Production Diary: Day 9

This is the day I was two hours late.

For the first week, week and a half of this shoot, our parking situation was in a terrible state. The night the day I was two hours late there was this whole issue with parking the trucks on this dock and I ended up getting back home after 11:00 because I was making sure some other drivers were squared away. The next day, we were shooting in the park, and I was looking at maybe four or five hours of sleep.

Waking up is usually okay for me if before I go to sleep I say to myself "okay, I have to get up at this-and-this time, I'll be asleep for this-and-this many hours." I get in trouble if 1) I am too tired to do the math that lets me know when I need to wake up or 2) I feel I could never reasonably be expected to actually wake up at that time.


That night I set the alarm on my phone, but I didn't put it out of reach, and some time after the alarm rang but before I woke up I managed to turn the alarm off and return to sleep. I woke up well rested and on top of my phone, which was ringing. It was a call from our very level-headed, very long-suffering 2nd AD, who was wondering where the hell I was.

My cousin the revolutionary says there are two first rules of film: 1) eat when food is presented to you; and 1) know your lines and be on time. I've worked as a producer (although I'm not what you might call "qualified" to do so.) I know the importance of rule 1). I knew that this was the first time I really had a decent chance at being fired.

I worked my ass off that day. I'd worked my ass off every day of the shoot before then, but that day all eyes were on me because even though we were short staffed and even though there were a lot of people who hadn't been working as hard as me, it was still a very real possibility that I was going home that night for good. At one point I took a broom and swept six blocks of 5th Avenue. That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about.

I think a lot of people spoke up for me. I don't know for sure. At the end of the day the Line Producer took me aside and said "Do this every day and you can keep working on this film. Fair?" Yup.

Looking back, this was the turning point in the film for me. This day was the day I let a lot of bullshit go and just worked my ass off to stay on that film.

Whatever I was before, from Day 9 on I was a professional PA. It took about three days before I knew everyone knew I was a pro. I did my job, I did my best not to do other peoples' jobs, I didn't complain, I probably talked too much on the walky and always will, but I was good at my job and nothing made me happier than never getting too worried about being fired ever again.