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NON-DISASTER DISASTERS
Dear Friends,
Just had a fabulous opportunity to work on a low-budget film shot on DV. But I worked on it for about five days and decided that my talents didn't match what was needed on the set. So I left.
The location was about an eight-hour drive away from Los Angeles, so I had a lot of time to think on the way home. I tried to think of ways in which this was a bad idea, and really couldn't. I've never actually quit a job in entertainment because of the working conditions. Actually, the conditions here were fine, too - at least in the fact that there were good people.
They offered me the job in order to use my producing experience. I took the job in order to heighten my directing experience. It was a typical tradeoff, and it sounded good on paper. In practice, however, it didn't quite turn out that way.
There don't seem to be any bad feelings on either side - the director is a veteran who took it in stride that every production has its "disasters," which aren't really disasters at all. (I mean, it's just movie-making, after all.) I guess that's one of the reminders I got this week - remaining calm in the face of trouble during productions.
The other lesson I re-learned is that, when it comes to a job, you really can't discuss the duties too much. Perhaps if I would have been clearer about my expectations, and they would have been clearer about theirs, we could have avoided creating this "non-disaster disaster" in the first place.
Anyway, at least it was a nice drive.
Walking off the set and into a vacation,
Grady
[Note: I'm a little ahead on columns right now -- the events described here happened last week.] |
