Sunday, March 24, 2013

Visual Cues.




"Hey, is this a day or night scene?" my colleague asks me, standing next to desk lamp on the set we're lighting. His thought process was a good one; if it's a day scene, the lamp doesn't need to be turned on. If it's a night scene, it's be a good idea to power it up.

However, I couldn't help but stare at him in confusion for a second, wondering if he really had just asked me that. He could've gotten that information off the day's callsheet. He also could've remembered our conversation with the Best Boy this morning when he said today's work consisted of all day scenes. Or, better yet, he could've remembered that we just set two BFLs* outside the set windows not thirty seconds ago.

"Sunlight" was streaming in from every window on our small set, and there he is, standing in the middle of the room, asking if it's supposed to be day or night. SMH.

I'm one of those people who try to live by the "There are no dumb questions" rule, but sometimes, this job makes it hard. I'm constantly surrounded by people who don't do the bare minimum of just looking around before they ask something.

No, we can't run cable that way. Can't you see the camera pointing exactly in that direction?

No, that light isn't going direct. Didn't you notice that huge bounce card the grips set up behind you?

Since everyone's talking loudly and the Art Department is still moving furniture around, I'd say no, we're not rolling right now.

Seeing as how we're doing exterior work and it's noon, yes, we're leaving our tungsten package on the truck.

Yes, the Kino you're about to bring in needs to be tungsten tubed. We're on a stage. All the other lights we've used so far are tungsten. Why would the Kino be any different?**

Are you standing between two light stands with the camera pointed in the opposite direction and wondering if you'll be seen during the take? I'm going to go out on a limb and say no, you won't.


Sigh. Sometimes, I feel like I'm in Clerks.




*Big Fucking Lights.
**There are a few scenarios where it would be different, so before I get bombarded with comments about how that one time you guys did it differently, I'm talking about "normal" situations here.

Monday, March 11, 2013

TGIF.


"Thank goodness it's Friday, amirite???" The often overly enthusiastic Crafty guy is beaming at the thought.

Honestly, I'm a little taken aback by his comment and a little confused. Is today really Friday? Huh. I guess it is. Partial unemployment has this way of making you lose track of the days.

After I snap out of running a mental calendar through my head, I offer him a meek smile, sad I can't share this enthusiasm of having the next two days off. The life of a day player, especially during the slow times, often means that I have the next day off... And usually, the day after that. So I just shrug and say, "Yeah, I guess so. But I'm a day player. Every day is like a Friday for me."

"Damn!" the Crafty guy says, still beaming. "Aren't you lucky?? I wish I had that going on. Every day is a Friday for you! How awesome is that??"

I smile, but then a thought crosses my mind. "Yeah... But at the same time, every day is also like a Monday."

"Oh...," says Crafty guy, as he walks back to his truck, "I do not like that. Touché." 






Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License .