And the Oscar Goes To....

Mickey Rourke was robbed, there wasn't enough Hugh Jackman, there were no really funny jokes (except the great bit by Ben Stiller), previous winners talking about the people nominated instead of being able to see their work was totally lame and awkward, presenters doing four categories, no drama, suspense or dark-horse wins. Just blah all the way around. At least if Mickey Rourke had won there would have been someone with some real personality up there. But Yay! for Kate Winslet winning.

The Oscars should be about celebrating movies, and in recent years, in their attempt to make them less bloated and long (remember the 4 hour plus running time the year Titanic won?), they've lost some of their joy and fun. There should but one night out of the year where we can sit back with our favorite movie stars and just forget about the real world for awhile. But this shortened scenario makes me long for the good ol' days of funny humor, political jokes, Sean Penn defending Jude Law (which my friend Jeff also thought was a great Oscar moment), crazy long dance "interpretations" of the Best Original Score nominees, skits, clip montages, Adrien Brody deservedly winning for The Pianist and laying a big one on Halle Berry, hilarious opening sequences, and all the Jazz of Oscar telecasts. I blame the new Producer this year. Hopefully next year will be better.

Who's In It?

For those who kept asking me who's in the movie I'm working on, I can finally tell you that we have a big name next to all those no-name kid actors (unless you count the "star" we have that worked on "That's So Raven", and if you talk to the kids on our set who watch Disney Channel all the time, he is a star). Shoeless Joe Jackson himself, Ray Liotta, will be playing the lead kid's dad! Ray Liotta is pretty awesome, having starred in Goodfellas, Field of Dreams, and, one of my guilty pleasure favorites, Heartbreakers. Tomorrow will be his first day on set, and although it's a little weird to ask for their picture, I'll see what I can do. I'm also taking random pictures on set that I can hopefully get up and on here. I'm always just so tired at night, and Emily has yet to get internet at her home, that picture uploads haven't happened yet. Hopefully soon....

Until then, I'm enjoying our interior shooting days.

Two Days Off

So after re-reading my last entry, I realized that it was quite negative (and severely misspelled, and sort of just a rambling mess, but it was late when I wrote it after a long day of work). I don't mean to make it sound so awful, and if I wasn't working with the people that I was it would definitely be much more awful. Especially after yesterday.

Yesterday was our first late starting time because we had to shoot night scenes. The day started at 12:30 in the afternoon and we didn't wrap until 12:02. But as a PA, you don't get to leave at wrap (well, really, no one gets to leave at wrap except the director and producers); we have to deliver Call Sheets to all departments, make sure extras get signed out, wait for out times and pretty much stay til everything gets wrapped up. I didn't leave Park City until 1:30am.

The day was long, none of the kids were listening to me, especially the cast kids, it was cold and windy, and we were all ready for it to be over by about 8:00. We were shooting on an ice rink and all the kids just wanted to skate and have fun instead of get ready for the shots. Even our 1st AD (Assistant Director; he's the one who runs the set) was getting frustrated with the kids. But, as I said, if not for great people like him and the rest of the crew working together, it would be pretty awful. I know that Murphy (he's the AD) appreciates my work, he's easy to talk to, and he understands what we're dealing with. It's nice to have a good working environment.

And I have no idea why it's called Craft Services (we call it Crafty). My guess is that it stems from some long ago company, perhaps Craft, that started doing it and the name has sort of just stuck. Crafty gives us food and drinks while on set. They are very pivotal in keeping everyone happy.

And now it's the "weekend" and I have two days. It will definitely be nice to not have to spend my days standing in the cold, watching children and being awake for 18 hours. Maybe I'll start taking my camera to work and give you guys some behind the scenes photos...

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.

The Kindness of Strangers

I packed a lot of stuff into my suitcases and book bag. Since I was moving out of my room entirely, and nothing could be left, I put a lot of things that would normally not be taken with me into my luggage. Good thing, too, because my storage unit was filled to capacity--from floor to ceiling and wall to wall to door; not one extra box would have fit.

So I wasn't all that surprised when my luggage was deemed too heavy--six pounds over the limit. The worker asked if I had any spare room to put the extra six pounds in, and I just looked at her. I was extremely tired and so the look of incredulity on my face when she said I'd have to pay $50 for the extra pounds on top of the $15 checked baggage fee seemed justified. I thought about it for a minute before resignedly telling her to just charge the card. I must've looked and sounded pretty sad and pitiful, because the gentleman who was checking in at the kiosk next to mine offered to pay my checked baggage fee. I sort of missed the entire transaction in my depressed state, until I was told I was done and I wondered what card she had put the charge on. "I thought you understood that this gentleman was paying it for you," she said. I've never felt so grateful for anything before.

And then, on the not-full flight from Phoenix, a guy gave up his window seat for me and instead sat in an aisle seat. The flight was definitely not full, but somehow my row had been assigned three people. I had gotten there first, and when he showed up saying that was his seat and I was in it (because I was already expecting the flight to not be full) said he would sit in the aisle behind me if no one came. Someone came, and I offered him window seat back and I'd take the aisle seat, but he said he was fine. Can you believe it?! These people sure have some good karma coming their way. I'm also thinking I need a way to Pay the Kindness Forward...

Then, to top it off, Stefanie is letting me borrow her car while I'm here. I picked it up at her family's home in Springville and they were all so nice and friendly that they, along with Stefanie, are my new favorite people, Stefanie holding the title of Most Very Favor-ite Person in the Universe! Good Karma all around.

...and the people that I've met and will miss: Maria, Mark, Rosemary, Stefanie, Jeff, Elisabeth, Elin, Holly, Brook, Erin, Cristi, Jessica, Soo, Marcus, Laura, Hanna, Cody, Hilary, Jina, Jenny, all those folks at the Crew, Ryan, Nesha, Aja, Gaby, Rolf, Kristy, Tamara.

A New York Love Letter

As I sit at the airport writing this, I reflect that I don't feel sad or melancholy about leaving the city this time. I don't really know why, it's a hard feeling to capture in words, especially for someone who struggles to make coherent ideas and sentences out of her thoughts. Maybe it's because the city I'm leaving this time is different than the one I left in December. It's changed, and perhaps I've changed with it. I think there's a definite demarcation line--the Julie when she first moved to New York and the Julie after being gone for six weeks. So in my bid to say goodbye to the city one more time, but hopefully not for the last time, here are some things I'll remember and miss about New York:

--the feeling when I first walked into my apartment
--seeing The Godfather at Film Forum with Mark and Maria
--subway performers
--hearing Elder Holland speak to the New York Stake
--reading in Central Park
--apple picking in upstate New York
--walking on sidewalks in new neighborhoods
--wading thru traffic on busy streets
--Gray's Papaya hot dogs
--jam-packed subway cars
--riding a cab at night and rediscovering the city all lit up
--taking a bus and spending the day in Washington, D.C.
--riding Amtrak out to Pennsylvania
--showing my sister and Mom the Top of the Rock
--Matchbox Twenty at Madison Square Garden
--walking in the rain with my rain boots
--feeling like I live in the center of the Universe
--taking the subway to Target
--buying a turkey and carrying it on the subway
--movies in Bryant Park
--the time I went to AsssCat with Stef and it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen
--seeing Jeff perform at the Apollo
--the Ward Christmas Party and Ryan Simmons performance
--Pumpkin Blaze in Tarrytown
--the Nadal Deli just down the street
--riding the subway at 3:00 in the morning
--realizing that New York is not what's portrayed in movies and tv, it's better--most of the time
--working with Tribeca Film Festival
--when the weather gets nice and you don't need a coat or gloves anymore and there's a feeling of excitment in the city
--walking aimlessly down Broadway
--diversity
--fall in the city

That's seems to be a pretty good list for someone with a bad memory...