- TadBradley
- Jan 14, 2008
-
I don't know what goes here.
|
I am forums lurker poster Tad Bradley, and I work on movies and TV shows and commercials and sometimes other stuff. I've been doing this for 12 years. I am not a writer or a director or an actor, I'm one of the hundreds of other people on a unit that get the job done.
Maybe you are too! If I have learned anything from being in subreddits and facebook groups for working below-the-line crew, it's that
1. There are way more of us than I ever imagined, and
2. We are as online as any other kind of profession, and equally tedious
But YOU'RE not tedious! You're here! Are you a Set PA, holding lockups, getting screamed at by Debra Messing the first AD everyone? Are you an Key Assistant Locations Manager, lying to homeowners about how we're definitely NOT going to use their bathroom? Are you a Grip, using that bathroom even after we taped up a sign? Are you in the union or are you still getting your days? Did you have one glorious day driving a pass van for a reality show before throwing it all away to be some dumbass neurosurgeon? THIS THREAD IS FOR YOU.
Do you want to talk about how there's no work right now and hasn't been for over a year? Pretty lame topic, BUT LET'S RAP ABOUT IT.
Do you have dumb questions about THE BIZ? Ask em! I'm a dumbass, but maybe someone else around here can help if I can't.
Mods, I'm posting this in CineD because that's where I asked if such a thread already existed, feel free to move my rear end anywhere you see fit.
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2024 00:35
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2024 13:39
|
|
- TadBradley
- Jan 14, 2008
-
I don't know what goes here.
|
What do I do? I was a production coordinator on small features for years before doing a couple of Production Management jobs I had no business doing, burning out, not answering the phone for months, getting an EMT cert, and working as a set medic (best job on set, IMO). During the strikes I've been riding an ambulance, but I'm about to start back in the production office on big network TV gig which I'm lucky to have.
I came up through the production office. My first job was as an Office PA on a $10 million indie shooting in a very rural area, where I lived. Fell rear end-backwards into that after working local news. After that, I moved to L.A. to work, though I've since worked in Oklahoma, North Carolina, Georgia, maybe other places, who can remember.
It is a weird kind of career to have, and my enthusiasm has definitely waxed and waned over the years. There's a lot of awful things about it, but it's hard to beat for sheer novelty on the job.
TadBradley fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Mar 23, 2024
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2024 00:37
|
|
- TadBradley
- Jan 14, 2008
-
I don't know what goes here.
|
This year has sucked but it's hotting up where I am (Bristol, UK). We've no less than 3 separate Agatha Christies rolling into town. The rolling hills, stately homes combined with proximity to London (because get real, 90% of actors still live there and if you shoot in Newcastle your train budget is astronomical.
I've been an AD for ten years this summer, starting out as a Floor Runner, which is the UK term for a set PA. Four years doing that, then 3 as 3rd AD (UK for 2nd 2nd AD....not sure on the logic of that one). Then during the post lockdown covid boom in 2021 I got the bump up to 2nd AD.
Mainly work in high end British TV and indie feature films. I've dabbled in major Hollywood but those AD teams are locked up tight and it can be a horrible environment.
Been thinking a lot about the psychology of departments and how certain people gravitate towards certain areas. Do they start like that or do they become that due to exposure to their department?
Examples include script supervisors by and large being neurotic middle aged women. Sound team with a persecution complex ('no one cares about sound...'). The gender imbalance of costume and makeup teams, and the pay discrepancies that go along with that. Arrogant ADs.
Phew. It's a lot but this is a subject I can barely stop talking about in real life. I'm very one note. I'm excited to see other perspectives in this thread and practical advice maybe too.
What drew you to this world? Did you have creative ambitions early on? Any desire to move up to a 1st AD, or would you rather live a long life? Is that stereotype even a thing in the UK?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2024 01:11
|
|
- TadBradley
- Jan 14, 2008
-
I don't know what goes here.
|
Hello!
I have a very bouncing-around-Plinko-style industry career.
I got my MFA in 3D animation back in the early 2000s and got hired on at a production company doing a PBS children's show. I was actually hired on as a PA at first and got tons of experience basically doing G'n'E work. Definitely not PA stuff. I did prep for a month and then was a swing during the whole production. After the shoot I was hired on full time to aid in the animation ("Lomax: The Hound of Music"...it had 1 season ha). Also did some work on Between the Lions.
My goal was always VFX and the production company's goal was always to produce our own stuff. After getting hired we started on our first feature with a very modest $500k budget. It was a PG-13 teen horror romp that wasn't very good. BUT it provided tons of good experience. I wasn't actually supposed to be on set for production (just post) but ended up filling in as key PA after someone dropped. That was fun except super frigidly cold. Mostly outdoor night shoots and this was during a 10 degree cold snap in rural Mississippi. I also ended up getting to 1st AD during our reshoots. Great experience.
I helped with VFX on that and it was awesome. Shortly after that our production company merged with an ad agency as their production arm and my career swerved into the VFX and motion graphics industry for mostly commercial work. The production company still existed as an IP holding company and we worked with all of the films coming through Mississippi to aid in walking them through our incentive. MS has a pretty robust 25-30% *cash back* (not tax incentive) program for productions (film and episodic) over $50k as well as games and interactive industries.
That work is still going on and is actually stronger than ever believe it or not.
But back to 2010 - while still working at the ad agency, the movies that were coming through that we dealt with (mostly in the smaller $3M-15M range with some even smaller $500k-1m in there every once in a while) always needed some level of post. So, in addition to my ad agency work, I got to do some level of VFX (from just "additional" to main level work and even being on set supe from time to time for LA studios that were doing the work) on about 7 or 8 films through those years. I also moved up to creative director at the agency (over the course of about 8 years) and go to do tons of directing as well for our live action stuff. It was a very well rounded experience getting to do tons of different jobs on actual "real" sized productions.
Probably my favorite was Octavia Spencer's "Ma" - maybe not a great film, but an absolutely blast on set. Octavia Spencer is an absolute gem and is just as nice as you'd expect her to be. I spent a lot of time on that set shadowing the super from the post production company in LA. I got to actually do a lot of cleanup VFX work on that which was useful in terms of getting use to fitting into a larger pipeline. I also did a lot of the digital onset props. I created a wide range of real facebook and instagram functioning prototypes for them to use onset so Octavia Spencer isn't trying to use a blank phone and guess where things are. (and then I got to do the replacement work when it all changed in post lol).
That actually led to a further side gig of doing more digital propwork for a few more movies (Queen & Slim, Deep Water and some others). Then COVID hit and I haven't heard from the propmaster that got me those gigs. Hope he's doing well.
Anyway from there, I eventually moved away to North Carolina to be closer to my aging parents. I'm a creative director at a production company that does work for larger tech and pharma brands, but we also have a hugely booming immersive department that's doing some super exciting work. None of which I can talk about really.
I still dabble in my VFX work from time to time, bust mostly when I'm just mentoring the younger kids on what to do.
I had no idea Mississippi had such a robusto incentive! I'm from Arkansas, and when I moved to L.A. I don't even think I was aware there was a scene in New Orleans at the time, much less Mississippi. This was back when Louisiana was the tax incentive belle of the ball. Some part of me wishes I'd stuck around down south, I might own a house at least.
I guess even if I had known about NOLA or Baton Rouge or Atlanta, I probably would have come west. Gotta have my vague, early twenties film school "genius" recognized by the important people, you know.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2024 21:55
|
|
- TadBradley
- Jan 14, 2008
-
I don't know what goes here.
|
Not sure how many folks are US-based, but it feels meaningful that I received two different availability checks for features last week. Maybe, just maybe, things are picking up. And that's in addition to the job I got.
I gotta think I'm not the first name on too many bosses' lists, so that bodes well.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2024 09:26
|
|
- TadBradley
- Jan 14, 2008
-
I don't know what goes here.
|
My start date got pushed back two weeks. The producer 3 or 4 rungs above me got shitcanned, so now it seems like the new producer has it out for my whole department because she wants to bring her own people in. The new producer has apparently been asking other departments about whether my boss is good enough for the job (mind you, this is in early prep). I forget how stupid the politics can get on these big budget shows.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2024 04:54
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2024 13:39
|
|
- TadBradley
- Jan 14, 2008
-
I don't know what goes here.
|
Really depends on how the strike goes. Being heavily unionized is going to make less appealing to automate with bad robotic guessing.
https://www.wheresyoured.at/bubble-trouble/ Ed Zitron helps me keep calm about ‘everything going AI’ anytime soon.
Ed Zitron has been a balm during all this AI hype garbage. I feel like I have sufficient reassurance that AI's never going to be able to make movies or TV that people can stomach (yay?). What worries me is that, during this bubble window where the Sam Altmans of the world are promising ANY DAY NOW that they will be able to make good content with these tools, that large swaths of this industry (labor, capital, supporting vendors) will just take their ball and go home.
People on set constantly talk about Sora, and how Tyler Perry saw the demonstration and canceled the construction of a new studio. I think that's the thinnest possible pretense for doing what he wanted to do anyway (namely, NOT build a studio during a downturn that has left all studios wide open). But excuse or no, that's one less big bet on the future of our industry. When capital believes the Model T is around the corner, nobody wants to be the last guy investing in buggy factories, no matter how bad people need buggies.
Dawg, people need those buggies! The local AMC is like, half Fathom Events or other sketchy four-walling these days. Release some loving movies, guys!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2024 20:48
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2024 00:35
