This has got to be the most honest endorsement I’ve ever seen. Plus, it’s Tom Hanks, so it’s movie related, thus I can post it on my blog. Even if you don’t like Barack Obama or Tom Hanks, it’s a fun video, so give it a whirl!

I know it’s been three weeks since I wrote anything, I’m really sorry about that. But, I have news, so let’s get to it.

Part of the reason it’s been three weeks sans update is that March 22 thru 30 was my families annual Spring Break trip, and I was out of internet connection, save for my iPhone and it’s updates to the 2008 Spring Break Blog. On the 26th I got a call from the Witch Mountain production office, 1st Unit ¹ needed an extra PA for a pre-production shoot at LAX that Friday. It was a split day,² so my call time was 11:30am.

DAY 1:
Not wanting to be late I left with an hour extra of time to get to LAX, which caused me to arrive an hour before I needed to be there. Damn your accuracy Google. Anyway, I found the parking lot, parked and waited for the shuttle to take me to basecamp.³ Once I arrived, I asked where the production trailer was, and was informed no one was there yet, so I should go get some food at catering and check back at my call time. So, I did.

On the shuttle ride over, I met a bunch of the grips who had a call time before mine, but their boss was running behind so I ate with them and got to meet them all. Really cool guys.

Around 11:20am, I headed back over and met the 2nd 2nd AD and a few other PA’s. The 2nd AD showed up and I was given a radio and a headset.⁴ To protect the semi-innocent, I’m going to try an use code names for people, because it’s getting tough writing 2nd AD, and other PA’s, like I don’t know their names. Anyway, 2nd AD is now called Friday, 2nd 2nd AD is now Bellerman, the PA’s are as follows: Hank, AR, Chicks, New Orleans, and Highlander. New Orleans is technically a DGA trainee, but his job is basically that of a PA, plus Bellerman’s fountain of knowledge.

Anyway, Hank was assigned to run basecamp, Highlander was assigned to distribute and protect the radios, Chicks and AR were assigned to set. And I was to bounce around until they knew if I could be trusted. My first job was to get one of our actors breakfast.⁵ I ran over to catering and placed my order at the window, and got to know the executive chef. Really cool guy, after my third trip to pickup orders he gave me a “back stage pass” which means I can always bypass the line, come to the back door and get orders in ahead of whomever’s in line. I have a feeling all PA’s get to do this, because we only deliver food to the cast, the director and sometimes the AD’s, but it was still nice for him to give me a leg up on my first day. Around three in the afternoon, they decided they needed more help on set, so I was charged with bringing a load of background ⁶ up to set. When I got on set, I was in charge of rounding up background whenever they needed to place more on set. When they were about to wrap, Bellerman told me to go find a van and get back to set, a new group of background were coming in and evidentially getting lost after parking their cars. I had visions of people, carrying luggage, wandering around this massive parking lot where crew parking was. And, it wasn’t that far from the truth. After rounding them all up, putting them on a bus and then hopping another bus back to basecamp, I got to break for lunch.

For lunch we had steamed broccoli, steamed zucchini, rice pilaf, penne to be topped, halibut, chicken, and steak in a gorgonzola sauce. There is always a full salad bar with caesar salad and two pasta salads as well. And, then a dessert table. The truck always has tea and coffee, and the there are water coolers filled with iced tea, lemonade, water and fruit punch on tables. After lunch I ate I was assigned my first lock down job. Lock down is one of the PA’s most performed duties. Basically, you stand on the edge of the set, yell out “rolling” and “cut” when the 1st AD says them into the radio,⁷ and stop anyone from walking through set during a take. At LAX this was especially fun. It was Friday night, people were grumpy and to be asked not to walk down the sidewalk where they usually go to get taxis, rental car shuttles, and family pickups, did not lighten their mood. There was one family, the little girl was just enraptured that they were visiting LA and right off the plane they saw a Disney movie being made. She was great, but we had a couple of guys just yelling at the world for cursing them by asking them to go 10 feet out of their way. Anyway, we wrapped around 10:30pm, I was sent to get background out of their costumes and off to their parked cars. Then, I sorted and verified time cards, and then ran random errands for Friday and Bellerman. I got to leave around 12:30am.

I still have more written, but I keep not being able to finish a post. So, I’ll post this one, and get the next one to all ya’ll as soon as I can.

¹ There are typically two units on most films, and aptly named: 1st Unit and 2nd Unit. 1st Unit is helmed by the Director and handles all the major “acting” stuff and lead actors, while 2nd Unit, typically, is lead by the 2nd Unit Director and handles stunts and stunt doubles. Now, that’s not to say that’s not to say that the principle actors don’t spend any time with 2nd Unit, or there’s not “acting” involved with action sequences, but those are the stereotypical breakdowns.

² Split days are days you have a late call time, or the time you’re required to be on set, typically around noon sometime, and expect to go late into the wee hours of the morning.

³ OK, I know you guys aren’t stupid you can probably figure out what basecamp is, but I thought I’d take this time to kind of let you in on some industry stuff. First of all, on locations, crew parking is usually off site from basecamp and the transportation department handles shuttles to and from the lot. Second, there are three major locations on any shooting location, the set, the working trucks, and the caterer. The working trucks and the caterer make up basecamp. The set is, well, the set. The caterer is, in fact a caterer, although, they are a little specialized. We have Chef Robért Catering who makes AWESOME meals. I talk about it in the post above, but the guys at Chef Robért are very professional and very good. The last section, the working trucks, is where each department has their semi-truck. The camera department, sound and video, grips, set lighting/electric, property, hair and makeup and costumes are usually with the production trailer, but they can all be together.

⁴ There are two kinds of headsets the clear plastic tubing kind that squiggle then go into your ear that make you look like a Secret Service officer and the big clunky ones that have an earphone and a mic coming out of the that make you look like you work fast food. The former are just called headsets and latter: Burger Kings. I had one of the former.

⁵ Breakfast is whatever meal is first, and not given a break for. Lunch is the second meal, also the first that you’re given a break for. There is no supper. :-(

⁶ Also called extras.

⁷ Just to clarify here, in the movies when they show a director yelling action and cut, that job is actually done by the 1st AD. The director does say action and cut, but only to the 1st AD, who then broadcasts it to everyone. The 1st AD is the directors conduit to the rest of the crew as well as his/her right hand person.

As has been pointed out to me, this blog was to be my journal of my adventures here in Hollywood, but so far all the posts have been about movies I’m not at all connected to. That ends today.

Due to several unfortunate events, not least which the writer’s strike, I haven’t been able to secure a job. Hollywood is one of the last great apprentice-based systems left in the modern world. There are no backdoors or easy advances, everyone starts at the bottom, and so that’s where I’m at. I’ve been trying to get a job as a PA — a Production Assistant. PA’s are the bottom rung on the Hollywood ladder, but everyone has to start there. The nice thing about the industry is that everyone, somewhere along the line, was given a chance by someone in industry, and there’s a deep seated belief that it’s expected to do the same for other people. Unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily apply to first-time PAs. The problem is that there’s an incredibly high rate of first-time PAs coming on set, and going, “HOLY CRAP! I have to work HOW many hours?!?” And, then walking off the picture. Not really very professional, or smart for that matter. Anyway, because of that Production Managers are a little wary of first-timers.

Now that you have the necessary info under your belt, we can begin my tale. I received a phone call from my cousin — my “in” in Hollywood — a little over a week ago. He was like, “you busy Tuesday the 18th?” I was like, “no, I’m unemployed.” He was like, “cool, how about an interview at 10:00am?” I was like, “yeah, I can do that.” And, he was like, “alright, call me when you get close on Tuesday.”¹

So, today, I set my alarm for 6:30am, and was out the door by 7:15am. Arriving at Disney Studios in Burbank, CA an hour early, I judiciously decided to cruise down Alameda Street to Starbucks and give my cousin a call. He told me to come on into the studio and he’d introduce me to people and maybe get me into interviews sooner if people had time. I drove down and parked across the street from Walt Disney Studios. After a little snafu with security, they let me in and and met one of people who works under my cousin, I call him: Dave from Accounting².

Dave from Accounting met me on the ground floor of the Frank Wells building just inside the Disney lot, my cousin was on a conference call, so he asked Dave from Accounting to show me around the production offices of Race to Witch Mountain and take me to the people I was interviewing with. He introduced me to the 2nd Assistant Director, and I had a five minute meeting with her, and then to the 2nd Unit 2nd Assistant Director, and I had a five minute meeting with him. Dave from Accounting then took me back to my cousin, who was off his conference call. I thanked Dave from Accounting and said good bye to him. My cousin and I chatted for a few minutes and then I was off.

I headed back to Riverside, and upon arriving back around noon, promptly went to Riverside Thai Cuisine, because it’s really good, and I was really hungary. I ordered the Pepper Steak Lunch Special, number five, with soup and and a Thai Iced Coffee to go. While waiting for my food, my cousin called and was like, “hey, so the Holler Sheet was just printed and guess what.” I was like, “What?” This is where I’m going to insert a little text for suspense and clarification, but mostly suspense. First of all, the Holler Sheet, this is the “industry” name for the movie’s call sheet, it’s phone directory. Anyway, that’s enough suspense, he was like, “well, I just opened it up and low and behold your name and number are in here.” So, I was like, “Really?!? Wow! That’s great!” And he was like, “yeah, I talked to the 2nd Wnit 2nd AD and he was very impressed with you.”

So, my that is my update. I am an alternate PA for Race to Witch Mountain. So, I’m rather excited. Also, now that I’ll have a movie on my resume, it should be a lot easier to get work, so be expecting frequent updates!

¹ For those of you who know my cousin, you’ll know this doesn’t resemble a conversation with him at all. Those of you who don’t know, well, now you do. I only mention this because those of you who know me, might assume this was an accurate recreation of the conversation.

² I call him this because his name is Dave, and he works in accounting.

This movie just came up on my radar tonight. I’m not usually one to get all excited about true-to-life cop dramas, Street Kings looks interesting, but I can get these stories by living in the wrong neighborhoods twenty miles from where I’m currently falling asleep. Granted The Departed wasn’t too bad, but Boston is still another world to me. A good friend of mine, Willwindow, and I were talking about our experiences with stories, and he said something that really resonated with me. I have to paraphrase, but the sentiment was something along the idea of being only attracted to stories that take you somewhere. Basically, I ride the story, willfully dropping myself into it, and so if the story is about something I could experience, realistically, in my own life, I tend to not enjoy my experience with it.

Anyway, enough about me, this film shares a running theme I’ve noticed in cop dramas lately; a bent toward vigilante justice being the only way to get justice. Righteous Kill differs from the ones above by having two very talented actors, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. The feel I get from the trailer is that this film actually has something to say, and isn’t just an angst-ridden statement against authority. Anyway, enjoy…

Many people have dubbed this movie a Matrix rip-off, and it may turn out to be just that. But, I think that there may be some interesting story elements that set Wanted apart and justify the similar effect conventions.