Once again, a little late but never the less I'll write about it.

Day 11 was downtown again, like the first few days I worked.  Base camp was at 1st and Ash, Catering and Extras Holding was at 1st and Davis, and the first set was at Pans, which is at 3rd and Ankeny.  Nance came to set for the first half hour to check out my work.  When she got there I was at Pan delivering a radio to the camera crew on set.  On my way back to the breakfast that I was eating at catering (that was growing somewhat cold) I met up with her.  We got back there so that I could finish my breakfast, introduced her to some of the crew, and started talking about my job.  In the middle of my conversation I got another call asking for another radio at base camp and to run some errands there.  I walked with her to base and we talked some more.  I introduced her to Jason, the 2nd 2nd AD, and some of the PAs.  At some point through all the hurried walking between the many blocks she had to leave for work, but I think we got some valuable conversation in when I wasn't too busy.

The first scene work today was done at a cafe scene where two of the characters first meet and have a few conversations.  Most of the work was routine.  I locked down the scene along the road and kept pedestrians from entering the scene as it was rolling.  The interesting part of my day involved one of the local crazies.  As the camera was rolling the guy walked towards the scene and I got ready to politely stop him... however as I started asking him to wait, he talked in a raspy voice that those overusers of tobacco or cigarretes have and said something like "I'm not gonna stop for your fuckin camera" and walked on, then he started saying some nonsense as he walked by.  Luckily the cameras cut their roll just as he walked in so it wasn't a problem.  One of the PAs gave me a tip: When you're dealing with crazies like that, who are somehow angry with the world for just about everything, you try to stop them, get your body in the way, and see what happens.  Luckily, if they walk through the set, they're usually so angry that they don't look at the camera or do much else but walk through.  We had a few laughs about it afterwards and the day went on.

The second scene was done on Naito Parkway, where there is the onramp to the Steel Bridge.  We were shooting a scene where one of the character's cars goes haywire and he comondeers it off the road and it bumps up onto the curb of the riverwalk.  This meant numberous police cars blocking traffic as they drove the car through, especially since they were driving the huge truck down the onramp the wrong way (since it was supposed to look like an offramp).  Because we had to lock up the scene, and especially because we had to make sure people didn't cross the area they were driving on for obvious safety reasons, I was stationed right along the offramp to keep pedestrains from walking through.  They had me hide my radio like I had once before and be a part of the background actors.  So while they camera was rolling, I walked along a sidewalk while I kept my eyes peeled for any unknowning pedestrians walking towards me.

At lunch, besides having an awesome meal (it was BBQ day) of a BBQ cheeseburger, BBQ ribs, salad, and fruit, I started talking to James, one of the Visual FX guys who also happened to be shadowing the director John Kent Harrison.  We talked first about his work in visual FX, the way that he had started out dropping out of highschool, persuing art school in sculprture and design, getting into 2d animation, which led to 3d animation, which led to FX, which led to Visual FX in movies! He actually has a company of his own that does VFX and used to work at Bent (the place my brother interns at).  He then told me about his shadowing with the director.  We talked about me going to school and the pros and cons of that.  Most importantly I think, we talked about the career path of being something like a director and it was one of the best conversations I had with any of the workers.  He, like another I had talked to, said that "the best way to become a director is to direct".  In other words, make your own movies and do the work of a director, because the only real way to learn the job is to make some really crappy movies and learn from your mistakes.  I talked to him about how it seemed like PAs arn't always on the path to directing, but more on the path to Assistant to the Director.  So what's the difference? The ability to be in the thick of the creative process.  The AD's only realy creative ability is to organize the background actors... otherwise they just do work that helps carry out the creative whim of the director.  And so I think in many ways it helps me figure out my priority.  It's not with being a PA and trying to painfully work up the ranks, it is with creating my own films, demonstrating my ability to tell a story.  Directors deal with almost everything, it means honing my skills especially in writing, in camera work, in film theory and development, and in editing.  The director is a creative, and therefore I need to focus on the creativity.  There is not definite ladder to the top, many just find that they are good at what they're doing, work with some directors, and then become one, skipping all the other stuff.   This is of course not to say that my work (and possible summer work) as a PA is not valuable to me.  First, it gives me a real view of how a film set works.  It helps me appreciate what everyone does in the process.  There is much more we discussed but that was the main jist.

After the useful lunch conversation we continued shooting into the night.  We wrapped up the shooting at about 8:00 when we packed up the set equiptment, collected radios, etc.  We then walked over to the rose festival carnival where the AD's explained to us PA's what the plan was for the next day.  It was a long day but a good one, and I finally packed up, headed home, watched Amelie (an amazing french film), and went to bed with the knowlege that I would be working from 3:00pm to 6:00am the next day.