What Happens On A Film Set?

Finally, the first day of film production has arrived! Here. We. Go!

It’s 7am on Saturday June 5^th and I’m off to hit the road for a 2 ½ hour drive to Richmond, Virginia. I’m extra nervous because it’s the first day of production and I don’t know what to expect. I was forewarned the week before that it was going to be a bit crazy and that I shouldn’t get overwhelmed. But I still couldn’t help it, the butterflies were swarming heavily as I was driving into the unknown.

Now, it’s 5 minutes past 9am. Call time for the crew is 9:30am and my phone is ringing off the hook. Crew members are asking what location to meet up at and what time they should be on set even though I’d sent out a call sheet 2 days before explaining all this information. 15 minutes later, I get on set and its complete chaos. There are dozens of people I’ve never met before from additional production assistants (PA’s), sound/audio personnel, camera crew, etc.

The next thing I know, COVID paperwork is being thrown at me from all angles and people are constantly calling my name asking me what to do. Then, I had to get breakfast ordered, take lunch food orders, pick up food and props for the scenes scheduled for the day, snacks / refreshments for the crew, get everyone onto the group app, assign PA duties, and track timesheets.

I was literally losing my mind. But I was determined to make it work.

It’s 3:45pm, the entire crew is starving. The food still hasn’t arrived even though I sent another PA to pick it up over an hour ago. Apparently, there was a miscommunication between the PA and the caterer. (Oh gosh. All eyes are on me now! Yikes!). And the only thing I can say is “Please be patient. He’s going to be here shortly”.

It’s the end of the day and after 12 hours of shooting only 2 scenes were completed. The director had to get each scene at dozens of different angles. Now, it’s time for the crew to pack up and go home except I didn’t have anywhere to go because I forgot to book a hotel. (Oh man).

I manage to find a cheap but decent hotel at the Days Inn that was 15-minutes away. The room I was given smelt like complete cigarettes. But I was still grateful because I had somewhere to sleep and luckily, I’d brought my own sheets.

As I’m unpacking, I suddenly see a shadow above me. I look up and it’s a roach crawling on the ceiling. Let’s just say, I was extremely uncomfortable and made a promise to myself that I will do everything in my power not to go through this type of hotel experience again.

It’s the next morning and I have to meet the director at 8am at the studio. We drive to go pick up a car for one of the scenes that we had to shoot for the day. He expresses his deepest apologies for not properly training me as he saw how confused I was about what he expected of me to do. (Whew. Thank you).

Now, it’s time to go pick up breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. It was completely chaotic at the location. There were only two employees. One of them still had their pajama pants on and the drive thru line was backed all the way up. Luckily, I got there an hour and half before I needed to be on set. So, I was extremely patient.

I get on set at exactly 10:30am – the call time for the day – and everyone was satisfied with the food I’d brought. A few hours pass by. I go and grab lunch only to return to a not-so-satisfied director. (Huh. What did I do?). Apparently, he was having some issues with his camera equipment that took an hour to fix and he could only get one shot out of it which he didn’t end up liking at all.

Oh no! This isn’t good.

Don’t forget to comment below, share this post, and follow us on IG @giasworldstudios for more film content and updates.

---

Click the images below to read other posts:

---

Subscribe to Stay Updated!

Disclaimer: 

The author is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions of failure to act related to the content in this article. If you need specific legal advice, consult with an attorney who specializes in your subject matter and jurisdiction.