And, action!

The first shooting day came and went. At first it was exciting. Watching all the hustle and bustle. I got to see the faces of some of the people I had only talked to by phone but convinced them to work for us, for free.  A wanna be actor from one of my temp jobs even came on as a PA to get set experience. He made me feel good about myself when he looked around and said “Wow, you put all this together?”  Yeah, I did.

It was a slow moving day since most people were in Grip Class 101.  It was a first day for most so they had to learn how to deal with and use the equipment.  Free people come with a price – inexperience.

The best part is when my father came on the set. He was in town for a business meeting and even he was proud of me, seeing my work at work.  It was rare that I ever felt he was proud of me.  He did joke that there must be a rule that you had to be under 30!  Inexperienced people in Hollywood tend to be young.

My cousin from film school took a photo of us.  Right after the flash, I went to introduce my dad to the other producer but she barely came over to meet him. After my dad left she was smoking and again she barely acknowledged me. I was pissed. How dare she just stop speaking to me after all these months?  Later my film school cousin, Brett,  said he thought she was cold and weird. Okay, maybe she wasn’t just weird to me.

I helped pick up the catering which was made by the smoking cold producer’s aunt.  She made food from the Philippines which we quickly found out the grips hated.  All the vegetables didn’t keep their grunt work energy needs up.  But her aunt said something interesting to me. She asked if the other produer had eaten her rice yet.  Hmh, maybe that’s why she was grumpy. The aunt said people from the Philippines have to eat their rice every day. It also made me wonder if that’s why she only wanted things done the same way – same menu item, same meticulous way to make a movie. Perhaps.  (This is also a good example of a lesson my prof at UCLA Extension told me about producing – always fire the caterer after the first week since the crew complains about them, it makes you look like you listen and care but you know ahead of time, they always gripe about the food).

I dropped off the film to the developers. Not as bad as I thought. Plus, all the driving around gave me time to make more calls to get our crew needs for the rest of the week.  Free people don’t take off all week from work!  (unless they are suckers like me, but I was getting paid with having my name as writer, right?) 

At the end of the shoot I still had calls to make but I ditched them all to have fun. My Canadian travel friend and my film school cousin, Brett and his buddy and I went out to eat. I had pure fun. Something that hadn’t happened in awhile.

When we got back to my place, someone over 30 arrived. A man with a van who heard my radio announcement in Santa Cruz. He looked around at my rustic place which I thought was a quant home but others thought was a dump. He said I had the biggest balls to invite people here and to do this movie for free. But he also added he was happy to have the chance to help on the set. He slept in his van which he parked on the huge property. I got the place for the acres – for the dog. I didn’t care about the porch where I lived but everyone else didn’t like the cots and floor so much. The PA boys who had helped me all week and complained with me about the director were now sleeping at his house and, I felt, turning against me too. Okay, they stopped talking to me too but I couldn’t blame them for wanting a real bed no matter how young they were.

The second and third day of the shoot got more and more moody. The director and woman producer weren’t talking to me and it seemed like the whole crew was grumpy. I was feeling used, having to do all these PA type of jobs running around buying things, dropping film off, picking videos up, then giving them to the editor to make a rough cut. It was taking so long that I couldn’t even give the tapes to the editor until 10pm and I felt badly that he had to wait so long.

The next day at midday when I brought back some tapes he gave me to show the director, the other woman producer asked why I didn’t hand over all the tapes. I gave some of the ones the editor said were “negative stuff” to the man producer I had recruited.  She said that was unprofessional to not know what they were, that producers were supposed to know that type of thing. I said “Well if you would talk to me and tell me these things. That was the deal. You were supposed to help teach me about films since you’ve been on sets before and I’m new at this.”

She said, “People change”.

Brett’s pal said that was code word for her being a bitch. I really liked this guy!

Word got around that we were having “producer wars.” I was starting to feel like a rebel. A teenager again, mad at my parents. Now mad at the other producers and director.  I even took a bong hit when one of the crew was passing it around at the end of the shoot. I hadn’t done that in years but I wanted to be bad. But since it had been years I coughed and choked it all up.  And as I waited for the producer I recruited to give me back my cellphone so I could make more calls, I fell asleep for 15 minutes.  I had nothing else to do.  A few days later on our night shoot, I’d take a picture of the PA boys fast asleep for hours.  This would be important later.

Day four went better. I came late though since my landlord was upset about all the people camping out and cramming into my living space. I cleaned up a bit. I had forgotten his warning months ago about smoking. There was a huge dry hill behind me and that could have gone up in smoke in these California hills. So I cleaned up the butts and ashes and made a “no smoking” sign.

I dropped by the set and saw what we needed and ran back out again for some prop food and the ice for the day.  I brought that back and enjoyed watching an outside scene being filmed. It was more exciting than the indoor scenes, maybe because I could see it all. Plus it had a shooting. Now I saw why so many action movies were made. More fun than dialogue scenes.

The two men playing bodyguards were in that scene. I really liked them. They were always nice to me. Finally getting respect as a producer.

I ran over to deliver the film footage. I found the owner and asked if I could watch the dallies. He said that is never a problem and never was one. Aha, the other producers and director had lied to me when they said there wasn’t enough room for me in the theater and that the company wouldn’t let me. I knew it.  This was a strange “war.”

I went to the hardware store to get the four light bulbs they needed to light a scene. I should have written it down. They had said four rolls of film to get at the place that sells movie film, and six light bulbs. A little mistake but on this set, that was a big deal.

I returned to the set and the other woman producer was so mad about the light bulbs that she actually took me outside the gate of the property and talked to me.

“I’m only going to say this once” and she proceeded to tell me how disappointed she is that I couldn’t find a dolly grip and that’s why she wasn’t talking to me. I pointed out that I found almost all the other crew members but that one just wasn’t easy to find a freebie.  Dolly grips have actual experience and want to get paid.

“People are complaining about you.”
“Really, so are they about you.  They say you are rude and these people volunteering are going to leave because of you so I wouldn’t listen to what people say” I retorted.

Then we went on and on. I said how they all seem against me and it doesn’t matter what I do. She didn’t care.

She left. I ended up crying from the stress and the mess it had all become.

That’s when I found out who my friends were. The man with the van gave me a hug, the Canadian traveler said she still can’t believe I don’t walk away – I could’ve the day before and even kept my day job. Now so many days off the job I was sure to be fired.

I had to run out again to do more errands.  As I left, Brett saw me all puffy faced. He gave me a big hug.  And one of the bodyguards saw me but I quickly put on my sunglasses so he didn’t notice. Just gave me a big “How ya doing?’

I was crying at first as I drove away. Then I got pissed.  I realized they were not good people. Not honest. Playing power games.  I made myself feel better – I’ve made this movie, I’ll make more. This is not the end.  I was put on this Earth to make movies and I will.

Back at the set, I stayed far away from the house indoor set and just cleaned up around the catering area. The woman with a van also from Santa Cruz made my day. She said the minute she met the director she knew he was a rich, slimy salesmen. Which he is – he sells stuff for film sets – his day job.  She saw that he didn’t have a creative bone in his body but sees that I am 100% creative and that’s why they used me.   She also noticed that he hasn’t been running the show but the AD and DP were. 

As I calmed down and the crisis was fading, I just watched the next scene being filmed. It was dark now and the bodyguards had to ride up in an old 1958 Mercedes. It would look great on film but in reality the diesel fuel was killing the actors. Take after take they went back into the car to breathe the poison. 

I watched them get in and out of the car. As one bodyguard walked by (the one who gave me the how ya doing earlier), he looked right at me. I said “Hi” and realized, “Wow,  I’m attracted.” After that, I joined in on all the flirting that had been going on all week.

Brett and my traveling pal from Canada liked each other.  Matthew was flirting with the two cute women make up artists. One PA who was middle aged was falling in love with the location owner and later they moved in together.  Even the woman producer was sitting on the director’s lap.  Love was on the set.

Before one take, the other bodyguard gave me a kiss on the cheek. As “my” bodyguard got into the car he said “I was gonna do that.” 

The next in between takes, the kissy bodyguard asked about another woman on set. I said she was in her 40s. I then said, “Is the next question, is she single?” He said yes.  My bodyguard said it’s good to know. I volunteered “I’m single.”  He smiled and got back into the car.  I didn’t realize that he never gave me his status.

There were only two days left of filming. The bodyguards came by on our second to last day. I only had one errand to deliver film and I had to wait for the film so I just literally sat around and flirted with my bodyguard. We talked and talked sitting on the porch in the bamboo set chairs. I didn’t care that the director walked by and gave me an evil look. I was the rebel, and it was my time to flirt . I deserved a set love interest too, everyone else had one!

That night went long. I snuck in a short nap between errands. But as we went on and on into the night, the PA boys camped out with sleeping bags and dozed off for hours. I thought it was funny and snapped a photo.

In the early morning, after the bodyguards had “wrapped” filming, my bodyguard gave everyone a hug goodbye. He asked me to walk him out to the car and I said sure. That led to kissing goodbye leaning on his car. I felt funny – the producer making out with one of the actors right across from the set. 

The last day the director was actually even nice to me. Maybe because the other woman producer was gone, and it was the last day. When it ended I was so excited. I had made my first movie!  I had an amazing, happy, relief, pride, exhaustion, joy and fear of the future feelings after nine months.  It was over. I made it. But as Linda Orbst said in her book He Lied, “Next”.  I had to keep moving, go onto the next thing, which I vowed, would be my own projects unless I was paid. I didn’t know then that paid didn’t mean problem or problem people free.

The filming ended and I had to rush to the airport so my Canadian pal could fly home.  She was sad to leave, not the filming, but her set romance – Brett. She wondered if it’d work long distance.  The day before my Canadian cousin got a ride to the airport. Everyone was leaving town, the vans returned to Santa Cruz.  I was sad to see them all go but happy that Brett decided to stay and try his luck in the film biz.  He and his buddy had already rented an apartment. I’m glad I had the opportunity to get all of them their “big breaks” in the biz. It was disappointing that I had opened my house to the PA boys but on the set all they did was join the director’s camp and bad mouth me. I decided not to help out so much in the future, at least not to strangers.  There is something to be said for pulling yourself up and working hard – makes you appreciate it more. 

I returned back to the set to help clean up. It took forever. They took down the set house they built and I helped pack up the wood. I swept the whole area and even cleaned the bathroom that was designated for our crew. The owner of the house was appreciative. I wanted to be a responsible producer and be nice to the location and leave it as we found it. 

I left at 11:30 PM. Almost no sleep but I was happy. As I drove down the freeway through the smog, I smiled. I had made my first movie. LA was my city, and I was single, strong, and living the dream.