Film Stories

After college, I spent 4 years in the Chicago Film industry freelancing as a Prop Master / Set Decorator on many, many TV commercials as well as a few music videos, a TV series, a photo shoot, a PSA, a couple short films, and two independent feature films. I started thinking about that period of my life and tried to remember all the stories from that time. As I wrote things down, other stuff started coming back. So I decided to start a series of stories from my time in the film industry for your enjoyment, but also for my own benefit. A record of this fun time before I forget it all.

I’ll start with how it all began. (I often think the beginning of a tale is a good place to start) Sara and I got married a week after graduation and then moved into an apartment in Chicago immediately after that. During my senior year, I contemplated what I wanted to do after school and the thought of working in the film industry making movies was very appealing to me. But I had no idea in what capacity and how to even start doing that. So we decided to move to Chicago at first (instead of NY or LA) to see if I could do work here first. Then if something big happened, we could make a choice later on to move elsewhere.

Chicago also had the benefit of being between my folks back in NY and her folks in MN. And during my junior year, I spent a semester at a PR firm doing an internship, so I hoped something would come of that (nothing did).

It took me three months to finally find the right people and break in. I had been a subscriber to Screen Magazine, a publication for creative professionals in Chicago. They sponsored an annual Schmooze-a-rama at the Rock Bottom Brewery where industry professionals could get together and swap business cards. I did so with a few people and it was interesting. But my most important contact was with a girl who worked at film processing lab. When I told her I was trying to break in, she remembered the name and number of a guy who was a Production Manager (PM).

I called him and he ended up being just a Production Assistant (PA) (go figure he’d inflate his title to impress a girl), but more importantly, he was extremely helpful and gave me the numbers of half a dozen real PMs.  (Interestingly, it was about 3 years before he and I actually worked the same job together – at which point I could finally thank him in person.)  I called all those people and eventually one called me back looking for help on her next job. She also suggested that I get a pager to stay in close contact. This was the mid-nineties, so cell phones weren’t a real affordable solution just yet.

Well, I guess the act of me running out to get a pager helped impress her. I called her a few days later to give her my pager number. Shortly after that was the 2 day job … in Wheaton. Whatever, I didn’t care – I was in.

My first job was as a PA on an Enterprise Rent-a-Car job at a small garage in Wheaton. I set up lunch tables, picked up the film at the Kodak plant (where Costco is now), emptied garbage, and whatever else was needed to keep the production running smoothly. It was great.

For the next month or so, I did PA work exclusively for this PM. I did whatever I could to impress her with my work ethic and it worked. I kept getting hired. She was a bit upset when I started getting noticed by other people and hired by other PMs – she liked that I wasn’t known by anyone else and so was always available for her.

But then the system started to work. PMs like to hire the same PAs as much as possible since they’re familiar with them. But when one isn’t available, they go to the others and ask, “Who do you know?” and then names get passed around. That is how the industry works: word of mouth. After my first job, I was blessed enough to never have to beg for work over the next 4 years. Which is pretty remarkable in a freelance industry. Sure I went through some extended stretches without work, but eventually a job came around until I decided to call it quits.

So that’s how I broke in. And if you ask 100 people in the industry how they got started, they’ll give you 100 different answers. It’s quite unique in that manner. Yet, it’s fun, too.