a diamond in the rough and a jewel in dickson county

Yesterday was delightful. It didn’t begin that way, however — for the first time in my 21 years, my REM cycle took a rain check. 11:20pm I first laid down to bed in order to rise at 4:45am to get to work on time. And for whatever reason, I truly didn’t sleep a single wink.

The rest of the day went quite the opposite. I got to work with a different production company–Taillight TV, specifically– a different director, different PAs, but the same crew. Knowing the crew and being familiar with the music video aura made the day more accommodating than intimidating, and being able to observe the workings of a different production team was insightful. I didn’t know the gaffer, but he took the time to teach me a quick way to wrap bandit (sp?), the insanely thick and heavy wires that run from the generator to the lights, thus further adding to my continuous process: Becoming a Knowledgeable PA.

The video was one of the most fun to experience, as the majority of the day was spent filming muscle cars peeling out and turning donuts in a gravel parking lot. And the director was, ironically enough, the same director that executed and casted the video for Josh Turner’s “Firecracker”, back when I was desperate enough to attend a casting session– just a short 10 months ago. So technically, I had met him before.

For the last scene, the artist was sitting in a car that was stationary — because the director wanted to shoot additional performance footage that also was a close-up “beauty” shot. The director stood on one side of the car, rocking it back and forth to simulate motion, while I stood on the other side with a 4 foot by 2 foot flag (used by the grips, these flags aren’t normal flags — it’s merely a square of piping that runs through the lining of the perimeter of the fabric) The window of the car was down, the artist began singing, and the director shouted, “Start the wind!”
It was my cue. I flapped the flag up and down, rather jerkily and intermittently, in an attempt to replicate the wind one experiences on the open road. She kept singing. “Niiice wind, keep it coming!” The director praised. I beamed with pride, but sixty seconds later, my arms began to give out. The flag movement became more hasty and jerky, and it didn’t go unnoticed. “More wind! More wind!” ordered the director, and I felt all the eyes of the crew, the production team, the label, the DP, and God looking expectantly at the stationary blonde locks of the artist as I vainly jerked my arms up and down as quickly as humanly able, merely producing sporadic bursts of air. Another long and grueling minute passed, and at long last, the take was complete. Exhausted, I tag teamed another PA, who gave me a high five in exchange for the flag. He wasn’t able to create much of a breeze though, either, and we shook our heads and laughed about it afterwards. It has been the most random task I’ve ever done on a shoot by far.

Revolution, literally my internship two weeks ago but now my homebase in terms of freelance employment, has gotten two new interns. It’s kind of peculiar, for several reasons…