So a fellow Hardwickian also works in NYC on films as a union script supervisor. She raised some bucks to shoot a short film, which could be a pilot for a TV show. I had spoken to her a few weeks ago and asked to be on the crew.  Most of her gang were 20-somethings and were working for free, but I worked out a small fee for the four days.

It was so much fun to work on a movie again! The first day was humid and rainy, so obviously we did exteriors at the main character’s house. I would up running the slate, but that made me have to stand almost all day long and my back started hurting early. After lunch we did the interiors of the house. The AC asked me, late in the day, to page cable and guide the DP through doorways as he nearly ran backwards. She knew I had previous AC experience and knew I could do it.

The lighting package consisted of two Leicos, one 650 fresnel, two 2 ft Kinoflos and one 1.2K HMI fresnel. This was my first digital still camera shoot, so I was astonished by the low lighting level.  The 650 was the analog of a 2K Senior, and Kinos were the same as 2K softlights, the Leicos were like Babys and the HMI was an HMI…  The camera was a Canon EOS 300, with a native ISO of 800!

Audrey came with me and worked as a PA all day.  I warned her that she might have to do glamorous tasks such as poke turds in a porta-potty with a stick to get them below the surface of the chemicals so they don’t stink. She did lockup in the house and did coffee runs and other PA duties.  The first day ended with some night time interiors, a 14 hour shoot day.