Stories

After a couple of days, I've gotten better at the subtle language of the crew. A person standing still with a hand to his ear is listening to set communications. That's not a good time to start a conversation.

Someone standing off set with a cigarette? Also not a good time. A lighting chief listening to the director of photography explain that a light is visible in the shot? Yeah, not a good time.

You get the idea. It's best to walk quietly around the set and look for that crew member who appears attentive, but not distracted.

At that point, you get to hear about the fun and troubles of traveling from film set to set. How family members stay home back in Austin, Texas, or Los Angeles, to give the crew person the opportunity to practice his craft.

You can hear the humor and exhaustion of fixing the hair of hundreds of extras in a period film, or a sad and funny story about working on a film whose star decides they must quickly leave a South America location shoot -- after some on-set gun play.

Not that I can repeat those stories here. Sorry.