
INTRODUCTION
Not sure what film it was that turned me into a
cinephile. One of my earliest memories is that of my father bringing home bagels
and lox in addition to the New York Times every Sunday morning. Before Abbot and
Costello, Id
grab section II of the paper. Section II was the Arts and Leisure section which
had the film reviews and articles about the media. I remember looking for the
hidden 'Ninas'
in the weekly Hirshfeld cartoon. The famous cartoonist would hide his daughters
name in the drawings of popular actors and actress.
The number of Nina's
was designated by the number next to his signature.
In later
years I would come to realize that it was the power of the medium I found so
alluring. Just to be able to contribute to a work of art that would be viewed by
hundreds of millions of people must have pulled on some string attached to a
longing for immortality that lies within each of us.
How was I
going to be apart of this world? I didnt
know anyone in the industry, my parents, in my opinion never pushed me to pursue
my dream. Get good grades so you can go to college was their advice on
everything. I did all right in school, but I felt I had all the advantages to
pursue any career I wanted. Although not the most gifted student I was fairly
intelligent, not bad looking, Jewish, what else did you need, besides the right
connections of course.
Along
with the bagels and Abbot and Costello the beautiful sight of falling snow
outside my living room window in suburban New York is an image etched deep in my
brain. Unfortunately Malthusian theory has started to play out and our lust for
expansion and disregard for the environment has moved the rain/snow line north
of my roots of White Plains, New York. For me nothing is more depressing than
rain in January, so after college I moved out to Colorado for a spell.
Flash
forward to Y2K. The turn of the century. A friend of mine from Colorado was
living with some actors/comedians in Hollywood. I always knew from those bagel
days of yore that I would someday seek my immortality on the west coast or
wherever they made these movies.
When I
thought that I had my fill of the Colorado snow. I left for California. My folks
had retired and for some reason that I'm still not sure of, taxes perhaps, they
moved to a ritzy suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. Why they would want to live in that
crazy heat is beyond me, but how can you argue with people from New York?
Because they now lived in the West, I was able to leave most of my belongings
with Ma and Pa and headed to la la land. I had some electrical tools, a pair of
gloves and a small carload of dead tapes. 6 hours door to door, not so bad.
If you
didnt know,
most people start in the film business by working for free, I was not opposed to
tying this, as I really had no technical knowledge of the field I was going to
go into. Back in NY I was able to work as a set production assistant for
some big films in the city. After the initial excitement of being on a film set
wore off, which took a little while I have to admit, I realized that standing on
the corner asking people to cross on the other side of the street was not really
what I wanted to do. There are arguably 3 sides in the actual production process
of making a film. There is the creative side, there is the technical side, and a
third side which facilitates and controls the union of the other two, this 3rd
side is the production department. After a few weeks in production I
realized that that was not the end for me.
Because
so many people want to work in the film industry if you are not particularly
driven you will most likely be replaced by someone else that has more experience
or more desire than you do. This holds true for any position, from actor, to
stunt person, from wardrobe to grip. Once you are at the top of
your game and in demand you can start to relax. But on the road you must be
willing to endure all manner of hardships and indignities to get to a point
where you can say that you are doing it for a living, and even then its
no picnic.
When in New York
observing
the people on the set, I realized that the Director of Photography (DP),
the guy in charge of the camera was the guy I wanted to be. This is no easy job;
he is most often the most knowledgeable person on the set. As my dad was a
residential and commercial electrician, and because the people in the camera
department seemed like a bunch of geeks, I opted to take the road to DP through
the electric department.
Through
the internet I found a free job as an electric on a short film my second or
third week of living in LA. One of the guys who I met on that shoot is now my
good friend Suji. Suji and I kept in touch through much of that work year and
would exchange contacts and get each other work when we were able. About 8
months later Suji was asked down to San Diego to work on a new television show.
This show was being filmed for a new network that a large multi-million dollar
broadcasting company was putting together. The key crew members were LA guys who
didnt know
many, if any people from San Diego, much less any 'juicers' as electrics
are often called, that would work for the low rate that was being offered.
Thanks to Suji, my name got tossed in as a possible set lighting technician,
and I got the call from a guy named Dan, to work on the trailers for "Desire".
BROTHERS KEEPER
I had
shot in San Diego once before. While back briefly in Colorado one winter, I
received word about a 2 week job in San Diego that was looking for juicers. I
gave a call and the next day I was on my way back to LA. The traffic in a 100
mile radius of Los Angeles can be horrendous, and if you are in that sphere at
the wrong time it can be quite unpleasant, unless of course you like to sit in
your car stop and go, going 30 miles and hour. The traffic was so bad on this
day that I pulled off and went to the movies to wait it out for a few hours. It
was during the viewing of the Spielberg film Munich,
that I received a phone call from Ormos, chief lighting technician (gaffer)
on My
Brothers Keeper.
The
International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, known as IATSE is
the studio mechanics union that is called upon when technicians are needed to
make a film over a certain budget. This union has been around for decades,
solidifying its hold on the skilled labor involved in film making. There are
chapters or locals
as they are called throughout the US. When a production shoots in a particular
city in certain states the local is called to provide manpower for the show. As
you might expect the local workers want to protect their livelihood, so when
work is tight it is difficult to gain membership in those guilds. Although it is
an international association, being a member of one local, does not
automatically mean you have card blanche and can work where ever you want in the
country. Most films are produced out of LA so most of the key lighting personal
are affiliated with IATSE 728, the LA local. It is this local that I have set my
sights on, as they are the big boys producing the films that most of the world
gets to see.
Many of
these union gaffers are pretty jaded fellows. Seen too much or dont
get along with the wife, hard to pin down the reason for their bitchyness. Some
are great guys, but Ive
met my share of jerks, and this Ormos fellow fell into the jerk category. Ormos
was originally from Hungary. He was nice enough on the phone, told me the skinny
on the show. Wed
be one day on the lot of Universal Studios, then a travel day when we
would travel on our own coin down to San Diego.
Each job
is a little different, thats
one aspect that makes film making fun and exciting. The job itself however is
basically the same. There is a truck with all the lights. There is a
generator that is kept somewhere off set to mask its sound, and electricians
run cable from the genie to power the set and trucks.
I showed
up on time at Universal Studios. Its
always exciting when you get to shoot on the lots. The production was using a
set that looked like an East European Ghetto.
My Brothers Keeper
was a short film financed by a San Diegian construction contractor in order to
get financing from a major studio to shoot the story as a feature. I didnt
see much of the script that we shot, but the story was about Hungarian Jews who
were taken from their city to a labor camp where they were treated rather
unkindly by the Nazis. The 1st day at Universal we shot the round up and
deportation of the Jews. This film was especially poignant for me as I consider
myself a Hungarian Jew. My fathers parents were from Hungary, they actually met
on the boat coming from Europe to New York. While my family was not very
religious, I feel my parents felt both proud as well as stigmatized by their
Jewish heritage. Our land is of course made up of minorities, and we all came
from other places in the world. My mothers family had been in the country for
several generations longer than my dads,
the most they could pinpoint is that they were Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern
Europe, Russia and Germany. I am pretty certain that my relatives that did not
emigrate out of Hungry before WWII were killed in concentration camps during the
war. Ive
been to Europe, even to Hungry but have not as of yet visited any concentration
camps. Still, to be in the middle of a shoot where they are documenting
atrocities that my relatives had to endure was quite intense.
I have
met a hand full of Hungarian peoples outside of the country. Not too many Jews
from Hungry as the Nazi's campaign in Eastern Europe was pretty devastating. My
father has insisted that the Hungarians were very complicit in their help of the
Nazis, making the machine even that more efficient. While Ormos our gaffer was
Hungarian, he was not Jewish.
While
Judaism is a religion, it stands unique in the fact that the Jewish people are
just that, their own people, with a similar genetic make up and therefore a
similar physical appearance. Most of the Hungarians I have met, to me didnt
look Jewish, and the fact that I was Jewish may or may not have sat well with
them, I have never heard a disparaging remark, but I was always suspicious. The
DP for this short film was a friend of Ormos' also Hungarian, and also not a
Jew. He didnt
smile much, and perhaps that rubbed off a bit on Ormos, as neither of them
seemed to have much of a sense of humor.
I worked
with several characters on that show. For some reason I could tell that one of
our fellow juicers, Pete, was an ex-convict. He had gang tattoos, and the arms
of a man with time on his hands. He was quiet, but not quiet for lack of
something to say, he just seemed reticent to talk, it seemed he had stories,
many of them just below the surface. These stories would not be forth coming. I
felt kind of protected by him, for some reason I felt that if I was in trouble
he would help me out. Dressed in a sleeveless wife beater t-shirt, I wondered
what he had been sent to jail for. I wanted to ask him, but knew I could, only
if the moment was right. Eventually it did come out. We worked for only one week
but not less that 15 hours a day, and he did open up a little. Turns out that
Pete had spent the last 10 years in the state penitentiary when asked about his
crimes he said that he had fallen in with a bad bunch of guys. We all took it to
mean that he had been a gang banger, and lost his temper and killed someone.
Although he seemed to have mastered his temper at this point, who's to say. I
didn't really want to make him angry, that was for sure. 10 years for murder. Is
that what a human life is worth? You could argue that it is worth quite a bit
less than that around the world these days.
Another
bizarre juicer from that shoot was a twitchy Mexican dude name Crane. Not sure
were he got that nickname from. Some people give you an indication, just from
their movements what drugs you would expect that they would have been involved
in. For sure Crane was not so much of a pot smoker as he was a coke head, or
more likely speed. Crane liked to do the scratch off games. Someone once told me
that the lottery is for people who cant
to math.
Smugness is an interesting quality, we all must have
it. It is offensive, although it can be attractive. Confidence is attractive but
conceit is not. All qualities have their limits. It is said that most of the
communication that we do as a species is non-verbal. More often than not when an
individual is proved correct they will not look down, quite the opposite, they
will tilt their head back, in an airy gesture bringing their nose up. When Crane
was successful one time in winning a few dollars at one of his scratch off
gambling games he exhibited the smug air that I found both puzzling and
fascinating.
Our ring
leader was my roommate Howard. The production department had rented out several
rooms of an Ayres Hotel. By a coincidence Don Ayres, one of the owners of the
company was a one time yoga student of mine. Did I mention I used to teach yoga?
Nice guy Don. We didnt
see him down in San Diego that trip. The hierarchy of the electrical department
starts with the chief lighting technician, often simply know as the gaffer. The
gaffers
right hand man is the assistant chief lighting technician, or the best
boy electric. Below the best boy are the other set lighting techs. Ormos
best boy was this backwards fellow named Howard. Howard preferred flannel shirts
with the sleeves cut off. I didnt
see him put any product in his hair but he must have, as he had his straight
dark hair slicked back the whole week. Howard liked country music. I was never
much of a fan of country, however too his credit he did turn me onto Johnny
Cash. I liked Howard. Im
older now, but in my life growing up a lot of people have given me a lot of
shit. Why that is Im
not sure. Maybe because Im
smaller in stature, I open myself up for it I guess, but it is usually from the
same type of person. Sometimes a foster big brother relationship forms with some
guys and those guys like to give me crap. I suppose a little brother is not
going to give you the same type of disrespect as a big brother. I kind of like
it. I never had a bigger brother, I was kind of an only child, I have a much
older brother and an older sister but I didnt
grow up with them. I understand that people mess with me because they like me
and they do generally want to impart some of their limited wisdom on me.
We
finished out that week on My
Brothers Keeper.
Made just under two grand for the week. I never heard from Howard or the other
crew members again, but was summoned back to San Diego to shoot the trailers of
Desire.
TRAILERS
A month or two prior to our San Diego gig, a big LA
network had shot a pilot for these Telenovela's. "Desire" was the pilot they
shot. I'm not positive, but I believe they simply substituted English for
Spanish for some popular Latino soap operas. Whatever genius thought this up at
the big network, I don't know.
Dan, the
guy who had hired me was an IATSE 728 best boy that was hired on to work the
trailers. I definitely felt Dan to be one of these big brother, shit giver
figures, and one that I shall not soon forget. With smoke spilling forth out of
his mouth, jaded wouldn't really describe the aloofness conveyed in his every
breath. Why so many people in the film industry smoke like chimneys I can't
figure out. Why people smoke in general remains a mystery to me. No doubt they
think they look more impressive than they do, as I think they look pretty
stupid. I'll smoke pot occasionally, and I get into dragging on a joint as it is
a great sensation, but the offensive factor of cigarette smoke far outweighs any
thought that the smoker maybe a hipster.
It was
the strong undercurrent of humor that ran though Dan's speech and actions that
attracted me to him. When dealing with an unknown it is normal to be
conservative, only when all the variables of a situation are known do people
start to let their guard down and become more of themselves. I'm not sure who
brought up the idea of chess, but we started playing to pass time in the truck.
The lighting set ups for our show were not very labor intensive, so we had some
time to kill. Game after game I kicked his ass. He was my boss, the best boy, I
did what he told me to do, but I wasn't about to bow down to him, it's just not
in me. Of course I think the fact that I was stronger than he was in chess must
have earned me some respect.
Suji had
worked one time with another 728 guy named Andrew. Andrew was one of these
smoking fellows. He seemed to make love, basically fellate
his
cigarette. So much so when this guy inhaled with such delight on his 4-inch
phallus I had to look away. If the obscene homosexual behavior with his fag was
his only distasteful trait I could have handled him. Unfortunately Andrew turned
out to be even more of a pussy. Maybe it was the fact that he was from Utah. Bad
to condemn an entire state due to the activities of one seemingly queer member
but I think it goes beyond that. We are all products of our environment. I am
pretty tough, mostly because I'm from NY, he was a pussy, why? Because he was
from Utah? Maybe.
It is
intention, not so much the actual communication that I use as a basis when
evaluating people. If an individual is a friend of mine, if I have let down my
guard to the person then I have made a conscious decision that this person's
intentions are good. If I have not yet made a decision then their intentions are
suspect. Such was the case with Andrew.
My dad
was a professional journeyman electrician in New York City for over 30 years. He
has quite a few tools that he has acquired over the years. Being a set lighting
tech, while not the same as a journeyman electrician, we are required to carry
some pocket tools to do the job. These tools are not too specialized. A knife
for cutting gel or rope. A wrench for bolts, a screwdriver, pair of
gloves and other incidentals. There is a decision that has to be made as to what
tools to carry on your person. You could be like my buddy Darryl and carry every
tool imaginable, but for me my back just isnt
that strong, and I like to be as comfortable as possible, call me what you will.
I had a small tool bag at the time and was in the habit of carrying a small, Ill say tiny wrench and a tiny screwdriver. I made the mistake of showing these miniatures to my new chess buddy Dan. He had a laugh as I knew he would I didnt bargain on his selling me out to Andrew for another laugh. I didnt really mind, the tools were for sure pretty funny. Andrew decided to run with it. In his super smug way he asked me.
Do
you want to do this job?
I
hesitated and he asked again.
Yes or no?
Not in a confrontational tone, Ill give him that, he was most often quite civil in his insulting speech. Of course I wanted to do the job, although I did have my eye on the camera department at the time, but that is another story. This is where I really wanted to cap him. I was saying to myself, now normally I would push this guy in the chest with both hands, probably put my foot out and knock him down on his way backwards, a small inside sweep to his right ankle, and he would go down faster than a whore on Christmas. In situations like these, as I am a rational man, I weigh my options. Do I give in to my instincts and deck this mother fucker, let my primitive side, my ego that he is insulting take over? Or do I kiss up to him, just say what he wants to hear and keep my job? Well, being that I was several thousand dollars in debt and really needed to keep the job, I bit the bullet and said,
Yes, Andrew, I want to be a juicer.
Ok then you should get some better tools.
In retrospect his response and his chiding seems completely called for. It was his intentions that set me off in the direction to want to do him harm. In my opinion his intention was not from a place of helping me become a better electric by advising that I get more acceptable tools. Instead he was coming from a place of insecurity, belittling me while reassuring his place as top dog. This was the start of my problems with our gaffer for the trailers, and eventually the Telenovela show we worked on.
Dan was a union electric and use to a much higher rate of pay. He only helped out as a favor to Andrew, as there was no best boy to be found at the time. Andrew was coming down to be the gaffer of the shows when they did get picked up for the network, which was expected. Andrew had future plans for himself, planning in fact to direct the show in a year, he always seemed to be scheming to take over the world, his palms rubbing together, eyes all beady and wild.
One day on the trailers Dan announced, that I was going to be the best boy for the day. I had never been the best boy before, wasnt sure the most efficient way to lay cable but they decided to throw me in to the position, to see perhaps what I could do. We were at a church in downtown San Diego and I had never been to that location. Usually you get a chance to scout a location before the company gets there so you know where a quiet place for the generator will be and you can figure out where to park the trucks, run cable, etc Needless to say I didnt do the best job attempting to lay cable and my best boy duties were removed not too long after they were installed. I still wanted to give the job a try as I thought the show in general would be an excellent opportunity to move up and be one step closer to DP.
The trailers were a formality that had to be shot in order for the broadcasting company to give the final go ahead for all the telenovelas. The network had commissioned 6 shows to be shot in San Diego, and they needed a trailer for each, that was our assignment.
EYE ON THE CAMERA
The head honcho creatively for these shows was a cool
cat named Sol Burnett. Sol was the Director of Photography(DP) for the
trailers, and his name eventually would appear as DP on the credits for all the
units shot down in San Diego. The DP is the head of the camera department,
he is responsible for the look of the film, which is accomplished by camera
angle, lenses, and of course the type of light used and its intensity, so he
also gives orders to the gaffer, in this case Andrew. Sol was always a
gentleman, respectful to all members of every department. I felt comfortable
with him far more comfortable than I did with Andrew.
Our
second day of filming we shot at a small private airport outside of San Diego.
One of the cameramen that day was a guy that I had worked with in LA on a
Hallmark channel show. Nice guy, English, a little pudgy and a bit of a geek, as
are most of guys in the camera department. His name was Craig. We recognized
each other and started talking about the gigs going on down in San Diego. He
explained how easy it was to be a camera loader on a show shot on high
definition (as opposed to film). With film the loader has to actually load
magazines. They have to keep track of which reel is which, as well as keep an
intensive camera log. With HD, they just change the tapes, the difference is
night and day in terms of work load.
Although
Sol didnt
use much light for daylight exteriors, we still had to run cables from the
generator to each location for power and potential lights. Here I am, hauling
hundreds of feet of cable; a college educated Jewish boy, breaking my back in
the scorching sun, hefting large lights getting belittled by this gay mother
fucker from Utah, when this dude just sits there and changes tapes. The topper
to this was that his local, which is a national local, IATSE 600, had cut an
extremely better deal with the studio than the weak chapter representing the
electric department. Long and short, this geek was making $10 more an hour than
myself, for doing practically nothing, while I broke my ass.
Now the
position I was striving for was DP. I certainly did not have the knowledge to
shoot a show, but learning slowly through the electric department is the path I
have taken. While still on the bottom of the totem pole in my field I have
always felt that to switch to camera, even though they are kind of anal, wouldnt
be such a bad deal as both departments do lead to DP. This was the beginning of
a several month run down in San Diego, so either place on the ground floor, is
the ground floor. Be nicer to be on the ground floor of Trump Tower with better
pay and lighter work load than to be working at Andrew's meat packing plant,
risky life and limb for less.
My friend
Craig mentioned that they needed people. In fact there was a camera PA.
She was a sloppy Philippine girl who had no knowledge of film at all. She knew
somebody I suppose just to get the job, but then again Craig said they needed
people.
I wanted
to ask Sol, but I couldnt
just go up to him and say:
Hey, any openings
in the camera department?
Andrew
was my boss and anything I had to say about another position related to camera
or lighting really had to go through him. So I asked him.
Remember yesterday
when you asked me if I wanted to do this?
Oh,
dont tell
me. Right
away he was suspect.
He began
his tirade. From the very start it was pretty clear he had his own agenda, and
wasnt going
to do anything for me.
I was still curious if there were any openings in camera, so I asked him.
"I'll check with Sol", was his reply.
A few minutes later when our entire department was
together he told them all that I had asked if there were any openings in the
camera department, not a very friendly thing to do.
Make me
look stupid in front of the other guys.
Sol says there are
no openings in camera.
I knew he
was like that but I had no choice, my hands were tied, I asked and was scorned,
not the first time. I still had a job for the next two weeks so I didnt
really complain.
HARD TO BEAT SD
Hard to beat San Diego really. Weather is amazing,
rent is cheap, food is good, traffic is nothing compared to Los Angeles, doesnt
snow, but that is a given. Suji and I stayed in a hotel during the 2 weeks that
we shot the trailers. If we were hired on the possible show that would shoot for
several months after, wed
get more permanent accommodations, but in this business just have to play it by
ear.
We were
initially going to share a room at an inexpensive hotel at the famed hotel
circle close to downtown San Diego. After reviewing the costs of the room we
decided that for $15 more a night it was worth not having to fight over the
remote, to say nothing about walking around naked. I had asked for a fridge in
my room, nice to have some beer after a long days work and I dig a bowl of
cereal as a late night snack now and again.
On
arriving back at the hotel on one of the first days of shooting, I spied a
bikini-clad blonde of around 20 lounging in the hot tub of the hotel. I went up
to my room to ice up some beer. To my surprise they hadn't delivered my fridge
yet. Where we were staying was not the most popular place, especially during the
weekdays. After running to the front desk to complain about my missing fridge I
thought a dip in the tub might be in order. I popped my head in to innocently
ask permission to join her. She was more than agreeable to the idea. Although
not quite 40 at the time I have always looked a good 10, to I dare say 15 years
younger than I am. Been doing judo since I was little, so I'm in decent shape,
also never had much of an affinity for smoking which can be bad for the skin. I
will freely admit that I could smile more, but needless to say this bored young
girl was interested in this strange dark haired guest.
Darning a
pair of swim trunks I returned towel in had. My initial guess as to her age was
right on, 20 and ready. Turns out she was visiting from Pennsylvania for her
cousins wedding. A brides
maid! I could do worse. She was with her parents, but staying in a room with her
cousin. And her cousin, as fate would have it was out driving on a few last
minute errands. The wedding, was going to be the next day.
Although there was a clear sign about no glass
containers, rebel that I am I postulated the question as to whether she wanted a
beer or not.
Yes, that would be
great!
I shot
upstairs to my bag of ice and beer as my fridge still had yet to arrive. Jenny
was her name. That would make triples for me on scoring with a Jenny if success
was on my side. She seemed a tad nervous. Being close to 18 years her senior I
have had a bit more experience in these situations. I am no Casanova, not much
of a player really, admittedly my game is kind of lame, but I didnt
think wed
be hurting anybody by being familiar.
Jenny had
lived a bit, she had suffered the loss of a sibling at a young age and struggled
with school. These were sad topics, but we moved on to what her future held and
my reason for being in town. I explained to her about the technical side of the
film business and briefly went into what it was to be a juicer.
Ive
had my share of relationships. Over the last couple of years however, I've had
what has seemed to be pretty bad luck with women. This past winter I had made
plans to meet a girl I had met in Colorado. I drove out from California for a
couple of weeks
vacation. A freak snowstorm shut the airport down and she was unable to get
another flight. I didnt
think Jenny and I were soul mates, but she was definitely attractive with a nice
body, at 20 you cant
go wrong really. Wouldnt
you know it, her phone rings. Its
her cousin the one she is staying with. She has been stopped by the police and
they get permission to search her car and they find some pot. Normally I think
they would just issue a misdemeanor citation for possession and let her go on
her way, but apparently not the police down in San Diego, they arrested this
poor Philadelphia native. My catch of the evening had to go and bail her
relative out of jail. She said she would come by maybe when they got back, I
gave her my room number but she didnt
show and that was that.
FOOD ON SET
Im
a decent cook. Cooking is mostly timing and instinct. Ive
developed a macrobiotic Japanese style that suits my tastes and most of the
people I entertain. Ive
been able to apply what Ive
learned living with roommates and housemates over the years. You take what you
can, adapt it to your style and move on. I've learned allot from living with a
half dozen or so bachelors over the years.
A film
set has catered meals. There are 2 types of food provided when working in the
industry. One is craft service; this refers to the minimum of donuts,
coffee, and perhaps bagels in the morning, artichoke dip in the afternoon, and
water through out the day. Most craft service trucks have potato chips, tea, PB&J;
the gauntlet is run from the above essentials to bagels and lox, with capers, to
quiche, and red bull, depending on the budget.
The other
food on the set are the catered meals. There is a breakfast, ready ½ hour prior
to call time, as well as a lunch, which is scheduled 6 hours after call.
Depending on the show and the budget, catering can be an awesome affair
or suck balls. Ive
dinned on shows where they had a sushi chef making whatever you could think of.
This was not that show. The caterer on these shows somehow signed a contract
with one of the producers and passed all sorts of bizarre substances to be eaten
as meals. Tasteless manufactured fare that would make the most hardened sleep
away camp child turns his head. Tom Hanks from
Castaway
was doing better eating liquefied crab entrails. Once in a while their colored
Salmon would pass muster, but more often than not lunch just sucked! Breakfast
whenever they were able to get it together was not all that bad, but you really
have to work hard to ruin breakfast. They did have a plate of fruit everyday,
although if was a chore getting to it, why they couldnt
put the fruit out on a table with a tray of oatmeal and some scrambled eggs
always baffled me. Nowadays many more people are concerned about what they are
eating, as well they should be. The industrializing of food is perhaps the worst
scam that has been perpetrated on the American population. So when you go up to
a catering truck and tell the pockmarked meth-addict behind the counter what youd
like off of their 5 item chalkboard, you can never know exactly what you are
getting. Not everyone knows the difference between white bread, which is
actually not bread at all, and 100% stone ground whole wheat, which is what
bread is supposed to be. When you get used to the real thing, and are forced to
eat fake break, its
a bummer. Store bought tater tots are not hash browns, frying with margarine and
vegetable oil contributes to cancer. Regardless of how bad the food is on a
show, the time for lunch is still an anticipated occasion, but when you realize
again each day that you have to eat this same shitty catering it becomes like a
recurring, never ending bad dream.
CRAZY SEXY
CREW
Our
crew compliment was 1-1-4. That is to say one chief lighting tech, a best boy,
and four set lighting techs. When we had big days usually loading in or loading
out of a location, or when we were sparking several big lights we had to have
extra men in addition to the four SLTs. Each person comes with their
own personality. People you work with are exciting or dull, rude or polite,
classy or uncouth. And in some cases, at least in San Diego sane or insane. One,
was a crazy mother fucker, this dude Earl. Ill
admit that its
up to the individual to get along with whom they have to deal with, and if they
are having a problem excepting someone, or if someone is messing up your vibe,
its your
problem not theirs. That being said, I guess I have a bit of a problem with a
lot of people, my problem, Ill
admit it, and Im
working on it. Maybe because Im
from NY, what can you say? When someone is crazier than me, then Im
kind of freaked out by the person. This dude Earl really freaked me out
something pretty good. It wasnt
just his size. He was an imposing heavyset shaved head nutty looking dude. Earl
had some bad skin, many a white head on the back of his scalp, hed
also make these strange noises all the time barking into the walkie talkie. I
think he was psychotic. I was hoping if we did get a chance to work for several
months that Id
never have to see this guy again. On a film set I like to be relaxed, very
relaxed. I dont
mind working hard, I work my butt off sometimes, coiling cable for hours,
loading, unloading trucks. But even then I want to do it with people I enjoy
being with, otherwise I would like to do it alone.
Along
with scary co-workers there were a couple of cute girls on this 2 week shoot.
You always get a decent looking wardrobe or make up girl, once in a while a
camera assistant is hot or an AD has a nice body. Of course the hottest
girls are the principal actors or the stand-in can be a looker.
Because it is a labor intensive process to set the lighting for each shot, there
is a stand-in
for the main actor(s). These people literally stand where the actor will stand,
miming any movement and dialog if necessary so the gaffer and the other
technicians can get the light ready for the actors. I thought 2 of the ADs
had something going on pretty good. Kathleen was a cute little brunette, nice
behind, not bad to look at from the front either. Kathleen had a really spunky
personality, that goes a long way. She was the 2nd AD. To be an AD you
pretty much have to have a strong personality. The AD runs the set and must
shout out rolling
and cut
so everyone knows when they can talk and work, and when they have to be quite.
For the
longest time a large women was, dare I say it, too much women for me, and I
gravitated toward a petite girl, as I am not the largest guy(in stature). For a
good ten years I only dated Asian women. Not so much that I found them more
attractive or sexier than Caucasians, but Asian girls usually fell into the
petite category. Several years ago now I started to like, as I like to put it
women. Not girls but women. Big boned, ok, big hips maybe not, as long as they
have a thin waist its
all pretty good. I am no longer intimidated by women who are physically bigger
than me, I still find more than 3 inches taller more of a challenge, but isnt
that what life is all about?
Besides
Kathleen, I found myself strangely attracted to another AD at the time, Betsy.
Betsy was a bigger girl, but she had this confidence that I really liked.
Sometimes just the fact that the girl is real comfortable in their own skin can
be a real turn on to me. When a girl can be herself and appear to be completely
unmoved by any of my advances is real exciting for me. I read one time that you
should put your effort into girls that are interested in you, it makes a lot of
sense, but at the same time there is something inside me that can not resist a
challenge. Betsy must have had some bad skin growing up I guess, but she did
look awfully good in jeans.
Those 2 weeks went by fairly quickly, played some
chess with Dan, got to see some of San Diego. When you shoot on location you are
usually there very early in the morning to set up and make use of all the
daylight the sun can give you. If it is a night scene, just the opposite is true
and we usually shoot all night until the sun comes up. Its
exciting to go to different places in and around a city or country side.
After the 2
weeks we had to return the equipment to Los Angeles. Dan and Andrew stood by
smoking cigarettes, while Suji and I broke down the entire truck, we said good
bye temporarily to San Diego and the telenovelas.
GET THE CALL
The day after we
unloaded the truck I drove out to Phoenix to visit my parents. My folks had
retired and moved to the valley of the sun for some un-godly reason, but it was
only 6 hours from LA and I could just jump on the road at anytime and go see
them. I love my parents but after 3 days its
time to be in my own space again. So after a few days with Mr. and Mrs. I was
returning to LA to look for more film work.
Driving back
west, through the desert my phone rang, it was Dan calling to see if I would
work on the Orange unit of one of the telenovelas they had slated,
Fashion House.
This gig he explained was for a minimum of 2 solid months most likely 4 or 5.
The large broadcasting company that shot the pilot and the trailers had bought 8
shows. Each show had 2 units shooting simultaneously, all to be produced by an
outfit in San Diego, Stan Klein productions. My real goal in coming to
California was to get into IATSE 728. I was planning to work as a SLT in LA,
eventually to become a gaffer or DP on big shows all over the world. But the 1st
step was really to learn the job. A solid slate of work would go along way
towards paying off thousands of dollars of credit card debt. A torn ACL from
judo, a large Bikram yoga training bill, a surfboard, various trips abroad and a
move to California can add up. But I still had 2 hands and 2 legs, plus a
passion to work in the industry. Id
make it up, here was an opportunity, I took the job.
ROYCE PL
Suji said he was
in as well, so we had to find a place in SD. Craigslist.org is some great
website. You can put an ad up and within the hour get your business taken care
of. I responded to an ad for a house, got a call from the owner, and was on my
way down from LA to check it out. That same day I fielded several inquires into
subletting my room at my apartment in Venice.
Deep in the
middle income heart of the San Diego suburbs I met Wayne. Having lived in Japan
and traveled throughout South East Asia on several occasions I thought my powers
of observation as to guessing what nation a particular Asian person was from had
become pretty good. I couldnt
pin down Wayne, but after he said he was from Guam, I saw that I should have
guessed that. 4100 Royce Place was a one floor ranch home in a tiny cul-de-sac
shared with 3 other family homes. I never got to meet the neighbors although I
certainly was not opposed to a nice wave now and again. For reasons that became
more clear later Wayne took a shine to me on our 1st interview and had enough
faith in me from that meeting to except not only me into his home but also my
unseen Japanese American juicer friend. So just like that Suji and I had a place
15 minutes from the film studio for only $500 a month, including utilities. The
same day I arrived back in LA and accepted Alex, an intern at a film production
company from France to sublet my room in the 3 bedroom apartment that I had been
living in LA. Alex seemed like a nice enough kid, he was only 19, but my other
roommate was from Belgium and I thought it would be nice if they spoke the
French together.
I think it may have been that 1st week living on Royce Place that Ryan moved into the house across the way. One early evening I saw a young guy in his early twenties struggling to get a giant screen TV out of his truck. I did my neighborly duty and went outside to help him out. Ryan was straight out of Ocean Beach, a beach community north and west of San Diego. A sleeveless wife beater t-shirt, dirty blonde hair, hot white trash girlfriend, they both owned Rottweilers and Pit-bulls. These dogs would come to plague my days and nights with their incessant barking.
I, like my father have a twisted sense of what is right and what is wrong. In the past 5 to 10 years I have reigned in my radical views of this moral path and have tried to follow the straight and narrow line of our own twisted societys cultural norms. Still, I feel that my rights as a tax paying citizen entitle me to live free of noise pollution. Noise pollution is, in our society more often than not inescapable. I blame lawyers for the horrible incessantly piercing beep, beep, beep that is heard when a truck is backing up. How many lives have been saved by that annoying sound? Maybe none. How many cars thieves have been foiled by the useless car alarm, most likely an equal number, but the sounds persist in our society.
Every time anyone walked past Ryans house his over protective Rottweiler would engage in a tirade of no less than 20 deep bellow barks that would snap me out of any potential peaceful sleep that I was enjoying. I dont blame the dog, he was, after all a dog. He didnt know any better, it was doing what dogs do. This doesnt change the fact that I am entitled to peace and quite along with a restful nights sleep. I approached Ryan about it, maybe 2 months into my time living in SD.
He is doing his job, Ryan said rather flatly.
One week after I moved into this house my truck was broken into. Max is a watch dog, and he scares away people who would steal in this neighborhood.
I did agree with him, but it still was unfair that I had to be woken up most every night, usually around 4am by this animal, who more often than not was just barking at the wind.
When I lived in Colorado Springs I did a bad thing. There was this German Sheppard, a puppy actual, but full grown. Poor dog would bark and bark all day and night. I was living in an apartment complex with my girlfriend at the time. The dogs owners had a trailer situated in the alley between two major streets behind my complex. I went over several times and knocked on these peoples door. Never an answer came. I called the police even. The skinny was that 3 separate complaints had to be filled from 3 separate residences about the same animal before the police would intervene.
OMITTED:
In a couple of days time a Rotwieler showed up, fully grown in the place of the sweet, but loud German Sheppard. Fortunately the Rotwieler was not the incessant barking type, and I was able to get some sleep.
FASHION HOUSE
The start of a new show is always exciting, mostly
because you get to meet all the different crew members from the other
departments, as well as your own. Exciting, because you will be working on
something that hopefully many people will be able to see. The Duration of these
TV shows added another dimension to the work. Of course there are shoots of
various lengths of time from ½ day to several months. Unless you are fairly well
established in the industry it is rather difficult to get a multiple month
assignment. Even after 3 years trying to break in, pretty much calling people
every day I was lucky if I got on a 3 week movie, another reason I took this San
Diego show.
Although
Dan had hired us, and worked with us as the best boy on the trailers he did not
come down to work the show of Fashion
House. He
was there only at the Fashion
House
load in. The load
in is the
day the truck is loaded with the equipment for the show, be it a 2 day or a 2
month gig, all the equipment must be checked and accounted for before it leaves
the rental lot. With Dan not working the show, and Andrew not having anyone he
felt comfortable in the best boy position, Andrew was in a bit of a bind for the
start of the show. Fortunately for him this guy Kay stepped in to be the best
boy for the 2 weeks down in San Diego. Kay seemed pretty serious, but was a laid
back 728 guy. The first week went pretty smooth, day exteriors on location in
San Diego, we didnt
spark many lights. Then we moved over to the large studio that was to serve as
most of the interior sets.
The
company was to be on stage 1 of the Stan Klein studios in San Diego. Stan Klein
whom Id see
once in a great while owned a massive 14 acre lot that at one time must have
been an airplane construction operation. There were 11 sound stages that were
converted airplane hangers. It was a huge no frills lot, one hanger was devoted
to the construction materials, one hanger housed the set of a successful TV
series called Adrian
Carr,
popular with the teen set. There was a huge wardrobe warehouse, as well as an
array of props and set dressing that was scattered on locked up rooms in
many of the stages. This was to be my on again off again home for the next 6
months. This is were I would eat, sleep(lets say nap), watch movies, smoke pot,
on occasion have sex, and oh yes, of course work.
The
construction crew was always putting up different sets on the stages. The
set construction guys were a bunch of Polynesian fellows, pretty big guys with
deep resounding voices. They
were a mish mash of Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. They would come with set
walls and screw guns erecting a set in a few hours. Their leader was a wide
faced Samoan named Mack. The art director would issue the blue prints
that would serve as the scheme for the sets. Once the walls were up they were
painted, and dressed with set dressing such as props, practical lights
and artwork. Set dressing was responsible for anything specific to the set, be
it a home, office, restaurant or any other place that we were substituting stage
for the actual location.
Usually you have to know someone when finding an unskilled job that pays fifteen dollars an hour. Most of the guys on Mack's crew seemed to be related, huge guys of Polynesian decent. They seemed pretty serious most of the time, I think that is just the look of a tradesmen.
Our first
few weeks of shooting were of the interior of an Asian bar/restaurant set on
stage 1. We would be there for the next 2 weeks, for a minimum of 13 hours each
day, which included an hour for lunch. Actors and Actress
would be in and out all day, we would shoot pretty much the same thing day in
day out, 2 actors talking, then they would change clothes and wed
shoot the same thing with different dialog as it was supposed to be a different
time, a different episode. Most TV shows take a week or more to shoot one
episode, and that is all they concentrate on. For efficiency and budgetary
concerns, this network took every script, (67 of them) and shot as much as they
could from as many episodes as possible. This made for a lower standard of
product.
The job
of the set lighting tech was to do whatever Andrew, the gaffer wanted, this was;
running power, setting the lights, bringing them up and pointing them at the
actors. The basic lighting set up of key, back and fill
were ever present with a little soft edge showing up in most of the shots
for good measure. Sol Burnett as I mentioned before was the official DP of all
the shows being shot down in SD. In full swing there were 3 shows running
independently, and each of these shows had 2 units plus an insert unit. For
Fashion
house there
was Orange and Green. Sol, the cool cat that he was, still was unable to be at
several places at once. Normally the DP is the commanding technical voice on a
show, he sets the shot, the lenses the light levels and gives the direction on
how to shape the lights to the key grip. What occurred when he wasnt
there was that the most respected, or often just the loudest head of a
department would make the decisions for the shots and how we were to set the
lights. On the Orange unit it was Andrew.
Because
our set represented a restaurant there were many extras playing the parts
of background restaurant customers, as well as the odd bartender, waiter or
hostess. The waiter or waitress would occasionally get bumped up to a speaking
line here or there, but most of the background were to mime their action. A
reflection on how poorly the union representative down in San Diego had fought
for the set technicians could be seen in the generous compensation that the
background performers received relative to our rate of pay. In my job you could
die. People do in fact die every year in the trade, mostly by electrocution, but
things can fall on you rather easy. Down in the San Diego any Joe Shmo could go
to background San Diego.com and make $250 a day often more if multiple episodes
that they appeared in were aired. Not to put them down, they were mostly
pleasant people, aspiring actors just trying to make their way. The stand-in
received even a higher rate. I think apart form the director or the camera
operator the stand-in was the highest paid member of the crew.
PAY YOUR SURGEON VERY WELL
I
remember distinctly the moment I saw Bo Derek. I am generally not star struck,
but she was a striking beauty. The crew was shooting the interior of a hotel, it
was day for day. I was inside a small circular ballroom with many doors
leading to the outside patio. Someone opened the door to the outside grounds.
From about 100 feet away I saw a very well dressed women, with a great figure
walking languorously towards me. I said to myself,
Who is that?
As she came closer I realized it was Bo. She was very thin and the clothes
literally draped over her.
The show Fashion
House
sounded like a reality TV show but it was as soap opera, the big names were Bo
Derek, and Morgan Fairchild. Bo played a fashion designer diva who owns her own
clothing line.
When Bo
entered the ballroom area I was able to get a better look at her. She really was
extremely thin, waify in fact. For several weeks we would hazard guesses as to
her age. That she was in her early 50s
seemed to be the consensus. It didnt
look like she had had any work done on her face. She still had the fake tits I
remember from a playboy magazine that my father had brought home of her back in
the 70s. He
didnt make
it a habit of bringing home those kinds of magazines, but I think the family had
just seen the movie 10
and he thought it wasnt
that inappropriate, my mom didnt
seem to object. Bo was a very beautiful woman, perhaps known as the most
beautiful woman alive when 10
came out. For those who didnt
know she was the star of the popular Blake Edwards comedy with Dudley Moore,
10
as mentioned above. Its
about a successful song writer entering a mid-life crisis. He sees the most
beautiful girl he has ever seen and becomes obsessed with her, following her
down to Mexico on her honeymoon.
Bo was
still a beautiful women, she kept all the features of one of the most beautiful
women that has ever graced a magazine cover, but the years had left their mark
in the form of spider lines and creases all over her pretty punum. She
carried herself with grace, the grace of a person that didnt
really belong on a lowbudget
TV show. A show shot by a bunch of technicians just breaking into the business,
but we got the job done.
I guess Bo had a bit of a rough career. She didnt appear in that many pictures after 10. Mike Nicholas the famous director said.
Success is the inevitable outcome of talent, and if you are unlucky you achieve it early.
Perhaps this was true in Bos case.
After seeing Bo on the set over the course of several months she became familiar with us and would say Hello when we passed her on our way to or from the set, but she didnt hang out.
The young
model/actor Taylor Kenny played Bos
son Luke in the show. Taylor hung out on the truck sometimes, he was a pretty
quiet guy, I didnt
get to know him too well.
Tyler was a very good looking 61 male model with short dark hair and striking blue eyes, all the models in the show were in great shape, I dont think they had any non-beautiful people in the cast at all. For me, a straight guy, I think one of 3 things when I see another guy. Usually I dont think anything at all, but sometimes, like in Tylers case, I say to myself, Wow that guy is pretty good looking. And sometimes, if the person is very unusual looking I think, Gee, that guy looks pretty strange, which means they fell off the ugly tree breaking every branch on the way down. I know it is not the most spiritual way to view people, but I am human and thats just how it goes.
The other principal star of the show was Natalie
Martinez. Natalie was a fun person to have on the set. Many of these young
actress
have very out going personalities. Natalie was an extremely sexy girl of Cuban
decent. She hailed from Florida, and although you wouldnt
think to look at her, as it didnt
show on her beautiful face, she had done her share of partying. I think she was
only 20 or 21 at the time of Fashion
House.
Natalie was selected in a contest put on by the personality/pop singer Jay Lo.
Natalie was chosen to represent Jay Los
new clothing line. From there she did some more modeling and past an audition to
co-star with Bo Derek down in trendy San Diego. Although pretty flat chested she
did have this amazing behind, being Cuban you would think so, and you would be
right. She had the most lustrous shiny dark hair down to her mid back. She had a
pretty deep voice and would spend some time drinking with us on the truck after
wrap on occasion. Natalie played Taylors
love interest in the show, and they were even living together in Ocean Beach
during the filming.
Bos
Nemesis in the show was the veteran actor/model Morgan Fairchild. Morgan had
done loads of beauty commercial and guest started in tons of television shows.
You couldnt
tell because she still looked so good, but Morgan must have had some sort of
cosmetic surgery done. Maybe just some collagen injections in her face because
she still had the face of a porcelain doll. Youd
be hard pressed to find a line in Morgans
face, although she was about the same age as Bo. Morgan was pretty approachable,
and would hang out on set quite a bit. I never saw her partying on our truck,
but I wouldnt
put it past her.
Perhaps
the biggest celebrity to grace our set was an actress who had been in two Alfred
Hitchcock films. I read her name on the call sheet and it struck a bell, Tippy
Hedrin. I ran the name through the library annals of my mind and the film
Marni,
with Sean Connery appeared. The Tipster, as I liked to call her was only in a
few episodes of Fashion
House. She
was on the set for a solid week though, so we got a chance to talk to her. She
was in a directors
chair and I went up to her.
Were you in Marni?
Yes,
yes that was me.
She was a
tad impressed that I recognized her from that movie, but asked me if I knew what
she was more famously know for? After having me try to guess a few pictures, she
relented and let me know that she was the female lead in
The Birds.
North by
Northwest
is my favorite Hitchcock film, but The
Birds is a
classic, and we had the now immortalized Tippy on our set. She looked to be in
her late 60s
but her bio says she was born in 1928, hard to believe she was mid to late 70s
as she really looked great! Tippy was extremely friendly and out going, a sweet
person to be around.
Tippy
played the role of Donnas
mom. Donna Feinstein like Natalie was a model who had appeared on the cover of
Maxim
magazine. Donna played a seductress who gets involved with Natalies
ex-husband. I was only able to stomach reading a few of the scripts and picked
up most of the story from what we shot. The show did not enjoy any critical
acclaim, and as per this writing has not been picked up for another season. You
can never underestimate the tastes of this red state country, so who knows if it
will come back.
Donna was
a big girl, 511
would be safe. But she had thin legs and her ass fit into the framing of two
hands touching via extended thumbs. Donna had beautiful dark hair with a sassy
little curl. Her overly dramatic pouty lips were a source of much amusement for
the crew members. The most memorable attribute that Donna possessed, I am sure
most would agree was her amble bosom. Whether they were real or not poised some
debate amongst the crew I was firmly in the camp of, if they have a wiggle like
that they must be real. One lunch, Francisco, a day player electric that became
part of the crew had to get some roses for his wife. We decided to both by a
single red rose for Donna. On presenting our roses we both got huge separate
hugs. Francisco and I were of about the same height, which is 56,
a perfect height to be nestled against Donnas
bosom. I cant
say for sure but Im
keeping my money with my 1st instinct that they were real and they were
spectacular.
GIRLS ON SET
One
reason I wanted to work in the film business was that I like to be around girls.
My father was a real electrician, as opposed to being a film electric. Ive
worked for his union on summer brakes from college for several weeks in New York
City. Although we did smoke a lot of pot and yucked around quite a bit, there
were never girls around the construction site. This is not the same on a film
set. The grip and electric departments due to the physical nature of the job are
almost entirely occupied by men, often in many cases boys, I have worked with
the rare female grip or electric, but you dont
often see them. What we do have are hair, makeup, and wardrobe. By the nature of
these occupations, these departments are made up almost entirely of women, or
gay men. I didnt
get into the business for gay men, but what can you do?
There are
at least one or two super hot girls on every film set. Usually more than one or
two hotties, including principals and extras which more often than not are at
least on the fiery side of smoking. Our 1st day on Orange we met 2 Tinas. The
first Tina was the stand-in. She had such incredible sex appeal, it was
palpable. The stand-ins
job is to stand in the spot of the actor so we can adjust the light while the
actors are in hair and make up, or at a wardrobe change. Tina seemed the
quintessential surfer girl. Short straight dirty blond hair that seemed bleached
from the sun. A smile with dimples, accenting cheeks irresistible to a grand
mothers squeeze. Her brown eyes sparkled as bright as her smile. Tina was always
wearing short shorts showing off her bronze tanned legs, accentuating her amble
behind that fit into the directors framing of thumb and forefinger. Tina flirted
with everyone but was genuinely friendly. Wearing her heart on her sleeve as I
was informed most Pisces will. Day after day with these females will more often
than not make a man accustomed to the lookers, and perhaps lean toward the ones
that were not such lookers from the start. We were constantly asking, "Who is
Tina fucking?" the unproven answer seemed to come up as "everyone". I can attest
that this was not true, but she was a big flirt which did seem to make her a tad
less attractive. My interest with her did in fact peak after our first couple of
days, but she was a real sweet girls whos
brightness was a lift on the set.
The
overall feeling of a production set, or any environment for that matter is set
by the collective energy of the individuals at the scene. A bunch of dark
depressed people will undoubtedly foster a heavy presence, while a positive
happy crew will produce exactly that environment. Next was the make up girl
Tina. She rated high on the Horn factor. This was a term I had heard many years
back. Supposedly there was a doctor Horn, who developed the horn factor, which
refers to that certain special something that some girls, usually not very
attractive girls seem to possess that makes a man attractive to them. You cannot
put it into words, something makes you attracted to them above looks and figure.
Although she claimed to be of Mexican decent, she had the eyes of a Persian
seductress. Maybe it was her sparse use of make up. Guys are suckers for a
natural beauty. But the thing was, Tina was far from beautiful. She had a big
nose, sexy lips but kind of bucked teeth. The main thing about her was that she
knew how to handle herself. She was very natural and confident in her own body,
and a rockin body it was. She was only 21, if that, so it is hard to go wrong at
that age. She was not afraid to show her cleavage, keeping her phone tucked
neatly in her bosom. The nose ring, the tongue piercing, these are not big turn-ons
for me, but they do add to the exotic nature of any female.
It is
interesting how different generations will view modern trends in physical
appearance. My father who was born in 1933 and although not a square, is
definitely a child of the 50s
who didnt
think much about the carefree days of the 60s
as he was too busy supporting a family and child, namely me. I asked him what he
thought about the various face piercings that people have today.
Crazy,
was the response to most any area of the face that may be subjected to facial
ornamentation. What about rings in one ear lobe, that seemed ok, but to pierce
the upper cartilage was to pass reason in his book. While I dont
plan on piercing any part of my body anytime soon, I think there is nothing
wrong with a subtle nose ring on a girl, for guys I dont
think its necessary, but Im
not one to judge. When the girls, and guys for that matter constantly find it
necessary to grasp their tongue ring between their lips and teeth so all can see
that they have the ability to add another dimension to fellatio seems a bit
immature but that may just be me, maybe Im
a bit on the conservative side.
REST OF THE CREW
In
addition to Suji, we started working with Billy and his older brother Ellis.
Billy had pretty much zero experience and Ellis had worked mostly as a set PA on
a few television shows that have been shot down in San Diego. Ellis also worked
just a couple of days with us as an electric on the trailers. I had even
mentioned to Dan, that if you were going to have another juicer please pick
Ellis as opposed to the psychopath Earl. I was hoping never to see Earl again,
and would have rather gone into a coma than work with him.
Ellis and
Billy were both in their earlier twenties, Ellis while well under 6 feet tall,
was a big boy with a bright boyish face. Ellis had an agreeable disposition,
soft spoken, but not afraid to give his opinion on a matter. During the course
of six months I saw both Billy and Ellis mature considerably. At the start they
were eager to get the job done. Ellis on more than one occasion was so focused
on the task at hand ordered by Andrew through the radio that he would
unknowingly knock me to the side as he hurriedly grabbed a piece of equipment.
This started to bother me, as I often was on my way to grab a ladder or a light
when I was hip checked to the side by a guy 15 years younger than me, and 60
pounds my senior. But Ellis was a good kid and I knew he meant well, just a tad
gung-ho in the beginning for my speed.
Billy was
not quite as swift as his brother. About the same height, he was not chubby
although a craft service belly did soon appear on the lad before long. As bright
eyed as Ellis, Billy didnt
know the equipment just yet, but when he did get accustomed to the job he became
lackadaisical and took the normal time when he went to get what was ordered.
Billy was also a songwriter and played in a band that had started up in the San
Francisco area. He would take off from work on long weekends to play a concert
in and around San Francisco and Santa Cruz. He had a reggae rap style and his
band the Unknown
Titans
apparently had a following back in the Bay area.
The
equipment needed to make a motion picture, T.V. show or commercial is generally
carried in semis
of various sizes, referred to by their tonnage capacity. A 10 or 12 ton is a 16
wheeler with additional loading space and compartments underneath known as
jockey boxes. The inside of a 10 ton truck is accessed from the swinging
back doors equipped with a hydraulic lift gate to lift equipment loads and carts
from the street to the safety of the truck and vice-versa. Most trucks of the 10
or 12 ton variety have an additional side door with a fold out staircase to
allow easier pedestrian access to the body of the truck and office. The office
is in the back of the truck sectioned off with plywood, maybe a door, or even a
beaded curtain if your best boy is a hippy with some flair. The office is where
the best boy does the paperwork and where general bull shitting, occasional pot
smoking and drinking after wrap are accomplished. I personally dont
smoke cigarettes and detest when the truck gets filled with smoke, but its
really up to the best boy to set the rules as he spends most of the time in the
truck looking over inventory, equipment, manpower and paperwork. Best boys
embellish the office with posters of girls, a calendar, some speakers, and
perhaps even a television depending on the length of the show and the leniency
of the gaffer.
Although our
work was physical; lifting, hauling lights, coiling cable. We had carts full of
light stands and power distribution equipment. The shows were actually pretty
easy. We were often at the same location for several days in a row, with little
to do except adjust a light a few feet, or make sure some cable was out of the
shot. We often could just walk away at the end of the day and just leave the
equipment for the next morning.
There
were some days when we were constantly moving large bulky lighting equipment and
we would be dripping in sweat on and off all day. For this reason we all
generally came to work in shorts and a t-shirt, clothes you could work in. You
needed a pair of gloves and other pocket tools such as a wrench, knife,
flashlight and a screwdriver, a power tester came in handy, something to hold
your walkie talkie. Around your waist you had your tool belt.
Our Crew
hummed along that 1st week. The schedule for these adult soap operas was
ambitious. The producers scheduled 18-20 pages of dialog per day. On a normal
film set to shoot 2-4 pages a day is difficult. There was no pretense that we
were creating anything artistic at all. We did a wide shot, a medium shot, and a
tight shot, with a single on one actor, then a single on the other actor
and then shot the reverse. I had experience on various shoots but this was to be
the longest project that I had ever worked on up to that point. We had a seventy
day shooting schedule, with most days on the various shooting stages of Stan
Klein studios. The other locations were in and around various areas of San Diego
that the locations department had secured.
Kay, the
best boy Andrew had brought down had made it clear that he was not going to work
more than 2 weeks on the show, so at the end of the 2nd week of shooting we were
not sure where the next best boy was going to come from. I had never been the
best boy on a show, I had done some of the duties but never ran a crew from the
beginning and wasnt
positive of what to do. That being said, I still felt that I was the logical
choice given who we had on our crew and if no one was going to come from the
outside, then surely Andrew should pick me. Billy and Ellis had virtually no
experience, Suji had worked a fair amount in Japan, but was pretty quiet back
then, and had not demonstrated the qualities or abilities that would be
necessary to do the job, and he was planning on going to Japan in about a month
anyway.
On the
2nd Monday of the show, the 1st week without Kay, Suji and I show up at the
truck at call time. Ellis greets us with surprising news.
Andrew
is going to be a little late, I guess Im
going to be the best boy."
I was
pretty shocked. I wasnt
expecting to be put in the position really, but under the circumstances I
thought the job may be offered to me.
Did
he call you and tell you that?
Yeah,
I spoke to him.
So it was
official, Andrew had passed me over.
When something unexpected happens to you in your
career, you automatically try to make some sense of the situation.
What
did I do wrong, what have I said? Is there something inherently wrong with me?
Is it because Im
Jewish? Because Im
known to smoke pot on occasion?
These are questions that run through your mind. You start to question everything about yourself, and then of course you try to rationalize. Maybe Dan told Andrew I didnt think he was very cool, or I asked about moving to camera and he held that against me. Maybe because I do the New York Times crossword in between takes had given a bad impression. I think that Andrew had the right to hire and fire whomever he wanted, and if I was in his position I would do the same thing. In terms of making a decision, I would weigh my options, and see who I wanted to work for me. Maybe he thought we would butt heads, and that I wouldnt do exactly what he said to do every time. On this assumption he would actually have been correct.
Im
from NY and when you are dealing with a New Yorker you are most likely going to
get a second opinion. Now we dont
mean to put you down, or to say you are wrong, we are merely stating our view on
the same situation, just putting it out there so to speak, that is our way. We
respect anyone with an opinion, and a voice, we usually can infer from your tone
whether some decisions are open for debate or not, or even how much of a debate
is going to be tolerated. But see, I am kind of a fish out of water here in La
La land.
The
entire Californian vernacular to me is laced with deceit and insincerity.
Take it easy Boo,
and even Hey
hows it
going Bro,
put into the Cali drawl, dont
sound right. For me not only do the people seem phony, but they dont
seem to understand straight forward thinking. If I give my opinion I am not
challenging your authority, Im
just giving a different opinion, a view point, that may in fact be the more
efficient method of getting a task done. I have enough confidence in myself to
not only see where a potential mistake is about to happen, but to try and remedy
the mistake. Im
also smart enough to know when not to talk in certain situations, but when I can
help out, I try.
Andrew
was very political, and he would go on to say Ellis knew a lot of people from
the season he worked as a set PA on "Adrian Carr", the show shot at Stan Klein
studios, and that would go a long way in dealing with the transportation
department as well as getting some things that we needed from the other
departments. Although Ellis turned out to be a decent best boy, he did make many
rookie mistakes because he really didnt
know the equipment that well, and I would not have had as much loss and damage
at the end of the show. This nonsense about knowing people from other
departments was bullshit. I could tell the day he blew off my request about the
camera department that Andrew did not have any of my interests in mind. One of
the reasons I took the show was the fact that we all had a good chance to move
up. After the 2nd week a chance came, but I was shot down buy that back stabbing
weasel.
I wanted
to like Andrew, I really did. He had some funny things to say, he was a pretty
witty guy. We talked a bit about movies and popular culture. There was just
something in his tone that was so phony, it disturbed be. He had the melodious
sound of a snake. The hypnotic voice saying what you want to hear, but to me his
tone betrayed the fact that he didnt
really mean what he was saying. Hollow as a tin drum are the words of the
scorpion, as they distract you, their tail ever poised to strike the moment you
look away. Andrew personified this image with every drag of his cigarette. The
smoke of lechery filled his lungs and spewed out as spoken words, the sounds of
a 4 time senator running for re-election. It was under heavy situations, where
the pressure of time became a variable that his true colors would come to the
surface. Difficult situations do not build character so much as they reveal it.
One
instance when we were under the gun and metering the current from the generator
did our leader peel back his mask of mirth to show the deep down ugliness that
lurked just below the surface. He had it disguised brilliantly perhaps to the
dim witted, but sloppily hidden to those who have had just the barest experience
at reading people. Apparently we were not getting the proper reading coming out
of the distribution box and Andrew had to read it for himself. I was
squatting by the box next to Billy and we heard
Move!.
That
really is not a good way to talk to people that you want to respect you. If I
was in his position, perhaps I would have been stressed but even when stressed Im
going to be pretty respectable to my comrades.
Apparently Andrews
father and one of the producers, Jacob, knew each other from way back in the
military. That was how he got the gig as gaffer. Andrew stayed at Jacob's home
for several weeks, maybe a month, heading back to LA on the weekends. It was
difficult to get a good bead on Jacob. He was always smiling and pretty red
faced, seemingly perpetually drunk. If he was the producer you would think that
he must have had something on the ball. Jacobs
son-in-law, Francisco started coming in afternoons for a few hours to learn the
business. Francisco turned out to be a pretty funny guy. 55
tall stocky and of Mexican decent, Francisco had very long straight black hair
that he kept in a bun at the back of his head. Francisco was pretty quiet for
the 1st week of the show, just feeling everyone out I guess, trying to find his
place. When Ellis moved up to the best boy position Francisco became part of the
crew.
Its
so much fun to have someone with a sense of humor on the set. Life in general I
think is taken much too seriously. So much drama injected into so many
circumstance where people would be a lot better off if they just let it go. I
understand time is money and Im
not advocating dragging your ass or not hustling when the time to work comes.
Communication is the key to success. There is a great amount of unspoken
communication conveyed between people, if you can understand your co workers
with out the necessity of speaking you can get the job done that much more
efficiently. Francisco and I were able to look at each other and communicate
without really talking. Ellis, Billy and Suji were pretty hip as well, Billy
perhaps not the swiftest, but at least he wasnt
an ass, like Andrew.
ADULT SHOOT
I had asked Dan, from the beginning. If we were
called to LA for union days, or a high paying commercial, would there be any
problem leaving for a day or two. He assured us that we could go work
commercials, and they would have extra men and day players that
could cover us.
Many
years back, after college I went to Japan for about a year. I had been
practicing judo since I was a child, and my last year of college, I met an
rapturous Japanese exchange student. I wasn't sure what I was going to do after
college. I heard you could teach English in the Osaka area, which was where she
was living at the time. After my senior year, I packed up and went to the Kansai
area of Japan, presumably to teach English and to learn about Japanese culture.
I met a lot of great people there through my girlfriend and through judo. One
Japanese friend of mine who I had kept in touch with approached me several years
later with an idea for an adult internet site catering to the Japanese, but
housed in the USA. You see, the Japanese have these funky censor laws, where
they block out the 'naughty' bits of an adult movie or magazine with a black
square, or a mosaic distortion. He thought that if we put up an uncensored
website in the US, but wrote it in Japanese and advertised in Japan that we
would not only make a lot of money, but we would not be breaking any laws
either. Although never completely sure about the legality of the thing, I like
money and I like girls, so I helped him put it together. This was the summer of
1996, when the internet was just getting started. SexJapan.com was pretty
successful for about 4 years, then we just started making less and less money,
until I sold the URL back in 2003. While my libido was perhaps not as large as
Ron Jeremey's, even before I was an adult webmaster I was no stranger to
adult film.
As our
rate in San Diego was disgraceful, I kept my contacts and ears open for any
potential LA work. One day I got a call to work a couple of days on an adult
shoot. Being a distributor of photos and being on a XXX film set are not the
same thing. The money they were offering was more than twice the day rate of San
Diego, so I went up to check it out. I was going to work with a contact I had
made on a low budget film the year before. Bill was another electric, although
he confided that he really did prefer gripping because he hated to coil cable. I
liked Bill's pace, slow and steady, wasn't prepared to go running for anyone or
anything, but he knew the business and had been in it over 5 years, just hadn't
been able to get his union days. We were working on a Vivid shoot. Vivid
is a pretty big name in the industry and I remembered their products from days
of SexJapan.com. The first day had naked girls running around, delivering lines
but no sex. I was actually fairly impressed by the believability of one of the
actors, thinking "Wow, she has great tits, and she can even act".
The crew
was pretty small, Bill and myself, plus the gaffer. The gaffer on this adult
show was a gravel voiced barrel-chested gutter talking, chain smoking ex-hippie
named Bernie. Bernie looked to be about 65 but was probably in his 50's, dyed
grey hair that strange old man blonde. A Beatles haircut gone terribly wrong.
The actress' were pretty friendly, not very suspicious, but bright eyed and
smiling, at least on the few days I worked. The camera-man was a awfully skinny
guy, mid 30's with bad skin and oily hair. He reminded me of R.Crumb, - the
famous cartoonist from the 60's - but with darker hair and slightly better
teeth.
The first
day of any show you are not completely sure who is who, someone who appears to
be a make up girl could actually be and actress and vice-versa. One taller older
guy who seemed to be either a producer or director was strangely familiar to me
but I could not place him. He turned out to be a well know director of adult
films, but was a porno actor in the past, and was in a movie I used to have when
I was a teenager. I owned 3 or 4 VHS tapes that had long ago lost much of their
quality due to excessive rewinding and playback of certain sections. This
director was Arnie Stevons. Although having been in the business for over 20
years, and obviously knowledgeable of his craft, he seemed at least to me to be
missing a plethora of brain cells, no doubt burnt away through years of
prodigality.
Latter
that day I got the nerve to ask him if he was indeed one of those faded figures
from a favorite scene I'd watched again and again.
"Were
you in this movie '8 to 4'?" Arnie cocked his head slightly, a vacant stare
possessed him. After a moment or two.
"Yes,
I was in that, we made that movie in 1982."
That
seemed to be the right time I would have read the ad from Hustler magazine, and
somehow acquired the movie from the video store to copy for my collection. I may
still have that movie in VHS somewhere in my parents attic in Phoenix.
Later
that day I worked on my 1st sex scene. I was chosen by Bernie to hold the
C
light. This is a small light, a 200 to 250 watt light called an Inky that
we put on a c-stand arm so we can hand hold the light and use it to light
the actors 'action' when they are in various positions. The 1st scene they asked
me to do was a girl on girl encounter. I assumed Id
have no problem with being up close and center for this event. Ever since I was
about 11 years old Ive
been peaking at Playboy, Penthouse, and any other magazine that contained
pictures that every red-blooded American boy made it his mission to see first
hand. Seeing it in a magazine or watching it on TV, and being right there when
they shoot, is, as you might think pretty different, and the experience is
especially surreal.
In
retrospect this was in many ways the most unique experience of my life. I have
participated in a fair amount of exclusive events. Hiking in the Himalayas, Ive
seen the opening ceremonies at a Summer Olympics. I was in the park in Atlanta
when the bomb exploded in 96,
I actually heard the explosion. I've been to Machu Picchu in Peru. Although
these events are shared by a very small percentage of the worlds
population, how many people can say theyve
held the light when people are having sex in a porno?
That 1st
day while the girls where going at it howling away, I had a funny notion. I had
my tool belt on, and was carrying my phone, on vibrate of course. The phone I
had at the time was not a flip top, so it was pretty easy to make a call and
leave the phone in its
holder. These girls were screaming in ecstasy as they were between each others
legs, I thought what if I called my buddy in NY, hed
answer the phone to 2 girls having sex. I gave him a call and left it going on
my tool belt, I think he listened for a few minutes. I could go for a porno
phone call once in a while, wouldnt
be too bad.
The next
day we shot 2 more sex scenes. As I was setting the lights for one shot they
asked me to stand
in for the
blocking of the scene.
Just
sit on the couch and well
block the girl.