Friday, June 20, 2008

I'll Never Do Another Music Video


I have been saying this for years, yet I keep taking them when I've got nothing better to do. I just finished a video in Las Vegas that was an 18 hour orgy of pain. We shot at the Red Rocks Casino (which is beautiful by the way) and the production shorted us a guy right off the bat, so I ended up Besting and pushing dolly ( I hate Best Boying. I hate dealing with the office and accounting etc. and I hate doing time cards). We shot from one end of the casino to the other with a Key and three and got our asses kicked because there was never enough time to catch up. Halfway through the night, someone got the idea to move the truck from the side of the casino where we started to the other side where we ended, ( a freaking half of a mile) leaving half of our crap still there for us to figure out how to get it to the truck at the end of the night. I was behind the dolly and didn't know anything about it until it was done. So, I ended up using my pickup truck to haul two loads back to the truck . Oh yeah, for all you production types, grip and electric sharing a truck doesn't save you money. It may look cheaper when you see the initial costs and are comparing the price of one truck to two, but the grips or electrics always sit around waiting on the other department to get loaded depending on who goes on first. My guys were waiting on electric to wrap about 2 miles of cable last night before we could load our stuff (at $100.00 an hour). If I hadn't gotten tired of waiting and used my own truck, they'd probably still be wrapping. And if you think we all pitch in together to help, wrong. I'm not an electrician. I don't know anything about electricity other than it makes lights glow, so I'm not going to muck up some juicer's wrap by "helping" him load 4 ought. I'm a Dolly Grip. You don't hire a plumber to put a new roof on your house, so figure it out. If you are too short sighted to have two trucks so the boys don't get beaten up at the end of an 18 hour day, I'm more than happy to take your money by sitting on the dolly and watching juicers wrap cable. I'm a helpful guy but I have my limits. Anyway, I didn't mean to get off on a rant, but it really was a ridiculously planned day. The producers were all very nice and I was treated very well with accomodations, per diem etc. I just hate to see someone trip over a dollar to pick up a dime and the working guys all get the crap kicked out of them as a result.
Now I'm much calmer.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Oh yeah, for all you production types, grip and electric sharing a truck doesn't save you money."

OHMYGOD!! I have been saying this for years, and production just doesn't seem to get it. Thank you for reiterating it. For some reason, I think they see G&E as one single dept., as opposed to two related depts. working together.

Unless it is a tiny shoot that is using all available light, I cannot STAND working with a truck that is a combination grip and electric. It makes load-outs and load-ins harder, organization harder, company moves harder, retrieving items harder, everything.

-DW

Scripty said...

Production is always trying to save a dime at the crew's expense. Great post, hopefully some production person will read it and learn.

The Grip Works said...

Sounds like a day from hell . Its WORSE when Production are nice guys. The nice guy / clueless professional is a terrible combination. You want to kick someones ass but you feel bad. The Grip Electric sharing a truck is ridiculous. I've never heard of such a stupid idea. The hallmark of an inexperienced UPM, someone who has no idea how things work in the real world.

Michael Taylor said...

Excellent post, D. I've made -- and gone back on -- that same pledge more than a few times.

Lord, do I hate music videos...

Outsiders (and sometimes that includes producers) don't understand much about what we do. They don't see that it's not a grip's job to help wrap cable, nor a juicer's job to help carry a camera dolly. We've got enough to do handling and wrapping our own equipment. Sometimes you have to pitch in when your brothers need help, but this doesn't always end well. A month ago, I helped the grips carry their Fisher 10 down some stairs leaving a location, and my back hurt for the next two weeks.

Hire enough competent pros to do the job, and everything will work out fine. Cut a man from the crew, then force grip and electric to work off the same frigging truck, and everyone is guaranteed a miserable experience.

Anonymous said...

Wow...that reminds me of my old low budget T.V. days!! except the only difference is that we werent making much overtime at all!!

D said...

Thanks all for your comments. This one seems to have struck a chord.

D said...

I should mention at this point that Michael Taylor is right about pitching in when your brothers need help... I have no problem doing that and have helped head up more than one 18k. It's when production lumps you all together like unskilled general labor that I get irritated.

Peggy Archer said...

They'll never learn, scripty. Never.

The only thing that will make them learn is actually having to do our jobs, which isn't going to happen.

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2. Vị trí ngồi nên tạo thành đường thẳng trực tiếp với cửa vì bạn có thể nhận phải nguồn năng lượng tiêu cực. Bạn nên chuyển ghế ngồi của bạn sang vị trí khác để tránh năng lượng tiêu cực đi qua cơ thể. Nếu lưng của bạn buộc phải quay về phía cửa khi ngồi vào ban van phong gia re tphcm , bạn có thể giảm bớt ảnh hưởng tiêu cực bằng cách nhìn thấy hình ảnh phản chiếu của cửa. Hãy treo gương hoặc bất kỳ đồ vật phản chiếu nào xung quanh bàn làm việc để tạo tương phản.
Và bàn làm việc và mẫu ghe van phong cần phải có sụ hài hòa với nhau để tạo nên địa điểm nơi làm việc để giúp cho nhân viên không gian địa điểm làm việc tốt nhất. Nên nhớ ghế không được cáo hoặc thấp hơn bạn làm việc sẽ tạo không thoải mái cho nhân viên gây vấn đề về cột sống.

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