My first proper on set experience

MileCreations

MileCreations

For the next week I am being a runner on a short film which is significantly more professional then anything I have ever been involved with. While I have been on my own 'sets' before they have consisted of mostly skilled (and un skilled) friends with an extreme skeleton crew and myself falling into a number of the roles.

Anyway I thought I would document each day here, see if any others have advice and perhaps help give a small insight to other people at an earlier stage in their film making journey.



Day 1 (Friday) - Runner / sound logging

Firstly I got the role through going to a 3rd year film school (and masters etc) crewing night as encouraged by forum member jax_rox. As I currently live two hours from the major city, I signed up to shoots that were planning a more rural location, hopefully closer to me, so I ended up only signing up to 3 projects. Basically I walked up to them, introduced myself, said I was interested in healing out and explained my location situations and all that. Well only one director got back to me and that's the shoot I'm on now!

About a week ago I got basic times and locations but no call sheet until yesterday midday. The call sheet in itself was a learning opportunity! One or two abbreviations I didn't know (ie MOW: make own way) a quick search helped me a lot.

So I had to help a prop guy get his stuff so this meant leaving my house at 6am. Got to this insanely run down house but full of crazy props and expensive paintings and such, with an interedting and cool owner. We stacked up some stuff and headed to the location. We were about 15minutes earlier than anybody else. The cast and crew rocked up in four cars and a bus between 8.30 and 9ish. I introduced myself / the introduced themselves to me with about a third of the crew at first meeting, and slowly met more of the 25-30 over the rest of the morning. One awkward introduction consisted of
Dude: Brendan
Me: yes, er
Dude: *confused expression*
Me: oh are you Brendan? I'm Brendan too!
Basically the way he introduced himself I thought he already knew who I was.

First I helped set up the dressing room and food table and power and all that (on location) and then headed to the producer, I was then handed down to the first AD, next gaffer and then finally a grip who I helped reorganize the rental van with the lighting equipment and camera boxes. Enter first decent find out about a person chat with the grip.

When we got started filming I was given the role of filling out a sound log for each take and the time code and such. This is when I came as close to a Red as I have ever been :P as the filming day went on it turns out that 3 16GB cards are really really inconvenient when it comes to using a Red.

Because I was the runner I was also sent down the hill to the set up area numerous times to get random things or take them back.

Finally when I was nearing to leave I was asked to drop somebody off at a train station which was kind of the opposite direction to my house, so my journey home was just under 3 hours rather than just over 1 hour.

At the end of the day I would say they I know a out 4 of them to a good point, knowing the name of probably at least 85% of the crew too.

Tomorrow is the day off and I have a 15:00-23:00 shoot on Sunday.
 
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I just want to quickly follow up on a few things I've learnt on the two films I've crewed on since. In the middle of my second shoot I got asked to work on a third, again from a crew member (first AD) from the first shoot.

The second shoot I was a runner again however I also after a few days became the data wrangler (which surprisingly seems to be a lacking skill despite the simplicity). I was also a part time grip, part time best boy, crowd control (hated crowd control :P) and for one scene I was an extra getting bashed (keen to see that footage!)

This was another great group of people to work with (about 2 or 3 I knew from the first and that was it) and again I made quite a few friends. This shoot was much different to the first, the first being a period drama, this one being an action comedy about when the police go on strike and the prevailing mayhem and the moral choices of an already rebelling young adult. This shoot required a lot of coordination as there were cars, windows and bottles being smashed and extras who had to riot and scream abusive comments about the police. There were safety guys on set pretty much every day actually due to the various stunts (and replica weapons) that we had. Was pretty fun to be involved with and I can't wait to see the film. The biggest thing that I won't be missing is a vegan diet each day, I need my meat aye :yes:

Every day basically was a 6:30AM or 7:00AM start. I actually liked this as it gave you time to do something in the evening. rather than a 9:00AM start at getting home at 10:00PM with barely enough time to exist.



Third shoot was much different to the other two. I told a few people on the last few days of shoot two about who the director was for shoot 3 and thats when the interesting comments came in. Basically the verdict was the sets are mayhem but the end result looks good. Well I got home at 3am this morning and this was totally true. I 2nd ACed for this whole shoot and data wrangled for most days, so this meant I was extremely busy running back and worth between unit and the set ready to slate and read to copy the next backup. We were shooting 4k onto 16GB cards which was only like 8min of footage a card so when we did extra long scenes we could only get 2 or 3 takes. We also got up to card 58, just for a short film.

The crew worked together well and a professional gaffer in the industry for at least 30years had tonnes of advice for me and a few of the other less experienced crew members. He helped keep the set together moving it along and everything. The most frustrating thing about this set was not knowing what was going to happen next. On one day we got the call sheet one hour before call time. I need to wake up two hours before in order arrive on time (approx 1 1/2 public transport). Fortunately I had woken up earlier and happened to go on my Facebook and saw a message. Often the call sheets also had not been edited from previous days so some times were not accurate. Lunch a few days ago was at 5:30PM.... (and that was after having been on set since 11:00AM). Interesting experience anyway!!

All these shoots have been shot on the RED One. This third one I also got taught a few things about it such as cleaning the lens, unmounting the card, actually turning it on ( :o ;) ) and about a bunch of the inputs. Also, shotbags are now much lighter than they used to be...
 
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This thread is fantastic. Thank you Mile for writing about the details the way you are doing it. I feel like I'm right there with you. This was an exciting and educational read.

Keep writing more of these. You have a knack for keeping things interesting and exciting.

did you take the beer?
 
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trueindie said:
This thread is fantastic. Thank you Mile for writing about the details the way you are doing it. I feel like I'm right there with you. This was an exciting and educational read.

Keep writing more of these. You have a knack for keeping things interesting and exciting.

did you take the beer?
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Oh thank you :)

I will keep writing these as I go on more sets. Nothing lined up in the next few weeks though anyway.

What beer?
 
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MileCreations said:
The biggest thing that I won't be missing is a vegan diet each day, I need my meat aye :yes:
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Probably one of my biggest pet peeves on set - which is why I've taken to stating 'preference to meat' when asked about dietary requirements.

We were shooting 4k onto 16GB cards which was only like 8min of footage a card so when we did extra long scenes we could only get 2 or 3 takes. We also got up to card 58, just for a short film...
All these shoots have been shot on the RED One. This third one I also got taught a few things about it such as cleaning the lens, unmounting the card, actually turning it on ( :o ;) ) and about a bunch of the inputs. Also, shotbags are now much lighter than they used to be...
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Ah the ol' RED Prototype/One. What a strange camera. 58 cards is not uncommon, I recently filled up ~30 cards on a short shooting 2K ProRes 4444 on Alexa. Wrangling as 2nd AC is also not uncommon, though I like to bring in dedicated wranglers because it's a lot of work on top of the 2nd AC's duties. Usually productions see it as a luxury they can't afford unless they have a proper budget..

Gotta say, I hate the RED One as an AC. It's so difficult and the menu system is probably the most unintuitive menu I've ever encountered (bar perhaps that of the Sony F5/55).
 
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cheeseandachallenge said:
Vegan catering on sets is standard?
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Not really, though many low budget sets contain vegans and production sometimes skimp out on catering to everyone (i.e. easier/cheaper to prepare one meal, versus two/many) to the detriment of non-vegans.
Happen more often than one might like unfortunately.

On sets with professionals where this happens, some key HODs sometimes kick up a bit of a fuss (i.e. DP, Gaffer) to the right people and this gets fixed. It's all well and good for the vegan Art Dept. or PA's to get a good meal, but if the Gaffer, Grips and/or Camera crew aren't getting fed right, then it can be dangerous - that's not to say that Gaffers and Grips aren't or can't be vegans, but it certainly seems less common than other departments, and they're generally the ones doing the heavy lifting.
 
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As a vegan it doesn't sound like a bad deal to me - obviously :P. But I've always bought meat meals for those who I'm working with (Students, so pizza is always cheap and welcomed) even though I personally don't agree with it, I'm not going to impose my values on someone else. Though they must be pretty crappy vegan meals? It's not that hard to make a vegan meal that covers everything someone would need (apart from just the enjoyment one might get from eating meat).
 
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jax_rox said:
On sets with professionals where this happens, some key HODs sometimes kick up a bit of a fuss (i.e. DP, Gaffer) to the right people and this gets fixed. It's all well and good for the vegan Art Dept. or PA's to get a good meal, but if the Gaffer, Grips and/or Camera crew aren't getting fed right, then it can be dangerous - that's not to say that Gaffers and Grips aren't or can't be vegans, but it certainly seems less common than other departments, and they're generally the ones doing the heavy lifting.
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The human body can go without food for almost two weeks with no negative effects. The only reason we feel like we need food every day is because we live in a coddled society where we feel entitled to three square meals. I cannot stand to hear complaining about hunger.

This is my opinion and I realise that almost nobody agrees with it ;)
 
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cheeseandachallenge said:
As a vegan it doesn't sound like a bad deal to me - obviously :P. But I've always bought meat meals for those who I'm working with (Students, so pizza is always cheap and welcomed) even though I personally don't agree with it, I'm not going to impose my values on someone else. Though they must be pretty crappy vegan meals? It's not that hard to make a vegan meal that covers everything someone would need (apart from just the enjoyment one might get from eating meat).
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Pizza tends to be an indicator of a bad/inexperienced set/catering! I have less issue with it than others, but there's no denying that it's a 'heavy' meal that certainly makes you feel less excited about continuing after eating it.


NickClapper said:
The human body can go without food for almost two weeks with no negative effects. The only reason we feel like we need food every day is because we live in a coddled society where we feel entitled to three square meals. I cannot stand to hear complaining about hunger.

This is my opinion and I realise that almost nobody agrees with it ;)
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Oh, I'm sure it's not dangerous to the person themselves, but it's certainly against any sort of proper rules and etiquette to not feed people (let alone union rules), plus I'd rather not have the guy who's rigging a 5k above my head pre-occupied because he feels intensely hungry.

Still, if I had to choose, I'd go with no food over finishing overtime and/or a forced call without pay...
 
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jax_rox said:
Pizza tends to be an indicator of a bad/inexperienced set/catering! I have less issue with it than others, but there's no denying that it's a 'heavy' meal that certainly makes you feel less excited about continuing after eating it.
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Oh I agree, but this has only been on my 5 person cast/crew shoots - which generally only last 3-6 hours, and no more than two days. We're all friends, and we all know we have no money, so it's just a token thanks at the end of shooting and is much appreciated! When I have worked with more professional groups (again, still pretty bare bones, and only shooting for 6ish hours) I'll usually make sandwiches and some home baking of sorts to keep us going.

(as a side note, is meat not a "heavy" meal?)

rayw said:
Humans are omnivores.
Teeth and digestive enzymes support this.
Provide appropriate food for humans, not rabbits, not eagles.
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Actually our teeth aren't really too great at breaking down meat - but we don't need to debate the semantics of this. I agree that catering should cover a range of dietry requirements. Though I didn't realise people expected that much meat - in New Zealand there is a lot of stigma about being vegan, but I'd thought that the rest of the world was a bit more progressive in that regard. Moving on.
 
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Didn't expect that small comment to turn into a vegan conversation :P Personally I need my meat, beans don't cut it. In fact after 5 days of beans I was sick of them, as in I had to force myself to eat to a degree.

jax_rox said:
Probably one of my biggest pet peeves on set - which is why I've taken to stating 'preference to meat' when asked about dietary requirements.
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Sounds like an excellent plan, I might actually execute it, I was already thinking about that actually.

trueindie said:
The beer that chic offered you for your cigarettes... :D
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Nah hahahah I don't smoke so I don't even have cigarettes
 
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below is a sample of the menu's for lunch for the last feature i worked on

salads green or caesar meat or vego
fried rice with prawns
steamed vegy's
mashed potato

mains
macadamia chicken gallantine with pear chutney
pasta with white wine, salami chorizo and tomato

vego
vegetable strudel with lime pickle and cheese

cheese platter

desert caramel pecan tart
ice cream and cones


this was the type of lunch we had everyday 6 days a week for 8 weeks
dont get me started on brekky it made lunch look like a snack

i work 12 - 14 hours a day humping around lights, if i am not fed a decent lunch
i load everything back in the truck and go home.

its a little thing called respect

cheers
 
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