This is a post I wrote a few months ago, but never published:
Just came off a really great film shoot for a music video. Got asked to do production design super last minute and then didn't get a proper description of what I would be doing exactly until the evening two days before the shoot. So basically had one full day of preparing, plus a few hours the evening before, and then a full day of shooting! (Full day meaning 12 hours, and for me pretty much no break besides stuffing a sandwich in my mouth at one point while I walked around different rooms assessing my next plan of action.) I've somehow made this sound not so good, but the truth is that it was a really fantastic shoot, and everyone working on it was so lovely and great to work alongside. I didn't know anyone there besides the DOP, and it wasn't an issue at all. Everyone was so easy to get on with. Which, when working in potentially stressful situations, is not always the case. Right now I'm adding up receipts and working out my hours to write my invoice. They offered me a token payment, which was so wonderful, but I just figured out that it comes to being paid roughly $3.70 an hour. This is just so, I don't know... eye opening. That I can feel so positive about a shoot, feel blessed that I'm getting paid, feel so glad about how well everything went, and how great working with that group of people was, and realise just how hard being a film maker is. I am not blaming the people I worked alongside, I agreed to come on for that amount, and they were so thankful and aware that it was not much money, but it was all they had (they're not getting much either). I guess I'm just thinking about the state of survival as an 'artist'.
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Having now worked on a few more sets with similar money / love set-ups, I'm still feeling these thoughts big time. I just want to make clear, I've loved these sets that I'm working on. I've met some of the best, most incredible and beautiful people; people that I want to collaborate with forever! These are people who are now so integral to my life. Friendship-wise, future plans wise, it's amazing to find people who you get on with, as well as work with so seamlessly, and who aspire to similar artistic expressions and ideas. Also, big kudos to the fact that all of these projects have actually paid people - not a for granted situation. So, I'm not at all down on film work right now, but I am pondering, where is my journey to go, what is it to be?
