Day Ninety Five - On The Surface Your Job Sounds Pretty Cool
I was supposed to cross train yesterday but I didn't. And I don't even really feel that bad about it. I got a call first thing in the morning when I got to work telling me that a shoot had just come up for later in the day and asking if I could help put it together. For those that don't know what I do, I am a production coordinator at HBO in the Creative Services Department. What that basically means is that I work in the department that produces all of the promotional content on HBO and Cinemax for our original series and movies and our special events. We also do a lot of interstitial programming for both networks and things like red carpet premieres and DVD featurettes. My job is to basically hire crews and manage schedules for a wide variety of events. So there's a crash course in what I mean when I say "work."
Most days my job is...pretty OK. It's a lot of time spent on the phone back and forth with crew and vendors as creative ideas change by the second. It's definitely not the most exciting gig in the world, but the fun days make it all worth it. I knew from the first phonecall yesterday that setting up a shoot for last night would be a hassle. Just the general sense of uncertainty about the whole thing led me to believe things would be up in the air all day because no one would want to commit to any one thing, so in the meantime we'd have to be prepared for anything (I turned out to be 100% right, btw). The thing is, I wasn't as annoyed as I normally am with this type of thing because I was actually excited about the shoot. I'm not going to pretend that I'm totally jaded and don't get start struck at all, but the thing is, the way my job is set up, even if we are shooting with celebs, I rarely have any reason to interact with them, so I just sorta stay in the wings doing my thing because the less I have to do with talent, the better I've done my job preparing the shoot. Most times they just walk in, do their thing and walk out and when I "meet" them it's just that. "This is Bill from HBO" and they smile and walk on by to the other 900 people that they are going to be introduced to that day.
I knew yesterday was going to be the same deal, but I wanted to go anyway. The shoot was with Bill Clinton and I was just excited about the prospect of being there. Now, I don't want to get into a whole thing about politics and I'm not going to pretend that Bill Clinton is the end all be all, but as a President I was a fan of his and as he was the first presidential candidate I ever voted for (and the only one I ever voted for that actually won) I was into the idea of meeting the guy.
We got to the shoot and the place was a nightmare. There was an event downstairs in the building that he was speaking at later in the evening. We were scheduled to interview him on the 6th floor but neither elevator in the building (which I'm assuming was the first thing ever built in New York City) After a while they finally fixed the main elevator and we were able to move our gear upstairs...slowly...as not to overload the thing and break it again. We set up our shoot and heard that he was going to be coming late. After an hour or so of sitting around we got the call that he was on his way up. Building security, the NYPD and the secret service had been wandering around on the floor off and on until then. Clinton popped out of the elevator with two SS members. He met his assistant, who had been with us the whole time, and our producer and they went through what we were were shooting (some comments for Comic Relief and another set of comments for The Nobel Peace Prize). They were leading him to the room (which my boss and I had left because it wasn't really necessary that we be in there for the shoot - see how that works - once the thing is set up, I shouldn't need to be on set) and he made it a point to stop and say hello to my boss and I and shake our hands, which was completely uneccessary, but very political. Then he walked into the room and sat down and someone closed the door. Less than 10 minutes later he came out, said thank you to everyone and left.
And that's how I "met" President Clinton last night and that's why I didn't do my cross training.
The End
Most days my job is...pretty OK. It's a lot of time spent on the phone back and forth with crew and vendors as creative ideas change by the second. It's definitely not the most exciting gig in the world, but the fun days make it all worth it. I knew from the first phonecall yesterday that setting up a shoot for last night would be a hassle. Just the general sense of uncertainty about the whole thing led me to believe things would be up in the air all day because no one would want to commit to any one thing, so in the meantime we'd have to be prepared for anything (I turned out to be 100% right, btw). The thing is, I wasn't as annoyed as I normally am with this type of thing because I was actually excited about the shoot. I'm not going to pretend that I'm totally jaded and don't get start struck at all, but the thing is, the way my job is set up, even if we are shooting with celebs, I rarely have any reason to interact with them, so I just sorta stay in the wings doing my thing because the less I have to do with talent, the better I've done my job preparing the shoot. Most times they just walk in, do their thing and walk out and when I "meet" them it's just that. "This is Bill from HBO" and they smile and walk on by to the other 900 people that they are going to be introduced to that day.
I knew yesterday was going to be the same deal, but I wanted to go anyway. The shoot was with Bill Clinton and I was just excited about the prospect of being there. Now, I don't want to get into a whole thing about politics and I'm not going to pretend that Bill Clinton is the end all be all, but as a President I was a fan of his and as he was the first presidential candidate I ever voted for (and the only one I ever voted for that actually won) I was into the idea of meeting the guy.
We got to the shoot and the place was a nightmare. There was an event downstairs in the building that he was speaking at later in the evening. We were scheduled to interview him on the 6th floor but neither elevator in the building (which I'm assuming was the first thing ever built in New York City) After a while they finally fixed the main elevator and we were able to move our gear upstairs...slowly...as not to overload the thing and break it again. We set up our shoot and heard that he was going to be coming late. After an hour or so of sitting around we got the call that he was on his way up. Building security, the NYPD and the secret service had been wandering around on the floor off and on until then. Clinton popped out of the elevator with two SS members. He met his assistant, who had been with us the whole time, and our producer and they went through what we were were shooting (some comments for Comic Relief and another set of comments for The Nobel Peace Prize). They were leading him to the room (which my boss and I had left because it wasn't really necessary that we be in there for the shoot - see how that works - once the thing is set up, I shouldn't need to be on set) and he made it a point to stop and say hello to my boss and I and shake our hands, which was completely uneccessary, but very political. Then he walked into the room and sat down and someone closed the door. Less than 10 minutes later he came out, said thank you to everyone and left.
And that's how I "met" President Clinton last night and that's why I didn't do my cross training.
The End
posted by Demps at 10:40 AM
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