The Wait: Day 1 of 2

An independent film production came to Central Oregon this month: The Wait, a drama involving a psychiatrist and a dysfunctional familial relationship. I have the extended logline for it around here somewhere, but I'm not going to look it up right now.

Anyway, I dutifully sent in my resume when I saw the job notice in my e-mailbox. However, I sensed right away I probably would not get hired because I am already scheduled to be out of town the last week of their production calendar. And indeed, I did not hear back from them. Until last week.

I got a call asking if I would be available to be on the crew as a swing between the grip and the electrical departments on Friday the 18th and Monday the 21st. Naturally I said yes.

So on Friday afternoon I headed out past Sisters to the Black Butte Ranch, which is hardly a ranch anymore if it ever was, but rather a high-brow resort complete with lake, golf course, and who knows what else. I checked in, headed through the front gate, and promptly made a wrong turn. But after correcting my error I ended up at the parking lot assigned to crew members.

Due to underestimating the distance from my house, along with weekend traffic consisting of slow-moving RV's and boats, plus the aforementioned wrong turn, I arrived about fifteen minutes later than the official call, so all the crew had already left the parking lot and were at the resort cabin of choice. I grabbed my duffel bag, complete with four varieties of clothing in preparation for the wide mood swings of desert weather in early summer, and headed down the road on foot.

I found the lot number and house in about ten minutes, later learning that the van that passed me three times was the crew shuttle and had the driver known who I was, she would have stopped for me. No worries, the exercise was good for me, and hardly strenuous.

I located Joe Paulet, my immediate supervisor and contact. He's the Best Boy Grip on the production, which in simple terms means he mans the grip equipment truck and delivers what's called for to the Key Grip (Joe Timko), who is the guy in charge of all the grip personnel. And yes, I had two Joe's as my supervisors. A great way for a nervous new guy to step into a working crew and get thoroughly confused.

In the first ten minutes I met more people than I will remember. I got a walkie-talkie and earpiece from a woman I cannot now recall, met the Gaffer (Efram Peter), the Best Boy Electric (Ben Porter), and then person after person after person. I only even remember the few I do because I have the call sheet for the day still in my pocket, with crew names on it.

I was indeed nervous, figuring that this crew had already had four days to get up to speed and get a working relationship going. On top of that, I haven't worked with real film equipment and lingo since 2006 in South Carolina. I was certain that sometime during the day, probably earlier than later, I would end up with egg on my face and a frustrated member of the heirarchy wondering why they bothered to hire me. I am delighted to report that everyone on the crew was very friendly and welcoming, at least as much as they could be given the constant pace of the work ahead of them.

Our first task, already in progress when I arrived, was to black out all the windows of the house so that night interior scenes could be shot during the day. As a "swing" I never really had one supervisor, but was bounced from person to person as the need arose: "Here, help Ben block out these windows, then come find Joe where he's covering over the screen door."

I was re-introduced to the C-stand, the grip's best friend, and met the 4x4 "Floppy" for the first time. The Floppy is a large frame with solid black fabric stretched over it, but unlike an ordinary "flag" it comes with an extra 4x4 flap of cloth that can either be velcroed in place over the main frame or allowed to drop down so that you end up with a 4x8 light-blocking screen.

Other windows were covered with the traditional Duvetyne, a solid black fabric that thoroughly and utterly blocks light from passing through it. And where ordinary black cloth would actually show up on film because it does reflect a significant amount of light, Duvetyne has a matte surface so that it appears as total darkness on film or video. We used a ton of this stuff because the house had entire rooms windowed for a great view of the mountains, which we did not want at this time.

My previous experience has been with film crews so small that once we were done being grips and electricians, we'd then hurry over to be sound engineers and dolly grips for the actual shooting. For The Wait, I was quietly but hurriedly covering the northeast corner of the living room windows when I heard "Cut!" over my walkie-talkie. It was only then that I realized they were already shooting inside and it was a darn good thing I wasn't banging around loudly outside.

Though the whole day was a good learning experience, my creative side is a little disappointed that my job consisted of being outside and grabbing any equipment needed inside. For twelve hours I did not see any of the actual shooting inside, did not get to see the creative process at work between the director, the 1st AD, the cinematographer, or the actors. Not that I would want to erase the day and start over; I'll just have to wait for another time to be a part of the above-the-line team.

I had heard the film was independent and relatively low-budget, so I assumed I wouldn't know anyone involved. Then I took a good look at the call sheet that morning and learned that Jena Malone and Chloe Sevigny were cast members! I will admit to being unable to identify them in a line-up of Hollywood starlets, but I've seen at least two films that each of them has been in. (Look them up yourself, I'm busy.)

So when we broke for "lunch" at 8:00 p.m. and I randomly sat down at a table, I found a certain fascination in seeing Ms. Sevigny sit down just a seat away. (I briefly wondered if I had sat at the higher-ups' table, but I noticed everyone mingling every which way so I didn't get panicky.) I played it calm and cool, not wanting to breach protocol or look like a fool around a "star", though I confess I would have liked to have an autograph. As other crew members sat down we all began conversing. Somehow the conversations led to my experience in Oregon's community theater, and Chloe (the Chloe Sevigny) asked me if I did any acting, to which I said yes, and some directing. She said, "Cool." Yes, the Chloe Sevigny told me my acting experience was "cool". You may have my autograph. (I think Jena Malone was on set that day but I did not see her at lunch and, as I already mentioned, I was not assigned to the set myself.)

Once the windows were blacked out, the day went by in a fairly normal way. We stayed on call, ready to grab a C-stand or a light stand or a cable of some kind. My opportunities to get off my feet were limited to the occasional three or four minutes here and there. I got sore.

Around 2:00 a.m. the shoot wrapped for the night, and we spent the next two hours packing up everything. I won't detail it here. But by 4:00 a.m. I was very grateful to hear that I was free to go while the Key personnel did the last tidying up. I am by nature not an intrusive person, and figuring that they all wanted to get home as well, I did not bother anyone for a ride back to the parking lot. Each step (uphill) was quite painful, and once I was away from all the spotlights, I noticed that the sun was already coming up. A full night outdoors.

I could barely get my left leg into the car, and when I got out at home, the muscles that had been stiffening up during the 45-minute drive all complained loudly. They hurt even now, almost a full day later. I am so glad I did not have two of those workdays in a row.

I go back on Monday, location to be determined, and am looking forward to it.