Friday, February 16, 2007
It's a Wrap
My work in Hollywood is way similar to attending public school. There's
the rush of energy in late summer, with new clothes and seeing old friends
again. Then by Halloween it's the old routine and by Christmas it's
waiting for the season to end. Most shows end in January but our 165
episodes didn't finish shooting until early January so we worked for
another month in post production editing them.
But Friday was the last day for this season. As I drove home it seemed
like an eternity since I had a long weekend, since I didn't have to
rush through everything to get it all done and be ready to drive out
back to work on Monday. Maybe it's the long hours, where I work for
50 hour weeks routinely and then add on overtime.
It's funny, when I moved here work weeks were routinely 40 hours. But
sometime after that I found that it was expected that there was going
to be overtime. I often resisted but now when I talk to people about
work 50 hours is the expected work week and one of my neighbors usually
worked 90 hour weeks with gusts up over 100 hours.
The last time I worked on American Idol it was like that --
the crew and staff on that show routinely work 20 hour days, catnapping
before coming back to work the next day. When you're young the novelty
and excitement carry you through. But after 38 years in the business
I am aware that it's always a crisis. No matter what, things are put
off to the end and "fixed in post." But today the crisis is
over, and I return back to my little ranch to tend my chickens and garden.
So this week I'll order my chicks.
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