If you think I was being a little bit of a baby the other day about the criticism of Charm City that I stumbled upon, I wouldn't necessarily disagree with you. I looked at it again, and it wasn't all that terrible, and had some truth to it. The larger part of my problem was not what was said but who said it, and the forum in which they said it. I won't waste any more time thinking about it, it is not that big a deal. It just caught me at a vulnerable moment so I may have overreacted a little bit.
You do have to have a thick skin in this business, as this stuff happens all the time. I try to be supportive of other filmmakers I have come to know, even if whatever they are creating is not really my thing. I learn a lot more (and accumulate more allies) by keeping an open mind than by ripping everyone else's work apart. I believe that there is no one that I cannot learn something from, though sometimes it is learning what NOT to do. But those lessons are equally if not more important than learning HOW to do things.
I know I made a lot of rookie mistakes on Charm City and I am fine with that. I would like to believe that 98.5%... okay, maybe 94.5%... of the cast and crew who worked on the film would willingly work with me again. And that's the other thing about this business, at least in Baltimore. You're going to end up working with people you are not crazy about if you do more than one or two projects, so the fewer lines you draw and enemies you make, the better. There might be cast or crew from Charm City that I would not hire again. But I will not always be in the driver's seat, there will be other productions (knock on wood!) like Juju that I freelance on and am not in charge of hiring or casting, and may find myself working side by side with someone not of my choice.
Anyway... I just finished three days of pick-up shots for Charm City. I think one more day and I will have everything I need. I need to get three of the actors together that day, and that has been tough, but we will get it done. They have been very cooperative and I am grateful for that. We really took our time with the scenes we shot this week and they look great.
Michelle wasn't available yesterday but my two lead actors were, so Eric filled in as DP for me so we could knock some stuff out. After we wrapped last night, Eric and I looked at a LOT of the footage from the 2 weeks of principle photography. I am really happy with it, all of the elements are there. The acting is great, the cinematography is sharp, and I have to say we had some stellar locations that combined make the film look even better than I had hoped for. I was initially worried about so much of the footage being shot in the interiors of bars, but now I think it will be fine, as it will be broken up with a lot of other stuff, and it is a well-balanced mix. We had three bars but they each have a different look and feel to them; five homes/apartments, which were even more distinctive - two very luxurious mansions, a warehouse apartment, a "masculine", straight-forward house, for lack of better description, and a more feminine, artsy house; our outdoor scenes (for which the weather was perfect) were very Baltimore - Federal Hill Park, Mount Vernon Square, and the War Memorial across from City Hall; also my friend Steve's house served as our Courthouse interior (and Steve as our Justice of the Peace), and Charles Lawrence's gallery in Fells Point doubled as Moxie Gallery. Those interiors were so rich and colorful, I can't wait to start editing those scenes. I am probably forgetting a few locations, but those were the main ones and I believe a good mix. We also have a few car scenes of conversations in moving cars.
What I am missing a lot of is single coverage, or close-ups of one person at a time. It is an ensemble cast and in some of the scenes there were sometimes EIGHT people coming and going from the same conversation. I'd still be filming if we did the wide shot and then shot singles of EVERYONE. So I had to make a lot of choices along the way of where I had to skimp on coverage to stay on schedule and under budget. These pick-up days have been nice because they were scenes that were important to get a lot of coverage and we took our time because we only shot about 2 pages a day. We averaged SEVEN pages a day during principle photography, and there were a couple days in there we did ten or eleven! But again, I think I have a balanced mix of scenes where I do and do not have coverage. And I myself LIKE scenes that show more than one person during the conversation. I think they help the actors to stay in character if they know the camera is on them. It is easy to let performance slip if you know it is someone else's close-up and you are not in the shot, plus it is easier, I think, for the actor not to OVER-do it if they are in a scene with someone else. Sometimes if they know it is their close-up, they ham it up a bit too much. And especially for a "talkie" with loads of dialogue about personal relationships, I like to see the body language of the person who is not speaking in the scene. I think in important moments that is just as important as focusing on the person who is talking.
So I can live with all of that. I find myself saying that a lot, now that I am in post. It's a good thing, because if I couldn't live with it, I still wouldn't have much choice in the matter. It is in the can and I only have a little bit of money leftover for post-production.
Well, I have to go finish putting together the schedule for Juju's pick-up days so I better get rolling. One more week of that to get through, then I can really concentrate on editing Charm City. Can't wait to really dig in.
Showing posts with label crew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crew. Show all posts
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Finish Line
"Juju," wrapped principle photography last night. I mean this morning. It was our second 20+ hour day this week. And I remember thinking what a killer day it was when we ran 15 hours on my set on "Charm City"!
It was quite an education and I am glad to have had the opportunity. I jumped into this business less than a year ago, and it is my fourth film credit (if you only count being writer/director/producer/etc on my own film as one credit). It was great to have done it back-to-back with my own film, as a lot of things were fresh in my mind. Making a movie is very similar to a group of people standing in a circle, every person with a gun in each hand, one of them pointed at the temple of the person to the left, one at the person to the right. We all are hostage to each other. One might think that the director or producer, whoever is writing the checks, has unlimited power, but that is really not the case. There are so many people you need on a set: the DP, PM (by now you must know these acronyms, or you just aren't paying attention), film crew, sound, make-up, props, catering, even down to the production assistants, who depending on the budget, might not even be getting paid at all. Even extras, who, as a group, pretty much screw you over every time. If twenty people swear on their respective grandmothers' graves that they will show up - count on five. On a good day.
You need ALL of these people and it is a lot of work to keep the peace and keep things moving at the same time. Coming fresh off my own film, it was still raw in my mind the people, events, and attitudes that made my life easier as a director/producer, and those that were counter-productive. "Juju" is the first feature-length project from this director and producer, and I told myself that as Production Manager, I was going to give them everything I wish people had given me, but didn't always come through on. That wasn't always easy to do, especially yesterday. I was nauseous most of the day, seemed to be fighting something flu-like, probably the result of our previous filming day which lasted from 10:00am Monday until after 6:00am Tuesday, and was all exteriors. We filmed at Wayne Shipley's field in Jessup, where the majority of his film, "One-Eyed Horse," was shot. FANTASTIC location and Wayne is the nicest guy in the world (as well as being very smart - he's got a distribution deal nearly locked up and has already sold over 1,100 DVDs). But by four a.m. it was pretty cold and my shoes were soaked from the dew in the tall grass and we were about out of bug repellant. I had arranged for a very nice tent from Absolute Party Rental and a very sanitary port-a-potty from Gotugo, but they didn't offer much in the way of warmth or shelter.
I knew from the start that yesterday was going to go just as long, and put that together with feeling crappy, I was probably a bit grumpy at the start of the production day. But we had a beautiful location at a mansion in Glen Burnie (yes! A MANSION in Glen Burnie!) and the lovely woman who owns the home allowed us to use her furnished, warm, comfortable basement for holding (anyone who is not on set) and catering. I actually found her on Craigslist! I am very wary of going into people's homes as locations, and I try to brace them for the assault. If they haven't done it before, they usually just think it is going to be cool and fun, and it is - but when they first see all that equipment and people rolling in... things can go downhill very quickly. But Mrs. Freeland has had filming at her house before and she was extremely hospitable and friendly, and it was a great place to end the shoot, ESPECIALLY because it rained off and all all day and night.
Super-long days like that can be all right, though. It seems like the first half of the day, people growl around at different stages, and then once everyone has accepted their fate to be stuck together for many, many more hours, everyone sorts of lets go of it. It happened on my set that way a couple times, which at the time made me nervous, because I felt guilty having everyone there so long, and I thought it was just the calm before the storm. But now I know. It was nice in a way to hang out with everyone yesterday. I think we were more relaxed because we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if it took us almost an entire rotation of the planet to get there.
It was quite an education and I am glad to have had the opportunity. I jumped into this business less than a year ago, and it is my fourth film credit (if you only count being writer/director/producer/etc on my own film as one credit). It was great to have done it back-to-back with my own film, as a lot of things were fresh in my mind. Making a movie is very similar to a group of people standing in a circle, every person with a gun in each hand, one of them pointed at the temple of the person to the left, one at the person to the right. We all are hostage to each other. One might think that the director or producer, whoever is writing the checks, has unlimited power, but that is really not the case. There are so many people you need on a set: the DP, PM (by now you must know these acronyms, or you just aren't paying attention), film crew, sound, make-up, props, catering, even down to the production assistants, who depending on the budget, might not even be getting paid at all. Even extras, who, as a group, pretty much screw you over every time. If twenty people swear on their respective grandmothers' graves that they will show up - count on five. On a good day.
You need ALL of these people and it is a lot of work to keep the peace and keep things moving at the same time. Coming fresh off my own film, it was still raw in my mind the people, events, and attitudes that made my life easier as a director/producer, and those that were counter-productive. "Juju" is the first feature-length project from this director and producer, and I told myself that as Production Manager, I was going to give them everything I wish people had given me, but didn't always come through on. That wasn't always easy to do, especially yesterday. I was nauseous most of the day, seemed to be fighting something flu-like, probably the result of our previous filming day which lasted from 10:00am Monday until after 6:00am Tuesday, and was all exteriors. We filmed at Wayne Shipley's field in Jessup, where the majority of his film, "One-Eyed Horse," was shot. FANTASTIC location and Wayne is the nicest guy in the world (as well as being very smart - he's got a distribution deal nearly locked up and has already sold over 1,100 DVDs). But by four a.m. it was pretty cold and my shoes were soaked from the dew in the tall grass and we were about out of bug repellant. I had arranged for a very nice tent from Absolute Party Rental and a very sanitary port-a-potty from Gotugo, but they didn't offer much in the way of warmth or shelter.
I knew from the start that yesterday was going to go just as long, and put that together with feeling crappy, I was probably a bit grumpy at the start of the production day. But we had a beautiful location at a mansion in Glen Burnie (yes! A MANSION in Glen Burnie!) and the lovely woman who owns the home allowed us to use her furnished, warm, comfortable basement for holding (anyone who is not on set) and catering. I actually found her on Craigslist! I am very wary of going into people's homes as locations, and I try to brace them for the assault. If they haven't done it before, they usually just think it is going to be cool and fun, and it is - but when they first see all that equipment and people rolling in... things can go downhill very quickly. But Mrs. Freeland has had filming at her house before and she was extremely hospitable and friendly, and it was a great place to end the shoot, ESPECIALLY because it rained off and all all day and night.
Super-long days like that can be all right, though. It seems like the first half of the day, people growl around at different stages, and then once everyone has accepted their fate to be stuck together for many, many more hours, everyone sorts of lets go of it. It happened on my set that way a couple times, which at the time made me nervous, because I felt guilty having everyone there so long, and I thought it was just the calm before the storm. But now I know. It was nice in a way to hang out with everyone yesterday. I think we were more relaxed because we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if it took us almost an entire rotation of the planet to get there.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Christmas Eve
That is kind of what it feels like to me right now. Call time is eight hours away. I really need to get to sleep. But I doubt I will be able to do so before 2:00am.
The great thing is though, I am feeling really good about everything. It was a long day of running around, a last minute trip to the Apple store, getting in touch with Al Letson who comes in from Florida in the morning to film his scenes this weekend, another trip to Sam's Club (this time for $600 - OUCH - but I got a lot of people to feed), read 62 emails and wrote 35 (I am not making this up), can't count the phone calls, met with most of my Production Team from 5-6pm, followed by dinner with my Film Crew and their load-in, followed by several more hours bouncing between them, wardrobe, catering, and delegating other production tasks. Michelle and her Film Crew tested their equipment and made sure everything is locked and loaded. Tomorrow morning we are making a movie! And I am actually SMILING about that for the first time in days!
I very much want to sit here and write for another hour or two, but I very much need to at least TRY to go to sleep. Lookig forward to getting Day 1 under my belt. Wish me luck.
The great thing is though, I am feeling really good about everything. It was a long day of running around, a last minute trip to the Apple store, getting in touch with Al Letson who comes in from Florida in the morning to film his scenes this weekend, another trip to Sam's Club (this time for $600 - OUCH - but I got a lot of people to feed), read 62 emails and wrote 35 (I am not making this up), can't count the phone calls, met with most of my Production Team from 5-6pm, followed by dinner with my Film Crew and their load-in, followed by several more hours bouncing between them, wardrobe, catering, and delegating other production tasks. Michelle and her Film Crew tested their equipment and made sure everything is locked and loaded. Tomorrow morning we are making a movie! And I am actually SMILING about that for the first time in days!
I very much want to sit here and write for another hour or two, but I very much need to at least TRY to go to sleep. Lookig forward to getting Day 1 under my belt. Wish me luck.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wound Up Tight
As I had hoped for, sleep like a baby I did in the Poconos. In addition to the fresh air, that utopic slumber may have had a lot to do with the fantastic food at the restaurant Louis' Prime, and the boxed wine that Mikey (one of my big investors, as well as the owner of my adopted pied a campagne) helped me kill off on the back deck of his cabin, after our dinners on Sunday and Monday evenings.
But Friday and Saturday evening I was all alone in the woods. Not so scared of bears as I was of the obnoxious family from Long Island in the cabin next door, who NEVER SHUT UP. Luckily they hung out on their front porch and Mikey's deck is in the back yard. But their hot tub was on the side of the house that faced us, so we got a couple visual servings of "Straight People Stew" as Mikey calls it.
I got a lot done. Whipped out the rehearsal schedule straight off the bat, which was no small task considering the ensemble cast of 12 people only had ONE day that EVERYONE could show up at the same time. My many years of hotel management experience is paying off in ways I had never anticipated. Underpaid and overworked hotel front desk clerks and restaurant staff are FAR more demanding, unreliable, inflexible, and cranky than underpaid and overworked actors. But in all fairness, movie-making is a lot more fun, though not nearly as glamorous as people who have not done it think it is.
I also was able to complete breaking down the ensemble's wardrobes. That is a crazy-detailed part of it that a lot of people (including filmmakers) don't really consider. Today I spent SIX HOURS with my lead actress, Cheryl Scungio, who is playing Gracie. She has to have 14 outfits to complete her scenes. That is no joke! Think about it: not only are we talking about 14 different clothing ensembles, each has to (1) represent the personality of her character, (2) coincide with her character's ARC, (3) not look like any other character's wardrobe, (4) not duplicate itself in style or color (or if it does so, does so with a specific purpose), (5) be functional or utilitarian to the scene itself ( is she working, on a date, at a bar...), and above all, be (6) economically feasible, as my darling cast are supplying their own wardrobe.
But, as I have found in every other task within the movie-making business, it is a complex puzzle, but it is not brain surgery. Cheryl and I made a day of it, and had a blast doing so. We hit 2 shops in Mount Vernon, nailed a couple burgers for lunch in Broadway Market in Fells Point, another vintage store there, and finally a thrift store on Fort Ave in south Baltimore. Brought our treasures back to my place, mixed and matched it up with the script breakdown, and... it was a lot of work, but the puzzle in nearly complete! For her character. Now I have to do it ELEVEN more times.
That is not all I have gotten done since I got back. Yesterday I wiped a couple MAJOR things off the list. I locked down another fabulous location, the Wind-Up Space at Charles & North Ave. I had not been there before and wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it is not only slick but PERFECTLY slick. A dream for filming - wide open space, and nothing is nailed in place. My DP is going to freakin' wet herself when she sees this place. But it is also so very Baltimore. The building was formerly an old market, now it is a bar and gallery space. Creative drinking, that is what this town is all about!
I have some other hot spaces lined up, but I will write about them in a separate posting so they don't get muddled together. And in the last 24 hours I have nailed down two KEY positions in my Production Crew, which I will also share with you in a later posting. I am trying not to ramble too much in one posting, but it is difficult because so much is happening. We start filming in THREE WEEKS!
So, (hopefully) understandably, I am a little stressed out. Had a minor flip-out the night before last on poor Eric, my filmmaker friend who has served as great counsel to me and is also currently filming his own flick at my hotel. After a (very) few hours sleep I realized I was being absurd and apologized before he even had time to address it, as it was one of those (often dangerous) email exchanges. By the time I actually spoke to him, he was laughing about it. Guys dig crazy. Lucky for me.
But Friday and Saturday evening I was all alone in the woods. Not so scared of bears as I was of the obnoxious family from Long Island in the cabin next door, who NEVER SHUT UP. Luckily they hung out on their front porch and Mikey's deck is in the back yard. But their hot tub was on the side of the house that faced us, so we got a couple visual servings of "Straight People Stew" as Mikey calls it.
I got a lot done. Whipped out the rehearsal schedule straight off the bat, which was no small task considering the ensemble cast of 12 people only had ONE day that EVERYONE could show up at the same time. My many years of hotel management experience is paying off in ways I had never anticipated. Underpaid and overworked hotel front desk clerks and restaurant staff are FAR more demanding, unreliable, inflexible, and cranky than underpaid and overworked actors. But in all fairness, movie-making is a lot more fun, though not nearly as glamorous as people who have not done it think it is.
I also was able to complete breaking down the ensemble's wardrobes. That is a crazy-detailed part of it that a lot of people (including filmmakers) don't really consider. Today I spent SIX HOURS with my lead actress, Cheryl Scungio, who is playing Gracie. She has to have 14 outfits to complete her scenes. That is no joke! Think about it: not only are we talking about 14 different clothing ensembles, each has to (1) represent the personality of her character, (2) coincide with her character's ARC, (3) not look like any other character's wardrobe, (4) not duplicate itself in style or color (or if it does so, does so with a specific purpose), (5) be functional or utilitarian to the scene itself ( is she working, on a date, at a bar...), and above all, be (6) economically feasible, as my darling cast are supplying their own wardrobe.
But, as I have found in every other task within the movie-making business, it is a complex puzzle, but it is not brain surgery. Cheryl and I made a day of it, and had a blast doing so. We hit 2 shops in Mount Vernon, nailed a couple burgers for lunch in Broadway Market in Fells Point, another vintage store there, and finally a thrift store on Fort Ave in south Baltimore. Brought our treasures back to my place, mixed and matched it up with the script breakdown, and... it was a lot of work, but the puzzle in nearly complete! For her character. Now I have to do it ELEVEN more times.
That is not all I have gotten done since I got back. Yesterday I wiped a couple MAJOR things off the list. I locked down another fabulous location, the Wind-Up Space at Charles & North Ave. I had not been there before and wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it is not only slick but PERFECTLY slick. A dream for filming - wide open space, and nothing is nailed in place. My DP is going to freakin' wet herself when she sees this place. But it is also so very Baltimore. The building was formerly an old market, now it is a bar and gallery space. Creative drinking, that is what this town is all about!
I have some other hot spaces lined up, but I will write about them in a separate posting so they don't get muddled together. And in the last 24 hours I have nailed down two KEY positions in my Production Crew, which I will also share with you in a later posting. I am trying not to ramble too much in one posting, but it is difficult because so much is happening. We start filming in THREE WEEKS!
So, (hopefully) understandably, I am a little stressed out. Had a minor flip-out the night before last on poor Eric, my filmmaker friend who has served as great counsel to me and is also currently filming his own flick at my hotel. After a (very) few hours sleep I realized I was being absurd and apologized before he even had time to address it, as it was one of those (often dangerous) email exchanges. By the time I actually spoke to him, he was laughing about it. Guys dig crazy. Lucky for me.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Notes on Being a Grown-Up
Woo-Hoo!!!! I OFFICIALLY have an LLC and an EIN! I am no longer acronym-deficient. Please join me in welcoming Steel Corset Productions, LLC, to the Wonderful World of Filmmaking.
The whole process was pretty painless. First I went online to Maryland SDAT (State Dept of Assessments and Taxation and printed out the form "Articles of Organization". When I noticed that the office was 6 blocks from my house, I figured I'd just do it in person. I braced myself for long waits and cranky state government employees, but it went pretty smoothly. I was in and out of TWO Maryland State Tax offices having spent only 45 minutes and $192.00 ($70.00 of that was just to expedite it), and I had my LLC Charter Division in hand. When I got home, a seven minute phone call to the IRS secured my new Employer Identification Number. Which is concurrently Very Cool and Very Scary.
Now I have to get my bank to work with me to put the LLC name on my checking account, so I can really be in business. I'll let you know how that goes.
And in other news, my greatest fears (of the moment) were realized when the afore-mentioned Plan A, as my British friend Matthew would say, "went tits-up". Seemingly there was some major miscommunications at hand, and one party or the other was not necessarily at fault. As I've said before, the whole process is like dating, or being in love - the same words and phrases don't necessarily mean the same thing to all people, so you have to really nail these things down. See, up until now, everyone who has said to me, "I can do this for you," or, "I can help you with that," has meant that to mean, "for FREE," or cheap, or in exchange for something I can do/will do/have already done for them. The person related to Plan A, though, meant that only that he is CAPABLE of doing those things - but for a price. To him, a very discounted price, to me, not so much.
One point that this person tried to drive home is, "You get what you pay for." I've been in the business world for over two decades, and of course I agree with him, to a point. I have been on the unfortunate end of working for a company with great aspirations and shallow pockets more than once. I know for a fact that "cheapest" often equals "worst". But I also know for a fact that "most expensive" rarely equals "best."
I know that there are film crew people out there who make $350, sometimes even more, for a day's work. They paid film school tuition and are probably still paying off their loans. They have their own gear that they might still be making payments on themselves. They work hard, are experienced, and deserve to get paid well. Which I'll be happy to do. When Hollywood knows my name and I have a real budget that can support those kind of salaries.
But, I don't. Plain and simple. So, what are my choices? Beg people who usually make $350 a day to work for less than 15% of what they consider themselves worth? I don't foresee that making for a healthy, fun, or most importantly, productive work environment. I don't want to be on set with a bunch of people who spend the day calculating how much they SHOULD be making, or rolling their eyes at me when I ask them to pick up the pace. That's poison.
So what are my other options? Will qualified people really work for $50 a day, or less? I know for a fact that they will. I have plenty of people offering to do exactly that for me, and that is before I even start asking around. Of course, they won't have as much experience as the pros, and more mistakes will be made. That eats up time. I have time. But I wouldn't have the career in the hotel industry that I have if (1) I didn't work my ass off BEFORE I started getting paid what I am worth, and (2) if someone hadn't taken a chance on me, taken me under their wing and showed me the ropes.
Short of brain surgery or rocket science, or rocket surgery or brain science for that matter, my attitude is this: I'd rather have someone who is thrilled as HELL to be there. No one is going to die if you call an extension cord an extension cord (film lingo, a "stinger").
So I have a lot of thinking to do. At first I was crushed, I must admit. But it is better to know this now than to have four or five more meetings where we are talking about different things. I'm okay with it now, and it is really not that big of a deal. Everything always turns out the way it should for me, it seems, and this is no different. Beside the elevator in the Maryland State Offices today, there was a sign that said, "It is not the person who goes the fastest that gets things done, it is the person that keeps going."
The whole process was pretty painless. First I went online to Maryland SDAT (State Dept of Assessments and Taxation and printed out the form "Articles of Organization". When I noticed that the office was 6 blocks from my house, I figured I'd just do it in person. I braced myself for long waits and cranky state government employees, but it went pretty smoothly. I was in and out of TWO Maryland State Tax offices having spent only 45 minutes and $192.00 ($70.00 of that was just to expedite it), and I had my LLC Charter Division in hand. When I got home, a seven minute phone call to the IRS secured my new Employer Identification Number. Which is concurrently Very Cool and Very Scary.
Now I have to get my bank to work with me to put the LLC name on my checking account, so I can really be in business. I'll let you know how that goes.
And in other news, my greatest fears (of the moment) were realized when the afore-mentioned Plan A, as my British friend Matthew would say, "went tits-up". Seemingly there was some major miscommunications at hand, and one party or the other was not necessarily at fault. As I've said before, the whole process is like dating, or being in love - the same words and phrases don't necessarily mean the same thing to all people, so you have to really nail these things down. See, up until now, everyone who has said to me, "I can do this for you," or, "I can help you with that," has meant that to mean, "for FREE," or cheap, or in exchange for something I can do/will do/have already done for them. The person related to Plan A, though, meant that only that he is CAPABLE of doing those things - but for a price. To him, a very discounted price, to me, not so much.
One point that this person tried to drive home is, "You get what you pay for." I've been in the business world for over two decades, and of course I agree with him, to a point. I have been on the unfortunate end of working for a company with great aspirations and shallow pockets more than once. I know for a fact that "cheapest" often equals "worst". But I also know for a fact that "most expensive" rarely equals "best."
I know that there are film crew people out there who make $350, sometimes even more, for a day's work. They paid film school tuition and are probably still paying off their loans. They have their own gear that they might still be making payments on themselves. They work hard, are experienced, and deserve to get paid well. Which I'll be happy to do. When Hollywood knows my name and I have a real budget that can support those kind of salaries.
But, I don't. Plain and simple. So, what are my choices? Beg people who usually make $350 a day to work for less than 15% of what they consider themselves worth? I don't foresee that making for a healthy, fun, or most importantly, productive work environment. I don't want to be on set with a bunch of people who spend the day calculating how much they SHOULD be making, or rolling their eyes at me when I ask them to pick up the pace. That's poison.
So what are my other options? Will qualified people really work for $50 a day, or less? I know for a fact that they will. I have plenty of people offering to do exactly that for me, and that is before I even start asking around. Of course, they won't have as much experience as the pros, and more mistakes will be made. That eats up time. I have time. But I wouldn't have the career in the hotel industry that I have if (1) I didn't work my ass off BEFORE I started getting paid what I am worth, and (2) if someone hadn't taken a chance on me, taken me under their wing and showed me the ropes.
Short of brain surgery or rocket science, or rocket surgery or brain science for that matter, my attitude is this: I'd rather have someone who is thrilled as HELL to be there. No one is going to die if you call an extension cord an extension cord (film lingo, a "stinger").
So I have a lot of thinking to do. At first I was crushed, I must admit. But it is better to know this now than to have four or five more meetings where we are talking about different things. I'm okay with it now, and it is really not that big of a deal. Everything always turns out the way it should for me, it seems, and this is no different. Beside the elevator in the Maryland State Offices today, there was a sign that said, "It is not the person who goes the fastest that gets things done, it is the person that keeps going."
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