Announcing the Next Adventure: The Motherland Tour!
Let’s be honest: Planning a trip rarely pans out when you work in freelance production. The joke in the industry is, “If you want to get work, buy a plane ticket.” There’s always this fear that by being unavailable for work, people will forget about you completely and you’ll never work again. A dear friend recently reminded me that it isn’t true, of course. There rarely is a right time to travel; you have to make it happen. And so, with no immediate prospects, I pulled the trigger… I’m going to Ukraine. I leave in less than two weeks. I’m just a little terrified. Why Ukraine? The short answer: My grandfather grew up there, and he’s a large part of who I am today. The detailed answer: I was definitely raised in an American home (my parents ARE from New Jersey after all), but I was exposed to Ukrainian culture on a regular basis. For Christmas Eve, we would eat borscht, pierogis and holobchi; sometimes I’d be forced to wear traditional Ukrainian dress. My grandfather never ceased bragging about his homeland (to the point of driving everyone a little crazy, particularly my German grandmother). He passed away when I was 16, and after college, I took a vested interest in Ukraine and my heritage. I began reading about the intense Russification that Ukraine endured, and my grandfather’s passion made all the more sense. The Rough Itinerary I have a 14 hour layover in Frankfurt, and then I’m arriving in Kiev just in time to celebrate Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24th. I’ll spend a few days there before making my way to L’viv, the city closest to where my grandfather is from. I’m going to hole up here for a couple of weeks and take my first stab at language classes, hopefully making a weekend trip to the Carpathian Mountains. I must visit the village where my grandfather grew up, but I’ll probably need a guide. And for some reason, I keep envisioning it playing out like this: (Everything is Illuminated is a hilarious and fantastic movie– you should absolutely see it, especially if you’re planning a trip to Ukraine. I may download the soundtrack to play as background music to my own adventure.) After L’viv I have 10 more days to travel around the country before my flight to Germany. I may jettison down to Odessa if I have the mental stamina. Germany I have a 6-day layover in Frankfurt before heading home, which is key in the Motherland Tour as Frankfurt/Wiesbaden is where my grandparents met and married. I’d like to get up to Bremerhaven, as that’s where they sailed from for a new start. And then, back...
What to Expect When Visiting Oak Harbor, Washington
Oak Harbor, Washington is nestled on Whidbey Island, one of the islands amidst the waterways of western Washington. If you’re driving to British Columbia by way of Seattle, you should absolutely take a detour to Oak Harbor. The sunlight is always up, it seems. Full sunlight would spill through my hotel’s curtains every morning at 5am, and every morning I’d wake in a panic that I’d overslept. The sun wouldn’t dip beneath the horizon until after 10pm. The best parts of Oak Harbor are right off the highway. It felt like I was in a painting. To be this far north in the winter must be brutal, but Oak Harbor in the summertime is enchanting. And apparently, the Puget Sound is one of the best places in the country to become a raw oyster fanatic! While I enjoy oysters Rockefeller, the thought of raw oysters makes me gag (the only time I’d tried one was in Charleston — and it was gross). I wasn’t the kind of person that ate raw oysters before visiting Oak Harbor. One of the guys on our crew is from Washington, and promised I wouldn’t regret trying an oyster from his homeland. I learned that the Pacific Northwest provides the sweetest oysters in the country, specifically the Baywater Sweet variety — which are farmed in the nearby Thorndyke Bay. I had my first raw oyster from the Pacific Northwest at Fraser’s Gourmet Hideaway. We sat at the chef’s bar and got to talk a little with the owner and head chef, Scott Fraser. We watched him prepare each dish with scrutiny; every plate a masterpiece. As soon as I took a sip of my glass of Maryhill Viognier paired with a raw oyster, I knew I was in for one of the best dining experiences of my life. Each appetizer was better than the last. The crabcakes were delicious, the calamari was perfectly breaded and tender — but the tapas plate was my favorite. Have you ever had a bacon-wrapped date? It is absolutely exquisite. After an excellent meal, we walked to the nearby shoreline. It was almost ten o’clock at night, and the streets were quiet as somewhere behind the clouds, the sun finally began dipping beneath the horizon. It’s hard not to think about the infinite when staring into an endless canvas of blues and dashes of a fading sun. There is a LOT of driftwood on the banks of Oak Harbor – I’d never seen so much in my life! If you’re headed to Victoria from Seattle in the summertime, I highly recommend a night’s stay in Oak Harbor. It’s a hidden gem in the United States, a...
Guide for Finding and Filming Locations (and How to Keep Them Happy)
The majority of film and television shoots are accomplished outside the comforts of a studio lot. These shoots happen on location — whether it be at a warehouse, apartment, restaurant, bar, or store. Someone has to make the initial contact with that location, nurture the relationship, and ultimately secure enough trust to accomplish a film shoot that keeps both parties happy until long after the film crew leaves. First of all, your priority should be ensuring the location has a positive experience — you don’t want to burn a bridge for the next film crew that wants to film there. There are four steps to establishing a relationship with a location, but if you can only remember two things, remember this: Be Honest and Be Genuine. NOTE: This post is written for smaller shoots, where the coordinators/producers usually do the location management and try to get locations for free. For larger scripted projects, there’s an entire department to handle the locations! 1) Learn How to Cold Call. Cold calling is scary and in the age of e-mail, it’s a skill that’s overlooked and not taught in school. When I first started as an associate producer, I was terrified of picking a phone number off of Google, cold calling, and trying to convince an unsuspecting stranger to let a 30-person film crew interfere with their business. I didn’t have a confident on-phone personality. To make things even more daunting, my very first assignment was to cold calls gigantic oil corporations in an attempt to find an offshore oil rig for us to film on. (Mind you, this was less than a year after the Deepwater Horizon incident.) Throughout my first season on that show, as I called numerous other locations (restaurants, bars, etc), I got a lot of confused reactions met with a lot of Hell No!s. But with guidance from a great mentor plus the practice of cold calling hundreds of businesses, I was able to craft a sales pitch with a high success rate. Once you’ve cleared 100 different locations in 20 different states, you’re bound to start remembering what works! The turning point was incredibly simple: I believed what I told them. This is a project you’re happy to be working on, and they should be excited you chose them, too! Your enthusiasm and belief in the project will sell the show better than any well-written sales pitch. When You’re Cold Calling, Make Sure You’re Speaking With the Right Person. This is simple, but key. Don’t unload your pitch on the first person that answers the phone – make sure you’re speaking to the owner/manager (or public relations if it’s a big company). My first line...
Building a Film Gear Package/Videographer Kit For Less Than $1,000
Purchasing film gear is expensive. I’ve been in the market for a new camera, one that shoots HD video. (Maybe I can earn a few extra bucks uploading some crap to a stock footage website, right?) And then I thought of all the additional gadgets I’d need to pull off a successful shoot on my own: Good lighting, a tripod, editing software, and maybe even audio equipment. Before long, I’m assembling my own film gear kit! I wondered…can a basic videographer’s kit be built for less than $1,000? The Camera (1-2 Lenses) – $700 Canon T3i or Nikon D3200. This kills the majority of the budget, but a decent camera and good lens are (obviously) vital. Occasionally, Amazon will run a deal that includes not just the kit lens, but a telephoto lens as well. Smaller budget commercials, music videos, and independent films have been shot on the T3i and the quality is impressive. Tip: Choose one brand of camera that you plan on “upgrading”, that way, your lenses will be interchangeable between camera bodies. 1/2016 Update: This is a space that is constantly changing since I wrote this article 3 years ago. I’ve been impressed with the quality of video from Sony’s mirrorless cameras. Check out the a6000 or, for full-frame and bigger budgets, the a7. Recommended Add-On: Polarizer filter & lens hood (additional $15-$20) Tripod – $50 A tripod is necessary for any interviews or lock-off shots you may need. High-end tripods cost $2,000+, but for $50, pick up a heavy-duty tripod capable of supporting the weight of your DSLR. Note: If you want to do a lot of handheld recording, shop around for DSLR shoulder mounts or learn how to build a DSLR shoulder mount out of PVC pipe. Cards and Card Reader – $75 This will depend on the type of camera you purchase – you can pick up a 32GB Transcend SDHC Flash card for $25. Get at LEAST two memory cards to start, three if you can fork it over. Recommended Add-On: External Hard Drive ($100-$200; FireWire 800 highly recommended for fast transfer of media) Spare Camera Battery – $50 This is enough to get a name-brand backup battery. You can find an off-brand for a lot less, but in my experience, they don’t hold as much of a charge. Audio Equipment (Shotgun Microphone)– $30 Eventually, you will need to invest in lavalieres and a mixer (or better yet, an audio guy), but for now, a budget shotgun microphone will boost the audio quality without breaking the bank. Note: If you have a little more money to spend, pick up a portable Zoom ZH4N recorder, which are easy to operate and will record 4 audio channels. ...
How to Get a Job as a Production Assistant
I’ve gotten a few inquiries asking about getting that first film set or television job as a production assistant, so here’s an attempt to help! There are several paths into the film business, but speaking from my own experience, this is what I would recommend to someone just starting out in the film or television business with their sights set on that first production assistant job. Don’t Ask for a Production Assistant Job. Work for Free. It’s tough to convince people they should hire you as a production assistant and pay you when you don’t have any credits to your name just yet. If you’ve never worked on a real set (film school doesn’t count), offer to work for free. Money talks in this business, and they’ve got nothing to lose by giving you a chance. That will be the fastest way to get you on a set. From there, you can work your butt off and prove yourself while making contacts that will eventually hire you. I know it’s painful to think of “working for free”, so instead…consider it your audition to the film world. You may feel like you’re insignificant and your good deeds are going unnoticed, but I promise, producers and ADs are always on the hunt for the next great worker. Common sense, following orders, and having a good attitude will get you a LONG way in this business. Cold Call Production Companies. When I started out, I only ever gotten one production assistant job blindly by emailing a production company, and they ended up screwing me because they “released” me via email the day before the shoot. Talk to people first, then email them as a follow-up. When you cold call, ask if you can come by and introduce yourself. Be approachable and confident, but don’t brag about your film school accomplishments as if they’re comparable to the real film industry. Call the Local Film Commission. Are there any big film projects in town? Call your local film commission (or office of Economic Development) for leads. Explain you’re a student/recent graduate seeking experience. Ask for the name of the production company, and if they know of any contacts. When you cold call the production, use the name of the person you spoke with at the film commission. Your phone call to the production should be something along these lines: “Hello Brad, I got your name from Susan Carlton over at the film commission. I’m a recent graduate looking to get into film production. I was wondering if you needed any extra hands on your project?” Ask about any low-budget independent movies, as they can be a great way to...
So, You Want to be a Television Executive? Get to Los Angeles. Now.
I’ve been stationed in Los Angeles for three months now, the longest I’ve been away from Nashville since first moving there in the fall of 2005. Coming here has been a great opportunity professionally, and it has also managed to quench that eternal desire of wanderlust…somewhat. (I’m still pricing tickets to Kiev and Southeast Asia on my off-hours. But I digress.) I’m a big fan of mid-level television/film markets. It’s been my bread and butter for five years, while also providing a rich quality of life in addition to an affordable lifestyle — plus giving me ample stories to last a lifetime. However, now that I’m temporarily located in the mecca of the film and television industry, it’s been impossible not to wonder how much further up the ladder I would be if only I’d moved out here five years ago. But as I’ve said before, I knew basing myself out of LA wasn’t at all what I wanted. The same may not be true for you. If you’re new to this career in television and film, what is it you hope to achieve? Do you want to… Be an executive producer for a highly successful television series? Write an Oscar-nominated screenplay? DP the next hit AMC series? Get in to the DGA and become a 1st AD? If you said yes to any of the above, while you may be able to eventually achieve these goals from anywhere USA, you’ll get your foot in the door a LOT! faster if you move to Los Angeles immediately. I was a PA for three years before I moved up to a position I could’ve gotten within a year had I been based in LA. There’s a lot of work out here; enough opportunity for both the talented and the terrible. If you’re an ambitious, smart, and competent production assistant with clear direction of what department you’d like to pursue, you’re going to get promoted very quickly. If you’re a terrible production assistant, well, luckily for you (and unfortunately for the rest of us), there’s enough work out here that will keep you from ever getting completely blacklisted. (Not that anyone would ever deliberately be a bad production assistant, right?!) All that said, I also don’t want to mislead you into thinking just the act of moving to LA will immediately lead to getting jobs in the business. As always, tenacity and networking are the trick to landing that first gig. Once you get in the loop and prove yourself, you’ll be set. But remember…you don’t have to move to LA. I have several work comrades in the Nashville area that are living proofyou can make a living...
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I'm Laryssa, and when I'm not working in film or television, I'm attempting to travel -- or I'm here, providing resources for working in film or travel. Read more Elsewhere on the internets
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