Annie Wengenroth

This is a really interesting discussion and something I've thought about a lot since I'm such a goddamn dinosaur with my silly film cameras. It's cool to finally start to understand this stuff from a better standpoint technically, AND to want to learn more. Yay, thanks guys!

I am filled with a sense of dread that reminds me of last year around this same time. It's so easy for people to make decisions like this (or NOT make them, and f*ck around for months on end) when they're say, 1) sitting in a comfy chair, 2) getting a normal amount of sleep, and 3) making more money than us, every 2 weeks like clockwork. But if they had any idea of what things were like on our side of the line (AKA "below"), maybe things would be different. As it is, they are not, and I guess like all the other bullsh*t out there right now, we just have to grit our teeth. Here in NYC it's winter anyway, so once again, it's slow anyway. BRING IT ON. Let's just see if things can POSSIBLY GET ANY WORSE! ...I'm sorry. Where was I...? This is just my opinion. Other people might feel otherwise.

Hee hee hee.... Now we just need someone to mention Hitler and then it's official... cine.com has WON THE INTERNETS. It was not pr0n, but, I was 2nd ACing on a job where we were shooting a sex scene in which the drunken boyfriend drunkenly bangs his sober girlfriend, and the whole time, the gaffer (also female) and I were snickering to each other, "It would never happen! Whiskey dick!" What? It's true.

I used to get peasants and pheasants mixed up.

The economy is making everything suck. I'm sitting around in my pajamas about to call people and I know it will go something like this: Me: "Hey, (insert name) how's it going? So what have you been working on lately?" Dude[tte] I'm Calling For Work: "Oh you know, the usual. Commercial here and there. It's slow. Today I am sitting around in my pajamas at 1:00." Me: "Really? Me too! An Arri shirt with skull and crossbone pajama pants?" Dude[ette]: Why, yes. How did you know? Me: I guess because I'm just that good. So what else is new? I just finished painting my apartment. It's yellow. It was an excruciating process. I think today I will go to the bank and buy bread at Whole Foods. Then maybe I'll run 6 miles and feel blessed that at least I don't work at a desk in a cubicle for some sort of crippled mega-corporation while the threat of unemployment hangs over my head like a black cloud. Dude[ette]: ..... And so on. Some of my better-off friends are working on jobs that started earlier in the fall, I've been working here and there on whatever I can get, and everything else seems to be kinda limping along. The middle has dropped out of the low-budget world and I'm starting to hear about $100/day jobs again. Which is ridiculous and horrible because this is how the math goes: Rate=$100/day Day=16 hours Hourly rate=$100/16=$6.25 Metrocard for day=$4 Coffee on the way because craft service coffee is awful=$3 Food on the way home because craft service is awful=$10 Roll of 1" black camera tape because they didn't buy expendables=$15 Gross total payment for one day of work=$68 What you save by staying home, eating your own food, and not using your tape=$32 This is almost half of what you make on the job after what I call the Basic Human Needs clause. If the gross total for the job is equal to or less than the amount I could save by eating my own food, making my own coffee, not using my own tape, and not getting on the subway, I don't do the job. These numbers are real and have not been exaggerated. Okay so you can get cheaper coffee and a sandwich if you want to, but in New York, this is not always possible. So yeah, I think I'll hang out and read the Constitution. :P That being said, I AM INDEED available for work. ;-)

With all due respect to the fact that this is a professional forum (I <3 you guys)... If poop like that is a revolution, they can kiss my skinny white girl a$$. That is really all I have to say. Yes- the technology is interesting. Trying new things can be good. Preparing for the future is good. But the hype and the bullsh*t surrounding the advertising with this crap, makes me ill. With Guitar Hero, suddenly everyone can be a "guitarist". With Pro Tools being affordable, suddenly everyone can buy the latest MBox and be a "musician". And now I guess everyone can be a "filmmaker". There is something prestigious and- to an extent- sacred about this industry, that I feel is being watered down and compromised by new technology. And I ***ing hate that. The end. :-D

I think that you should always do what you want to do for a living. Why stick with a job that makes you unhappy? But you also need to be aware of potential risks: the possibility that your job description could change, that you might not make as much money, that there might be competition, that you might be miserable. The question looms over all our heads: what will happen to 16? What will happen to 35? Well, it works both ways. I bet those CGI guys are sitting there staring at their screens thinking, "Oh god...here come the cinematographers." I say, WE are more of a threat to THEM because we understand the physical phenomenon of light, of setting up shots, and they do not. And to me, it seems MORE risky to put your time and money in a field that is constantly changing, than in one that stays the same. This is where we will win out. Personally, I would rather work with something that will simply go away in 20 years, than something that will change constantly and leave me wondering what will happen next and what I will be required to learn next in order to keep on top. At least when it goes away, I will have a solid answer...and more time behind me with a solid experience. At the same time, you should prepare yourself for change, but with the mindset of using that change to break new ground in an old craft. HD/digital has already had an impact on so many things: the amount people spend on their television sets, the amount DIT's get paid in comparison to AC's, the amount production spends on their show/commercial/movie, the classes they have at film schools, the way a film set runs. I feel like if anything, this makes the role of a DP MORE critical. Do you WANT your sets and your ideas taken over by the CGI people? Ya know?

I worked with a guy who started as a stills assistant and then began 2nding. There are some similarities between stills assistant work and 2nd AC work but not so much between stills and 1sts. Similarities include bringing lenses, loading, carrying gear...but to an extent, it's still pretty different. You would be at an advantage since you understand how to assist someone, how to anticipate and be aware of their needs. But, the protocol and gear are different. Don't worry about the union thing...there's also non-union work. Plus, you can always work on a union set as a camera PA.

While touching up paint jobs on a couple SR mags, I discovered that tack cloth is an excellent way to pick up any stray paint, dirt, metal, or emulsion specks on the inside of a magazine. I got it at Pearl but you could probably get it at any arts/crafts/hobby place. It makes things a little bit sticky, but nothing you can't fix with a chamois cloth. And it's more likely to make your hands sticky, than the mag. So check it out if you're up for a new way to clean camera gear!

Some guy at SCAD blew up his car for his senior project. I didn't see the footage but I'm sure it was awesome. I don't know how he pulled it off. But yeah. Write a good script first. Then next year, progress to explosions and dramatic sex scenes. ;)

Dude... The smell....that chemical, metal, organic smell..I know it too..you're not weird...or maybe we both are! Well...I've always been a major gearhead. I'm an electronic musician too and used to take apart synths (fried an Ensoniq ESQ-1 with an early circuit-bending experiment...) and when I was in high school I wrote a 25-page paper about the history and design of snowboards and how it changed the ski industry. Then in college I did a 20-minute speech on how tattoo machines work and a presentation on how sync-sound cameras changed the way sound was recorded on set. I also did a sound art project where I stuck 5 ribbon mics inside Bolexes and ran them at various speeds, then manipulated the sounds in Pro Tools. I am a total geek, don't be deceived by the tattoos (and yes, I am contemplating a film-related tat!) and skateboard :lol: . I come from a long line of designers, builders, artists, and engineers...maybe it's time to really do something with it. I actually had an idea for an experimental cinematography project where you would basically be "circuit-bending" camcorders to create different visual effects and images, kinda like what video DJ's do, but physically and not computer-generated. I don't know how you'd do it but I'd like to talk to some video engineers to see how it would work....

It's really, really weird to read your post, Luc. I used to work at CSC- yay rental house alumni! I am at an interesting crossroads in my own career and actually had hit a similar point a couple months ago when I was down in Georgia. The strike screwed me too...it screwed all of us. This industry is not what it was 10, 20, 50 years ago...and it's kinda heartbreaking to be realizing that now. In all honesty, I'm starting to feel differently about ACing thanks to HD, and it kinda weirds me out. I'm realizing that I really like film cameras. I want to learn how these beautiful machines work...and how to take them apart and repair them and put them back together. I want to learn from the people who've been doing it since before I was born....before it's too late and it all goes away. I thought of the first time I saw an Arriflex 16S and how the hair stood up on my arms and my heart started pounding and it was the coolest little machine I'd laid eyes on....the moment when I fell in love....hearing the camera run...watching the shutter and the registration pin and pulldown claw and falling in love. It sounds ridiculous, but that's what it was....this intense, huge, "THIS IS IT!!!" that I had not experienced before with anything else I've ever done in my life. It was not so much, "I want to make an image with this"...it was, "How does it work and what does it look like on the inside?" I know it will take time, work, and money, and dumb luck to boot...engineering school...starting "at the bottom" again to an extent....but I'm truly considering getting serious about being a film camera repair technician and putting ACing on the back burner. That way, when digital cameras rule the industry, I can be one of the last to understand where it all started...to help bridge the gap between the past and the future. And one of the last to help keep film alive. My strengths have always been with the gear. So maybe it's time to just run with it. Or maybe it's a phase like the time I had 28 piercings and a mohawk or the time I was 10 and absolutely was going to be an archaeologist when I grew up? I still don't know, but I want to go with it while it's on my mind and see what happens. I guess it's dark days and uncertainty for some of us, but despite this, we *are* witnessing a big change in the entertainment industry and there's something to be said for that. Nobody knows what will happen next with anything. So if there's ever a time to start understanding (to paraphrase Brian's book) What I Really Want To Do.... then I guess this is it, huh. :shrug: Um, cool, so, let's all hold hands now and sing Kum Ba Yah or whatever. I promise the next post I make will be more funny, with less words.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit huffing Arri grease. ...What? Oh, sorry. Wrong topic. Ah...there's only one solution. I will simply be forced to turn myself into a robot and replace my brain with a hard drive. It's the only way I can compete with the technology. I will be the world's first Robo AC. I mean jeez... you act like we're making, I dunno, ART, or images with MEANING or something. Heck. Why do we need people at all?? And where's my flying car? No, actually, I can't think of anything truly meaningful and not sarcastic to say to this thread. In what is truly a historic moment, I am at a loss for words.

Amen, bro. Aaaaaaaamen. I kinda want to print this thread out, bury it somewhere, then dig it up in 20 years and either laugh or cry...

When I think of "digital taking over", I get this horrible, sad, empty feeling in my heart that takes longer and longer to go away. I can accept new technology, but not with the attitude of And Now, The Old Stuff Sucks! I was talking to one of the guys at CSC today about this and I realized that yes, I do have personal, sentimental feelings attached to film that will never change. And yes, to a large extent if I want to be reasonably successful in this industry, I have to put those feelings aside and just do the goddamn job no matter what camera it is. But the bottom line is, I really resent the hype behind this whole "revolution"....the insistence that it's "as good as film", the constant comparisons, even the figures in terms of What You Save In Post and so on. I resent the entertainment industry patting the public reassuringly on the shoulder and saying that they won't know what they're missing. And maybe that's where the argument comes full circle regardless- if the general public doesn't know what they're looking at, maybe it's all the more reason to put film in the ground and shoot for cheap. For the people in this business who have to think in dollar signs, fine- cut your corners, save your money, brag all the way to the bank...but don't ever claim to replace apples with oranges. Because for the people who can look at the picture and know what's missing, that's a major bitch-slap. When I heard Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" on vinyl after listening to it on CD for years, I felt cheated. There is no disputing the difference in quality. That higher quality sound is now becoming less accessible because nobody cares about vinyl anymore. And I think that sucks. Maybe I AM willing to pay more money for an LP and a decent sound system to play it on. Maybe I don't WANT to squash the quality of my music into mp3's all the time. And I want to have that choice- I don't want it yanked out of my hands by an entertainment industry that's just looking to save money. This is where I have a problem- the fact that we the people, who pay the theaters our hard-earned cash to watch the movies that WE WORK ON, are being told, "Hey, from now on, it's all digital...but don't worry...it's the same." Not to mention, why waste a machine that is built to last for decades? That just makes me sad because it is such a neglectful, frivolous attitude to have over such a beautiful, picture-making tool. Spend $3000 to overhaul your SR and give it life for 10-20 years, or spend $3000 on an HVX and sell it on Ebay in two years. ...Yeah. It's a really drastic, dumbed-down comparison, but I actually did hear, "$3000 for an overhaul? But for that, we could just buy an HVX" in conversation recently, and I wanted to freakin cry. More and more people are beginning to think this way and the more I hear about what I "should" be learning as an AC and a technician, the more I want to bury myself in film while I still can...before it disappears completely. I think I'm in the "denial" phase? :huh: Please PM me and I will give you the address where you can send sympathy cards and vegan cupcakes.

JD Hartman, you are awesome and amazing. Please clear out your Inbox so I can send you a reply message about your machine shop! So whoever's interested in meeting up either tomorrow or sometime this weekend, give me a call at 617-529-0679 since I often neglect my private messages too! OH NOES! I GAVE MY PHONE NUMBER OUT ON THE INTERNETS! :P And I used way too many exclamation points in this post!

And that's why I <3 this forum; because in a single thread, we can discuss boomerangs, population control, pies, the economy, airplanes, and of course, cinematography. :lol:

Should we attempt Free Friday at MOMA? Monet's Water Lilies...5:00...BE THERE! :P

I guess I'm of a rare breed. I'm *not* working as an AC just to become an op or a DP someday. I'm working as an AC because I love working as an AC. I have to figure that most people see it as a stepping stone, but I just don't...I see it as a craft in and of itself. I enjoy it because sometimes it seems very simple to the point where it becomes kinda Zen. Yet there are many things about it that not everyone knows how to do. It's cool to be in a position right now where I feel like I'm seeing the full application of the motion picture film camera from start to finish...not only am I putting the film in the mag and controlling, to a degree, what the image on that film looks like as it goes through the mag, but I'm taking the mag apart and getting to see how it's made and what's required to make it work. I love the craft and the gear. Sometimes I'm not so crazy about the people and the politics, but I guess we all have our weaknesses, and it's a hell of a lot easier to deal with them when you're self-employed, than when you're answering to a huge corporation who hires you 9 to 5 Monday through Friday. Ultimately, you would have to hold a gun to my head to get me to leave this industry entirely...I can't imagine doing anything else with my life. As critical as it is to plan ahead and be open-minded about the future, I think it's also important to be in the moment and not worry about what will happen when people stop shooting film (which was supposed to happen 10 years ago, by the way :P ) or when the economy takes such a nosedive, that nobody wants to make movies. A second Renaissance would be great. Having more than one set of skills would finally be back in fashion and people would, god forbid, be rewarded for their creative thinking instead of questioned or even fired. Who knows what will happen. Like I said, even though being a freelancer during hard times means being caught off-guard financially, at least we are on our guard mentally...after all, we're constantly in job-hunt mode, and those cubicle kids aren't. I feel like we've had this conversation....circa the WGA strike of '07. What's next?? :-/

I have to admit, I was thinking about this too....if only to provide a sense of balance to my life and to remind myself of the world outside this business. As some of you guys know, my "other" job is as a film camera technician...to which I am still very new, but definitely willing to learn more. Unfortunately, this position is not exactly in high demand, so for now it remains something I do on the side when I'm not working as an AC. When I moved back to New York a couple of months ago, I looked all around to see if any rental houses or schools might be interested in hiring me to help them out. I happened to pop into New York Film Academy and found out that their SR mags are in pretty rough shape. I am not getting technician's wages, but now I have something else to do when I'm not working that provides me a paycheck, an opportunity to keep learning this stuff, and also helps NYFA out. If I had to choose a career completely outside of the film industry, I would probably put my BFA in Sound Design to use and try to find work as an audio engineer, recording or mixing. I am familiar with Pro Tools, Logic, Reason, and the ins and outs of most mixing boards, so what the heck, why not. If I had to choose a career completely outside of the entertainment business, I would probably follow in my father's foot steps and start learning more about construction and home renovation. I've been his assistant" on various house projects since I was in middle school. I know how to paint, spackle, tile, and lay sheetrock, I know my way around most tools, and it's fun to come to a crappy, ugly house and make it nice. Or, I guess I'd be a writer. I have been writing poetry, essays, and short stories since I was 4 years old and have never had the guts to pursue publication, but maybe it's time! I think people like us are luckier than people who have been at the same job for decades. As freelancers, we have been forced to constantly think about "what else" or "what if" anyway...so it's not as new to us, as it is to people who suddenly find themselves facing unemployment and have forgotten what else they can do.

...Didn't we have this conversation already? (Anyone remember the RED/pr0n thread a while back?) Shoot on film, man! GO FILM OR GO HOME! :P Give the production company some sort of deceptively wholesome name like "Puppies and Yellow Flowers" and start calling up rental houses. I <3 this forum....

I love how the minute I post this, I get swamped with work/parents visiting/moving into a studio apartment/busted SR mags/ridiculous insomnia. Stand by for schedule changes. Perhaps next weekend? We could do karaoke or something.

When I read "take apart the mag", a perilously large quantity of coffee nearly exited my left nostril and wound up on the screen of my 12" Powerbook. And in slow-motion, I was like, "NRRRROOOOOO! DON'T DOOOO IT!" ...What Rory said! THE MOST I would consider doing in the field is taking apart the throat to clear a jam, but anything else is left to a clean workbench, halfway decent lighting, and someone who gets paid to do this stuff. Good luck!

Jamming? Like you couldn't feed it into the throat at all or it was just sticky as you ran it through to the take-up side?

No, one of these! <a href="http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/">One of the more expensive ways to survive the agony of winter in New York...</A>