Today was our first day of senior projects! I was lucky enough to get a gig in which I work on the production set of a made-for-tv movie that's being produced (I believe for NBC...) titled "In My Shoes".  While I don't know much about the actual plot of the film I have definitely got my first taste of a production set!

The first thing I did last night was call the production office.  Because of how the film industry works, and how they must be flexible and ready for changing weather, light, funds, etc. the production crew will never know when and where they are working until the day before.  They gave me my location and in the morning I headed towards 55 SW Ash St. where the production was beginning.  If you havn't guessed already, my entire day was spent in downtown Portland outside.  I was lucky that the weather was so nice, because either way I would be spending from 7:30am to 4:00pm (which is only about half of what the PA's work) outside.  The production equiptment, RV's (called "home-base"), catering service (free food yay!), etc. were all spread out along First Ave between Ash St. and Davis St.  In between these spots were where we shot multiple scenes for the movie.

Now that the setting is set, here's what I did for the majority of the day...

When I drove in at 7:30am they told me where to park (which it turns out was a pay to park area, but they didn't tell me that... and now I have a $45 fine...).  I exited the vehicle and shook hands with Kyle, one of the AD's (Assistant Directors) on the set.  He directed me to Ann, who was the PA (Production Assistant) that I would work with for the first hour or so.  As I walked to the parking lot full of RV's, generators, and equiptment, another AD, named Jason, introduced himself and helped me dive into my job, giving me a number of tips towards how to be a good PA (Which is essentially what I am now).   He then handed me a Walkie-Talkie and I walked to Ann who gave me a headset.  I was unlucky since they were out of the cool security-guard looking headsets that everyone else had on, and instead gave me one of the headsets with a large mic on the side that makes you look like you work at the Burger King drive through... but at least then people knew I was a part of the crew!

As you can see, within a minute of arriving I was already strapped to a headset that let me communicate with a large majority of the PA's, AD's, etc. working on the set, and within the next five minutes I was running back and forth between "home-base" and the catering truck five blocks away making and delivering breakfast orders for a number of the crew and the actors. As the glamorous life of being a PA!

Official production began at 8:00am, by this time all my breakfast orders were made and I began to follow a Production Assistant named Jackson around as he rustled up all of the "extras" (the background actors) and gave them instructions where to stand, where to walk, and what to do as they walked.  By the time he was finished, the production began rolling.  The cameras were set up, and they began the first rehearsal for the scene at the Skidmore Saturday Market area.  Immediately they gave me responsibilities.  The one that I am still getting used to is having to yell repeats of what the AD's or cameramen say, which includes things like "Locking Down!" which means that we must block all pedestrians and wandering crew members from entering the scene, "Rolling!" which means that the camera has begun to roll, or "Cut!" which means that the actors should reset their positions and people can walk through the set.  The two actions we must not repeat are "Background", which means that the background actors (Extras) must begin moving, and "Action!" which means the filming has begun.  We don't say those because they happen right before the camera goes on, and we can't make any noise as it's rolling.

If this isn't enough information for one day, there's so much more!  But, I'll try to keep it shorter so not to bore you.  From then on I switched between fetching people for other people, grabbing food or coffee for crew or actors, keeping streets clear for cars and keeping people safe, crowd control, moving set pieces back and forth, and so on.  Although the work isn't glamorous, its the way that most film workers start their careers.  They do 14 to 16 hours a day of this grunt work with the hopes of building important connections and observing to learn from the experts how to create a tv film in a highly competitive industry.  I spent a few hours working on my own with the Special Effects department, who were shooting action sequences of the main character and his skater buddies skating near the fountain.  My job consisted of guarding the expensive pile of camera equiptment as a homeless guy kept walking to and fro trying to get near it and potentially steal things.  From then on I worked with them, guarding equiptment, fetching water, etc.  While everyone in the department would go for a 15 minute snack break, I would stand by the cameras and guard them.  Again, not a glamorous job, but as I stood there I got to watch the cameramen set up shots and execute them.  I got to see how they used different angles and how they worked with the actors.  For example, the main actor, because he could not skate, had a stunt double.  So they would film an approach shot of the main actor skating towards a jump, or they would get a waist-up shot of him making a mock-jump, and then they would grap his stunt double and film him doing the actual move or jump.

Despite how my job sounds, it was interesting and exciting.  I worked on the set of a real film, obsorbed loads of information, and I now much better understand how scenes are produced and operated.  I just can't wait to go back on Monday!  I'm hoping to talk to them abou their camera/video-camera policy.  So maybe in the near future there will be a bit of media involved!