 safety meeting, and went about confirming all the personnel on the shoot. The PR ended up being way more straightforward than I had been led to believe from the training seminar. I was assured that that's because it was a commercial and not a TV show or a movie, but still, I think I may actually be able to do this.

After the commercial wrapped on Day 2, I found out that the 2nd AD on "Premium Rush" wanted me to come back. So while I'm still awaiting my fate for my first project, I'm able to get some invaluable set experience on a well-run machine of a film. As of yet, things couldn't be better.