Imagine a quaint little production office. UPM knows everybody by name, asks them about their weekend and their career ambitions. The Coordinator is keen on being fair when he doles out overtime and permission to wrap it up each evening. The kitchen is stocked with delicious, healthy food. The PAs hurry to and fro, whistling with chipper eagerness to contribute in any way they can.
Now imagine reality.
The UPM doesn’t know your name. The Coordinator is too busy planning her next show to care about what you want to do with your life. The kitchen is stocked with delicious food and with healthy food (but never the twain shall meet). And the whistling?… It’s just plain annoying.
Whistling. Humming. Chewing gum.
You can do any of those things on whatever farm you lived on before you moved to L.A. But trust me when I say that NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR YOU DO IT HERE.
In a way, this speaks to a larger point. A production office can seem pretty relaxed. You spend such long hours there that you start to feel like family. (At the very least, you feel like summer school classmates.) But don’t lose sight of the fact that you’re being paid to be there. And so is everyone else. Those people aren’t your friends. They’re your co-workers and bosses. So make the day go by as pleasantly as possible.
…And that includes not clouding the air with your senseless noise pollution.
One Response
LOL! The first thing I learned in this business:
“DON’T complain and DON’T explain… nobody #$^&%! wants to hear it”
Just starting on the production side but this applies to BOTH sides… the hours are simply too long and full.