WORK, TRAVEL, WORK, AND MORE TRAVEL

It's been just over two months since my last post and I have been pretty busy, what with my place being renovated extensively and a relatively steady flow of work.

I had mentioned that I was hoping for enough work before I left that I would have enough set aside to pay my bills for a month or so after I came home, so that I could go away and not worry about all that stuff.   Well, that's why I haven't written - I have been working a fair bit since.

I had more work than I could do, quite frankly.  In fact, I can't think of a time in my career that I have had so many calls for different shows.  I could not do them all as most offers ran on the same weeks... sometimes one wishes one could clone themselves!  Since my last post, I've worked on two television movies (the two I mentioned); I ended up not doing the movie for a producer friend as I had mentioned, as I was asked to work on a union TV series - Arctic Air and it involved a trip to the Northwest Territories. Having never been there and not ever intending to go there (after all, my goal in life is to get closer to the equator, not farther away!) I was excited at the prospect of seeing somewhere very different and not having to pay for it.   I have to say that, despite the biting cold wind that howled relentlessly across the Canadian Shield, it was beautiful in a way that cannot be denied.  Rugged, raw, big sky, crisp air, and Yellowknife is a town like no other.  Art wherever one looked, even the refuse containers.  I am so thankful I was able to have the experience.  The only thing that I was unhappy about was I didn't get to see the Northern Lights.  The first three nights I was there they were spectacular, apparently.  I wouldn't know because I was sleeping (they don't come out till 1:30 am) due to early calls each morning.  The last night I was all set to go out and see them, blanket and all, but the sky was overcast so they were not there.  I will regret forever not skipping sleep for a few hours.

I have to say that I LOVE AIRPLANES so getting to work with so many on this show was a real treat and getting to be RIGHT ON THE RUNWAY as airplanes, both ours and commercial ones, took off and landed was an amazing experience.   At one point, we had two of ours in the air and they flew really low and right over our heads as we filmed them.  What a RUSH!!

My first glimpse of The Canadian Shield, something I remember learning about in grade 4

Gorgeous view from one of the highest vantage points in Yellowknife; the Pilot's Monument

Perched at the very edge of the cliff at Pilot's Monument as we shoot a scene, the monitor placement meant one step back and it was over for me!

Bullocks, a pub in Yellowknife.  The interior of this pub is recreated on a stage in Aldergrove, BC for the shooting of Arctic Air

One of many painted dumpster bins around town. Unfortunately I did not have time to take pictures of them all as we had a gruelling schedule

A house I came across while walking from one shooting location to another 

Up close and personal to four water bombers.  Huge and impressive aircraft

Photo op with a fellow crew member

Buffalo Air, home of  The Ice Pilots.  What a great place.  I haven't ever watched the show but it is an iconic brand that Yellowknife is very proud of.  The DC-3's are amazing!!

Another photo op!

Me and 'Buffalo Jim' the owner of Buffalo Air

Mikey, Buffalo Jim's son

No sooner did I get back from the Northwest Territories than I received calls for no less than four different productions, two of them TV series.  Unfortunately I had to turn all of them down as they each had schedules that overlapped my trip to Grenada.  Some might say I should have cancelled the trip, and to be honest I wondered myself if that was what I should do.  But then I thought, this is why I work... to take trips like this. I have heard so many stories of people in this industry who take work over all else and thus never get away, never spend time with their families, never live.  I don't live to work, as much as I love what I do, I work to live.  The incidences of divorce in my line of work is high and attests to the folly of the 'work at all costs' mindset.  It is also the industry that has the highest number premature deaths of all ... ALL ... unions in North America.  The work is hard, not glamorous as everyone thinks, and the hours long.  My week is never less than 72 hours and most often is in the 80's. Some weeks I have worked 90+ hours.   That is hard on anyone's body.

I also just worked a day on Almost Human, a new TV show for Warner Brothers.  A colleague was ill and needed a day off.  Wow what a day (or should I say night).  We started at 13:30 and I was not off the clock till 07:30 the next morning and we were in a dank, cold, dark old filthy abandoned foundry warehouse.  It was brutal but it was a union show at a great rate so that cheque waiting for me when I get home from my trip will be nice!

Anyway, all that to say, I leave for my trip in 5 days and am able to go with a clear mind.  I don't have work lined up for when I return but I am not worried.  Something will happen, it usually does.

Tomorrow I will write about the plans for the second half of my trip ...  10 days on the island of Grenada.

IT'S MY BLOG AND I'LL RANT IF I WANT TO

I have been working on a Lifetime movie of the week, (MOW) with my good friend Ron Oliver as director, for the past two weeks (and he is the only reason I am working on this show for reasons that you will see as you read on). It has been a lot of fun (entirely due to Ron), albeit if a challenge, and I am really enjoying it. There are a couple of reasons for the challenge and all seem to stem from one source: for some reason, although the budget is what is normal for these productions, there doesn't seem to be much money to go around. I am working for the lowest rate I have had in 7 years and I was given just one day to prep, normally I get two or three. Consequently, I was unable to do a timing or a thorough breakdown of the script. A breakdown is where I go through the script with a fine-toothed comb and track all continuity as it progresses through the story; wardrobe, makeup (progression of injuries and their bruisings), props, set dec, vehicles etc. and then place it all into a one-line description of each scene. HERE is an example of one I created for a movie I worked on several years ago. This lack of ample time to go through the script and work through continuity has resulted in a few issues on set. Couple that with the fact that low rates usually results in inexperienced crew and it's a recipe for disaster - as we discovered in our first week.

The on-set wardrobe girl seemingly does not understand the requirements of her position and thus, when I suspected a problem with wardrobe continuity after filming a scene where the main character was no longer wearing her suit jacket and I wasn't sure as to why that was - I went to her and asked to see her continuity photographs for three particular scenes. The on-set wardrobe person always takes photos of how the character is attired right before the scene starts. They also make copious notes as to anything that transpires with the wardrobe during the scene, for example: Jessica removed her jacket and hung in on the back of the chair. She fled without her jacket so she will no longer have it for the remainder of the show. When the on-set wardrobe girl couldn't produce any pictures or notes and, in fact stated that she had none, I was flabbergasted. This was a first for me.

Even if I had enough time to do a proper breakdown, there are things that transpire while filming that I am not aware will occur because I have not been party to the meetings between the director and wardrobe (or other department heads) where those decisions are made. Apparently, there wasn't enough prep time for anyone on this show so those meetings never occurred. But, at the very least, the on-set crew of all departments should be taking notes as to what is happening as it is happening. I am there as their safety net but I am not there to do their jobs for them, as I made clear to the wardrobe girl. I told her I needed to see her breakdown for wardrobe and when and where changes would be made. She assured me she would have it when we returned from our day off. She didn't produce any paperwork for me to see until the third day after our return and when she did, it was of no value to me as it made no sense. So now it seems to fall to me to determine when and where wardrobe changes will occur and to track those changes (the story takes place over three days but our main character is on the run and so wears the same outfit for most of the movie - a skirt and matching jacket with blouse, and a camel coat. She also has a sports team jacket and baseball cap that she will wear at one point as a disguise. The camel coat will be left behind in one scene. The jacket issue was resolved by our ingenious director and now needs to be tracked). We had a long discussion at the monitors one afternoon as to when the camel coat will be left behind and I came up with the best scene in which for it to occur. At that point the director turned to the producer and PM who were sitting there listening and said, "From now on you will give my continuity girl at least two days prep and then we can avoid delays like this one and the four hours we wasted yesterday on the jacket issue." LOVE HIM!!!!!

I always time the script as well to give a total - scene by scene - of how long the show is running. Based on my timing, scenes will often be added or trimmed to bring the script to where it needs to be time-wise. Because I had only one day of prep, and almost half of that day was tied up in a production meeting, I had no time to do a timing. I informed the producers and director of this in an email and received no reply granting me an extra day, so no timing was done. Once I was on set, the producer questioned me as to when they could expect to get a timing. I informed her that there would only be the running timing of the scenes as we filmed, that there wasn't, nor would there be, a pre-timing as they didn't give me any time to do it. This did not sit well with her and she claimed she never gives script supervisors more than one day prep. I have been doing this for too long now to be giving away my expertise as I did when I first started out and I told her that I don't work for free as her other script supervisors surely must have, as it is not physically possible to do a timing and a breakdown and attend a production meeting in a 12 hour span.

What I have come to realize is, the lower the pay and thus the less experienced the crew - the MORE I should be paid as far too much falls on my shoulders. And the buck always seems to stop with me. One of the producers, while discussing the jacket issue, said - "this is continuity's fault" (meaning me). Really? What about wardrobe? She only has ONE area of continuity to watch and that is ALL she has to watch. While the camera is rolling, I am timing it, reading along in case the actors get the dialogue wrong or need me to call out a line they've forgotten.  I am watching where they are and what they're doing while speaking to make sure they're in the same place when we go in tighter or else it won't cut together.  I am watching what they are doing with the props to make sure they do it the same way each time and with the same hand and where the props end up.  I am looking at what shoulder the purses are on and when and where they were put down, and making sure they take it with them if they leave.  I am looking at levels of drinks in the glasses and where in the dialogue they took drinks from them; what was on the computer screen when; if we're seeing anything we shouldn't like crew in reflections or a light stand or a logo that isn't cleared... I have umpteen things I am watching for and trying to track and yet when someone screws up in their department and gets something wrong, it is MY fault and only my fault? I don't bloody think so.

I really love what I do, especially when I get to do it with Ron Oliver and his DP Kim Miles, but it's stuff like this that makes me want to get into another area of film. Either makeup where all I have to worry about is MAKEUP, or producing where I get to make the big decisions. I am kind of ready to phase out of script supervising.  It's a pretty thankless job (except for the odd director, like Ron, who really appreciates the effort and tells you so) and often only get noticed when you miss something.  It really irritates me how we can go again (roll on another take) for the focus puller time after time because he didn't get the subject in focus, and no one seems to mind; going again because the camera operator didn't like his move is never an issue; but if we have to go just once again for continuity - disapproval, frustration, and sometimes out and out anger is the norm (I actually did a series where we had not one single continuity error in 22 episodes, until the second to last day of 8 months of taping, and it was because I couldn't be in two places at once - 'B' camera had been left behind to get an insert shot while the 'A' camera moved to a new location for a new scene.  I went with the A camera, making sure with props that they knew the position of a basket that would be in the B camera insert before I left.  When we got set up at the new location and the monitors were turned on, I could see on the B camera monitor that the basket was in the wrong location so I ran back through the studio, dodging equipment, crew, and sets to find that they were just finished and wrapping the camera.  When I told them they had to go again and why, the Production Manager screamed at me and demanded to know what happened and why I made such a 'huge mistake'.  It was humiliating to say the least but I was furious to be treated in such a manner for my first mistake, which wasn't really my mistake in the first place.)

It's time script supervisors got the grace and same consideration that the camera department gets.  After all, each of those people are dong ONE task.  A script supervisors role is multi-tasking in the extreme and no one seems to realize how difficult and stressful a job it really is, even those who should know better, like Production Managers.

LONG TIME NO SEE

I have been rather neglectful of this blog as of late. I have had a busy month.

I was in Kelowna for the entire month of September, working on Flicka 3, and spent an extra few days there with my daughter once the show ended. I had a fabulous time.

My car wouldn't start again - on the trip up. I stopped about an hour and a half into the journey to get some lunch. When I left the restaurant and got into the car - nothing. Just a click when I turned the key. My car was loaded down with not only all the stuff I needed for the month away, but extra clothing and items that I couldn't leave with friends (I had to move out of my place and don't move into my next place until October 15th). I sat there not knowing what I was going to do but thankful I had the foresight to leave the day before the show started just in case something like this happened. I called BCAA and then waited for them to arrive. I got out and opened the hood, had a look under it even though I don't know a thing about how cars run so it was futile effort - or so I thought. But what that did was help the engine cool down faster and, about half an hour later, the car started. I canceled BCAA and continued on my way. The next time I had to stop, to use the gas station loo, I didn't turn the car off. I locked it up and used my spare key to get back in as I had determined that the car did not want to start when it was hot - no idea why. But I was planning to take it to my friends brother who lives in Kelowna one of the weekends I'd be there to have him look it over anyway, as the mechanic I bought it from said the muffler needed a small weld to seal up a leak and I wanted him to check to see if there were any other issues. When he heard about the starting problem he said it needed a new starter motor, so that was replaced (so far it seems to have done the trick). And the muffler needed a whole lot more than a weld - like, replacing. But now the car rattles under the hood when I step on the gas. I was told that this could mean the car needs a higher grade of gas but I tried that and it hasn't worked so I need to take it in to have the timing reset. Or at least I hope that is all it needs. I also found out that it has three different types of tires on it so I will have to replace them and the CV boots are cracked and the hand brake cable is pinched. Sigh.

On a much happier note....

I loved staying at the Delta Grand Okanagan Hotel. The staff there were so happy to have all of us as guests (all department heads and producers were at The Grand, the rest of the crew were down the highway at the Days Inn) and treated us very well. The key makeup woman, Lisa, was in the room next to mine and I had worked with her before so that was fun. There was rarely a time I went down to the lobby that one of our crew or actors wasn't there as well. Several of us took to congregating in the lounge after work most evenings for a glass of wine. Our first two weekends in Kelowna were HOT (the hottest it had been all summer) and so several of us spent the day at the pool, tanning, swimming, yakking and napping. I have to say that I could really get used to living like that - hotel life suits me very well. When it was time to leave I was loathe to go.

Day at the Hotel Pool

The movie itself was a lot of fun. The cast were amazing; so friendly and nice to be around. Clint Black and his wife Lisa Hartman are just the nicest and cutest couple. One of the cast who played the kids trainer, Teryl Rothery, will be a life-long friend. The young people that comprised most of the cast were so much fun and really eager. I LOVED the crew and made some more life-long friends (Mark Noda, Neil McBride - fabulous sound team). The director, Michael Damian, and his wife Janeen were lovely, lovely people and I can't say enough as to how much working with them made me happy. The producer, Connie Dolphin, is fantastic and she assured me that we would be working together again in the future. Michael and Janeen told me that the position of script supervisor had been their achilles heel for years, that they had never been able to find one who could actually do the job - but now they had finally found me and they were so thrilled that they want to find a way to take me on their next film, which is to be shot in Romania and Bulgaria. The whole experience was fabulous but not only that, it was very validating after going through a horrible time recently with the producers of Mr. Young. I won't be returning to that show.

The Stars of Flicka 3 and Me

Fun Bunch of Cast and Crew on Our Way to Shoot a Scene in the School Bus

Pretty Flowers in Kelowna - I am Lagging Behind Teryl and Susie on Our Way to Dinner Because I Want to Photograph the Flowers

I can't go into details here, but suffice it to say that I was treated very unfairly - and this is not just my opinion as I took the situation to the union and the shop steward was horrified at how I had been treated. I was never fired, just kept being given excuses as to why I wasn't coming back for August, for September and then for 'the foreseeable future' and I'd finally had enough. It was glaringly apparent to me that I wasn't ever going back but that they had no valid reason to give me as to why, so I sent an email to the producer PM saying basically that and a few other choice observations, and one to the director who started it all. I knew I was burning a bridge rather spectacularly but I didn't care. One of the things that bothers me in this industry is people like me never speak truth to people in charge because we are afraid it means we won't ever work again; thus the ones that aren't the good ones get away with horrible behaviour and practices all of the time. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong sense of justice and will speak out when I see injustice, whether it be against me or someone else. I have held my tongue, for the most part, when it comes to my career. I did have a conversation, and just a conversation, with a PM once about an injustice I thought was occurring in the show I was working on and she has never hired me again. This time, I knew there was no way I would ever have closure or feel satisfied walking away if I didn't express exactly how I felt about the events of the past two months. If it meant I wouldn't ever work again in this business, so be it. But I have to trust that the reputation I have built for myself over the past eight years as being good at my job and fun to work with will stand on it's own. And so far, that is proving to be the case. I not only secured a lot of favour with the people I just worked on Flicka with, I have another show at the end of October with one of my favourite people in the world, director Ron Oliver.

I Will Miss the Cast and Hard-Working Crew of Mr. Young

Life is good!!

BACK TO LIFE AS USUAL

I've been back at work for two weeks and we have the first two episodes of Mr.Young 'in the can'. It's been exhausting to say the least. After two months of relaxation, one month spent in the beautiful Caribbean, I have spoiled and softened. Thirteen hour work days with a two and a half hour daily commute are a shock to this system! It doesn't help that we started off hitting the ground at a full run... both episodes were pretty huge with lots going on.

I am still looking for a place to live. But now, I am looking with a friend from work. Her son is one of our cast members and their home is on Vancouver Island so they rent a townhouse close to the studio. But it's not big enough and they are looking to move and we have decided to get a place together. Thing is, there's not many nice 4 bedroom places for rent. The search goes on!

I have been looking for a car to buy. My old '93 Jeep Cherokee is dying a slow and painful death. I first thought I'd get a 2003 Toyota Echo as I like the way the seats are in that car - you sit more upright than low down with your legs extended out; that kills my lower back. But then I went to my mechanic to get my studded snow tires replaced with some cheap all seasons (before I got a ticket!) and he has some Suzuki Grand Vitaras for sale at a very reasonable price. I saw a 2001 for $5,000. It is a rebuild from being a write off, but all he had to replace were the headlights and the hood from it rear-ending another vehicle. He said, and it's true, that ICBC write off older vehicles for the slightest thing these days. It is a 4 wheel drive, which I like, and felt quite compact inside yet with lots of leg room. So I am saving up and hope to have it or one like it by the end of summer. I hope the old Jeep lasts that long.


My Blurb photo book arrived this week and I am really pleased with it. The upgraded paper quality and a linen cover were totally worth the extra few dollars (under $4) and the only thing I would change is the size of the font on some of the writing; the stuff on the inside of the flyleaf is kinda small. I would probably go for a bigger book next time too. I had it delivered to work, as that is where I am all of the time now, and so people got to see it and were really impressed. One of the boom operators took it home for her husband to see - he is a camera operator, and he not only liked the book itself but said I had a great eye; that the composition of the photos were really good. That made me feel pretty great. It is a really wonderful keepsake of a fabulous trip.


Speaking of which, I can't wait to go back to the sunshine of the Caribbean. The weather here is HORRIBLE. It has rained most all week and today, Saturday, it's just pissing down rain. July 16th. You'd never know it. I have decided that I need to give some serious thought to how I am going to move to a warmer climate in the future because I really can't take this weather any more. Life is far too short to spend it in the rain if you hate the rain. It's too short to spend any time doing anything you really hate doing. And if I lived somewhere warm and pretty, my kids would come and visit me and I'd actually get to see more of them... two weeks a year would add up to more than I see them in a year as it stands right now.

I need to figure out how to increase my income to make this dream a reality. I am open to any and all serious and practical suggestions (no multi-level marketing schemes please - I detest them).

NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

Here's the trailer for a movie I worked on in the spring of 2010. It's called DOOMSDAY PROPHESIES.



I can't wait to see the movie.

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY!! FOR PETE'S SAKE!!

After a fun last week of work, where the story centered around a school fair with giant food, I was very thankful to go home to a weekend of getting ready for Palm Springs - FINALLY! It feels like I have waited for this trip for ever.

Saturday was all about getting the hair and nails looking worthy of the company I would be keeping in that sunny playground. I met a friend after for a drink at the swank new Fairmont Pacific Rim and then a marvelous dinner after at a cozy trendy spot called Burgoo Main Street. I had the French Onion Soup and it was divine; finished of with sharing their Toffee Pudding. Yum!!

Sunday was all about packing and buying trip insurance and a last minute Christmas present for someone at home. It was hard to know what to pack because the weather in Palm Springs is rain until Wednesday. So sad to hear that. And I always stress out about having overweight luggage and having to pay the ridiculous fees that incurs. It doesn't matter where I am going, sunny or cold, winter or summer, I can't seem to pack less than 50+lbs and I don't know why that is. It's frustrating and I have put it down to hair products. A can of hairspray and a can of mousse plus a jar of crude clay and then the blowdryer and two brushes... it all adds up. I don't ever pack clothes I don't need. I am careful to pack only one outfit per day, and sometimes not even that much. So I can't figure it out but it is what it is.

I couldn't sleep Sunday night. I went to bed at 10 because I was setting the alarm for 3:45 to be out of the door by 4:30. I tossed and turned until way after midnight and finally gave up and watched Survivor which I had downloaded earlier to watch on the plane. I lost battery power half way through the after show and so laid back down and dozed until the alarm went off.

On the drive to the border, snow flurries started and that freaked me out a bit because the highway down to Bellingham can get more wind and snow than the rest of the area and I didn't want it to be an issue. But I needn't have worried because it died off by the time I got to the border. The guard was a bit surly and wanted to know why I was going to Palm Springs at Christmas - didn't I like being home with my family at that time of year? How presumptuous of him to assume I even had any family - lots of people don't. I told him my kids were grown and scattered and I'd rather be in the sun than the cold. He handed my passport back and waved me through.

I finally understand why Ron Oliver complains about children on airplanes. The worst I have encountered in my travels is a kid kicking my seat, and don't mistake me - it drives me crazy when that happens - but it's easy to rectify. You just ask the parent to keep the kid from doing it and they usually do. But this time, there was a 19 month old girl with a temper sitting in the seat in front of me, and she had the sort of cry that is preceded by an ear-splitting scream. She cried almost the whole trip. I found myself too tired to read so gave up and tried to sleep and every time I would just nod off, she would start up. It was honestly so painful on the ear drums, I had to plug my ears. I won't ever fly without ear plugs again.

As we descended into PS airport, we flew through a huge bank of clouds and the turbulence was frightening. I don't mind turbulence as a rule, but this was the first time I had experienced it so close to the ground and so violent. I was truly afraid that we might bounce right off the tarmac. But we got through it right before landing. I could see that the rain had been heavy as there was a road blocked off by fire trucks and there was a washed out portion just beyond them. And all the roads were very wet. It's interesting to observe that they really aren't used to this much rain here as none of the houses have gutters and the sidewalks and pathways aren't angled for drainage so there's huge puddles and rivulets of water gathering everywhere.

Ron was busy with a conference call about post on his latest film so Eric picked me up at the airport and drove me to his parents house where Ron pulled up just as we arrived. Eric was worried Ron would berate him for being late for me when, in fact, the flight landed 20 minutes behind schedule due to strong winds on our nose. He ran over to Ron's car saying, "I wasn't late, I wasn't late!" So cute! I unpacked a few things and hung them to get rid of wrinkles and then Ron, Nelson and I piled into the car and drove out to Palm Desert to have lunch at Tommy Bahama's. We had lunch there last year and so I was excited to go there again. This time I had the fish tacos and they were delicious! We walked around a few of the shops there and I got the coolest gift for Shonah, my daughter. She is a Star Wars nut and a kitchen shop had a pancake flipper with Darth Vader's head as the flipper part. I got the last one. She'll love it. We stopped in at Trader Joe's for a few things and I was really looking forward to buying their Wasabi Almonds but it turns out they don't have them any more. I was so disappointed. We then headed to Ron's to hang out for a bit and Nelson had a nap, and then we went to meet Ada and Bob, my hosts, for BINGO at Alibi's. We munched on appetizers and played the cards and twice I came within one number of winning. It was a lot of fun and I basked in the deep pleasure of being back in Palm Springs with some of the best people I have ever known in my life. I feel very blessed.

Now if the rain would just stop and the sun would come out. I am seriously needing the warmth of some sunshine in my life.

Oh my goodness. A frog just started croaking somewhere outside my bedroom window. It really does need to stop raining!!

WHEN WILL IT STOP?

It doesn't seem to work for people in Canada, but for my American readers, you can go here to see a trailer for Smoke Screen (now I can tell you the title!), one of the movies I worked on this summer starring Jaime Pressly and Currie Graham, based on a book by Sandra Brown. It premieres Sunday, Nov. 21 at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on Lifetime Movie Network. Please watch it!

I have been kept very busy working on my new show, Mr. Young. What was supposed to be four day weeks with 10 hour days and every Monday off, has turned into four day weeks except for the pilot episode, which we shot last week, and was 5 days, and more like 12 to 15 hour days (not that I am complaining about the extra hours - being a union show, it means a much fatter paycheque). And any time there's a stat holiday, like the recently passed Remembrance Day, then we work the Monday to make up for it. So I have only had about two long weekends so far. Good news is, we are on hiatus this week so I get nine glorious days to recover before we start banking an episode.

Yep, banking an episode. I had to ask what that meant when I first read it on the shooting schedule.

It means that, in addition to our already packed four days, we will now start to shoot one third of another episode per week so that we can cram 26 episodes into 22 weeks. I have no idea how we are going to do this. What's worse, nor does the director who has been doing this for a decade. He says that he's never heard of such a thing and what probably looked like a good idea on paper to someone in an office is going to be next to impossible to accomplish. I say lets not accomplish it.

I remember when MOW's (movies of the week) were shot in 21 days. Then they dropped it to 18 and we all freaked out at first but managed to get it done quite nicely. So the next thing we know, they dropped it to 15 days. We really freaked out at that and yet somehow still managed to get it done. Then I got a call to work on a show that was going to be shot in 12 days - two 6 day weeks. I wasn't looking forward to that schedule but needed the work so took it. It was a total grind but we got it done and, suddenly, what was supposed to be a 'one off' ended up being the norm for that production manager. Then, a year later, I got a call to work on two shows shooting back to back, each in 10 days. Yep - two MOW's in one day less than it first took us to do one. If it wasn't for the fact that we had an incredible director who not only knew how to be very efficient with his shots, but had a fabulous sense of humour that kept the whole crew happy, I don't think it could have been done. Or, maybe it could have but the end product would have been total crap and we would have been a miserable bunch doing it.

***Let me just say here that two of the movies I worked on this summer, the above mentioned Smoke Screen, and On Strike for Christmas were shot in 15 days each. MUCH more civilized and you can actually make a good MOW in that time. Thank you Jim and Damian!!! (I love those guys.)

So now here we are, once again attempting to accomplish the impossible and, if we do manage it, I can just see season two being two episodes per week. We HAVE to stop keeping up with everything producers throw at us or we will all be in an early grave with the stress and lack of sleep... not that it isn't happening anyway. I am shocked at the amount of 'In Memoriam' notices I get from the union and at the ages of those who have passed. No wonder we have a healthy retirement fund - no one lives long enough to collect! I was mentioning it to someone on set and they said that IATSE members have the shortest lifespan of members of any union in North America. That's sobering.

On a much lighter note, look at these awesome candy apples I saw in Vancouver when I was out for lunch with my daughter and her hubby right before Halloween. I didn't buy one but I thought they were great.










And here's three guys from work filling in for cheerleaders while a shot is being rehearsed. Bob - your pom poms are backwards!

FIRST MAKEUP CREDIT?

Here is a trailer for my first show as a make-up assistant.

I was responsible for three of the male jurors and the judge. As well as touching up most everyone else except for the top three cast.

Can't wait to see it. Hope my name made it in the credit roll! Let me know if you see it there.