Thursday, November 17, 2011

Flip The Switch...


Another crazy extended weekend is in the books. Jake's senior pic was sent in to the school for his yearbook, and day three of 'Epic Christmas' wrapped on Tuesday. I even slipped in an impromptu family session for my Sister-In-Law. It seems like it has been non-stop since Friday, so finally having a day off on Wednesday really helped get me back up and going for the fights coming up on Saturday.

I had been looking forward to Jake's session for about a month beforehand. I knew he wanted to do some pics with his hunting gear so I was expecting to get a few cool shots. The one featured above is definitely my favorite out of the entire shoot. Probably less than five minutes later the sun was gone, so time was not my friend while I was trying to work out the exposure.


Next up was working 3 days on the set of Pie Town Production's Epic Christmas in Joplin. It was definitely a change of pace for me to get back to production work. Unfortunately, this gig left me hanging in a weird limbo. I was technically hired as a PA, but every time I do PA work, I rarely do PA work. I usually end up helping the DP or crew more than the producer. This time around, I felt like I was expected to do both, which is fine with me. Unfortunately, the more I tried to assist production, the more I got called back to set up tables for lunch, set up pop-up tents, or rearrange all the gear and tools again. It also felt like, aside from a few tasks, that the crew really didn't need or want me to help with much. And I don't mean they were being rude in any way, I honestly think they were either used to just doing it themselves and not asking for an extra hand, or that they had come across some useless help on the two previous shoots and were better off not asking. Either way, I felt like I did way too much standing around watching, and that always makes me feel useless when I'm on set.

Tim keeping Santa on standby.
A couple of good things did come out of this gig, though. I got to work with three other great PAs who probably know their way around Joplin blindfolded by now. I completely lost track of how many runs they had to go on over the course of three days. They definitely did a great job though. Another cool thing that happened was me getting to throw the switch on the big reveal. Yep, that's right, when the show airs in December and the family sees the lights for the first time, that's me in the backyard flipping the switch... well, there were four breakers, so I guess I should say switches. Anyway, it was a cool little perk. If you think about it, there are only 3 people in the world that can say they threw the switch on a Epic Christmas house, and I'm one of them.

That's all for now, but not for the rest of the year. There are still two jobs left on the calendar between now and 2012 with plenty of time for more to pop up in between, so stay tuned.
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