Operation Firestorm

I'll begin with the frantically eventful weekend I survived and promised to scribe down on Monday. Sorry I'm late, but I finally have some free time on my hands. The weekend went great, I showed up on set early on Saturday but late on Sunday. Apparently either no one cared I was late, or no one noticed. Saturday was just all new, said what up to all the regulars (the people I'd met once before on set back in December) and they asked me to explain my six-month absence from the set. I told them I had school and other priorities, but now I'm in the middle of a seven-month break away from school before finishing my degree. So the day starts and all of a sudden the director Marc and the producer Allan decide I should be in charge of the slate. Now to those who aren't familiar with designations on a shooting set, a production assistant (which is what I am) should be nowhere near the slate at any time. The PA is the director/producer's bitch, basically. We do what we're told. I arrive on set for an eight hour day on Saturday and an hour in I'm suddenly promoted into the camera department and dogpiled with a list of new responsibilities. Problem was, I didn't know what I was doing!

The second assistant camera should be the one handling the slate and clapping it at the start of a new scene. I was excited to be holding that thing during shooting but I was scared that at some point I'd miss something or write down the wrong scene and take on the slate before the shot started. Believe me, I screwed up a lot.


I was yelled at by the Director of Photography, Rion Gonzales(at the right in the pic above), but the first AC was very forgiving with me, because it was a SHE. Michele(on my left) calmly corrected me after Rion would blame me for having the wrong take number, scene, and roll number on the slate. Of course this was all a learning experience for me and it was done the hard way, but it stuck in the end. I remember in one scene while I held the slate in front of the camera and Marc was yelling at me to call the scene out loud and Rion was yelling at me to position it properly in front of the camera, the model I was holding the slate in front of poked me and said, "I think you're doing a great job." Even though I couldn't move because it would affect the slates position on the camera, I smiled and said thanks to her.

Of course after the shoot we all became friends and Rion apologized for being so hard on me to which I replied "You were doing your job, it's all good." Later we got to know each other. The shoot on Sunday was seventeen hours long, but very laid back, and I was more comfortable with the slate that time around. Over the two days we shot five commercials, two interviews and one model shoot for Establishedmen.com. Great experience. When the producer Allan drove me home on Sunday at one in the morning he mentioned the first time I came on set six months ago, which he and a lot of other people found knee-slappingly comical. He started the conversation imitating me:

Allan: Arvind can you get us some breakfast?
Arvind: *laughs
Allan:...so can you grab me a bagel and a triple triple?
Arvind: Are you joking, or...?
Allan: No I'm not joking, there's a catering truck outside.
Arvind: Are you serious?
Allan: Yes I'm serious
Arvind: Really?
Allan: Yes!

Allan brought that memory up because he'll always remember me for it, my first official day as a production assistant, and my refusal to understand/believe my real responsibilities. He was telling me that Diedre, the Art Director, mentioned about me, "He was so cute and so innocent, but he didn't believe you were treating him like a bitch." LOL.
Any real shooting set will provide you with unlimited amounts of food, did you know that! That's right, free food for everyone on set.

On Monday I was with Sharlotte interviewing an up-and-coming Toronto-bred Indie artists named Barry Szeto. His R and B is phenomenal, I know personally because he sang into my camera. Great guy, personality-wise he was very respectful and cheery, surprisingly after twelve hours shooting his music video at a restaurant in Richmond Hill, Toronto. I personally think he deserves the fame he's after because he's bearing the right attitude, which may be unaffected by time and pressure, but I pray he doesn't crack. He called me by my first name, offered me to the catering on set (which I technically wasn't entitled too), and he was very thankful to our crew for the opportunity to be interviewed and give shout outs.




The weekend so far was great, very sudden and unexpected. Like a movie done right it had its twists and turns. When Sharlotte was dropping me off Monday night we talked about our collaboration and she gave me permission to advertise Southpaw in the video interviews she puts up on her page at vervegirl.com. I was pleased with this opportunity for maximized media exposure, excited too! That night I thought about what Southpaw would be. I made the name up more than three years ago and at the time it really meant nothing more than a dream. But today I realize that that dream is coming to fruition and I've been diving faster and harder into my goals than ever before. I've decided to label the next seventh-months of my life Operation Firestorm, which will be strictly dedicated to continuing to do what I'm doing and strive for a proper definition and purpose for Southpaw Productions, a name that has had no purpose until now except to look cool on paper.

-BLOG OUT-