Baz Luhrmann and the Tripod of Doom!
Yeah, I said it, Baz Luhrmann and an Over Zealous Tripod
We get a last minute call for a prompter gig. That’s right, we take last minute calls. Do you need a teleprompter tomorrow and haven’t scheduled one? Did your last have to cancel on you? Yeah, we got you. We do that.
ALL THE TIME
Not to toot our own horn, but seriously, we’ve gotten calls at 11 PM for a 7 AM call the next day, and Yours Truly got there EARLY!
Yeah, we’re on top of it.
Anyway, a late call comes in. I happily take it, and await the details.
The script is not ready, which is fine, things always change. I get my call time, 10am. Yes. Anytime after 9:00 is always wonderful. It’s the 6:30 calls that are horrible, but 10:00? That means I can wake up at 8:00, which is totally fine. I didn’t sleep wonderfully the night before, but that’s okay, I’m a coffee achiever.
I arrive on location, the very swanky Carlyle Hotel, and meet the client. Due to some delays, the crew is still setting up the space, and the camera crew isn’t in. I talk with the director, he tells me to go to the side with my teleprompter . He has his own tripod.
Here’s the thing, we used to ask all the time if we needed to supply a tripod. It was a fine tripod, but not super heavy duty or anything, it got the job done. But recently our clients have had heavier cameras, so they’ve always had heads that can sustain well beyond our light weight teleprompter rig.
Back to today, the camera crew shows up, there are several tripods around, I inquire which one is for me, they say, “The heavy duty one in the case.”
Here, let me just show you:
GIANT TRIPIOD OF DOOM!
Yeah, cell phone shot of over kill.
You see, without having the camera behind the prompter, we don’t need the glass, just the monitor, so I can modify our rig to look like this. It’s great, it’s easy, and it’s light.
This tripod could easily hold ME! Pretty hilarious.
They thought it looked a bit intimidating, so they asked me to cover, so here’s another pic for you:
That’s my coat. Good job coat.
Now onto Baz Luhrmann. He is a very cool guy. What else can I say? He’s in charge. He communicates well. He seems to care about the crew.
I can’t really say much about Baz Luhrmann for one good reason. While my call was 10:00, shooting hadn’t started by 2:30, and they decided that they would not use the teleprompter after all.
That’s right, all set up, for nothing.
But you know what that also means, I was on hand if necessary, and they could have changed their minds so I was still just standing by.
Another thing it means is that I got paid to show up and didn’t do anything. I did give me a reason to write this blog. I don’t think Baz Luhrmann will care if I write this blog. He probably won’t even read it.
Still, what a cool guy. My favorite quote “. . .but you can’t think when your stomachs are empty, so everyone go get lunch.”
Oh, the lunch! The Carlyle Hotel knows how to treat a crew. Roast beef with horseradish on brioche, and turkey and brie with fig preserves!
That was excellent.
So I guess I got paid to eat. Fine with me!
Baz Luhrmann is currently working on The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
