My old boss used to tell me, “Hollywood is just high school with money.”
This is often especially true of productions, where each department forms its own little clique. The camera department regards the grips and electrics as knuckle-dragging oafs; G&E thinks they’re a bunch of stuck-up snobs. Set PAs think the office PAs are lazy goof-offs who spend their whole day updating Facebook; office PAs think the set PAs are type-A workaholics who would be much happier if they relaxed and updated their Facebook a little.
With the cattiness I see every day, it’s nice to see two departments working in concert with each other.
The other day, we had a scene where something blew up, and the ceiling collapsed. Of course, the ceiling’s made of plywood and canvass, so the rubble had to be created.
While dropping something off at the effects department, I saw a pile of blocks in a barrel. It looked like genuine rubble, and I was surprised at how light the pieces were. I asked how long it took to make them look so realistic.
The coordinator told me, “I have no idea. I told art about how many I needed, and like magic, they’re sitting in my office this morning. Those guys are amazing, aren’t they? I just have to set off the flash pot and drop these on the actors.”
It’d be great if everybody worked together like this.
One Response
I’m a PA as well. Yesterday I was the first one on set, and then had to do some runs on my way home at the end of the day during afternoon rush hour. They asked me to call when I was done before heading home. Well, when I called no one answered. Looks like they wrapped and went home and forgot about me. When I got to work this morning (first one on) there was a message in our voice mail. It was me. Listening to myself at 5AM call in to go home for some reason made me think of you. Hope all is well.