The final week of rigging

This is actually the hardest week. We have a train station platform shot today at night and that's going to be tough. Then we scouted a rooftop location last night (at 1am after work!) and that's going to be tricky too - we shoot that Thursday. I imagine people reading this blog thinking that's what the business is about but this couldn't be further from the truth. On a normal job, we scout dozens of locations in 2 days before the job begins. Scouting a few days before and as happened last week, the day before is unheard of. As one guy put it, this is the best student film we have all been on...

It's funny but word has spread of my interest/ability and I've received 2 calls to be rigging gaffer on 2 other low budget union jobs. I'm quite pleased with that but they conflicted with this job so I couldnt do it. I also think I am jumping on another low budget feature after this week with my friend Nina as her best boy. I thought long and hard about this because I am about to buy a house and it's so busy out there, why trap myself in another low budget thing? But loyalty and friendship calls and she's a good friend.

Still, don't think I wasn't torn when I had to turn down a job on 'Gossip Girl' yesterday - a tv show which is going till December and will pay almost triple what I'm getting on Nina's job.

The hardest part of freelancing isn't about the erratic pay or the random Wednesday I have off, or working Sundays like it's any other day. It's trying to sift through priorities and making choices for jobs. Take the big job and make good money and meet older union guys and work my way through the system as a cog in the system? Or stay with my friends who are coming up with me and working the smaller jobs with a better credit on my resume and making less money...