Saturday, January 9, 2010

It Sucks When...

... you're next in line for breakfast when the ADs and PAs shout "We're in!"

8 comments :

Queen said...

(Found your blog about a week ago - LOVE your writing style. First post here...)

I'm a producer and AD. Although I just started training/working in G&E too, a couple of months ago. Anyway, that AD is a fucking moron. I'm sorry most of us (us=ADs) are spineless assholes. Wish it wasn't the case.

Nathan said...

Dearest Queen,

WTF? That AD and those PAs may indeed be assholes, but calling, "we're in" when the big hand gets to the 12 and the little hand gets to the 7 is their job.

I strongly suspect that A.J. didn't take it as a personal attack. Things can and often do suck without any particular person being to blame.

Just my 2¢.

D said...

So right, Nathan. Although it does suck for AJ, she knows to get to work half an hour early for breakfast. It's happened to me more than once AJ.

A.J. said...

Queen - First off, thank you for taking the time to comment! It's always good to hear from people who read this blog. Secondly, Nathan is correct: I didn't mean for this post to be an attack against the ADs and PAs. It was meant more as a "Fuck my life" moment.

Nathan - While I do agree that things can and often do suck without any particular person to blame, in this particular case, I blame slow caterers, people in front of me with complicated orders, and the occasional PA who orders for the entire AD department. Sorry. I'm grumpy when I don't get breakfast.

D - Agreed, although depending on the size of the crew and caterers, sometimes a half hour doesn't cut it anymore. Luckily, I've had some pretty understanding Best Boys who order me to get back in line. :)

Nathan said...

Sorry A.J.,

I hadn't thought about the crowd in front of you. (but it still doesn't contradict my earlier point.)

As a matter of fact, can we all just agree that it's the Extras' fault. Those guys are almost all assholes by default.

:D

Queen said...

Nathan - In addition to calling "we're in," it's also the AD's job to call "last man." Granted, if AJ was late to set for breakfast then that's her fault. I guess I interpreted her comment as reflective of an experience in which either:

1) the AD, for whatever reason, did not pay attention to who had or hadn't eaten; or,
2) Crafty was late, yet somehow the AD still expects everyone to return to set at the originally scheduled time.

AJ - I didn't view your comment as an attack on ADs per se, but more as another moment in which many of us can be dismissive or willfully unaware of some of the things going on around us. Experience #2 happened to me recently when I was electric-ing on a short.

For whatever it's worth, whenever I AD or Produce, Camera and G&E eat first. And I always make sure everyone has eaten before calling "last man." If I discover someone hasn't, I make it my business to find out why.

A.J. said...

Hey Queen! - I think I see where all the misunderstandings are coming from. Unlike lunch, breakfast is seen as a courtesy and not a right (at least for the jobs I work on anyway. I don't know if this differs from region to region and/or with different types of shoots), so there's no "last man". It's usually offered starting about a half hour or so before call time, which is the time you're required to start working. So if you don't show up early enough and/or make it through the line in time, it's usually tough luck until crafty gets set up. Sometimes, if the caterer is late with breakfast, the AD department may cut us some slack, but they have every right to call us in when the time comes.

Lunch, however, it an entirely different story, so I'm glad you follow the "last man" rules in that sense.

Queen said...

Hey AJ! Yup, the rules are the same over here as well. As far as I know, they don't differ from region to region. And, ah, yes... you were speaking about breakfast in your post. Ah well, at least we're all on the same page now ;)

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License .