I need to vent

H

Huy Vu

Veteran
So there's a project I've been preparing to do with friends for for the past month. Seemed like everything was coming together perfectly; all my friends are available for the chosen date, I got a new dolly, and I've even managed to borrow an M2 for the occasion.

Then yesterday, everything starts falling apart. First UPS, the shipping service from hell, lost my dolly. Shipping had been a whopping $160 to ensure that it would arrive two days before the shoot, and it wasn't. They gave me the run around for more than a day (one woman even gave me a fake phone # for her supervisor) before finally admitting that they don't know where it is. The best thing I can do, they tell me, is wait until it has been scanned.

Then my actress tells me out of nowhere that she's not available on the shoot date, which of course means scrapping all the arrangements and rescheduling everything. I'm not even sure I'll be able to borrow the M2 now.

This sucks. It wouldn't be bad if I found out about this stuff a week or two before but having it all fall apart at once when I'm mentally set on the date is really a blow.
 
i know how you feel about getting friends together for the shoot. it's like pulling teeth trying to set everything up and then one person screws up the whole thing.
very frustrating.
:badputer:
 
Sorry to hear about your troubles.

FedEx always drops things I ship to my business partner to her ex-husbands office which is 35 miles from her place.

So, we've started to count on them doing that and getting reimbursed for shipping. Even though we check direct signature on Line 8 they still do it. Now we demand for return shipping as well and get everything shipped back for free. Saved over $400 in shipping charges the last time I was in Yellowstone because of that.

The funny thing is that UPS will always drive the 35 miles to her place and drop things off.

Welcome to the world of indie filmmaking.

Is your actress doing the role for no fee? Whenever people volunteer their time, you're always at their mercy. Course, sometimes you can be paying them and still be at their mercy.

I know one director who pays their talent has them sign a form stating that if they don't show up on a shoot dat they have to pay the production company for lost time etc.

Hopefully you'll be able to get everything rescheduled and things will go a bit more smoothly for you.
 
n8ture said:
Is your actress doing the role for no fee? Whenever people volunteer their time, you're always at their mercy. Course, sometimes you can be paying them and still be at their mercy.

I know one director who pays their talent has them sign a form stating that if they don't show up on a shoot dat they have to pay the production company for lost time etc.

Hopefully you'll be able to get everything rescheduled and things will go a bit more smoothly for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the encouragement. Yea, she's my friend. The project was just something fun that I wanted to do to break the dry spell. Haven't done anything worth while for nearly six months because I never have time. I'm just dying to go out and film something.

The good news is, it looks like I'll be able to borrow the M2 for the rescheduled date after all. Yay!
 
Well hopefully it will all work out for the rescheduled date. Its frustrating either working on these "fun" projects or even big ones. I have plenty of clients that want to get stuff done but dont want to do anything about it and then they want to know why stuff doesnt get done... oh well... maybe shoot a one man or no man short in the meantime if you are in a dry spell.
 
I am pissed off at UPS as well. The driver responsible for my address no longer attempts to deliver anything to the people in my apartment building. It is not a real apartment building, just a large house that has been divided up into apartments. There isn't a buzzer system, and he refuses to leave anything at the front door. He doesn't leave notices at the front door or anything.

The only way to receive a package is to do the will call system at the UPS center which is nearly an hour a way. The problem with that is that they tell you to be there between 7:10pm and 8:30pm, but then they make you wait until nearly 10:30pm, because this driver does not get back until then.
 
Same thing is happening with me. I've been trying to get my feature off of the ground for a while. But it's slowly falling apart. One actor had a sudden family thing going on. I can understand that, but still, it ruins a lot since her part was fairly big.It wasn't lead big, but still important nonetheless. One actor stopped answering the phone, the lead decided to not show up yesterday. This is all happening in the span of the day yesterday, by the way, so I can relate. And this is for a feature. I don't know, I'm thinking of taking another drastic pass on the script (after four drafts) because now I have even less to work with. Let's just hope the rest of the actors will still be interested. I've been trying to get this thing off of the ground for almost a year, and I actually thought I had for a second there. But I'm not giving up hope now, I'm remaining optimistic for the time being.
 
Maybe I'm lucky I got no friends.


________________________________________
There's no shame in disgrace.--Elmer Lang
 
The thing that pissed me off the most is that none of the UPS people I talk to seem to have any idea what they're talking about, nor does it seem like they care that they screw up. It's just a faceless voice on the other end to them. There's just no accountability for when stuff get lost and the only people who ends up getting screw over is the customer.

Anyway, hopefully the week's delay will give me more time to better prepare for the shoot and might even be a blessing in disguise.
 
my roommate has same issues. He ordered some robotics parts for some crazy machine I dont understand. Anyway, fedex lost the packages, and basically shut down the company's production line for a week. He was about to buy a ticket to Fort Lauaderdale, and go pick up the parts himself, and then fly back to orange county.
 
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