A couple of days ago I got an email from my friend Dan E. He wanted to know if I would be interested in helping Disposable Television, a media-production company he sometimes works for, with a shoot. A music video shoot, to be exact. When I received the email I took stock of my situation. It was Monday afternoon at 3:00. I was wearing only boxers and the t-shirt I wore to bed the previous night. Three things were open on my computer screen: craigslist job postings, internship work, and Peep Show on YouTube. Peep Show is a British television series. It's quite funny. Out of the three Internet screens open on my computer, Peep Show was getting the most action. I desperately needed some new action and this music video seemed like the ticket. Plus, I've been wanting to get into more Production Assistant work. I called up Dan and, as they say, it was on.
I met Dan the following morning. We got a ride to the shoot from his boss, Vikrem. At first I was intimidated by Vikrem in a, "his humor is very subtle and genius", sort of way. You know those people that say funny things that blow your own funny statements out of the water? He is that. He co-owns a company in NYC, so already I knew I was dealing with a creative genius. My creativity doesn't go much further than my writing and this blog. I tried to kick my humor into overdrive. Take out my real A-Game. Astute observations and all that.
We arrived at the shoot and met the rest of the crew. We also met the band, Au Revoir Simone. I had never heard of the group before this shoot. I try to maintain a tight facade of exuding contemporary musical knowledge. Before yesterday, if somebody hipper than me in Brooklyn asked, "have you ever heard of Au Revoir Simone?" I would nod and say I have heard the name, but not much of their music. In reality though, I have only heard of the separate phrases, "Au Revoir", and ,"Simone". I would quickly try and manhandle the conversation from talk of new, hip bands into talk of older, classic-rock radio bands. You know, something I can relate to.
As the day went on, I got started to realize my general duty. I was a miscellaneous man. People would give me orders and I would carry out those orders. Everyone had a higher status than me. I don't mean this in a bad way, this is very typical of production assistant work. I actually enjoyed all of my duties. At the beginning of the shoot, I was largely in charge of lifting lighting equipment and moving things around. Later, I got to be the Slate Man; the person holding the little sign that says, "Scene 1/Take 1". A little later, I pushed around one of the main camera men on a dolly. Towards the end, I even got to film some of the music video with one of the Panasonic P2 cameras. My shots were back-up shots of course, but this is a privilege not many PA men receive. In total, the shoot lasted about 15 hours. Exhausting, yes. But the time flew by. I was almost sad to see the day end.
It was simply amazing to see how much work goes into making music videos. The creative leaders (Vickrem and his business partner, Brad) worked hand-in-hand with the talent (Au Revoir Simone) to create a product they would both be happy with. Neither Vickrem or Brad took any sort of a break through the entire 15 hours. They were constantly shifting lights and discussing angles. I was also amazed at the dedication of the band. I perhaps had a preconceived image that these attractive, young girls would be 'Divas' and do little actual work. I imagined they would be sitting in the green room doing pounds of drugs and reluctantly coming out to the stage only for brief intervals. Divas they were not; they put in some hard hours. They seemed as dedicated to the image of this music video as the creative team was. Also, I liked their song. After 15 hours of hearing the same song played and cut every way possible I thought I would hate it, but I actually tried to download the song today.
The only thing I regret is something I said to one of the band members. Towards the end of the night when everybody was leaving, one of the girls came up to give me a hug. When the hug was finished I said to her, "I hope you guys make it big, I want to watch this on MTV". There are way too many things wrong with that statement. They are:
1. What does that even mean, "make it big?"
2. Was I insinuating that they aren't "big", and if so, wasn't it offensive to insinuate that?
3. It was a horribly tacky thing to say.
4. Who the fuck watches MTV? I sure don't.
Other than this flub, It was an outstanding day.
I can't tell you much about the music video, other than it will rock. There will be some nifty camera work, so watch out. If you see some dolly shots and you think to yourself, "damn, that dolly is running smoothly," you know who to thank. I highly suggest listening to Au Revoir Simone's new album when it comes out. The song is named Shadows (or something like that) and I will post it on here as soon as I can find it on the Interweb. Also, I will post pics from the shoot as soon as I can.
Here is an older music video with Au Revoir Simone also filmed by Disposable Television:
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