Same shit, different day.
I'm working on a new crew and none of these guys have ever met me before. We're getting ready to run some cable and the first conversation I have with one of them goes like this:
Him: "So how long have you been doing this for?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Him: "Well, how am I supposed to teach you what you need to know unless you tell me how long you've been doing this for?"
Me: "Um... Okay... I've been doing this for about three or four years now."
Him: "Three or four years...? Oh. Well I guess I don't have to show you a whole lot then..."
Me: "Nope. I guess not."
(Later on...)
Me: "So how long have you been doing this for?"
Him: "About as long as you have."
Me: "What were you going to teach me?"
Him: "Um... That the colors match up to each other."
Me: (Rolls eyes.)
The guy ended up being pretty cool and kinda fun to work with, but I'm tired of being pegged as someone who doesn't know what she's doing before we even get to work.
6 comments :
Maybe you need a pair of really beat-up looking gloves to let these people know you've done some serious work...
Isn't it more like: what types of film jobs you've worked in and how many jobs you've had, not how many years you've worked? Two years working only features, wouldn't equate to the depth of experience one would gain in that same time on commercials or music videos.
Michael - I've shown up to work before with beat up gloves, a well worn knife, and a surveillance kit that looks like it's been used longer than it should've lasted for, and I still got the "you must be new" treatment. Although, I've been told that men, as a gender, aren't very observant, so I don't even know if those details were/would be even noticed.
JD - You're preaching to the choir. There's a big difference between rigging on features with money and doing a few music videos. But in this guy's defense(?!?), I think he was assuming that my answer would be in months, not years, which significantly levels the learning curves of whatever it is that he thought I worked on.
A.J. we don't notice hair, but we certainly notice gadgets.
Anonymous - Fair enough, but does a surveillance kit count as a gadget?
Sadly, it'll only end when people get to know you.
I *still* get asked how long I've been doing this when I work on a crew who don't know me.
Don't let it get to you.
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