Spin Kicks Do Work

I started working a little over a week ago and I've gotten some pretty sweet jobs but before I get into that...

I went to see Between the Buried and Me last night at the Knitting Factory and it was my first look at the LA scene. The kids definitely go ape shit here, which was nice to see cause shows in Orlando were starting to get really soft and boring. I'm not sure if you've ever seen anyone hardcore dance but it's basically a cross between a black girl fighting mixed with spin kicking in a mosh pit style environment. Anyway, the second band, August Burns Red, goes on and the floor opens up. Some kid is in there doing his thing and out of no where he gets blasted in the face by a spin kick gone wild. When I say blasted I mean this dude got his shit rocked and knocked out. It was kinda like that video where the breakdancer owns the baby. After seeing that I resorted back to my old pit rules to stay safe but still be in the mix:

Pit rule # 1: Find the most metal dude around and place yourself between him and the pit. How do you find the most metal dude around? Look for long hair and/or a big beard. If he's wearing a black metal band shirt then you're all set. If that person has on a Slayer, Pantera or Cannibal Corpse shirt then you're in real business.

Pit Rule # 2: Stay away from the boyfriend girlfriend duo that's trying to be up front to see the one band they share the most love together for. Why? Cause all night all he's going to try and do is push back through to get to his girl while she complains that its too hot and crowded through the whole set.

Now on to my work...

My first job was a commercial for Kellogs cereal featuring John McEnroe (old school pro tennis player). I was a PA (production assistant) and I didn't do much. Basically I helped load and unload all the gear and did video playback. I did it for free.

It's going to be hard to top my 2nd job. I got a phone call to get on a short film shooting over a weekend (Fri, Sat, and Sun) to help out doing grip and electric work (set up the lights and power everything). I took it at 50 bucks a day not knowing anything about the short at all. Later that night I got the call sheet and not only saw that it was a horror short, but that the female lead was Danielle Harris from Halloween 4 and 5 (she was also a babysitter in the Halloween remake). Needless to say I couldn't have been more excited. Make a long story short I did such a good job that the gaffer/key grip (head electrician/grip) fought with the producer to get my rate bumped up to 100 bucks a day. The producer wouldn't do it so the gaffer, Orlando, took me to an ATM and paid me the rest of what he thought I should have gotten paid out of his own pocket. Amazing! I couldn't have had a better weekend, plus John Frances Daly (Mitch in Waiting) was in it too and he was way cool.

Last Monday and Tuesday I worked on music videos as a PA: Monday was for Chiodos and Tuesday was for a folk singer named Brett Dennens. Those were both 100 bucks a day and both really long days although I met some amazing people. The owner of the company for the Chiodos shoot manages Daughters so I made friends with her quick.

After that I took a few days off but I've got 4 days coming up for a Monday Night Football promo with John C. Reilly who played Cal Naughton Jr. in Talladega Nights. He's doing a cross promo for his new movie Walk Hard so I get to hang out on set for that all day Tuesday. I'll be delivering one of the equipment trucks, then I get to shoot the behind the scenes of the commercial for the production company. Should be pretty rad. The other 3 days I'll be in the office helping out with pre production and wrap.

Few new things I've found out: First, there are a lot of women that dominate in this business. I've met 20 something producers and directors that are women, and the company I'm working for right now is all women except for the executive producer (and I don't even think he's straight). I'm only bringing this up because of how cool I think it is so don't go all feminist on me thinking I'm bringing this up in a different light. It's just nice to see cougars out there doing work.

Second thing is I think right now I want to work on being a grip or electrician. If not that then I want to work my way up to AD (assistant director). As far as set work goes those are the most interesting things to me right now.

Third thing, I hate working on music videos, I like working on commercials, I love working on movies. I've yet to do a TV show so I got no take on that yet, but just like I thought before coming here, movies are where I wanna be.

Last thing, the fucking barbershop up the street is amazing. It's called Rudy's and it's a bunch of punk rock girls with purple hair and shit doing all the cutting. It's a tad pricey (I spent 25) but I just told her to do whatever she wanted with my hair and, at the risk of sounding gay, I got an amazing haircut.

Few other things: Mexican Coca Cola is incredible, Pam's Thai food on the corner is equally as incredible and I think I'm completely used to driving in LA. It's almost fun.

I know that was a lot to jam in but believe me thats the short short version of pretty much everything. If you guys want to know more about whatever just ask. I got some pretty sweet stories from the horror movie shoot. Also, sorry I haven't been keeping up with answering messages or posting on here. I'm just getting used to the work schedule. Sometimes I'm on for 16 hours so there's lots of nights that I'm running on auto pilot.

Keep checking back for my John C. Reilly experience. I miss you all.