Middle of Crew Drills!

We're officially half-way through Crew Drills (which have now become known, once again, by their normal, actual name, of Crew Drills), and they are incredible. Tiring, yes. Foot-hurting, absolutely. But incredible, nonetheless. 

Yesterday I didn't blog, because I was exhausted. I was out like a light by 11:00, and I couldn't be bothered to type anything. I didn't even open my computer. 

Anyway, to fill you in, yesterday I got to act in a scene about a woman who was in love with a giant cigarette. So, that was cool. If your definition of cool is "extremely weird" and "incredibly ridiculous." 

I had fun, though. I got to act like I was in a soap opera, which is actually one of my favorite things and lifelong dreams. 

Not really.

But it was really fun. I had to say, "Get out. I don't need you anymore!" in a very dramatic, daytime soap way. And that was very, very fun. All of my lines were like that. So dramatic. Unfortunately, there was no fake face-slapping. That was the only thing off about the scene.

That, and the presence of a man dressed up as a cigarette. 

Yesterday I was also a gaffer (the light person), which I was actually dreading and terrified to do. It turned out to be really fun, though. I felt hardcore, carrying all kinds of lights and flags and stands. We had a massive light, a 2.5k HMI that mimics sunlight that we had to put up, and I had to stand on a ladder just to aim it. And then, we wrapped the scene late, so we had to wrap to the Grip Truck really quickly. Me and the grip, Nia, rocked it, and wrapped up so fast. We were sweating so badly by the time it was over. People were impressed. Go us.

I was also producer on set yesterday, which consisted of me sitting at craft and eating and talking to a second year from Minnesota. Go north!

Today was really fun. I started off the day as First Assistant Director, which is the person who runs the set. As 1st AD, my job was to make sure we were on schedule and to get everyone to get the shots off in time. It was really fun. Once again, it made me feel like I was in NAE, which is always nice. It's nice to know that something I had a lot of fun with for four years helped a lot in my future endeavors. For real, though. I'm not being sarcastic.

Anyway, it was super cool, cause you get to say things like: "Lock it up, we're going for sound!" and "How long til you can strike those lights?" and the Gaffer will say, "10 minutes," and you'll say, "can you try for five? I need them on in five." And they do. Or they don't. But they try.

And it's really great. And you get to talk in the walkie a lot, and just talk, period. So that's always fun.

My second job today was second assistant camera, the person who gets to make up the slate and do other stuff, like wear rolls of cool neon tape around your belt loop and tape camera focus marks and actor marks. But the most exciting thing is making the slate and slating it. I felt like an actual movie maker. Screw the Red Epic camera. Give me a slate, and I'm good to go. Yay, film school.

Finally, I got to do sound today. Booming! Yes! And I still love it. I just feel so cool. And I am obsessed with the fact that the boom mic makes things so much louder. It's really fun to stand there and eavesdrop with your cool headphones on. For real.

I was very happy today, because at all of my positions I was told I did very well, which is always nice to hear. It's weird, because I always feel like I don't know what I'm doing. So it's nice to know that maybe I do.

Our mentors are second year students, and they're really great. They're so helpful and they know so much, and I'm just so excited to know that by December, we'll know as much as they do. Well, ok, like a third of what they do. But still. We'll sound smarter.