Three Days in the Cold

For anyone who thinks working on movies is glamorous and fun, I'm here to give you a reality check. The days are long, and boring, and cold, and did I mention that they're long? I knew all this going into my current PA gig, but I sort of tried to block out the memory and concentrate only on the payday. But that first day on, it all came flooding back to me....

First, the film, Snowmen, is shooting up in Park City, which, for those not familiar with Utah, is about 30 miles away from Salt Lake, which is where I'm staying with my sister. It's basically a resort town for skiing, so to get there you have to drive through Parley's canyon. Thankfully the weather hasn't been bad...yet; it's supposed to snow all day tomorrow. Because of the cold weather I've had to buy new glove, boots, snow pants and jacket. And since it's higher in the mountains the snowfall is heavier and the temperatures lower. It's gotten progressively colder each day on set; today it was 13 degrees when I arrived....

...at 6:00 am. Which is the second worst thing about making movies--the call times are always early and the wrap times always late. Major plus for this movie, though, is that it stars kids. Kids can only work 5 hours a day on set, which makes for much shorter working days. Not a whole lot shorter, but instead of clocking in 14, 15 hours, the days are usually done by 5:30 or 6:00. But then there's that drive down the canyon...

Third, extras. These are the people you see in the background of shots. All the extras in this movie are kids. Young kids. Like six to ten. And there's like 30 of them. Most of them don't take it seriously (I think their parents are forcing them to do it, hoping they get famous some how) and don't listen to what I say. They have very small attention spans. Some of them are completely adorable, which makes it harder when I have to make them stand out in the cold for 4, 6 hours doing the same things over and over. It's kind of sad, and I know that I'd never let my hypothetical kids be extras.

Fourth, there's a lot of standing around when making movies. We like to call it Hurry Up and Wait.

So making movies is not glamorous, but they do feed you well. There's breakfast and lunch, plus Crafty on set with snacks and food. We've been getting hot soup at fairly even intervals. And that's what making movies is about.