Oscar's Date Crewing

In the middle of the summer holidays a friend of mine said he needed an extra hand crewing on his short film about a boy's first date. I of course jumped at the chance as this would be my first real experience of a professional film set.

Day 1

For a 7am start I was pretty chipper and fortunately I wasn't thrown in at the deep end. My official position was grip assistant which in this instance basically involved making sure that the camera was handled correctly; bashing cables and finding a suitable place for the camera to rest when not in use. However most of the time, thanks to the grip not often needing me, I was simply a general runner and in one instance an extra in one of the shots. This meant I had lots of time to ask people things. I learnt bits and bobs about lenses, lighting, sound recording and most importantly I got a general feel for the feel and logistics of a film set.

Day 2

Today I moved onto being a clapper loader as a result of the old clapper moving in to fill the shoes of the D.I.T (no small task). This job of course involved a lot less waiting/wandering around for the specific reason that I had to be on the ball for every take. After a quick run down of how it all worked I found myself whirring away and got into a rather nice rhythm.

I had a little less to ask people today as most of my questions were answered the day before when I had far less to do but I did end up experiencing the camera department in greater depth. This was because I was on clapper board duty and so I needed to pay close attention to the camera operator. I also of course learnt the ins and outs of the clapper board; scenes, slates, end-boards and all that. Other than that most of my learning was all just experiential as opposed to just learning bits of info, which I of course biltzd on the first day.