shmecky

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September 28, 2005

More things I hate

It's not that I totally hate my job. But I really don't like it sometimes. We are understaffed right now. The person that was supposed to close the store called in sick (actually, her boyfriend called in sick). The person that opened the store can't stay because they have to go work at another store. So, I have to go in on my day off to cover the stupid store. I like some aspects of my job. Unfortunately, most of the things I don't like involve dealing with customers, which is the most important part of my job. I was planning on taking a nap and maybe hanging out with my nephews for a little bit tonight. And now I get to go sell shoes to strangers. Yay.

Posted by shmecky at 04:06 PM | Comments (1)

September 25, 2005

Wrap party

Ok, to answer Ms. Debra's question about the wrap party.... it was really fun! It was held at this place called Max's in Buffalo. They had a drink special, $5 for all you can drink. I didn't partake too much, because I had to drive an actor to the airport in the morning. But a lot of people did. And there was a karaoke machine. Wow. I never knew karaoke could be so.... interesting. At one point I ran out to my car and got my cannibal soundtrack so Emma and I could sing "When I Was on Top of You." It wasn't really karaoke since Trey was still singing it, but that's ok. It was fun! I was a big baby and was crying all over people that I knew I wasn't going to see for either a long time, or ever again. All in all, it was a fun night :)

Posted by shmecky at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)

I hate shoplifters

I really hate shoplifters. Especially the ones that like to keep coming in my store. I know who they are. And I follow them around so they don't steal anything. Sometimes they still get stuff. So, when I see them, I call security. So, hooray for Robert! He is my security buddy from way back, when I worked at the other mall. And now he works at the hoity-toity mall. And when I called for security the other day, he answered the call. He came as fast as he could, but the girls were already gone. But they didn't get anything from me. He then had to answer a call for another store, same girls. He eventually caught up with them.... and kinda scared them to leave the mall. YAY ROBERT!

Posted by shmecky at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)

September 09, 2005

More Poultrygeist!

I'm sure my many (what, 7?) readers are getting sick of Poultrygeist talk. But I don't care.

Today I am thanking the awesome Caleb Emerson! He was our assistant director, as well as Carl Jr. He had to put up with so much on set, but he always made time for me, whether it was stupid text messages or me crying in the backyard. I declare that Caleb is the BEST assistant director EVER.

(Of course, this isn't saying much since I have only worked with one other A.D.)

Also, Beth Charlesworth was a super awesome person to meet and become friends with. Big thanks to her for befriending me and going on runs to the Dollar Tree to buy stupid presents for people!

I am now back to selling shoes. I definitely don't want to do this for the rest of my life. I don't mind the task part of my job, I just hate having to deal with customers. If all I had to do was customer stuff, that would be fine. Or if all I had to do was task oriented things, that would be fine too. I just can't balance the two of them.

Posted by shmecky at 10:31 PM | Comments (2)

September 05, 2005

Poultrygeist Part 2

So, yeah. I figured in this entry I would give little shout-outs to people who made my life better while I was in Buffalo. But then I would be thanking pretty much everyone that I worked with, and that would be a silly entry.

Mostly, I would like to thank Gabe Friedman for writing this movie. If it weren't for his great script, I wouldn't have had a movie to work on. And he's a super cool person, so that doesn't hurt.

Most of the actors were great people, and I am going to miss driving them around. Especially Jason Yachanin, who made me laugh every day. And Allyson was a trooper, getting all kinds of crap put in her hair.

Being on the props team was, as I said in the first entry, quite stressful. I remember one morning getting a call, asking where the hot dog buns and mustard were at. I was on my way to the house, so I just bought some more, since no one could find them. But once I got there, I found them in the copy room fridge. I think my most stressful day was when we shot the Humus dance sequence. Neither Matt nor I had been around when they blocked the scene, so we didn't really know what was going on. It was a small prop scene, so we were just letting Alyssa handle it. All of a sudden Lloyd is freaking out, asking where me and Matt are because he said Alyssa needed help putting a gun somewhere. I could handle the part where Lloyd yelled at me, but knowing that Gabe and/or Caleb was disappointed in me, that just killed me. And a few minutes later I heard Gabe talking about how we have to get things ready ahead of time, how he can't go through this every day, etc. And I just felt like shit. I knew this was Gabe's baby, and I wanted to do it justice, not fuck everything up. So I had a talk with Caleb later that night, and he said I was doing great and not to worry. But there was another day where something similar happened, and Gabe came to me and said I had to be anal, I had to be on top of things. It's hard to be on top of things when no one will give me a prop breakdown, when there are props called for in a scene that aren't written in the script. Eventually, I think Gabe realized my frustration and lightened up on me and put pressure elsewhere.

Matt Wulf, my props partner in crime, was awesome. He helped to keep me sane day in and day out. He was great at helping me dress sets with tons of fake and/or real chicken, buckets of chicken, drink cups, trays, etc. Those were pretty much our days - hurry up and dress a set and then wait.

The whole experience of being a chicken zombie was fun at first. You get a beak and make up put on. They cover you with glue and feathers. But the novelty wears off. The make up really isn't so bad. For me, it was the feathers and the glue. And after a few days of wearing the make up, my skin wasn't too happy with me. So I had to cut back.

There is so much to say, but once I sit down to write it all, the words just don't come. Maybe it would be better if people asked me specific questions.

Posted by shmecky at 10:09 PM | Comments (1)

September 01, 2005

Poultrygeist Part 1

I have been in Buffalo, NY for about 8 weeks working on the movie Poultrygeist: Attack of the Chicken Zombies! I went with the intention of being just a production assistant. By the time we wrapped, I had worked for set dressing, props, transportation, and office work. I was also three different chicken zombies and three different customers.

When I first showed up in Buffalo, I honestly didn't know if I could stick it out for the duration. It was really hot and humid. One of the hottest summers Buffalo has ever had. Our house didn't have air conditioning. And a LOT of people were living there. I didn't get to shower every day. Halfway through the first week, I called my uncle. He used to live in Batavia, which is about 45 minutes away from Buffalo. I asked him if any of his kids still lived in the area. And it was just my luck - my cousin still lived there. So, after the first week, I moved in with her. It was nice to go home to a cool house and a shower every night.

Shortly after arriving, I was assigned to the art department and put in charge of food props. I had to go through the script and make a list of what food props were needed for each scene, and how many I thought we would need. At first, I couldn't get them to give me a script. I would have to sign out one daily, and sign it back in at the end of the day. Finally, I went to the fantabulous Gabe Friedman (writer, producer, editor) told me I could keep my copy of the script. Not just because I needed it for the food props, but because he wanted me to keep track of all props that we would need every day. That way, there would be two people checking it over each day (Alyssa, the head of props, was the other one). It was, quite honestly, a very stressful job. Sometimes there would be props that weren't written in the script or that they would tell Alyssa about, that she then wouldn't tell me or Matt (other props person) about... and then we would wind up scrambling to get the items ready before we were shooting. At the end of it all, though, Gabe and Caleb Emerson (our awesome Assistant Director) told me that I did a great job, and that made it all worthwhile.

More to come...

Posted by shmecky at 05:30 PM | Comments (0)