Cleansing the soul

Shooting a movie attracts a lot of attention. When people see us lighting up a neighborhood at night or closing a street downtown, they are interested in what's going on. I'm glad I'm on the other side of the crowd control for the first time.

This job has been very satisfying so far; funny how the work is the polar opposite of that from my previous jobs. I used to sit at a desk, make it look like I'm thinking hard, and earn a nice paycheck; now I'm on my feet continuously, frantically performing physically-demanding work, and not earning a thing, except my name in the credits and maybe a copy of the DVD. As you all know, participating in the production of this movie was not a financially enterprising decision for me, but I feel like my soul is being cleansed. Even if I do go back to some desk job after all this, at least I will always have this experience to look back on and talk about. I'll have a DVD on my shelf that I can watch and remember how much sweat went into each shot of it.

I, along with two other production assistants, have been reporting to the director of photography or the two technicians under him. We have to meet up at the different shooting locations (so far a courthouse, a home, an intersection downtown, a coffee shop, a bar, an apartment) by a certain call time. Then we unload the vehicles, set up lights and/or reflectors, cover windows, lay dolly track, and throw sandbags around. The D.P. takes a look and directs us to do some tweaking, usually adding or subtracting filters or gels from the lights. The D.P. has a really good eye for sizing up shots and recreating natural lighting on camera. I have a new appreciation for color temperature and cinematography in general when I turn on the TV these days. I'm anxious to go back and watch some of my favorite movies with this new knowledge in mind.

Tonight is looking like another late night. After this we are switching to mostly day shoots until my and R's Minnesota vacation starts on July 1. I'm going to need the break by then, after working 13 days in a row. Spending the 4th back home should be fun, and then we head up to Winnipeg for the folk festival. There will only be three weeks of shooting left when we return. I'm going to try to make the most of it because I still don't have anything lined up for when we are done.