"Broken Set Pieces"

HAd to let my crew run last Tuesday's shoot day on the short film production of "A Gift." Prinicipal photography did not go as planned and we didn't get all the footage filmed on the one day and two night event, so we ended up adding two nights to the production hoping we could finish it prior to all the kids going on Spring Break. Neither night I was going to be available for so I let my cinematographer and sound man do it for me.

The first night on the shoot be themselves they did a good job. I've finally witnessed the "dailies" and even though I disagree with their lighting choices I can't complain too much since I wasn't there to guide them. The second night, which is the night in question, even though they finished about 85% of the scenes needed to complete the film, they had several problems; only one of those problems will be discussed here today.

The following morning - Wednesday, after the filming was complete I got the call from the cinematographer exclaiming that the boom pole was split into thirds. Now when you get a call like this so early in the morning you can't help but have a small smile in your face confirming what you had been dreading along along. That inner voice was telling me...no, screaming at me, "I told you so." It laughed these words in the back of my mind and somehow I knew it was true.

"I told you not to let them do it by themselves," it said. That pesky little voice in the back of my head that would warn me of something like this time and time again. If the boom pole and shock mount had been mine I wouldn't worry too much of it but it belongs to one of my very good friends. One that trusts me with her equipment and now I have to tell her that I broke her boom pole and shock mount and that I would be replacing it with a newer one.

I don't mind replacing it as it is my responsibility regardless of how and why it happened (which I've now decided I will not go into detail here, at least not yet) but what I don't want to happen is this hurting our relationship and my ability to continue using her equipment.

What this has told me is that I can't leave my crew alone without being supervised by my partner or myself because an event like this can not be repeated in the future.

I don't ponder on it too much as it's now become water under the bridge as I think upon more important things like the film festival and my filming of SHIVER this summer and the music video shoot and....