So Poor I Can’t Even Pay Attention

Posted on March 4, 2009

I was on a shoot with a basketball theme. Some jackass executive starring in his own vanity project. We were to make this guy appear to be playing with the Lakers. We had an impressive night at the local university coliseum with a dozen extras in Laker uniforms, cheerleaders too. We also had about a hundred extras in the stands. The next day was green screen work back at the studio. We attempted a slam drunk with a wire rig. The previous night we had employed trampolines. We were lucky no one got killed. For one shot, the director and I were passing the ball in a circuit to the Vice president. A momentary lapse in concentration resulted in my getting hit in the face with a basketball. The director completely beaned me in the head full force. It was damn funny.

Pay attention.

That night in the coliseum I overheard mutiny on the microphones. That time I was paying attention. I had wired the three executives for sound and while they were awaiting completion of a setup, they remarked about the time it was taking to make progress in the shoot. The second responded with a derogatory remark about our studio’s professionalism (compared with what they were used to working with back in Hollywood.) The third executive mm-hmmed in agreement. I couldn’t let this insult to our character go unanswered, so I told the producer what I had heard. I told him not to give any indication what his source was. Just inform them about what time investment a proper shooting schedule will logistically require, and how efficient we were running. Because, we were. We were getting a lot accomplished very quickly. So he marches right over to them and states how the audio guy overheard them trash-talking us. I literally ducked under my audio cart as they looked around for me. He threw me under the bus. The producer assumed that, since the four of them were on the other side of the coliseum, I wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation. He forgot that those three were wearing wireless lavalieres. That’s how I heard them in the first place. And then his explanation about our shooting progress was worthless.

I should have paid more attention to whom I could trust.

When I would work crew for that producer and he would direct, he had this odd practice of not paying attention to the performances. He would allow take after take to commence with huge flaws unseen in the shot.

I had to pay attention for him, but didn’t have the authority to fix such problems.

Some personnel from another department came to use our equipment. They were right to complain about how old it was. Considering that the entire industry was in this new digital format we didn’t have, why didn’t we have any of that new equipment, especially since it was so inexpensive. (Specifically, they wanted to shoot on cards, not tape.) I said, yes, I had planned to replace it, but I’ve lost my budget for the year, it wasn’t approved. Therefore, I can solve your problem if you help solve mine: go to management and, as clients, demand this service which will be logically funded through my budget. So, they went to management and bitched about cards and tape. Said I had sent them up there. 

I had not payed attention. If I had, I would have realized they were idiots who knew nothing of politics and lobbying.

Gossip and political espionage. If you’re going to play. You have to pay attention to what you say and whom you say it to. It reminds me of what Sydney Greenstreet said in The Maltese Falcon, “Well, sir, here’s to plain speaking and clear understanding. I distrust a closed-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking’s something you can’t do judiciously unless you keep in practice. I’m a man who likes talking to a man who like to talk.”

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