On the Advantages of Wearing a Hat on Set

First, and of primary importance, it absorbs the sweat I work up when I, say, run to the roof of a five-story walkup carrying, say, four 25' 100-amp whips.

It gives me a cool place to clip the clothespins I find lying around (essential for lighting work).

It keeps me warm when I'm ourside and it about 50 degrees (although 40, not so much).

Then I suppose it also keeps the sun out of my eyes.

ribble's Dream Girl

I don't post news, but I do post Michelle Kwan.

I ran in to this little chesnut on the train today (and check out that photo - business wear Asians are go vis hotness).

That article appeared in that part of the main section where you've made it through the day's serious news and you're just starting to think if it's going to be worth it to take a shot at the editorials or if you should try leafing through Dining In, so I gave myself a moment for a little Michelle Kwan fantasy.

See, I had always believed before that my dreams of settling down and making a life with Michelle Kwan could never be. It may be that we're made for each other, but nowhere among the many circles in which I travel is the tight-knit world of professional and Olympic amateur skating.

I was sure that, sadly, I would never be able to comfort Michelle about the late-season injury preventing her from the shot at the 2006 Turin gold that was rightfully hers. It seemed then that the only thing we had in common was out ages, nationalities, and our destinies to be the voices of our generation.

But now, Michelle is moving that much closer to my area of expertise (seeing as I was an International Relations major). If the current rate keeps up, by the time we're 30, we'll be working in the same cluster of cubicles and sharing a T1 line.

Or at least a boy can dream ...

ribble's status

Around Sunday, I started to understand which way was up again and put together a list of things to do. I have now done all the serious things on my todo list, like the 38 pounds of laundry I didn't have time to do during production. What's left is the sort of bullshit stuff, like watching Brisco County, Jr. DVDs.

So a few days ago I was looking over my bullshit todo list and I thought "maybe I should having something about finding my next job on here."

So far, that's as far as I've gotten.

ribble's Dream

Last night, I passed out on the couch while trying to watch election returns. All the lights were on, and my roommate came in to turn them off and generally try to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Richard," she said, "all the lights are on."

I apparently responded by muttering a string of obscenities, more directed at myself than anyone else.

She started turning the lights off.

"They're working," I said.

"Well, I'm turning them off," she said.

"No," I said. "I mean I think they're working in this scene."

At this point my roommate decided that I was spouting gibberish, turned off the lights, and decided, quite sensibly, to leave the room.

Here's what I thought was happening: last night, I dreamed that someone was making a movie in my apartment.

I don't remember much, but I do remember either red and blue boxes or very boxy red and blue clothes. Also, one of the setups was on the roof.

I didn't quite know what my job was on this film, so I remember spending most of the dream sitting on the couch, feeling distressed, and trying to figure out just what my responsibility was.

State of the Person

I'm at that spot where the production recovery daze wears off and I try to figure out where I stand.

Work
I am working, semi-guaranteed, three of the next four weekends. I need more work, but this is fine for right now, and I feel like I'll be able to get work no problem. I'm more qualified and more confident than I was four months ago.

Social
I need to catch up with everybody. Production, by definition, shuts down this part of my life.

Career
Now that I know I can grip and can make an educated guess I'll be decent at it within a few months, I'm starting to feel like I am capable of doing many other jobs in the film business. This is significant because the last job I was in charge of was not 100% satisfactory for the client and it scared me off being anything more important for a PA for a long time.

Now I am thinking about other projects I can do.

-I want to adapt this porn I wrote (long story) so it is a comedy starring puppets.

-I am starring in next month's First Sundays Film Festival "Wanna Be a Star" contest film.

-This post could be a short film (the '80s part).

-I want to get in on an indie feature film as an actor, electric, associate producer, key PA, anything. I want to be part of a project like that from start to finish again.

Also, I'm reading a textbook on how to be a production manager or coordinator, which will lay out the basics the production-side stuff I could do.

Residency
I asked Full Stealth (originally from Vermont) how long it takes to be a New Yorker. He said "six years, but you can subtract a year for every mugging."

Well, I've been here two years, but I am a New Yorker.

-I'm planning to stay here forever.

-When I was from Texas, everyone thought I was from New York anyway.

-I have been to many places in this city, and I haven't generally travelled there just to be there - I've had legitimate (like work and friends) reasons to be there.

-I have many memories in this city.

-I live in Brooklyn, not Manhattan. 'Cuz Manhattan is for tools.

ribble's in a daze

When I finish a long stretch of work like the one I just did, I always feel dazed and disoriented. For about a week, I can't really think or function. It's like a combination of being jet lagged and getting out of prison.

I never know what time it is. I will look at a clock and be able to read the hands, but I never seem to believe it. I will miss appointments by exactly one hour.

I can't do anything. It's not depression - I feel fine - but I get super lethargic. I have to walk really slowly. If I leave one room to get something to another, I will make it to the next room at a complete loss as to what I am doing there.

I also feel strangely alone - not lonely, but alone. On a film set, there are always 30 people around working on different stuff and trying to figure stuff out. At home, there's me and my roommate. I am suddenly the only one I am responsible for or to, and I don't know quite what to do about it.

Gripping Part II

Today I did G+E on a more serious job, a music video shooting in and around a five-story, no elevator building in the Bronx. I'll keep this brief, but here's my lessons for today:

Firstly, and most obviously, G+E is a very physical job. It may have something to do with the fact that I am just starting out, it may have something to do with the fact that in ten minutes, I will literally be asleep, and it definitely had something to do with the five flights of stairs I had to haul all that equipment up and back down, but the fact that this job is so physical seems to blot out everything else about it.

So the sheer exhaustion my body is experiencing right now is the big surprise of this particular job. Tomorrow is going to be even more of a surprise as the sourness really takes hold.

I also find myself worrying about making sure my body will work in another 30 years, and that reason enough for me to admit I don't want to be a G+E all my life.

Other things I knew before or should have:

G+E is a very insular group. Working as a PA, I got to know people in lots of different departments, I usually got to know the neighborhood where we were shooting that day, I had lots of different bosses.

As a grip + electric, there is one guy, and I have to do my best to keep him happy. It's more like having a normal boss, but for I film set I find it disorienting.

Last revelation because I need to get some Zz's: I really do not know what I am doing. I've got the rhythm of the work cycle wrong, it takes me too long to do things because I am doing them for the first time and I don't know where to find the right thing on the truck or where I'm supposed to be.

It'll go away eventually, but not anytime before I go to bed, so I'm going to get on that now.