Happy New Year!

Did you make a New Years resolution? I don't, cuz losing weight never happens. I just want to be healthy and rich...ha ha.

Don't drink to much and be safe.

See ya next year....... ya, that's a lame one huh?

Peace!

-Jaimster

R.I.P. Friend

Today I learned about the passing of a close High School friend. Dulce Isidro was a very nice and caring person. She passed on December 20th as she awaited a kidney transplant. She will be missed.

Sorry guys, I know it's sad, and I don't usually like to get to serious because I'm such a jokester, but I just had to pay my respects to a person that helped me out a great deal in my High School years.

Checking IN

I'm really enjoying my vacation! No early calls, no 16+ hour days of work, no freeway driving, it's all nice now.

I recieved the call today. I was called to confirm that I was going to be available for the second half of the AOL job. I am, so I start work on the 3rd of January.

So, for now, I at least have a few more days to be lazy around the house... woo hoo! More time to be with my chick.

Peace, Changos!

- Jaime

Merry Christmas

Spending time with the whole family today. Got some nice gifts including this PC game called "The Movies", where I get to run a film studio.

Food is always great at home, nothing like a home cooked meal, Mexican Style! That catering food gets old after a while...yuck!

Hope all is well and wish you a happy holiday.....Peace!

X-Mas Eve

Yesterday I worked for 3 hours doing 2 returns, and then I was off. Easy money that day.

Today, I'm resting, super nice!

Merry Christmas everyone.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Wow, it was the final shoot day on this AOL Commercial until we come back on Jan. 4th. Tomorrow should be a piece of cake since I do returns in the early morning. I only have two drops tomorrow and I'm done.

Today, was fairly easy. The crew filmed a kid in a swimming pool all day. While they were getting these last shots, the P.A.'s where on point, wrapping all we could to get the hell out of there. I think we wrapped close to 7:00 P.M.

We had a theft on set today. Looks like some guys managed to sneak onto set and wonder around amongst the extras, and took off with some peoples personal items like cameras, ipods, and cell phones. Cops came and production made a police report. The police chopper flew around to try and find the suspects, but of course, no dice.

The *1st A.D. was getting on people's nerves on set today because he was so bossy, and loud with everyone. After a while he started to get mad at everyone because people weren't answering their walkies. But, some were ignoring him on purpose because he was on some of the crew's bad side. If I was A.D., I would've had a little more respect towards the crew members instead of demanding and barking orders at them.

But the filming stops for now. Ah, I can't wait for tomorrow after my returns, I can finally get some needed rest.

*A.D. = Assistant Director

Survival

I did something that I have never done before, today I was late to work. I was scheduled to be on set at 3:30 a.m., but didn't show up til 3:50. Good thing that my buddy, and fellow P.A. Anthony called me to wake me up. Luckily my Production Manager was cool about it, and understood that some P.A. like myself were only getting about 3 to 4 hours sleep every night on this job.

I think I drank about 4 Red Bulls today just to keep me awake. The good thing about today was that they let us leave equipment out over night since we were coming back tomorrow. We left at 5:00 p.m.

Haven't spent much time with my girlfriend...I miss her. Hopefully after this Friday, I'll get to spend more time with her since I'm going to have a whole week off after Christmas.

18 Hour Day

I'm hurting, my muscles are sore. Fourth day on this job, but man I'm beat! Got to sleep fast, again. We shot in Valencia today at an ice skating ring. Tomorrow we are at the coliseum.

Call time tomorrow: 3:30 A.M.

Long day...

Worked 17 hours today.

Call time tomorrow: 3:00 A.M.

I need to sleep fast!

Friday Man!

Today I started a new job! It's going to be a long one since it stretches out till January 12. We are shooting multiple spots for AOL, and we will travel for the most part of this job. We are going to the snow baby!

I spent the most of the day picking up film, and camera equipment since I'll be the one driving the camera truck on this job. Nice, now I get to mingle with camera people...my kind of people.

Got home at 8:00 p.m. and I'm super tired. L.A. traffic will really wear you down. Glad I'm now home, and can finally eat something.

Ah, the weekend is here and tomorrow I sleep in. I resume work on Monday. Peace out.

And Another One!

Call: 6.30am

Wrap: 3:20pm


Another great short day for me. This last day on this job was a super duper easy day. My day consisted of frequent trips to the craft service table (Above), where Mr. Crafty was listening to Howard Stern all morning. Dang, I'm getting chunky... It's scary to think of all the crap I ate from those tables. Chili, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, hard boiled eggs, cheese and crackers, chips with guacamole dip, and red vines. I probably should cut down from now on.

Again, we were shooting in one room of this house, located in Hancock Park. It was the same story with one actress talking to the actor in the wall as if the walls could talk. They shot everything they had scheduled before lunch. We almost wrapped at 12:30, but they decided to fool around some more on some newly made up shots till lunch time. Lunch was at 1:00, and all they had to do is one more shot right after.

After lunch I was sent on a run to pick-up some electric stuff for tomorrows shoot. I came back to people driving away going home, so I just dropped the electric stuff in the production cube truck, and was dismissed early...again.

I think I'm gonna check out a DVD movie tonight. ...Peace.

The Minority

I realized on set today, that I was the only latino working on this Terminix commercial. Not even the caterers had a latino brotha working for them! Usually the latinos on a film shoot are the caterers, security, or a P.A. Not this time. Ok, latinos DO work in the film industry, but most of the time I'm the only brown face in a sea of white people. It's changing slowly, but I do notice more and more minorities on jobs these days.

It must be the Holiday Season or something that this job has been so easy! Today we had a 6:30 A.M. call time...a whole half an hour more than yesterdays, they're so nice. Had a quesadilla for breakfast from the catering truck and went off to set.

We shot at another private residence in Long Beach again. I realized why our days were so short on this job. We are shooting a person that has a conversation with a face on this fake wall that is supposed to be part of the house. Since the "wall actor" has to put his head through this wall for this commercial for long periods of time, I guess it's only fair that they shot for a couple of hours a day so they don't over work the actor. It looked so uncomfortable too, poor guy.

One of my fellow P.A.'s had dooky duty today. Ah man, poor bastard had to rake up all the dog poop he could find in the area where we were going to set up for lunch. It's just one of those things you gotta do sometimes in this business if you're a P.A. Thank God, I have never done it...knock on wood. It was funny because another fellow P.A. was like, "Welcome to Hollywood Bro", we all kinda laughed a bit. Everyone has to start from the bottom, right? Well, unless you daddy is the producer or the director, then you can just do what ever you want.

Before I knew it, it was lunch time! The food was great today. I had some grilled chicken, BBQ steak, a baked potato, and some pasta salad...yum, don't tell my girlfriend or she'll bust out the, "That's why you're chunky" speeches. During lunch, the Assistant Production Manager asks me if I could take that 1000 pound TV that I picked up yesterday back to the rental house in Burbank, I was like, "Hell Yeah!" So my P.A. brothas helped me load it onto my truck, and I was off.

As I was getting ready to leave the rental house, I received a phone call from the boss. I was released for the day since they were wrapping over at set, so I got home before 5:00 p.m., dang that's nice!

Tomorrow is the last day for me on this commercial, Friday I do *pick-ups for another job.

* Pick-ups is when your day consists of picking up rented stuff for set, usually there's no filming on these days. Oh, and they are usually less than 8 hour days if you know what you are doing.

The Camera Guy 

The Easy Day

Hi! This is my first entry of many that will document my everyday life on a Film Set. Hope someone will enjoy it. I'll also share some other neat things that will happen in my life... I'll try to make it interesting.

Today was an easy day of work. Had a call time of 6:00am in Long Beach. Took me 40 minutes to get there, but I took my time driving there. I'm working on a Terminix commercial at a private residence. I didn't really go inside the house where they were shooting because the space was tight and there was really no need for me inside. Being a P.A. (Production Assistant) I get sent on "Runs", or errands as I did today.

At 2:00pm, I left set to go on a run to pick-up a rental in my own personal truck. Can you believe that Production is paying $300.00 a day for a 36 inch t.v., and a cheapo DVD player? That is retarded! You can buy that T.V. for what they are paying for on a two day rental. Dang, glad it's not my cash...

At 3:35pm, my production manager calls me to see where I was at. I was at the rental place picking up this heavy-ass television. It turned out that production had wrapped for the day and I was able to just go home after the pick-up. Woo Hoo, I got to go home early! I was home by 4:15, in time to catch a car chase on T.V... I love that.

Gotta love them short days!