Disaster Story Coverups

[Daniel Porto]

Everyone makes mistakes on the set from time to time but as human beings it is our nature to try and hide the problem, rather then admitting to a mistake. This is mainly caused by the fear of never getting work again or of paying off a broken piece of expensive equipment for the rest of eternity!

 

There are plenty of disaster stories out there and I would like to hear yours (wether if it was to do with you directly or some story that you once heard).

 

 

Looking forward to some of the responses!

DANIEL PORTO

[Paul Bruening]

I hav nver, evr, maid ani mistakes. Eber.

[Serge Teulon]

Lickwyse

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Well this one time.... while i was striking a set, I didn't realize a part was not connected well, and smach, fell and broke all over me. I was in my early teens then... and the director was grateful, because now they needed a net set to be built.

Woops.

[Chris Keth]

I don't want anyone to be confused so: I can happily, truthfully say this was not me.

 

I loaded on 2 music videos that were back to back where everything was being overcranked and 2 cameras were going at all times so we were super busy. We finish the first one and have a day off and we show up to the second shoot and the DP kind of sternly calls us into the camera truck. He tells us that a bunch of the rolls from the first day had this really bad bright green fog. It was all on rolls that didn't have the "loader" field filled in. I told the guy that I always, always fill in the loader field, especially when there is more than one loader. It's stupid not to do it for this very reason. At this point the other loader is kind of awkwardly shoving his hands a little too deep in his pockets, like past the wrist. The DP asks to see his watch and it's this big flashy chrome thing with an incredibly bright, always-on, bright green backlight that he apparently wore the whole time he was in the bag.

[K Borowski]

At this point the other loader is kind of awkwardly shoving his hands a little too deep in his pockets, like past the wrist. The DP asks to see his watch and it's this big flashy chrome thing with an incredibly bright, always-on, bright green backlight that he apparently wore the whole time he was in the bag.

 

Nice!

[Bob Hayes]

Here are some good ones.

 

When I was in the rental business we got a call that our camera had malfunctioned. There images recorded was black. They were shooting BL IIs. When we showed up on the set the assistant walked by with the mags loaded backwards black side out. This is no small feat with a BL mag. I’ve joked about it since then and I’ve actually caught a loader who have tried to do it to me.

 

Some student rented a Arri 16 BL and took it underwater thinking BL meant it was waterproof.

 

I was shooting a film in the Philippines using short ends. On day two one of the rolls was completely clear. No exposure. Further research revealed some of the short ends were positive stock re-canned as negatives. We switched to unopened stock but until it showed up we kept samples of the stocks taped to the slate so when we reloaded we could match the stock colors.

 

A friend of mine was doing a film and using a small local theater to project dailies. A driver would drop off dailies and pick up exposed stock. One day he was late and the inexperienced projectionist ran a roll of exposed native through the projector.

 

When I was shooting Pacific Blue on Venice Beach some film students left a camera case on the board walk. It was reported as a bomb. The bomb squad showed up. I’m talking 40 LAPD officers. We told them we suspected the case was owned by the students but they were unable to contact them. So we were shut down for two hours pinned down behind sand dunes as the bomb squad cleared the perimeter and detonated the case. They used some sort of water cannon so there was no explosion. Oooops.

[Saul Rodgar]

There is an interview with Connie Hall in which he admits to shooting for 3 days with the wrong filter on during the 60's, I believe. When he was about to get fired because of it, someone made a high contrast IP print and saved his ass. But Hall admitted to it after winning two Oscars for Best Cinematography, which requires a lot of nerve, especially coming from someone who is very often cited as one of the best cinematographers by fellow cinematographers. Very humbling, but it tell me that no matter who it is, humans will make mistakes no matter what, at some point or another.

 

During the filming of a commercial we were shooting for an Indian casino, I worked with a jackass 1st AC from LA who kept making snide remarks about us locals and talking how much experience he had assisting on big time features and spots and running camera on EPK's in LA for E! _all this between hitting on the talent girls, along with his buddy the director / DP. They were nothing but unprofessional pricks, really.

 

Once during a "live event" showcase, he was pulling focus from the on board monitor while the director / DP opertated from the same monitor. I was standing next to them. I could see the stage lights above through the monitor, so inferred the eyepiece was left open. The director called "we are cut and moving on!" but I told them that the viewfinder was leaking light onto the film. They AC closed it with a look of consternation on his face and they both looked at me like they wanted to punch me. The director walked away and says, "we are moving on," as the AC follows him and pleads to re-do the shot, which the director eventually agreed to. The dolly grip, who heard the interchange and had been driven up the wall on more than one ocassion by the haughty pair, later told me that my calling them out them that had made his day.

 

Well, eventually the 1st AC became friendlier to me, still in a condescending sort of way. During the last shot, we were in the dark, shooting on the bleachers high above the race track adjacent to the casino. We were shooting on Arricams LT, I think. At some point while I was talking to him about loading the camera, he took of the tape from the take up side and opened the mag door, flashing the film for a second, before slamming it back shut while saying in disbelief: "Oh, my god, I flashed the FILM!" Then he proceeded to tell me how that didn't happen, no matter who asked, while saying something along the lines of "and I had to do it in front of YOU!" I told the second AC later, in case they wanted to blame us locals, but it must have been OK because no one ever complained about it.

 

Working as an AC, I once grabbed an Optar Illumina 10 mm lens that had been sent from the rental house with the 2 wrong size caps on, held together by old gaffer's tape that had lost its tack, in some misc. case with all kinds of other things thrown in. We never used the thing, so I just left it in there as it was, when I should have replaced the gafer's tape. So the one time the DP called for it, I was in the darkened truck and as I fished the damned thing out, the loose-fitting wrong-size caps came off and the lens escaped my hands and crashed on the floor. The lens was fine, aside from a few dings on the barrel, but the episode scared the daylights out of me. I was glad to eventually easing myself out of AC gigs.

[Daniel Porto]

I can feel the pain just by reading these!

[Leo Anthony Vale]

There is an interview with Connie Hall in which he admits to shooting for 3 days with the wrong filter on during the 60's, I believe. When he was about to get fired because of it, someone made a high contrast IP print and saved his ass. But Hall admitted to it after winning two Oscars for Best Cinematography, which requires a lot of nerve, especially coming from someone who is very often cited as one of the best cinematographers by fellow cinematographers. Very humbling, but it tell me that no matter who it is, humans will make mistakes no matter what, at some point or another.

 

it was a day for night shot in 'Morituri'. A U-boat and a freighter with prisionors being loaded or unloaded to/from the U-boat. major logistics, U-boat rental...

He under exposed way tooo much. Bob Abbot in the effects department was able tomore than salvage the shot with the hi-con dupe, actually enhanced it.

[John Brawley]

Everyone makes mistakes on the set from time to time but as human beings it is our nature to try and hide the problem, rather then admitting to a mistake. This is mainly caused by the fear of never getting work again or of paying off a broken piece of expensive equipment for the rest of eternity!

 

There are plenty of disaster stories out there and I would like to hear yours (wether if it was to do with you directly or some story that you once heard).

 

 

Looking forward to some of the responses!

DANIEL PORTO

 

 

I too worked at a rental company and had a job where the loader managed to load several rolls on an Arri III backwards. (you do get an exposure if you want to try this but you need to overexpose by 5 stops or so.)

 

And for me.

 

ahem.

 

I was shooting second camera and loading whilst shooting the Australian Rules football grand final for the AFL. (bit like NFL films shooting the superbowl). I did this for 5 years in a row. we'd generally shoot 30+ rolls on a High speed SR and an XTR for the colour (my camera)

 

So when the final siren goes the DOP runs onto the field with a fresh mag and gets the winning team, crying tears of joy hugging each other holding the cup aloft etc. I go and get some wallpaper of the fans.

 

Later that night as I was unloading all the mags I realise that I hadn't closed the take up door properly on the SR. I fessed up immediately and he took it surprisingly well. Only the last 40" or so were fogged thankfully.

 

jb

[John Sprung]

I once latched a mag onto an Arri 16 BL, just to carry them to a new setup on a large location. But when we got there, I forgot to thread the gate. The film ran thru just fine, except no exposure at all. I never worked in that town again. Fortunately, it was Cleveland. ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Chris Keth]

I never worked in that town again. Fortunately, it was Cleveland. ;-)

 

Priceless. :lol:

 

 

I'll tell you all another one, though I'm not sure if it was my fault or not. I was lighting some greenscreen work in a studio when I was in school and I was keying with a big old mole studio 2k, the ones that are the size of most 5ks we use now. We were coming back from lunch and I was raising that 2k key back up, the whole way up, and on the last riser it slipped right out of the base of the stand. There apparently was no stop on that riser anymore. I balanced it long enough for someone else to come grab it and everyone else to get out of the way but we couldn't get control of it and the whole thing tipped over, nearly onto the camera, with a massive crash. I remember it going right on the lens. It was like an explosion, kind of spectacular in a way.

[Tom Jensen]

I never made too many mistakes as an AC. I usually caught the mistakes so I was pretty lucky. That being said, I was not immune from them. I was doing a TV show in the 80's called Land of the Lost. We were shooting with an Elaine which is the 16mm Panavision camera. I was cleaning the movement and after I oiled it I placed it back into the camera. It went in with such a click, I forgot to tighten down the two retaining screws. An entire days shooting was ruined. This was like day 2 of a TV series. The next day, I was cleaning the camera again and I noticed the screws were loose. About that time a PA walks in and says that the producers want to see me in the editing bay where they screened the dailies. My heart sank. Long story short, I told them what I did and they kept me on for being honest. They said they appreciated my confession and they were sure I would never do it again. I got lucky. The footage was a very blurred double image.

 

Once we were doing a plate shot with a Mitchell camera hanging over a ledge of a building about 12 stories up. When it came time to reload, there was no easy way to pull the camera back so I straddled the ledge of the building and reloaded. With a Mitchell camera you are supposed to pull the aperture plate to clean it, especially after you roll out. Looking back, I would have just left it in and cleaned it like that. Anyway, as I was putting it back in, it popped out of my hand and flew up into the air about a foot and a half. Knowing that my leg was tied off by a rope, I took a stupid leap of faith and I reached out as far as I could with my ass hanging off the wall and my left foot pushing against the outside of the building. Luckily, I snagged it after it flipped about three turns. When I said I usually catch my mistakes, I meant it literally. :D

Edited April 8, 2009 by Tom Jensen