Back From The Hammer

As Sam Gamgee would say "Well, I'm back." The trip to Hamilton was supposed to be more profitable than it was but I can't complain too much. I arrived Tuesday morning after an overnight bus from Montreal to Toronto and then a GO bus from Toronto to Hamilton. I was supposed to volunteer on the camera crew Tuesday till Friday. The Director of Photohgraphy not only agreed to let me volunteet but I think he was looking forward to the help but we had to double check that I could go with the co-producer. That's when things got crappy. He was worried about insurance, what if I got hurt? I don't know how much of a deal that really is, especially since I've volunteered on grip teams on shows with this same co-producer. I guess he didn't know those times. So after many phone calls that dragged over to Wednesday I ended up buyhing my own insurance for 25 bucks a month. However by the time that was done Eric had worked out three paid days for me in the PA department. I want to know it all so I figured I'll do that now and maybe I can use my insurance the next time I head down. It takes 3 weeks for it to kick in anyway. So I got three paid days doing PA work.

What is PA work you may ask, well as soon as I got there on Thursday afternoon, my shift was 2pm to 2 am, I was asked to drive to Toronto to pick up dailies (edited clips from the previous day). So in traffic I went there and back, as soon as I got back I was asked to pick up the executive producer and drive her to the airport, again traffic made it long and we were in a rush to get her there in time, a feat I acomplished. The exec producer asked me what I wanted to do and I told her about my desire to work a camera and how I couldn't this time. She told me next time I come back I could be her personal guest on set, and she said I could hang out in the cutting room with the editors too. I think in the film industry these kinds of things are thrown around easily but after my French is done I'm going to try and take her up on it, hopefully she'll remember me.

The rest of the time I worked a photocopier, making call sheets and prep schedules along with a host of other documents I have a vague understanding of. I read three scripts while waiting for tasks. Yes there is not much for a PA to do when the office is empty, Eric and I had the night shifts Friday and Saturday, 7pm to 7am both days. Although on Friday I made another trip to Toronto between 1 and 4 so that day I guess I put in 15 hours. It's all good though I'm not there to worry about my rights as a worker, I want to learn and show that I'm a team person, all that crap.

So people liked me although I met few people form set, I reocognized a few people form previous jobs although I don't know if they remembered me. Hopefully they saw a familer face and jsut thought I was one of the crew.

The office we worked in was an old elementary school with a very strange layout and ceilings of different heights all through the place. The paint was peeling, it was creepy to say the least. It was one of the sets for the movie Silent Hill, one of the rooms had gels still on the flourescent lights, made for an eerie glow to the room.

So I think I've just now finally got my sleep schedule back on track. It was a good trip in the long run, next time hopefully it will be even better. Upon my return home little had changed. I was missed but everything important was taken care of in my abscence, I have many extra duties now that I'm unemployeed.

The foster cat Tatoo has taken a turn for the better, he is much more agressive in attacking us. Yesterday he sliced a finger and put a deep hole in another to go with the usual feet attacks. Often in the mornings he comes on the bed, he'll lay on our legs, attack our feet. Usually if we move to pet him he runs away but this morning he allowed both Kate and I to pet and rub him so that's a really good sign.

You'll have to wait till my next blog post to find out the really big news but since I'm going to post it right away and the order of the blog is latest first, you'll have probably read it already.