The Waiting Game

The hardest part about making a movie is the prep. All the unknowns, all the what-ifs, all the arbitrary deadlines, all the real deadlines...it's a lot like putting together a puzzle that's missing a lot of pieces. It can be a frustrating period.

So in the meantime, there's work. I would love for writing and directing to include a paycheck, but right now it doesn't. And because I have to take a little time off soon in order to concentrate on the movie, I have to work every day that I can. I work as a set electrician on movies, TV shows and commercials. I've been at it for a few years and while it isn't exactly what I want to do, it's a great place to observe the job that I really want. I went to film school but the truth is seeing a lot of movies and having a job on set is the best training there is next to doing the actual job. I've watched a lot of big name directors interact with some pretty high profile actors and hopefully I've picked up a thing or two. But the most important thing that I've learned is how a set works. Everybody on the set has their job and they're all important to the final outcome. A good crew is like a machine with multiple moving parts all working together.

And a good director should know what every one of those parts is doing.

Joe