St. Louis
09/09/2008 02:12 PM
In my recent travels i had the opportunity to go to the St. Louis arch. The arch it self was cool but the in side is a tram that takes you to the top. I was so fascinated by the tram that i only learned a little about the arch itself. Apparently not every one is as amazed about the tram as i was. there was very little information about the little ride to the top of the arch. I even spent extra money to see a documentary film the had playing there in hopes to learn more about the tram. They did not even mention it once. needless to say I was a little disappointed about that. I would have thought that something the would have had to been thought of while building the arch would have had quite an impact on how it was build. I found it very had to get alot of information about the tram.
This is one of the tram cars. it is set up in the lobby for people to look at. the tram ride started under the arch and went up and around to the top. The tram was like a mix between a roller coster (with out the going down really fast part) and a fairis wheel. As you probably know the arch is a curve, so as the tram went up for a while it would suddenly rotate back to vertical. it was very interesting.
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Interesting Job
09/05/2008 01:55 PM
I have taken an interesting job for the next week or so. It involves airplanes and waiting. this is a description of my day. I wake up get dressed go to the airport. Wait to go through security. Wait for a plane. get on the plane. Wait for it to take off, wait for it to land. go pick up a rental car, which sometimes involves waiting. Drive to a hotel and check in. wait for something to come to me to do for the rest of the evening. Go to Bed. Wake up slowly. watch some tv read and reply to email. shower, get dressed pack bags. Check out of hotel. Drive to Movie Set. Wait. Pick up Bag. Drive to rental car return. Shuttle back to airport. Wait to go through security. Wait for plane. Get on Plane. wait for plane to land. deliver bag to post house.
Sounds like a lot of fun huh?
The only and most important rule of the job is “Don’t Ever Let Go Of The Bag.”
As i cary the bag around i feel like one of the secret service agent providing protection for a valuable witness. looking over my shoulder every now and then checking my environment for hostel situations to be avoided and rerouting my path around large crowds.
What’s in the bag you might ask? Have you ever seen the movie Pulp Fiction? well i won’t keep the secret. I will tell you. the bags contents are very valuable depending on how you look at it. If you just look at the contents you would probably appraise the the value at about $45. Molded plastic tape and round shiny objects. Figure out what’s in the bag yet. Some one who was in the know would put a much higher value on the bags contents. I would just be guessing if i tried to put a value on the contents but i will try anyway. I guess the value closer to about $200,000.00-$300,000.00. And in some sense priceless and irreplaceable. The contents of the bag could never be duplicated if lost. They could be replicated but never duplicated, and that would come at a cost at about the above mentioned price. Figured out what’s in the bag yet? Ok i will tell you.
The bag contains all the tapes and cds of footage from the days shooting of the movie. Every shot and every sound. In order to replace the bags contents you would have to reshoot every thing that was in the bag. Reschedule every thing that was already done to do again, and spent the time and money to put everything back together again. This would not be an easy thing to do, nor cheep.
Sounds like a pretty important job doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you pay some one a lot of money to take care of this very valuable asset? This area of film making has always perplexed me, because the person who does this job is usually the lowest paid and least experienced person on a film set. Go figure! As a grip i can make over $450 a day carrying sand bags, but the guy who delivers whole days work and sometimes millions of dollars of time and energy makes less than a 1/4 of that. In all my years in this business i have never been able to understand this. I will admit, having now done the job, it is in no way difficult or hard. The only difficulty is finding the locations in an unfamiliar area, which is not that hard. I am not sure that this person should make 300k a year for a relatively unskilled job, but i would not want to piss off this person if you wanted you film to get to location with out problems.
Sounds like a lot of fun huh?
The only and most important rule of the job is “Don’t Ever Let Go Of The Bag.”
As i cary the bag around i feel like one of the secret service agent providing protection for a valuable witness. looking over my shoulder every now and then checking my environment for hostel situations to be avoided and rerouting my path around large crowds.
What’s in the bag you might ask? Have you ever seen the movie Pulp Fiction? well i won’t keep the secret. I will tell you. the bags contents are very valuable depending on how you look at it. If you just look at the contents you would probably appraise the the value at about $45. Molded plastic tape and round shiny objects. Figure out what’s in the bag yet. Some one who was in the know would put a much higher value on the bags contents. I would just be guessing if i tried to put a value on the contents but i will try anyway. I guess the value closer to about $200,000.00-$300,000.00. And in some sense priceless and irreplaceable. The contents of the bag could never be duplicated if lost. They could be replicated but never duplicated, and that would come at a cost at about the above mentioned price. Figured out what’s in the bag yet? Ok i will tell you.
The bag contains all the tapes and cds of footage from the days shooting of the movie. Every shot and every sound. In order to replace the bags contents you would have to reshoot every thing that was in the bag. Reschedule every thing that was already done to do again, and spent the time and money to put everything back together again. This would not be an easy thing to do, nor cheep.
Sounds like a pretty important job doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you pay some one a lot of money to take care of this very valuable asset? This area of film making has always perplexed me, because the person who does this job is usually the lowest paid and least experienced person on a film set. Go figure! As a grip i can make over $450 a day carrying sand bags, but the guy who delivers whole days work and sometimes millions of dollars of time and energy makes less than a 1/4 of that. In all my years in this business i have never been able to understand this. I will admit, having now done the job, it is in no way difficult or hard. The only difficulty is finding the locations in an unfamiliar area, which is not that hard. I am not sure that this person should make 300k a year for a relatively unskilled job, but i would not want to piss off this person if you wanted you film to get to location with out problems.