peggyarcher

[peggyarcher]

The Marathon Mentality

There’s a particular mindset held by endurance athletes, to help them get through long races. Don’t think about the entire event at once, just concentrate on the next few steps, the next mile, the next whatever – this helps to keep the athlete from getting demoralized and overwhelmed by whatever it is they’re about to do. One approaches shoots the same way, especially when said job is obviously…

[peggyarcher]

Armistice

People, for whatever reason, sometimes feel the need to take a stand. Most of the time this isn’t about anything really critical – a parking space, which way the toilet paper is hung, what you really meant when you said “fine” the other day. It escalates to a point and then deflates. But sometimes said stand will take down an entire production. Actors and directors disagree about stuff all the…

[peggyarcher]

The Memo

I have, for the entirety of my career, managed to largely avoid corporate America and all the office-related shenanigans, but sometimes worlds collide.

This show is on a lot, which is owned by a studio, which is owned by a multi-national corporation, which is probably owned by some musty old white guy or 30.

Still, since the dirty toolbelt people stay on the stages, we don’t have to deal with too…

[peggyarcher]

I was very lucky to be able to visit Notre Dame during the off season when there weren’t so many people there. It was cold and drizzly, but there was no wait and enough space to take some pictures:

Some old vacation photos of a lost monument I was very lucky to be able to visit Notre Dame during the off season when there weren't so many people there.

[peggyarcher]

An avalanche of tiny checks

Due to a contract change, I got a retroactive pay raise on some shows, which is great, but as of now, I have eight checks, all around $20, mostly from the same show – I guess it was a check per episode and it was too much trouble to send out one.

Which, again, is great. Money is great.

Because I have direct deposit and am a lazy, lazy, bum, I usually don’t look that hard at said checks and trust…

[peggyarcher]

You Don't Make Noise When You Sweat

You Don’t Make Noise When You Sweat

On most stages, the air conditioning is set to arctic tundra, and the red ‘rolling’ light, when activated, cuts off the air, as blowing  air makes noise and sound people hate noise.

We’re  currently shooting on a converted warehouse stage, and they did a good job with it, but they don’t have the air conditioning tied to the light system and the noise was…problematic, so at some point, production…

[peggyarcher]

It's getting hot out here

It’s getting hot out here

In theory, Spring is the short season between winter and summer – where the temperature gradually warms up, stuff blooms, birds and bees do… things (or so I’m led to believe), and we ease into summer. Except this year. The weather in Los Angeles went from high 60’s to mid-90’s. Overnight. Which would be fine, except that it takes time to get used to the heat, and guess what I did yesterday?…

[peggyarcher]

Everything is burning

Yesterday, I lost a day of work due to some schedule changes. This is unfortunate, but does happen sometimes. The city is surrounded by fires, so the drive home was eerie and didn’t help my mood. I was still anxious when I went to bed, as I’m trying to work as much as I can while it’s busy, in an attempt to save up enough money to get through the slow season without selling everything I have on…

[peggyarcher]

Oh, look! A whole week!

Oh, look! A whole week!

Although I was light on the work last week, this week is busy. I got Monday, Thursday and Friday on some cable show I’ve never heard of (as long as the check clears), and then got a last-minute call for today to cover a friend on the dimmer board for one scene. That’s only an eight hour day,  but since I didn’t have to be here until after lunch, I managed to go to the gym and run a load of…

[peggyarcher]

It never rains without pouring

It never rains without pouring

It’s been extremely busy, which is always good. This year has been odd – there was no work at all for almost three months and my expenses are currently on the high side (for me), so I ran through my savings faster than I wanted to and panicked. Being busy is like a security blanket for my bank account and my soul. I’ve been getting at least three or four days a week every week, except this week.…

[peggyarcher]

A good deed never goes unpunished

The producers of this show figured out they could save money by not having much at craft service. It’s usually just coffee with that wierd powdered milk, some fruit fly infested bananas and whatever chips were left over from the day before. They have items with which to make sandwiches in the truck, but they keep the truck locked so we can’t use any of them. I understand – they can only offer…

[peggyarcher]

Special Science Glasses

After a half-weekend (wrap at 6 am Saturday), I wasn’t really upset about having today off.  It’s nice to have one zombie day, and one day to do things while one’s brain is functioning. So, I headed over to the garden to plant the last tomatoes of the season and do some weeding while waiting for Southern California’s lackluster version of the eclipse. I’d planned to do the old-fashioned…

[peggyarcher]

Sometimes you can look at a set and figure out right away if it’s going to be easy to light or not. Generally, the smaller the set, the worse things go for everyone, sort of  the same principal about cramming 10 lbs of shit into a 5 lbs sack.  Today, though, we were all fooled. Nice big set, lots of room, multipke doorways, should have been a breeze. Except that it wasn’t.  We thraahed around for…

[peggyarcher]

Stress and time to enjoy it

Stress and time to enjoy it

Work is slow right now. Very, very slow. Part of it is just the time of year. The episodics are on hiatus, the pilots are over and nothing will really start happening for another month or two. I’m feeling it more than usual, though, because the show that I worked on fairly steadily for over a decade is gone. Done, over, kaput, never coming back, sets in the garbage, misty-eyed ‘remember when’…

[peggyarcher]

At least I was out of the sun

At least I was out of the sun

Normally, the heat comes slowly – getting slightly warmer and slightly warmer every single day, like the frog in the pot of water. But it’s gotten very warm in about 72 hours. Monday, it was in the 60’s, and today it was 90 on the (un-airconditioned) lamp dock where I was pulling gear for a TV show. I’m not going to work on said TV show, I was just an extra guy to help pull equipment from the…

[peggyarcher]

The shit zone

I haven’t worked in a shit-covered alley in quite some time. Not because people aren’t shitting in alleyways nowadays, but because Los Angeles has gentrified the shit out of most alleys. The human shit, anyways. Most, but not all. Today I got a last-minute call to go help out on a rig for a movie, which is really strange since I didn’t think we shot movies here any longer, but I haven’t worked in…

[peggyarcher]

All night, all night, all night

All night, all night, all night

Night work is never ideal for me, the ultimate morning person.  One night is usually a pain, but doable – I just take a short nap, power through the rest of my day, go to bed early and I’m fine. But multiple nights are much more difficult, since that pesky body clock thingy insists on waking me up at 7 am every single fucking morning, no matter how late I’ve been up the night before. I have to…