I Got a Job! Part II

I've got a new job and it feels great. Today was my third day working on the indie film "The Ultimate Gift", which stars James Garner and had at one point hoped to cast James Earl Jones as his best friend. It's shooting here in Charlotte, has a budget much bigger than that of "The Dog Days of Summer", and looks to have a great crew working on it.

I myself have been upgraded from lowly PA (Production Assistant) to highly regarded PA (Props Assistant)! Now, instead of doing all the crap work for the entire crew and production staff, I do all the crap work only for the props department, which is comprised of the Props Master, the Assistant Props Master, and me, the Props Assistant, or Third Props... Guy.

It's really not bad at all, despite my use of the vernacular "crap". The days fly by, working on the props truck. Unlike being a PA, where I rush in the morning, get things set up, then sit around all day until it's time to take things down- a time I dread because I always end up doing more work than most, running film to the airport or taking all the garbage bags to a nearby dumpster- my day as a props assistant is filled with numerous tasks that are both time-consuming and somewhat mindless.

Most of my day is spent in the Prop Truck doing assorted jobs like taking some newly bought rope, stretching it out to get the kinks out, then "aging" it by wetting it down and pulling it through some mud.

Or I have to scrape off all the price tags with Goo Gone from some cheap cups and plates that are supposed to be used by poor Ecuadorians. Or I take all the props I'm given and organize them in the truck by placing them in certain bins, labeling them "Flashlights and phones" or "Juices" (used to make fake tea and whiskey), or "Office Supplies", "Colorful Dinnerware", and "Fabrics: Bandannas and Poor People's Clothes".

It may not sound like much, but after they've asked me to organize the tools, drill holes in the floor so I can screw in bolts to lock the gun safe to the floor of the truck, and yes I *did* say gun safe, the tasks add up and end up taking a good portion of the day to finish.

So, for you violently inclined, we do have a gun safe on board, which we picked up yesterday, to hold the firearms we are going to use in tomorrow's shoot. Today I handled some AK-47s and Uzis as they were placed in the safe. My dad owns a few guns, but none of them are machine guns, so it was strange to hold the same weapons gang-bangers and militias use to kill people. Just like they do in the movies too.

Working in the Prop Department has been very beneficial for me. For one, the pay is infinitely better. For twosies, the two guys I work with, despite having worked on numerous Hollywood movies and shows (the Prop Master is from H-Dub, the Assistant from Wilmingon), they are both very grounded and both very cool.

After working on three movies and many commercials with directors from either NY or LA, I've come to realize there are two types of people in this industry. There is the type of guys who look to you as an adopted son, a fresh, young, naive face that reminds them of how they used to be just when they were starting out, so they are kind to you and show you the ropes. They become your mentor.

Then there is the other kind of crew member, the kind of guy that is disgruntled and upset with his job, the kind that is bitter about being a Second Assistant Director or something of the like, the kind that sees you as a threat, some young punk that thinks he is better than he is, someone that is vying for his job.

Luckily, the two guys I am working with are of the former and not of the latter, as I felt some of the people on the Will Ferrel movie were.

But the Prop Guys are great. Randy, the Asst.Prop Master from Wilmington treats me like a student and teaches me everything I don't know as we go through the day. Thanks to him and Dan, the Master, I am not afraid to ask questions about things I don't know for fear the boss-man might think I'm not qualified enough for the job. The last thing I want them to do is regret hiring me.

As proof of their good character, they did not fire me yesterday even though I showed up an hour late for work. To show up late in the movie industry is career suicide. People are fired instantly for that sort of behavior because if you show up late to a movie shoot, and you are very important as I'd like to think I am now, you can severely delay the production because you aren't there to help and someone has to pick up your slack and do their own difficult job at the same time.

*As a side not, I'm not usually late to jobs, but for some reason, I managed to sleep through my alarm for two hours. I don't know if I set the alarm for PM instead of AM, or if I turned the alarm off in my sleep. All I know is I did set the clock the night before but jumped out of bed in a panicked frenzy when I realized I had majorly screwed up.

Now yes, Dan did tell Randy to start looking for someone else in case I was unreliable, but Randy likes me and reprimanded me as a disappointed mentor would, reminding me that I'm getting paid very well (Union wages!) for an easy job as opposed to yelling at me and making me feel like a stupid toddler before telling me they wouldn't need my services the following day.

Anyone else and I would have been fired. The Will Ferrel movie? Fired. Maybe I just lucked out because the guys really really needed my help that day.

Anyway, my laundry is almost done (we need clean blankets for the actors tomrrow), and I'm getting up at 5AM to make sure I'm early for tomorrow's shoot which takes place in the Ecuadorian jungles of North Carolina, so I should expect to get very wet and very muddy by 8AM at least.

And I never went to go buy some workboots like I planned. I should be looking pretty attractive come tomorrow.

--Cbake

PS: Mark Freiburger is editing "Dog Days" at The Film Foundry, the same company where the production offices for "Ultimate Gift" is located, so today while picking up call sheets, schedules, and maps, I stopped by to check out how editing was going. He and his editor John-o showed me a trailer they cut for the film. And it looks... GREAT. They should be giving me a copy to show friends and family by next week. If I can somehow leak it online, I'll let you guys know.

Don't Anger the Locals

And Don't Touch the Wildlife

Not having an internet connection has become detrimental to my writing process with this blog. No longer do I have much time to think of my next post because inspiration and . And no longer do I have the opportunity to write a first draft of a blog to reread and fix later.

My access to the internet is so rare that I have precious little time to come up with an idea for a new post and type it, proofread it, and edit it before I have to go home. And that annoys me; every posting I've made since I lost my internet access has felt rushed to me.

So this evening, while babysitting at my aunt's, wondering what topic to write my newest post on because my blog was long overdue, inspiration fell out of the sky and angrily slapped me in the face.

I got an instant message from a screenname I didn't recognize with the simple yet friendly greeting of "Who is this?"

I check his profile and see the standard "I LOVE YOU ____!" message that couples in love usually put up to show the interweb world they care about each other. Now the name in the blank space is a rare one for a girl, and I know of only one person with that name (who shall remain anonymous to protect the innocent). That one person is getting married next year, and I assumed this guy was her fiance and had found my screenname on her buddy list and was checking out all the names he didn't recognize.

So I responded and asked who he was, feeling pretty sure he was my friend's fiance, a guy I've met on a few occasions.

He responds "a guy from the 'town time left out'".

Oh. He must mean Edenton. He doesn't sound that happy and friendly anymore, does he?

He continues: "you know Edenton the town u trashed on ur web site".

Yeah. Definitely not happy.

Well, I take the bait and talk to the guy to see what he's so upset about, but I'm more impressed with the fact that he was able to find my blog (I don't know what he would have had to google to find it).

He says he doesn't appreciate what I said about his town and that "half of it is bs".

Well for one thing, I think if only half and not most of it is BS, then that's a pretty good record for a blogger. And for another, he never states what it is exactly I wrote that he's so upset about.

I apologize to him:

Cbake1369: "Well I apologize if you didn't like what I said. I wrote that probably 2 months ago. And what I wrote was either what I observed or what was told to me by someone who lived there. It was never meant to be disrespectful. Or for that matter read by anyone from Edenton."

I tell him I receieved an email from someone who was born and raised in Edenton and had stumbled across my blog. She thought it was hilarious and true, everything I had said.

His defense- "well she must not have been from here".

I find the post he responded to on my blog, one which he mistakenly thought was my newest update, and realize its the STD post ("Little Known Facts About Edenton"). Sorry, but when I hear that rumor from more than one person, from people who are from the town, I'll post it. But I'll still stay respectful and mention "...Or so I hear", because that's what it is, a rumor, even if it was spread by people in Edenton (and to the John Holmes High student who responded to that post "don't believe everything you hear", thank you for adding a rebuttal from the other side).

From here on out, I'll just repost the conversation and comment where I feel the need to. Again, his name has been changed to protect him from spam.

Edenton_Guy: "you had no business putting the things that you did out there on the web"

Cbake1369: "I apologized to you"
Cbake1369: "But my experiences are my business"

Edenton_Guy: "well if your business is going to be like that then it needs to be somewhere besides edenton bc we arnt the type town to deal with it"

Cbake1369: "May I ask what in particular you are upset about?"
Cbake1369: "I can't remember everything I wrote"

Edenton_Guy: "im not tryin to be disrespectful with this but the whole thing"

Oh good! Maybe this won't turn into an argument afterall.

Cbake1369: "no I understand. I dont want to be disrespectful or offensive either"

Edenton_Guy: "you lied about us not having a mcdonalds"

Wait. First off- you guys *have* a McDonalds? I completely missed it. Unless it's across from the Burger King, which I HAD established the town does have, though not in the historic part.

Cbake1369: "Wait- you guys do have a McDonalds?"
Cbake1369: "that wasnt a lie"
Cbake1369: "I didnt know you had one"

Edenton_Guy: "see you posted things that you didnt even take the time to check out"

So, just because I never saw one, it was my intention to create a bold-faced lie about the presence of a McDonalds in their town in an attempt to disrespect them? That does sound a tad ridiculous, doesn't it?

Edenton_Guy: "edenton isnt that big while you were finding all the not so great things then you should have looked around to see what we did have"

I explain that the reason I mentioned the lack of McDonalds was to give my readers who have never visited Edenton an impression of how small the town is, of how its the kind of community that doesn't like corporations in the thick of it all.

Cbake1369: "I dont even like McDonalds"
Cbake1369: "everyone recognizes it"
Cbake1369: "they're in Africa even"

Edenton_Guy: "thats right we dont really want a wal-mart"

Again, I explain that I think that's a great reason, that Wal-Mart's business practices in small towns stink, and the only reason I ever mentioned its lack was to show readers what Edenton is like, NOT to "talk smack" about it.

Edenton_Guy: "but did u look at the great stores that we had downtown that keeps our town up and running"

Yes. Of COURSE we did. We shot in many of them. We bought supplies from many others. We walked by them everyday.

Cbake1369: "Yes I did"
Cbake1369: "And I met and worked with many great people who were extremely helpful"

Allright, I think I may be winning him over...

Edenton_Guy: "u took every bit of good that we ever had and ripped it apart"

... Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa. Now he's skipped from point C to V. Jumping to conclusions. Making unfounded accusations. At this point I almost lose my temper. To accuse me of ripping the goodness of their town apart is almost too much, especially after ALL the great things I said about the town.

But he continues, responding to my mentioning that I worked and met with many great people.

Edenton_Guy: "i didnt read that"
Edenton_Guy: "where was that at "

Cbake1369: "Okay, now I don't want to accuse you of jumping to conclusions "
Cbake1369: "But I did no such thing"
Cbake1369: "ripping apart all of your good qualities "

Edenton_Guy: "well you go back and read what you wrote and tell me what good qualitites you put in there bc i didnt read anything but harsh things about how we didnt have a mcdonalds or a starbucks"

Please, dear reader, you go back and read what I said. Did that seem harsh at all to you? (Under "The Town that Time Forgot").

Cbake1369: "Thats not meant to be harsh"
Cbake1369: "Like I said, it's to give readers an impression about how small it is "
Cbake1369: "Again, I apologize if it wasn't clear enough"
Cbake1369: "If I wanted to insult your town, I think it would have been more obvious or hurtful"
Cbake1369: "But I have no reason to do so"

At this point, I find a quote from "Town that Time Forgot".

Cbake1369: blog quote- "It's like a Norman Rockwell painting here in Edenton. There are no corporations. No Wal-Marts, no Starbucks, no Subways or McDonalds. Just lots of big houses, a tiny main street, families, and racism."

Really. Does THAT sound so harsh and disrespectful? Anyone? Bueller? I didn't compare it to Mayberry. Just disregard the racism mention (a topic he never brought up, by the way).

Cbake1369: "Norman Rockwell is considered one of the greatest artists portraying Americana"
Cbake1369: "thats a compliment to your town, not an isult"
Cbake1369: "*insulr"
Cbake1369: "damn, insult "
Cbake1369: blog quote- "So far, the town has welcomed the film crew very warmly, offering to help us in any way they can. "

So I did what he asked. I found the passages he thought were disrespectful, the ones in which I did praise the town, and I start looking for more. But he makes one last response.

Edenton_Guy: "i think you and I hope you have no reason to come back bc what you said was rude and disrespectful to the people who live here"

And then he signs off. He's gone. I guess my evidence wasn't good enough for him, or he didn't have anything to refute, so he left. Angry too, no doubt, for which I am sorry. As I explained to him, I have no reason to be disrespectful to the town of Edenton. If I wanted to, what would be the logic in that?

The truth is, I DO have to go back to Edenton to shoot some pickups. Now I have to worry about this guy spreading rumors that some of the film crew hated the town and have been blasting it on the internet (totally untrue), and I also worry that the town won't welcome us when we return. I'm sure he's going to send this blog to others from Edenton, and it's my hope that they see my posts for what they were: the simple observations of one visitor who tried to paint a picture of the town with words for all those who haven't visited it.

Why would I want to anger the town that has helped us so much? Why, as an online representative of all of them, would I want to paint our film crew in a bad light?

That would be dumb, immature, and unprofessional.

And I'd like to think I'm the complete opposite of all those adjectives above.

So to you, Edenton_Guy, I believe I've apologized enough, and when you return to my blog, I hope you read the evidence with a clear mind and see my true intentions. And for every other Edentonite (is that correct?) out there, I hope you appreciate what I said like the one who emailed me did.

But Edenton_Guy, more thanks to you for giving me something to write about tonight. I needed that.

--Cbake

When it rains, it pours

Tuesday, Sept. 26

Worked the Will Ferrell NASCAR movie tentatively titled "High Wide and Handsome". Did extras wrangling for 200 people. Saw Will Ferrell coming out of his trailer. Saw John C. Reilly at lunch. Almost bumped into Andy Richter with my lunch tray as we tried to go in and out of the same door. Didn't enjoy it. Stood all day out in the sun away from set. Got burned pretty badly. Got numbers from some girls, but I don't need them. Didn't learn anything. Doesn't matter that it was a Hollywood movie or not, I was still standing outside away from all filmmaking.

Wednesday, Sept. 27

Decided to work one more day despite me saying I wouldn't the day before. I had dinner plans with Jennifer at my grandmothers and didn't want to break them. Also planned to watch "LOST" but knew I'd be late if I decided to work. Got to know more of the extras and crew. Had a better time the second day but still wouldn't really want to do it again. Got to see some filmmaking outside. Saw the actor who plays "Ali G". John C. Reilly was late to set. Had the creator of "Freaks and Geeks", "Undeclared", and the director of "40 Year Old Virgin" ask me whether or not they were shooting inside when I was locking down the front doors. Was momentarily dumbfounded when I realized Judd Apatow was talking to me and didn't answer him right away. I went on a run to make 120 copies at Kinko's when filming ended but wasn't given enough money to pay for it. Jennifer went ahead to my grandmother's without me while I tried to finish up. I got to see just the second half of "LOST" and we had dinner at 9:30. Glad I worked two days. Now I can put it on my resume and maybe get into the credits. My shoes ate holes in the heels of my socks and gave me blisters.

Thursday, Sept. 29

Worked a commercial for DuPont and Tyveck Home Wrap with Jeff Gordon. Enjoyed the shoot because the director/DP likes to shoot fast, doesn't care about airplanes and cars for sound, and he finished the commercial before lunch. Went on a run for M&Ms and M&M dolls afterwards and still had to hang around until 5 because a photo shoot was going on. Got caught in an extremely fast and full downpour as I was taking away trash and pulling up signs. Got completely soaked and then took film to the airport. Jeff Gordon is short and has graying hair.

Friday, Sept. 30

Worked two more Charlotte Bobcats commercials, part of the same ad campaign I worked three weeks ago with Sean May and Raymond Felton. This time the first half of the day was shot uptown with Emeka Okafor. I didn't get to see much filming because I was locking down the set around the corner, keeping townies from walking into the shot. It was cold. Darn weather keeps changing its mind. Didn't get to have a proper lunch because I was told to go to Pike's Soda Shop (our second location) and start blocking off parking spots with cones for crew when they arrive. Ate some awesome honey and pecan fried chicken sporadically while saving parking spots. Nearly averted a disaster involving the RV we use for makeup/costuming, the catering van, and the director's car when we ran out of subsequent parallel parking spaces for the RV to pull into. I got lucky, figured it out, and looked good in front of everyone. Shot the commercial inside with some 7 foot tall European guy named Primoz. I locked down the set outside. The 1st AD from Asheville liked me, and he's in the DGA. Asked if I was opposed to going up to Asheville to work, told him no, so I hope to hear from him soon. Got asked to drive the camera back to Atlanta on monday but luckily I got out of it.

Saturday, Oct. 1

Didn't work. Hung out with Jennifer all day. She cooked us some awesome pasta with pesto sauce for a romantic dinner at home. I told her it tasted great but made the stupid mistake of ruining the mood by saying some of the noodles were hard. I slap my forehead internally and apologize profusely. We go see "The Corpse Bride". Tim Burton rocks. Danny Elfman rocks. The movie rocks but leaves me wanting more. Feels short. Great companion piece to "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Very well done. Awesome imagery. Great company. Lovely piano tunes. I want more songs like that.

Sunday, Oct. 2

Was asked at the last minute by someone I've never worked with before to drive up to Greensboro to drop off a casting DVD. I thought I'd have to do it earlier, but she called later than she said she would. I was afraid I wouldn't get home in time to watch "The Simpsons". My car was still in the shop, but I had my father's car, but he was coming back into town that afternoon and wanted to pick it up. Luckily, the coordinator who asked me to do this trip let me use her car. My dad called and wanted to get dinner at 7 PM, but I didn't think I'd get home until closer to 7:30. Left Charlotte at 3:45 PM. Got back to Charlotte at 6:50 PM. Spent half an hour talking on the phone and waiting for details in Greensboro. I think that's great time. I get home, call my dad and hope to meet him for dinner at 7, but he never calls back. Just shows up after 9 to pick up the car. I call Jennifer and hope to watch "Simpsons" and "Family Guy" with her, but she has other plans and doesn't call back until 10. I sit on the couch for a few hours and vege out.

--Cbake

PS: I turned on Word Verification when you leave a comment to prevent these blasted spammers from ruining what respect my blog has left. Blasted spammers. They beat me to it.