time to pay attention

In transferring my blog over here, I have discovered a few things . . . the most disturbing of which is that I haven't posted anything of substance in a REALLY LONG TIME! It's rather sad really, that I haven't had a reason to wax eloquent or even to simply reflect on how life is going in such a span of time.

And what have I missed in that span of time??? Well, apparently, as I have just found out, Dave Barry has gone on hiatus . . . leaving the world bereft of his side splitting columns. Apple has created a computer so small it would fit in a fanny pack. On a more impactful and positive note, Iraq is holding free elections. And where does that leave me?? Floating, devoid of information, removed from current events and certainly not pondering the cosmos. Go figure.

I should be working on a paper for my Television Directing class. Yet, here I sit, surfing the web and composing this entry. I suppose it's not really so out of the ordinary or terrible even. Tomorrow is the last big shoot of the week, and considering that the first three wore me out, I may go home and take a nap. I will probably spend Sunday afternoon doing homework and baking bread. If I'm lucky, I'll get some reading done tomorrow after the shoot. I can't concentrate tonight, despite my best efforts.

Thus begins the hectic month of February (which for me, officially started this past Tuesday). Once this movie shoot is over, I'll be back to my normally relaxed schedule. As it is, I can't really afford to procrastinate during the hours when I actually can get work done. Oh well, I can't afford to write a half-assed paper for John Bruner either, and that's the best I could hope to achieve today.

Yesterday was our second shoot of the production, and when we finished we found out that we got no good footage out of the whole night. When the director and production manager said that officially, we were a bit disappointed. Personally, I was just upset that I'd spend 4+ hours out in 22 degree weather with no result. I know that getting a crew up and working takes time, and there's always hope that the reshoot will be warmer. They launched into a long speech on how we shouldn't let it get to us, because it wasn't that bad, and it was to be expected. I guess I didn't gauge the room well, I didn't think we are quite that upset as a whole. But we're back at it again tomorrow. Big wheel race. Which means one thing - the Grip dept. is gonna be tired tomorrow night.

I am the Grip dept. in it's entirety, at least for now. Dr. Owens and I are looking for a couple of vollunteer grips, because I'm responsible for more equipment than I can handle. I have the big dolly, it's track, the pocket dolly, the portable jib, the steadicam rig, and anything else that becomes deemed specialty camera equipment. It's not really that bad, it's just more heavy stuff than I can lug by myself in any semblence of a short period of time. The first night I was finally loading all the gear back into Corbitt an hour after most of the rest of the crew was gone. I think I may eat through my bottle of ibuprofen before this is all over.

I promise it's not all "boo hoo, poor me." I'm having a blast! Over all the hard part is greatly outweighed by the fact that I'm doing something that I want to do for the rest of my life! We're running this shoot by the book, and I'm on the production crew. I load up my truck, load in at the location, set up what I need for the night, troubleshoot what I can, and when it's all over I pack it in, and put it all away. During the majority of the shoot I can hang out with other members of the crew. Hurry up and wait is our motto. I don't have much to do in the middle of the shoot, because once I'm set up, I get to sit tight until I pack up. And we have a good crew, and a good cast. It's going to be a blast. I have a feeling that tomorrow's shoot is going to be the most fun we've had in a while. Hopefully the impending freezing rain will stay away until we're done. I mean, how much fun will it be to shoot guys racing down the hill on Big Wheels? They can reach speeds of 20 mph! I'm pumped!

time marches on

I am officially making an attempt to transfer my blog from Xanga to Blogger. I have finally decided that I perfer the interface and control I can have here. I am going to maintain both sites for a while (probably until I finish school), but over time I'm going to copy some posts from my xanga site into this one, and eventually, I will stop updating the xanga blog. So, thus begins a new chapter . . .