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I'm an AC and have been working in the German film industry for 5 years now, not in small part thanks to Steadiman's encouraging words that long ago, I could chime in with some insights if you could call it that. I started out as an intern, then crashcam operator at a bigger German TV production and since then I've worked as a loader/data wrangler, 2nd and this year started taking my first few jobs as a 1st AC. I haven't been attached to anything glamorous and I wouldn't call myself the most successful freelancer yet, but I love my job and it pays my bills. And being a freelancer allows me a lot of freedom, so all that makes me a happy man. Most of my working days are spent on TV series or movies as what's called a clapper/loader around here, which is essentially the jobs of 2nd, loader and clapper rolled into one. I load film mags/do data wrangling, help the 1st AC set up the camera, support him with Focus preparations during rehearsals (watching what happens during the shot, setting marks etc) and keep track of the equipment logistics so everything in the camera department runs flawlessly. And I clap the slate of course. Sometimes the job is stressful, sometimes it's downward brutal, but I can honestly say I don't want to miss a single day, not even the one where I clocked in 23 mindnumbing hours, because I could have bought a small island from the overtime bonii. I am very reserved about the glamour most people associate with the trade, since most of the time it seems to manifest as arrogance. I work in a technical department and I get poo poo done. Seemingly contrary to that philosphy my long time goal is to be a camera operator or even DP one day, and until then I satisfy my artistic urges by working on small time stuff me and some of my colleagues have going between paying jobs. One thing I learned quickly is that when you get into the trade and think you will be part of art in the making you will end up with a crushed soul most of the time. I think it's better to navigate yourself into a position where you can practice your own art, and you get there by hard and exact work. That sounds a little spry but to me doing my job not only properly but with ornaments is an art in itself. Not that the thread needs yet another source of sobering insights, and Steadiman will tower above my humble experiences with his 163 years of accumulated knowledge from the biz, but here I am if you have any questions regarding the technical, day-to-day side of filmmaking. Frost fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Dec 14, 2010 |
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Dec 14, 2010 15:53
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Frost posted:words Frost, I love your post. You have a clear idea of what you want to be, and you are doing a job that gets you there. You are focused (no pun intended) on doing your job well, hoping that hard work and competence will get you up the ladder, as it seems to have. You're working on developing your skills so that when you get your next opportunity you'll be able to take it; and you have realistic expectations. I hope this doesn't come across as patronising, but it's great to read what you're up to, and your attitude. Good luck, man!
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Dec 14, 2010 16:43
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Thanks for the kind words, it's not patronizing at all. Don't get the wrong impression though, 2nd AC is not a step on a ladder, I could easily do this job for 10 years and be a perfectly happy man. Fact is, it's an important job and not many people recognize that. It really makes me giggle inside everytime someone acts as if I was doing an intern's job. I stopped counting the times I told some woman at a party that I work in the movies and do this and that and that, and the second I mention that I also clap the slate she goes "oh." Slate sounds easy right? Excuse me if I ramble here for a minute, but even something as miniscule as not being able to hold up a slate frame filling, readable and on time with the "roll sound" cue can cost the whole shoot 10 minutes a day. All because some clapper is stumbling through the set, while the camera operator tries to frame the slate and the boom operator is struggling to get a clear reading of what the clapper is mumbling so the people in post won't have to spend extra time just to decipher what the hell take they are looking at. And that is only one of a 100 tasks I do at work. A bad 2nd can easily hold up production for over an hour a day without anyone noticing it, because it's a few seconds here and 2 minutes there. And do you know what it costs to pay 50 people only one hour of overtime? Including the sometimes bloated wages of actors? Ok, I'll stop now, point is, I recognized the importance of 2nd and since then I had a much more relaxed view of the whole ladder thing. Fate will some day put me behind a camera, but until then I can enjoy the ride a lot more than some of my colleagues. The ladder always leads to me rambling, sorry about that. Lately people have started to treat 2nd like an intern's job (which is also due to the whole ladder mentality) which has led to some frustration when talking about wages and I have a million reasons why we're worth the money. Edit: This all sounds horribly bleak and devoid of the good old movie magic, but the truth is it's a form of collaborative art and the magic is in making it all come together into something that will perhaps make someone smile for a moment. Frost fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Dec 14, 2010 |
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Dec 14, 2010 18:06
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I've actually done a few classes with a former casting director who worked in the business for decades, cast a bunch of TV shows and the occasional movie, and what I gleaned from it is you have to be confident, know what you're going to say, have a good resume (good as in well formatted, spelled correctly, that sort of thing), and just general job interview things like that. Getting an acting job isn't terribly different from any other job interview, it just relies a lot more on talent than your average corporate job. I do remember hearing him say to find something in the casting director's office (if that's where it's going down) to talk about, that you have an interest in (pictures, things hanging on the wall, sitting on the desk, etc.)
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Dec 14, 2010 18:28
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Frost posted:Thanks for the kind words, it's not patronizing at all. Anytime anybody tells me they are a clapper, I point them to this video and they usually get a pretty good kick out of it. Its hard for me to do slate now without thinking of this every time I clap it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EvW4HnBEQY
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Dec 14, 2010 19:16
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Thanks a lot, that was really funny. Especially "the reveal"!
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Dec 14, 2010 19:45
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AccountSupervisor posted:Anytime anybody tells me they are a clapper, I point them to this video and they usually get a pretty good kick out of it. Its hard for me to do slate now without thinking of this every time I clap it. Oh wow. The lost "Good part" of Van Diemens Land. I'm just kidding. It's just really boring.
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Dec 15, 2010 09:58
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Hey, can you guys tell your producers to shoot more projects out in Chicago? We're dying out here!! Seriously though if you come to Chicago with a film I'll take you to all the good restaurants and bars. You don't even have to cast me!
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Dec 15, 2010 23:13
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OSheaman posted:Hey, can you guys tell your producers to shoot more projects out in Chicago? We're dying out here!! I know a lot of Chicago people, and they wanna go back, but they're literally turning down money to go do it. Plus they can't handle the Winters anymore.
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Dec 15, 2010 23:56
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I would think Detroit would be the best place to go, as far as deserted city-scapes. A few months ago I was up in Erie PA and man, that place was a ghost town as well. Location scouting sounds like it would be a fun job, to me.
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Dec 16, 2010 00:03
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"Moving On" and "Thats a Wrap" are my favorite phrases.
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Dec 17, 2010 21:22
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Barometer posted:I would think Detroit would be the best place to go, as far as deserted city-scapes. A few months ago I was up in Erie PA and man, that place was a ghost town as well. Michigan has a really great incentive right now, I think it's somewhere in the 40's... So naturally they're backed up so far with it that it's not really an option anymore.
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Dec 17, 2010 21:27
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I know the favorite spots like the abandoned train station (lots of The Island, Transformers, and a bunch of other stuff is shot there) and a few factories are booked till 2013 or something.
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Dec 17, 2010 21:41
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NeuroticErotica posted:Michigan has a really great incentive right now, I think it's somewhere in the 40's... So naturally they're backed up so far with it that it's not really an option anymore. This. We're looking at shooting something in Detroit, and the MI incentive is about 40% of spend, plus another few % tacked on for Detroit. It makes it very attractive.
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Dec 20, 2010 15:42
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Hey rattle - Do you guys shut down from Thanksgiving (US) to Sundance or so like we do? It's still strange to me that everybody's just completely going through the motions for December. And yes I know I still owe you an email
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Dec 22, 2010 09:29
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Back here Dec and Jan are almost completely dead months. It takes some getting used to but most of us take the time to run away from winter in other parts of the globe.
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Dec 22, 2010 09:46
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NeuroticErotica posted:Hey rattle - We are pretty quiet now but there is normally stuff going on until at least December 14 or so, and we are right back in the swing of things when the office re-opens from January 4th. This week is jolly quiet, and we officially close from today. As a sales agency we need to be active well before Sundance; we also need to prepare for Berlin, which might be a big one for us this year. We have at least one film screening there, possibly more - and it is also good to have a new project or two to take to market there, so that need acquiring and deal-making before we can start selling.
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Dec 22, 2010 12:56
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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/pirated-film-2010-62071?_r=true This is more proof about how much piracy hurts smaller niche films. Kick-rear end was pirated over 11 million times, meanwhile at the box office it made less than $50 million which was far less than was expected. I guess it's a case of nerds ruining the chance of similar projects that they like coming out by downloading rather than going to the theatre.
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Dec 24, 2010 18:16
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quote:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/pirated-film-2010-62071?_r=true Arkane posted:How many people in the US saw Avatar in theaters? 70 million? How many watched it for the first time via an illegal download? I'll be REALLY generous: 100,000? Laughable ratio.
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Dec 24, 2010 20:18
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TheYellowFog posted:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/pirated-film-2010-62071?_r=true I would really like more attention given to the methodology of figuring out the number of downloads rather than a footnote at the end of the article. Especially since a lot of anti-piracy businesses do things like make dozens fake torrents with tens of thousands of fake seeds so that people will become frustrated looking for one that is legitimate, which can skew the numbers quite a bit. Also maybe a correlation between films that had their DVD screeners leaked weeks or even months before the street date vs. movies that were leaked around the same time they were released commercially. There's so much interesting information at hand, just throwing out a number and calling it a day is disappointing.
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Dec 24, 2010 21:43
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therattle posted:We are pretty quiet now but there is normally stuff going on until at least December 14 or so, and we are right back in the swing of things when the office re-opens from January 4th. This week is jolly quiet, and we officially close from today. As a sales agency we need to be active well before Sundance; we also need to prepare for Berlin, which might be a big one for us this year. We have at least one film screening there, possibly more - and it is also good to have a new project or two to take to market there, so that need acquiring and deal-making before we can start selling. Are you going to Park City? I'm on the fence... really want to, not sure what I can get into. Any other fest on the planet besides Cannes I'd have no problem but this one...
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Dec 24, 2010 22:25
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Ah, the film industry! A great thread. It's always positive to dispel myths. Of course, the movie industry is brutal and unforgiving. I was in it for two years, and while I did meet people who eventually created films, and it's still my own dream to direct a film, the industry itself is punishing to all those who lack a sense of self-identity, which is ironic because Hollywood is supposed to be the landmark of faker~y that often includes silicone. This isn't to say I don't know what film I'd make, but the crossing of art and commerce intimidates me nonetheless; I believe I could make a great film, but I limited myself once the illusion disappeared - I was no longer thrilled to be on a set just to be on a set, especially when the director of "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" asks that everybody wait around for his outdoor set to dry after it was soaked, because he cannot any longer imagine how it looks when it's dry.
the boy in a well fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Dec 25, 2010 |
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Dec 25, 2010 00:39
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NeuroticErotica posted:Are you going to Park City? I'm on the fence... really want to, not sure what I can get into. Any other fest on the planet besides Cannes I'd have no problem but this one... No. We don't really do Sundance unless we have a film there; there isn't much to acquire for international as most fest films have a sales agent already. As a company we attend in force Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and AFM, plus usually Venice, maybe Locarno, San Sebastian, Pusan, and any others where we have films and sales to be made. I always go to Cannes and have been to Berlin and Toronto. I think we'll have some films in Berlin this year (well we definitely have at least one) so I'll probably be there.
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Dec 25, 2010 18:31
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How does a director go from obscure gore films to the Lord of the Rings? Or from Memento to Batman? Or from (500) Days of Summer to Spider-Man? (You get the idea.) These are directors that had moderately successful mid-budget films and suddenly they're handed the keys to billion dollar properties. How and why? I know this is incredible naivete and optimism showing, but part of me thinks I could be directing tentpole releases if all I did was make an independent film (or 2) that was somewhat of a hit.
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Dec 26, 2010 03:21
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Jackson directed Heavenly Creatures, which put him in a critical spotlight, and then The Frighteners, which, if anything, probably gave him a swath of networking possibilities, and then he spent several difficult (and lucky) years getting Lord Of The Rings off the ground. Memento made a jillion dollars and Nolan made a jillion friends. Marc Webb was already an established music video director before (500) Days Of Summer, which was insanely profitable and popular with younger audiences, thus, Spiderman reboot.
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Dec 26, 2010 04:45
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The other thinking was that not only was Webb a hot commodity, but this being his first big studio feature, he'd be a lot easier for Sony to control, rather than dealing with Sam Raimi stomping all over the place.
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Dec 26, 2010 05:01
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Medical posted:How does a director go from obscure gore films to the Lord of the Rings? Or from Memento to Batman? Or from (500) Days of Summer to Spider-Man? (You get the idea.) These are directors that had moderately successful mid-budget films and suddenly they're handed the keys to billion dollar properties. How and why? every overnight success was about 14 years in the making - the op
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Dec 26, 2010 07:58
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Mozzie posted:every overnight success was about 14 years in the making - the op That puts everything in perspective. It's hard to realize this when you're just reading about directors on Wikipedia.
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Dec 26, 2010 08:12
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Mozzie posted:every overnight success was about 14 years in the making - the op Oh yeah, I did say that. It's true! Medical posted:How does a director go from obscure gore films to the Lord of the Rings? Or from Memento to Batman? Or from (500) Days of Summer to Spider-Man? (You get the idea.) These are directors that had moderately successful mid-budget films and suddenly they're handed the keys to billion dollar properties. How and why? Dead Alive is a hugely popular film among the splatterhouse crew, it gave PJ a lot of cred, plus he really did the heavy lifting on getting the Lotr movies produced. It wasn't so much of a choice as it was, the guy made them happen. As for Marc Webb - he directed about half the commercials that air during the Super Bowl.
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Dec 26, 2010 11:36
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Timby posted:The other thinking was that not only was Webb a hot commodity, but this being his first big studio feature, he'd be a lot easier for Sony to control, rather than dealing with Sam Raimi stomping all over the place. All true, including this. Plus a director like that isn't going to be on a fat gross deal.
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Dec 26, 2010 12:48
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therattle posted:This. We're looking at shooting something in Detroit, and the MI incentive is about 40% of spend, plus another few % tacked on for Detroit. It makes it very attractive. Detroit would be great for any sort of end of the world/Apocalypse movie.
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Dec 27, 2010 13:11
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NeuroticErotica posted:Michigan has a really great incentive right now, I think it's somewhere in the 40's... So naturally they're backed up so far with it that it's not really an option anymore. Sorry about this reply being so much later, I've been offline until yesterday.  Is it that there are a limited number of permits that can be given out, or is it more that everyone wants/has to use the same spaces? There was a video I saw recently with Knoxville from Jackass touring around Detroit, which made it look like a huge amount of it is just empty.
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Dec 29, 2010 20:13
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Barometer posted:Sorry about this reply being so much later, I've been offline until yesterday. Incentive-wise, there's just only so much money they can give out in a certain period of time. They've spent up their budget for the next two years.
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Dec 30, 2010 08:35
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NeuroticErotica posted:Incentive-wise, there's just only so much money they can give out in a certain period of time. They've spent up their budget for the next two years. Oh, duh. I thought the incentives were more "soft" money rather than hard currency. Tax breaks and/or cheap permits.
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Dec 30, 2010 16:17
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Barometer posted:Oh, duh. I thought the incentives were more "soft" money rather than hard currency. Tax breaks and/or cheap permits. They are, but there's a limit in place.
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Dec 31, 2010 00:46
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I just "worked" my very first movie. A feature we shot in Mississippi. I'm an animator at a production company and the owner was the executive producer and he asked me to come "help out" on the production. Did various things from doing some carpentry on a set piece, some graphic design on logos and posters that appeared on the set, DIT/File Managment on set, and was a set PA for the entire 15 day night shoot. Holy christ what a nightmare. 50 man crew so us 3 set PAs were basically 3rd ADs. 14 hour days to shoot a feature in 15 days ...at night (3pm to 5am). It was a fun interesting experience and most of our crew/cast was from LA or Shreveport. But dear god that many night shoots just wrecks your emotional world.
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Dec 31, 2010 01:08
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Making you an emotional wreck is just the first step in welcoming you to the world of movie magic, enjoy it buddy! Next stop: Phasing out your social life and replacing it with alcohol.
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Dec 31, 2010 20:03
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Frost posted:Making you an emotional wreck is just the first step in welcoming you to the world of movie magic, enjoy it buddy! Next stop: Phasing out your social life and replacing it with alcohol. Its nice when that already is your social life!
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Jan 1, 2011 00:28
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Yeah I already got the alcohol part down pat. The great thing was I got married 2 months ago and our first Christmas with each other was nearly nonexistant. I kissed her when I got in at 5 am and she did the same when she left for work at 8 am and that was all we saw of each other. She was not happy! Luckily we escaped to North Carolina for our first White Christmas this past week so I think that helped make up for it.
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Jan 1, 2011 03:31
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Is there a good place online to look for production assistant (or other entry level) jobs? Craigslist really doesn't feel all that official to me.
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Jan 2, 2011 06:31
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