I mentioned Desiree in my blog yesterday. Turns out, she has her own blog, where she posted a response. Even though I disagree with her view, it’s a well-written blog, definitely worth reading, and I recommend you all check it out.
Along with her own post, she commented on mine:
I’ve never justified him yelling. It is bad manners.
What I reacted to was to fire him as the first and only solution, instead of talking as grown-ups.
He gave up the right to be treated as a grown up when he threw a hissy fit on set. And a zero-tolerence policy keeps everyone else in line, as well.
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In other follow-up news, AQBemp wrote me about the advice she was given, regarding moving to Canada. I thought I’d share it with you:
Hi TAPA,Went round to have a chat with the UPM yesterday. He advised me that being a runner is something I should try and bypass if possible mainly because the runners on the next film he’s working on are the same ones who were on the last film and they don’t seem to be going anywhere. Sorry if you sometimes feel like that, being a PA and wanting to move on, but that’s how he sees things. He’s given me the email addresses of eight script supervisors that he knows are good, working and might let me shadow them for a few days. He thinks the best thing for me to do is contact them and hope that one of them will let me shadow them. This would help me find out what being on a set is really like and if script supervising is something I would actually enjoy as much as I think I would. He said he probably can’t get me on set of the film he’s just started working on as it’s very secretive. Also he thinks a script supervisor from the US is coming as it’s a half US/UK shot film but if it’s a UK scripty he’ll ask for advice.I found out about one training scheme over here a while ago and he said that applying for that would be the best thing to do. They train one assistant script supervisor a year, to apply you need to have had at least two days on set in the area you are interested in, so I’m hoping one of the script supervisors might let me shadow them. I hope that they are doing the training again this year as I’d really like to apply. It seems really hard to get on to it though, last year 500 people applied for 30 places (out of those 30 only one place is for an assistant script supervisor). Obviously I have no idea how many people apply for each of the different jobs they can train you in but I guess there could easily be around 50 people applying for the script supervisor training.
About Canda, I seem to be thinking I’ll forget about that for now, I did really like Vancouver when I went there and think I’d enjoy living there for a year but if I’m able to shadow a script supervisor over here then I should see if I can apply for the training I was on about. Thanks for your advice though it was useful.
Well, skipping the PA step would obviously be ideal, but to say that the job doesn’t go anywhere is a little strange. Production assisting is the most common way to start out in the business. Maybe it’s different in the UK.
3 Responses
I think that if they had kept him around, with his behavior, everything would have been awkward. It’s preferable to just start fresh with someone else, who doesn’t have that big of an ego.
Thank you kindly for your nice words. You made my day.
Yes, we disagree, but you were on the spot and saw what happened and I respect your feelings. I reacted from my point of view from a different country.
I hope we can be able to share thoughts in the future as well. No hard feelings, I hope.
I’ve been thinking about this and I’ll admit to some mixed feelings. On the one hand, you’ve got some deluded Camera Operator screaming that he’s “the most important person on set”. I guarantee that whether it was public or not, he caught a rash of shit from some other folks who probably resented their newly assigned spots on the food chain.
And I’m not big on zero-tolerance policies. (OK, pull a knife on someone and maybe you shouldn’t get a second chance.) But otherwise, bad behavior happens. I’ve seen it a million times. I can think of a few occasions where I’ve been the guilty party (thankfully not in recent memory). Shit happens and sometimes people react badly.
But the fact is…unless you’re paying all of the bills out of your own personal bank account, you are replaceable . I’ve seen stars replaced. I’ve seen directors replaced. And in one case (where the guy who should have been replaced was the guy paying the bills), I saw an entire crew walk away…forcing him to replace them.
I like the “no jerks allowed” theory, but even without it, karma tends to get its revenge.