Film Stories 2

One question I get asked a lot when I tell people of my previous profession is did I meet any celebrities? The answer is yes and no. I did work with a lot of famous people over the years, but when doing the tv commercial jobs, it was better characterized as working on the same job, in the same room. For commercials, my job was typically all the background, set decoration stuff. There was no need for me to interact with the stars.

Movies, on the other hand, it was my job to do so. As a propmaster, I was in charge of everything the actors touched (including rings and glasses), so there was a lot of interaction – which was a lot of fun.

I can’t think of one incident where a celebrity was so full of himself/herself that certain rules were in effect around the set. I have heard stories. But not being an autograph hound, I never had a desire to bother them anyway. I always felt that was unprofessional since we’re all working for the same job.

I worked on a couple Micheal Jordan commercials. One was one of those Sprint commercials where he interacted with the Bugs Bunny characters. The director of that one was the same director who did Space Jam, and that job has it’s own great story. The other job was in a high school and Jordan had just bought a BMW motorcycle after the latest Bond movie featured one. One of my coworkers had recently bought a Harley and I remember the two of them having a conversation about which bike was better. My friend kept his mouth shut for the most part. I don’t think you’d win an argument with Jordan anyway.

At one point during a break, Jordan took his makeup artist for a spin on the bike around the parking lot and down towards the barricaded section where all the kids where hanging out. The kids screamed as he rode past. Jordan also had this huge motorhome/dressing room with a bump out living room. The type of motorhome my parents want to get.

I worked one of those Wickes furniture commercials where they mixed celebrities with other actors. I never really got those concepts because the celebrity would come on without any sort of intro or title tag, so unless you really knew their face, you’d have no idea who they were. For example, that day we worked with MLB Hall of Famer Willie Stargel and NFL Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry. Unless you’re a huge sports fan, would you recognize their faces?

I did a Wahl shaver photo shoot with Richard Karn. (Al Borland from Home Improvement). He was really nice and it was a small crew. I did another photo shoot with ‘N Sync. The photographer was apparently pretty famous in his world too, although I can’t remember his name. That job was messy because the band was eating sub sandwiches and throwing them at the camera on the set. I have no idea what they were doing that for, but that’s what the photographer wanted.

I did a couple music videos, which are the worst jobs. One was with a no-name band, and I’ll share that story later. The other was an R. Kelly shoot where they were just going to record him and another artist at a mixing console in a recording studio. That job was also horrible because we had to wait for him to arrive after a concert. So we started working at 10pm, but he didn’t show up until around 3am. Other than the fact that he didn’t show up until way past the time expected, there wasn’t much too that one. He came, recorded, and left.

I worked a TV show with Oprah. Not her main show, but a little tech-for-dummies type show she was doing. We were set up in a cool loft. I think I only saw one of the 10 episodes we shot on TV. I did get Oprah a cup of tea. That was the only interaction I had with her.

My favorite commercial I ever did with a celebrity was a Blockbuster one promoting a Julia Roberts movie that was going to air during the Superbowl. The star of the commercial was Mike Ditka and we shot it in Soldier Field in December (before they remodeled it). It was cold, but we did get to hang out in the Bears locker room. The last thing we shot for the day was a scene where Ditka was sitting on a couch with another guy, supposedly watching this movie. Ditka was supposed to be crying at the movie. After 2 takes, Ditka got up and left, saying “No, you got it. We’re done.” It was awesome and we went home earlier than expected.

I’ll save my stories from the movies I did for another time. I had some fun times working the same sets as the stars, but I’ve always been the most jealous of the coworkers who did commercials in Wrigley Field or even one guy who did a Nintendo commercial with Brett Favre in Lambeau Field. He told me that during the down time between takes, he’d play catch with Favre. I never did anything that cool.

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.