Roped In & Ramblings

So yesterday should have been my last day working on the tv show. It's not.

The show has always lived in a limbo state, one tiny step away from cancellation. Now it's even closer. In an attempt to save it, the creator pitched the network on a revamp idea and we're shooting a presentation next week for 2 days. And I have to work it.

Not that I was actually ASKED mind you. And it really pisses me off. My brain has been set up on a very orchestrated schedule of when the show was ending and these two days next week only came about in the past week. So overall, I'm not really psyched about working it. But it peeves me more that no one bothered to ask me. Granted, my job is rather wierd and I work under various departments so that doesn't help matters. I do video playback, but on our show it's mostly computers. And most of that is background ND stuff, not hero. On our show I work mostly under props. But I also work under the set decorator. Our graphics guy makes most of the stuff I play, but not always. Sometimes it comes in from LA through production. Technically on other shows I'm lumped in with sound (which is where all my checks ended up in the first few weeks). And on the call sheet I'm under production services.

So usually it's a bitch to get information. I have to do a lot of seeking out my various bosses and asking them about stuff because they don't communicate much to me. And I think it's gotten worse over the season because they realize I'm a smart capable gal who's completely overqualified for the position.

So I've had exactly one person (first AD) talk to me about exactly one scene. I got way more information from one of the swing guys. WTF? And there I am last night, being handed a prelim with my name on it for the first day. And a glance at the next day shows I'm sucked into that day too.

Since I'm now in a nice bitter mood, I'll expand on my previous post. In the comments sb asked: " i hope that your experience is the exception and not the rule! Yikes! Maybe you could share said things that he/she has done so that we, too, may learn what NOT to do?"

For the most part, I've worked with some really good directors. The source of my previous rant has been much more the exception so far in my (somewhat limited) experience. He is now ranked as my own #2 most hated of all time. (My #1 wasn't from this show). During this past season besides him, there are 2 other directors I didn't really like much, but nowhere near The Asshole. All the others I got along with well and liked. I had one experience that floored me: when I asked the director if he wanted a computer on, off, or on with a screensaver (it was an "after hours" shot) he returned the question to me: "what do you think?" OMG. Amazing. A director who has respect for the crew and desires their input. That made me very happy.

One of The Asshole's worst traits is that he doesn't do his primary job of planning his shots and knowing what he wants. This is a TV show for crying out loud. We do 7 page days. If you want to be fly-by-the-seat-style, direct a movie with a big budget and 3 page days. And it's not even that he's doesn't know what kind of shots he wants. He'll make last minute demands for things that we sometimes aren't prepared for. And honestly, there's no harm in asking for stuff like that because you never know and if it makes things better than go for it. But his attitude is not one of asking but demanding something immediately. And if you can't do it, he throws a hissy fit. And if you do, not a word of thanks. ever. He doesn't prepare, and acts like a spoiled brat when you can't meet his immediate demands.

He's horrible at describing what it is he wants. Then you bring him something and his voice changes to this 5 year old whiney voice and he snaps "I don't like it." or "That's not what I wanted at all!" but then still can't really tell you what it is he wants. At the last minute. That I'm busting my ass to scramble up for him. Which if he really wanted so bad he should have thought of and communicated earlier.

He's always got this dour grimace on his face. He regularly completely ignores people who try to talk to him, and sometimes just literally shoves people aside while doing so. He completely man-handles people. He will grab the stand-ins by the shoulders and literally shove them around to get them into a position he wants. I heard stories of last season: Once the main star's stand-in was doing a camera rehersal with a walk and she started the walk at a wrong moment. Instead of asking her to come back he grabbed her ponytail and drug her back. I heard he once was literally pounding his fists on the floor. And he continues to direct episodes. Grrrr.

Ok, enough negative ranting for now. I must have something good to share. Ok, I just came up for a good motivation for this extra two days of work. With the money I make from those two days I'm finally buying my iPod. I can't believe I still don't have an iPod but it's tough when honest to god I won't settle for less than the 80 gig iPod video. So those two days are my iPod days. I had long planned that I was going to buy myself an iPod as a present to myself for working the whole season. A reward. I like to do that sometimes. When I got my first real professional job (a job I got because of my college degree, basically) with my first paycheck I bought a Palm IIIxe. As a present to myself. Because I deserved it since I rocked so hard.

Ohh, here's another bit of good news: we have a new Mac in the family. A bit of backstory: I type this from my main computer, a laptop. I still can't get over it myself that my main computer is a laptop. But of course it's a 17" MacBook Pro (first generation) that I ordered the first day I could. Previous to this I was on a PC, but spent a great deal of time on Mac's in college before I owned my own computer. But when it was time to buy that first computer Macs were way too expensive so I got a PC. But a year ago I was working on a project that I had to have a Mac laptop for and the timeline was a bit tight but I waited and it paid off: I got my laptop a scant 2 weeks before the shoot began, just enough time to install programs and do a few workflow tests. And now I hardly ever turn on my PC desktop workstation. I live on my laptop. Which I think works better for writing.

So back on topic: we got a new Mac. See, one bonus of working on a tv show and being the computer person is that I picked up a barely used G5 quad and 20 inch apple monitor for very very very very cheap. The G5 needs major RAM and another hard drive (or swap out both) but we scored a great deal. Apple sends us promo computers to use during the show and at the end of the season you can buy them at deep discount. They're still on warranty until July and you can get apple care if you want. The show had 8 G5 towers and I got the only quad, the rest were only duals. heh. pays to be in my position.

I'm trying to convert my PC boyfriend to Mac. I think the G5 might be the trick, plus the fact that I know what I'm doing on OSX now so I can stop his rants about "how come I can do X on my PC but I can't do it on the Mac?" Cuz he's wrong. Mac rules, Microsoft drools. Linux is cool, too. Someday I will tackle that, too.

Ok, another cool thing that happened a few weeks ago. (Wow, this post is getting long and rambly. Yea, deal.) We had a scene that was set in a supercomputer lab. And we really shot it in an honest-to-God supercomputer lab at USCD. Personally, I think they were crazy for letting us shoot there. Of course it was a sound nightmare: it reminded me of a TV movie I worked on that we shot on a docked aircraft carrier: a constant loud drone. I guess they're going to ADR everything later. So of course in my geekdom it was cool hanging out in a supercomputer lab, but it gets even better. I arrive early on set because I have to set up our hero computers: 9 screens from 7 computers. The location contact is letting me into the room and I notice the sign next to the door which was fake for the show. One of the graphics guys named the computer lab after me, with my last name. so it was my supercomputer lab. I totally nabbed the sign as we were leaving and it's now on my office door.

But even cooler was this: on the drive home, I remembered what day it was. March 6. The day my father died when I was 11. He was the one responsible for making me the computer nerd I am today. We bonded a lot over the TSR-80 we had: he taught me the beginnings of computer programming (BASIC of course).

Anyway, in retrospect I felt it was all a big hug from Dad.

And that's what we call full-fucking-circle.