New Jersey

Accepted another job as Best Boy on a rock & roll movie. It is a little reminiscent of the movie I rigged in November - Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - in that we are in rock club after rock club. The biggest difference is that the places are all in New Jersey.

What a pain New Jersey is to commute to. The traffic and the distance makes it so unpleasant for me. I don't know if I can last the week, much less 6 weeks.

The Production is not the most organised and the producer is always complaining to me about lack of money and how we have to cut this and that etc etc. I explain nicely all the time that I am the Best Boy, which is the support department. I don't make the decisions, I merely execute and implement. While I hire the guys and equipment, this is a reaction to the orders that come from the Gaffer and the DP. Just cutting off the support department without cutting the lighting order is counter productive. If they really want to size down, then they have to have a chat with the Director of Photography (DP). Of course, the guy they hired has a pretty cool resume so I doubt he's cutting anything! This is the second time I've worked with him and he's like a 50 year old kid.

Anyway, I am juggling all these things the first week not to mention I couldn't prep the job cos I was on another job and so I couldn't tech scout nor do all the important necessary things needed before the job started. It was probably a mistake to do a job I couldn't prep but the gaffer is a friend and he asked me to. The girl that subbed for me is young and not as experienced, he felt she would be overwhelmed. She didn't think so during prep, I could tell by her attitude, but it's day 4 and I think she sees now she wouldn't have been able to deal with the teamsters, the rigging department and Production quite as well. If there is one thing I do well, it's communicate and organise.

But she's learning and I put her on my crew so she can see first hand how to best a job from beginning to end. She cannot help me much but she can see how it should be done (for now, at least - once it falls apart then she can see how it shouldnt be done - either way, she's getting experience) It was hard for me to explain this to her during prep - it's not a specific task that one does, as Best Boy, rather it's what one doesn't do. One doesn't stop thinking and planning and jumping ahead and talking and emailing and sigh...!

A guy I hired for the week is someone I've known for years. It took him a long time to get in the union but he's in now. He rides a Harley and Peter Fonda is on this job also. So he got the Harley signed and I think that's pretty awesome. ("Easy Rider" anyone?)I think about the power actors have on people and I have to wonder. Rob was ecstatic about the bike and I was happy for him. My usual crew is working on an Uma Thurman movie and I did some days on it. The media attention is just incredible.

I call them my usual crew but the truth is I haven't worked with them full time since last summer. We have all done a few days here and there on various projects some of us or all of us but it's been a while we have all been together from start to finish. The way my career is going, I won't see them much now. There is a Best Boy on that crew, John, so there's no real space on that crew for me. I replace him occasionally and I am Rigging Gaffer sometimes but that's it. I can't be just a regular technician on set anymore cos I get too lazy. I also think it's cos I know the gaffer too well and I don't like taking orders from him.

It's probably better since I bought the genny with John that we work on separate projects so we can rent it to different productions. The generator has been working non stop ever since we bought it and will be paid off after this job. Less that 4 months...not a bad return huh?