Ive been compared to the build of a man

I was reminded today of an occasion that now seems amusing when at the time was a little weird, bordering on insulting.

Wrapped up against the cold, a must on location

It occurred a few years back, as I was taking that step up from runner to Camera Op. I was called in last minute to help film a stunt that was going to happen in the local town centre. I knew nothing more than this.

It was a cold November day and I had wrapped up warm in lots of layers as we were going to be outside all day. Turning up early as they wanted me to film a lock off shot of the set being put into place.

As a cherry picker turns up to the area I am standing, I set the tape running. theres not much else I can do for now except guard the camera from the stray drunks and walk of shame students wondering back home in the early daylight hours. At this point I have lost all feeling in my fingers and my stomach is grumbling loader than the buses engines that pass by.

The best coffee you will ever drink.

Eventually the cherry picker is in place and the kind driver offers to pop to the shop and purchase a coffee. This coffee the first on an outside broadcast in the early morning is the best coffee you will experience. If you don't drink hot drinks, when you've stood outside for 3 hours in snow with no hat or gloves you'll soon take it up.

A few hours later at 10 am a steady influx of crew start to arrive on set and a small tent is set up. the director arrives on the next train from the south and we start the briefing. Today we will be filming a stunt with a very famous singer. They will be performing escapology whilst inverted.


So cherry picker in place cameras set up crowd building the star is running late and hasn't finished filming in another location yet. And the straight jacket need testing. 

In my head the VIP is a tall man so looking round the crew I'm trying to guess which unlucky man is going to get roped in, when the director asks my height. Oddly I look at him and say "5'2 I'm too short."

"No" comes the reply your just the right height and build. "I'm the same height as ****** *******?" I thought they were tall! Oh, well ok lets get on with this.

I get strapped into the straight Jacket

I get strapped into the jacket and the magician tells me how to escape. Lucky I did this very quickly without to much struggle limiting the embarrassment of writhing around in front of my peers in a straight jacket. Also makes me wonder if I was Houdini in a past life.

Not this Rapper with Glasses

Im still embarrassed at the fact Ive been compared to the build of a man, but in this job no day is the same and you come to expect the weird and wonderful. The call comes through the VIP is on route. Action stations, I'm waiting for them to arrive when a small man turns up with a gaggle of producers and all of a sudden the stunt starts. Im a little caught off guard. I'm still waiting for the tall man with the glasses that sings, not this short lad who is the same height and build as me. It suddenly downs on me that this is not the VIP I had in my head, this is not the rapper with the glasses but another short rapper and I can now see why I was the perfect stand in.

Your Working Day is Someone's Working Week

Working in TV is often very long hours, especially as a runner, your working day can easily be 16 hours long thats someone's working week. If you add in travel time them you can easily be hitting 20 hours a day.

Up at 6am, drive to work, stand, carry, drive, and shop all day then tidy up before your drive home. Arrive home for 11pm and bed ready for the same again tomorrow. Its a never ending cycle until you work up the ladder and even then depending on the path you have taken and the job you are working on the hours might not change.

When you start as a runner the wages are poor and you often find yourself taking on other jobs just to get by and saying no to a job often means the phone doesn't ring again. So the need to succeed in the industry spurs you through.

Not long after I started I was doing just this, luckily all my jobs turned out to be in the same building so I didn't have to travel between workplaces. if I had I dont think I would have been able to do it, I only just survived as it was.

Living off Flavia Coffee

My working week started on a Thursday morning at 7.30am and finished on a Tuesday evening at 7pm. During this time I was working on three separate programmes and living off Flavia coffee machines and RedBull.

My Thursday first shift was a regular one. And I was used to the long day and standing. Then there was a call to work on an evening show that was live and ran throughout the night. As long as my normal job was finished by 10pm I couldn't see why I couldn't do both.

So the first Thursday started and I finished my day job by 9pm, nipped back to the car park and sat in my car for an hour then started my evening shift. this was an easy shift in TV runner terms as it only meant carrying all the stuff to studio, setting up the green room and keeping everyone supplied with drinks. The show finished at 3am. Home for a couple of hours sleep and then back for the same again on Friday.

Then Ugly Betty called, they desperately needed an extra pair of hands on a new show they where making and the shifts fitted in around my other jobs so I agreed.

Regularly found asleep in a Chesterfield 

This added a Saturday to Tuesday 9am -7pm onto my other jobs. Knackered isn't the word. I could regularly be found hiding backstage in my down time asleep in a chesterfield, or hidden behind the lift dozing in a chair.

The great thing about the evening stint is that everyone looked after themselves after it was all set up, and so I could easily sneak off for 40 winks. Upstairs on route to the studio the lift opened up in the centre of the room, with mirrors all around. This meant you could sit on a chair behind the lift and when the lift made a noise it would wake you, you could then scan the room to see who was coming as to whether you had to move or could stay hidden away and close your eyes again.

I really dont recommend it to anyone after the shoot had finished 6 weeks later I was fit for nothing. Although the extra money was good, it didn't really further my career. and that is what you have to ask yourself. Is it worth it? Will it get me further along the media Path I want to take. If the answer is no then let another runner take the job. You dont know what opportunities you will miss by taking the work, when the call could come in offering something you really want to do.

The Law of the Sod

Working as a freelancer is odd.

Waiting for the phone to ring

You have periods where you dont stop working, and periods when your phone rings and you pounce on it in anticipation of a job only to find its a marketing company wanting to help you get a refund on your no existent credit card or loan repayments.

These lulls in work make you doubt whether you are in the right job, should you just get a nine to five?
What job would I do if I did?

Lounging on the Sofa

Then just as your sat on the sofa in your pyjamas watching Flog It at 3 in the afternoon contemplating whether your having microwave noodles or toast for tea, the phone rings and your asked if you can get to Leeds in the morning for a one day shoot. RELIEF!!

One day jobs as a freelancer invariably lead to more work if you prove yourself on that first day. So you have to make the right impression.

So your job extended to three weeks and then your phone does not stop ringing. Job offers roll in from across the TV world and as your already working all you can say is "I'm Sorry I'm already booked". All good you think but why couldn't they have rang last week when you where starving hungry and wondering whether it was OK to put the heating on or to buy food instead. Its defiantly Sods Law.

Procrastinating

The quiet period is good though if you put the time to good use. I tend to have good intentions to write a  few synopsis's and maybe add a few chapters to my book. Instead I find myself procrastinating, drinking hot chocolate sat watching Gilmore Girls and arranging coffee outings with Jet2 and Dimmock. As Dimmock gave up on the TV industry in this country and got themselves a nine to five, coffee outings have changed to evening dinner outings instead, cheap places mind you, Im not working remember and dont know when the next job will be, so cant be splashing the cash!

Coffee Outings

So coffee is arranged in town with Jet2 and dinner the following evening with Dimmock and then your phone rings. A weeks work in London starting tomorrow on an emergency conference. You cant say no so you cancel your plans and find yourself booking rooms in London and looking at the best way to get there. At least Jet2 and Dimmock have worked in the industry and understand when you have to cancel, but family can be a tad upset, but this is your career and you have to do it to get to where you want to be.

So Tv isn't Glamorous, especially when your sat at home with unwashed hair and wishing the phone to ring, but you cant be disheartened when your not working, think of other things you can be doing, and invariably when you make plans that phone will ring. If you really want to work in TV you have to be determined.

This is what we do it for.

This is the reason we do it. The reason we stand in the snow, rain, wind and sun. Hour after hour trying to get that shot.

This is the moment.

The nervous anticipation.

What will the show finally look like?

What will others think?

Will my name be on the credits?

Ohhhhhhhhhhh the excitement. The nervous butterflies before the show is aired for the first time. THIS is why we work in TV.

Six years of making tea, standing for hours and working hard have lead to this point. The moment your show is broadcast to the nation. In this day of modern technology and social networking its easy to gage the public reaction to it too. What are people on twitter saying and the ratings arrive the next day instead of weeks later.

My first credit as a Camera Operator will be tonight and I am just a little excited about it. I worked hard making the show and survived some appalling conditions which I will blog about soon. Shared showers and banging doors just a blot in my memory now but whilst filming they were the reality of tight budgets and fast turn around TV.