Day One

Today I learned one of my first of many new terms on the set. The Rabbits and the Trees. It is a term that applies to extras who are either standing still on screen (trees) and moving around in the background (rabbits). The personal significance of this new term gained new depth as my first roles as PA on set changed day to day, the depths to which will become clear as i explain my day.

To start-- I arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina and meet up with my driver Brian of Southpark Motor. He picks me up in a black Chevy Suburban. the interior is decked out like a limo, with white leather, and Brian is wearing a black suit and is clearly more used to escorting parties. The cooler is full of sodas and water and I am thinking this could be the start of a couple weeks of life in the lap of luxury.

My illusions are destroyed suddenly when after getting lost on the way to Downtown Columbia, I arrive to discover that i am indeed a very small cog in a very large machine, and the continued prospect of free sodas are a regular and entirely un-exceptional perk of the job.

I fill out the requisite employment paperwork, get handed a pink copy of the script, get the rundown on 'walkie' ettiquette, basic scheduling as well as my general responsibilities and handed a pile of envelopes containing call sheets that i am to deliver on signing in to the hotel. And suddenly i am on my way back to my new home, with a 5:45AM call time. Apparently, one of my long term charges on this film, is to load up the vans with the cast and crew as they are shuttled to the set at their respective call times. This will i realized, allow me to meet and talk with the camera crews almost every morning.

After piling into my 6:36 shuttle this morning with driver Jay, and the A and B camera operators i became privy to discussions of just the kind of lifestyle i have so recently professed to aspire to. The "A" operator seems to have been a regular "A" camera operator for people like James Cameron on T2, and True Lies, and another arnold classic Commando. The younger of the two camera men-- the "B" operator seems to have been working behind the camera for a good 15 years on a variety of film and TV projects, and yet both of them. These guys pretty much work on any job that suits their schedule, seemingly forgetting the names of the films they were working on, and even the main actors they were working with as evidenced by the discussion they had on "A" operator's latest project known as "the swimming picture". I'm pretty sure that was not its title.

I arrive on the set, and begin blindly looking for my place. I grab a bagel, and head for the AD (assistant directors) truck. None of the other PA's are around, and my boss Susan the 2nd 2nd AD despite picking up her phone, is nowhere to be found. I find one PA, and am subsequently passed from one to the other in search of the set, and walkie talkie (a indispensable tool on these sets). I meet the other PA's in the search, and finally procure a head-set. Finally i am connected, and then it all makes sense. I am plugged in.

It is about now I overhear my new term of the day about the trees and rabbits as i quickly acclimatize myself to the trajectory of the day. May I add, that it is still quite a bit before 8am. It, like many others i expect, is a long day ahead. I quite easily fall into the role of crowd control, because of course even in a semi-private closed set, rubber-necking building employees spend their morning trying to steal a peek at Kevin Bacon, despite my insisting that he is quite far out of the eye line of where we are, but the crowd is very much in the eye-line of the camera. I do a lot of running around keeping people in line, and helping the other PA's wrangle extras from holding (a strangely apt term).

This felt largely liberating. A job I have seen performed on many sets throughout new york, and now here I was, picking it up with aplomb. people calling my name on the walkies to come do something filled me with a certain sense of usefulness i have missed since before i was responsible for all my own creative work in school. being proud to be a part felt cool, and then just as they were about to set up the most exciting shot of the day. I was relocated to the basement, to make sure that the crew didn't take the elevator up from the loading dock to the set, while the camera was rolling. apparently this was causing quite a delay, and was important enough for someone to sit down there and do it. I was promised i would be relieved after lunch (damn good ribs btw).

To make a long afternoon short, i was not relieved and was re-assigned to elevator guard duty. i get to sit down there for a good 5 or 6 hours, so luckily in the mean time i at least get to chat with some of the crew members coming and going. I get to meet some of the camera crew who are coming and going the most, and I also strike up a repoire with the medic who threatens to tackle me if he catches me asleep on the job. I didn't fall asleep and he didn't tackle me, but i should keep my eyes open on set from now on.

After a couple hours, I get relieved to go help organize the call sheets and handwrite comments on each of the invitations to the cast and crew welcoming party. I run the call sheets over to set (a task i expect to execute on a regular basis)arriving just as they finish the last shot of the day. i stick around on set to make myself helpful, and get told to help move the video monitoring equipment downstairs to the loading bay. It is here that I have my first introduction to the principle camera crew, including the Director of Photography.

Downstairs, after dropping off the equipment, the first thing that happens is somebody hands the camera operators and DP cold beers. Thats what i call service.

After a quick rundown of my jobs for monday morning, i get sent home in a van to bolster my new friendship with the hair stylists.