Set Stories

gawwwwwd, that sucks. These kind of things are one of the many reasons I don't miss shooting film, honestly.

There was a Hallmark Christmas movie within the last year or two which had a lens (or sensor) dust speck in the frame for an entire scene, from two different angles.
 
He says, while including an apostrophe in a possessive pronoun that does not require one.

[winking emoji]
Fiddlesticks! Gosh darn it. Fooey! Aw shucks. Nuts! Darn it! Jeepers. I'll be a monkey's uncle. What the blazes? How in tarnation? Oh golly. How the heck? Shiver me timbers. Well, I'll be! Holy smokes! Well how about that? F*%k!

I know that one and I'm usually very conscious when typing forms of i-t-s. Arghh. Blazes. Grrr. Phooey. Sh@t.
 
Last edited:
There was a Hallmark Christmas movie within the last year or two which had a lens (or sensor) dust speck in the frame for an entire scene, from two different angles.
I'd be flabbergasted if Hallmark was to ever spend the money again on shooting on film, so now the question is how did that not get noticed on the monitor--knowing their budgets, probably made the DP operate a camera and maybe no DIT, so then it's down to post to fix, and probably someone said nah don't bother.
 
Fiddlesticks! Gosh darn it. Fooey! Aw shucks. Nuts! Darn it! Jeepers. I'll be a monkey's uncle. What the blazes? How in tarnation? Oh golly. How the heck? Shiver me timbers. Well, I'll be! Holy smokes! Well how about that? F*%k!

I know that one and I'm usually very conscious when typing forms of i-t-s. Arghh. Blazes. Grrr. Phooey. Sh@t.
to add some of my favorites: Hells bells! The deuce you say! Well, wrinkle me right and call me a raisin!
 
It's time for another story. This is another Tech Building lunchroom story.

As I said in my previous story, people get their lunch and just sit at a table with whoever. I was in one corner munching away and a guy who worked for me making Editdroids sat at another table. He is a serious jazz bass player that did 2-3 gigs per week. I could see he was having a lively conversation with the person next to him. After about 30 minutes I see him get up to leave and they introduced themselves. He had no idea he was having a lively conversation about music with Linda Ronstadt until the end of the meal.
 
It's time for another story. This is another Tech Building lunchroom story.

As I said in my previous story, people get their lunch and just sit at a table with whoever. I was in one corner munching away and a guy who worked for me making Editdroids sat at another table. He is a serious jazz bass player that did 2-3 gigs per week. I could see he was having a lively conversation with the person next to him. After about 30 minutes I see him get up to leave and they introduced themselves. He had no idea he was having a lively conversation about music with Linda Ronstadt until the end of the meal.
Fantastic. I've done the same a few times, especially in the past 20 years as I largely stopped paying attention to new music and thus didn't recognize musicians when they were right in my face. I had a chat with a nice woman at a friend's bday a few years ago, she told me she was a musician and having been one myself in my 20's, we talked about our various experiences. A couple of times people came up and apologized for interrupting us but had to gush over her. It turned out it was Bonnie McKee, who has written ten #1 hits for artists such as Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Kesha etc. I still wouldn't know if I met her again though...then there was the time I was walking on the beach with a friend and she stopped a woman passing by for a brief hello. Then wanted to preen a little at how cool she was for knowing Sia. I was like, cool cool...who is Sia? Which of course annoyed my friend to no end.

And finally, my friend Milana had a birthday some years ago and I was chatting with her boyfriend for a bit, a nice bespectacled young gent, very low key. This time he felt vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place him. It wasn't until I showed the pic below to a friend the next day that I learned he was Josh Groban.

So, yeah, I'm useless with musicians that are newer than maybe 30 years ago...
 

Attachments

  • groban.jpeg
    groban.jpeg
    171.2 KB · Views: 7
These stories remind me of something that happened on 9/10/01. I remember the date very well because it was the night before the **** hit the fan on 9/11, which my experiences in NYC that week sure generated it's own trove of stories. For another day.

Anyway, my audio tech and I were hired to shoot interviews with members of the Back Street Boys at TD Garden in Boston. We got all setup in the green room with plenty of time to kill as we waited for the interviews to begin. We hung out with the crew and enjoyed the great craft services buffet. Nice evening. Finally one of the roadies asked if we were ready to roll, and we said yes, we just needed the band to arrive. Well, it turns out had been hanging with the band all evening, and had no idea who the hell they were. That made for a little awkward moment. Anyway, we did the shoot, packed up, and the next two weeks in NYC were intense.
 
The most embarrassing story that I can recall was when I owned 200 VHS duplicators. A client came in dropped of a master tape and was in a rush for 1000 copies of a video they made called "Marching for Jesus". Well, we were shorthanded later in the day so I volunteered to go out and get lunch. When I came back I was carrying the food down the hallway and announced to everyone that I was "Marching for Jesus and bringing the loaves and fishes!" That's when I turned the corner to find the client standing there watching the machines run. Nobody said anything about it, but they never came back again.
 
And then there was the time I told a nervous CEO not to worry about me putting gaffer tape on his office wall because it was high-end tape and it wouldn't take the paint off. To illustrate my point and demonstrate how safe it was, I yanked on the tape and about 6 inches of paint came right off.
 
Then there was time we got a last-minute call to replace a crew that got fired from a Dr. Phil shoot in Vermont with a recovering mental patient. It turns out a big part of the patient's recovery and therapy was building model airplanes. There were quite a few very nice ones hanging from the ceiling in his bedroom where his interview was shot. Well, that's when I found out why the other crew got fired. Seems they put a couple of hot tungsten lights too close to the models and at the end of the shoot about five of them had wings that now drooped straitdown towards the floor. So, it didn't happen to me, but it's a fond memory, nevertheless.

But don't ask me about the time "someone" placed a hot light too close to a huge 8' x 4' angled mirror over the counter in the Mrs. Fields test kitchen. It didn't shatter, but at the end of the day it had a crack from one end to the other.
 
Fantastic. I've done the same a few times, especially in the past 20 years as I largely stopped paying attention to new music and thus didn't recognize musicians when they were right in my face. I had a chat with a nice woman at a friend's bday a few years ago, she told me she was a musician and having been one myself in my 20's, we talked about our various experiences. A couple of times people came up and apologized for interrupting us but had to gush over her. It turned out it was Bonnie McKee, who has written ten #1 hits for artists such as Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Kesha etc. I still wouldn't know if I met her again though...then there was the time I was walking on the beach with a friend and she stopped a woman passing by for a brief hello. Then wanted to preen a little at how cool she was for knowing Sia. I was like, cool cool...who is Sia? Which of course annoyed my friend to no end.

And finally, my friend Milana had a birthday some years ago and I was chatting with her boyfriend for a bit, a nice bespectacled young gent, very low key. This time he felt vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place him. It wasn't until I showed the pic below to a friend the next day that I learned he was Josh Groban.

So, yeah, I'm useless with musicians that are newer than maybe 30 years ago...

Kind of in reverse - had a film in Cucalorus, the local (Wilmington) semi-famous film festival. The entertainer headliner that year was Tift Merritt, a folksy/bluesy singer fairly well-known in the southeast and with some national base. I had seen her a few years before opening for Elvis Costello in Charlotte.

I was sitting alone on my laptop in the empty VIP lounge when she stuck her head in and scanned around the room, apparently looking for someone. Then she looked at me and said "hey, David."

"Hey, Tift," I said, though we had never been introduced and I have no idea how she knew my name. It wasn't from a name tag.

Never saw her again after that, so I dunno.
 
@CharlesPapert if you have more BTS stills from your time on Office Space I'd love to see them. It's one of my "comfort" movies and I watch it whenever I'm feeling down or stressed...
I have a lot of them! hard to know where to start...

I bumped into Ron Livingston earlier this year for the first time since the movie wrapped in '98. He was at my local hangout with his family, his daughters and her friends had just had a school event (a game or a recital etc). We started chatting and then moved to another table to properly catch up. It was pretty great. I had spent a number of the weekends hanging out with him and some of the other cast, since we were on location with nothing much to do otherwise. So bloody long ago now!

Work98_OfficeSpaceCast_0004rev copy Large.jpeg
 
I have a lot of them! hard to know where to start...

I bumped into Ron Livingston earlier this year for the first time since the movie wrapped in '98. He was at my local hangout with his family, his daughters and her friends had just had a school event (a game or a recital etc). We started chatting and then moved to another table to properly catch up. It was pretty great. I had spent a number of the weekends hanging out with him and some of the other cast, since we were on location with nothing much to do otherwise. So bloody long ago now!

View attachment 5712268
Very cool. Nice rig… Michael Bolton looks a bit different in this pic ;)
 
George had an archives building on the Ranch. It stored all the props from his movies. It wasn't open to the public nor the employees. But I did get a tour from the archives manager. Of course, it was fun to see the props. The best moment was when I had a light saber from the first movie in my hands.
 
George had an archives building on the Ranch. It stored all the props from his movies. It wasn't open to the public nor the employees. But I did get a tour from the archives manager. Of course, it was fun to see the props. The best moment was when I had a light saber from the first movie in my hands.

Fully bladed or just the hilt?
 
Back
Top