So the funniest thing happened at work this Friday. Something so completely funny that had us all on the floor laughing. It was one of those things that you’ve only seen in movies, which is ironic because I work on a movie set, but this had nothing to do with what we’re shooting.

Base camp (where all the trailers reside) is set deep in this parking lot. Surrounded by three short walls. Across a narrow street from the only entrance into the parking lot is a warehouse. Anyway, today 3 paparazzi (aka paps) decided to follow our main actress (Lets call her Carla) from wherever she was coming from and stalk her outside the parking lot. One of the paps was pretty disgruntled and rude to Carla. (Tip for all you paps, if you want to get a picture of our starlet, screaming and yelling, and being overall just scary, won’t get you that picture.) So anyway, our transpo guy and her security guy set up these flags to block any view that the pap would have of her. But her biggest concern was getting out of the parking lot. At the end of the day, once she was in her car driving out, the pap could just flock out of no where in their cars in the streets, etc, trying to get a picture of her.

The transpo guys decided to concoct this plan of getting Carla out of the parking lot. One of the paparazzi had parked themselves across the street at the warehouse. Having the perfect view of her as she leaves the parking lot. So here was the plan, think of it as kind of a sliders game. A van would lead her out of the parking lot, then as the van turns revealing Carla’s car, a stake bed would reverse along side of the paps car obstructing his view from her, then a van would pull up along side him and behind him so he can’t move anywhere.

Seeing this plan come into action was HILARIOUS! It was just so…staged. I know the transpo guys had fun thinking and acting out the plan. And the “poor” pap, backed right into one of our vans denting his car. It was perfect. An image that will stay in my mind forever.

I love this business. Never a dull moment in Hollywood

Is it true? Can it be? Is the strike over? Lucky for me whether if it is or not, I am no longer jobless. I start my new job in a couple of weeks and I'm totally excited. But let's hope for the same of the other tens of thousands of people out of work, that this strike ends this week. Fingers crossed!

It's been less then a week from my other post on the strike, and already my views are changing...

There’s a big difference between things are happening, and then when they are happening to you. Since before the strike started, I always felt like I agreed with the supporters. And I still do. But now, I don’t know if I agree with HOW they are going about this whole thing.

In the past few entries, I’ve stated that I support this strike because they are fighting for my future. Eventually I’ll be in a union (whether WGA, DGA, or PGA) and this strike will affect what kind of conditions I enter into with this union. However, I am not in a union yet. I am still a non-union, freelance worker, until I work 800 non union days and then I’m in. And if I don’t work, I can’t move up and I can’t pay bills.

Thursday, the strikers showed up at my work on location. Here we were, assistant directors, grips, electricians, script supervisors, PA’s, camera men, sound guys, transpo drivers etc, trying to get through an already long and stressful day when about 20 strikers arrived. They made quite a scene. They disrupted our shooting by yelling their demands over a bull horn, playing loud music, and yelling out to the actors in the scene. They got into altercations with crew members, actors, and producers, and requested that crew members work as slow as possible in order to delay production…it was…to say the least, very disturbing.

What about us? Yes, you writers are fighting for what’s fair, but to come and make things difficult for us? I don’t know it just doesn’t seem fair to everyone else NOT in the WGA or the DGA. Electricians, grips, camera men, wardrobe, make-up, PA’s: We don’t and will never ever get royalties. So you’re fight doesn’t do anything but hurt us. But put us out of jobs, or stop us from doing out job to the best of our ability. At the end of the day, when you get what you want, we still have to go back to work under our same working conditions. I only have 4 more weeks of work until the show is complete, just let us work and finish it.

And what really angers me is reading all the articles about strike on our movie that day. I’m reading how the writers had a peaceful protest. One protester told the story that their strike on our show was “anything but disruptive,” when in reality it was anything but peaceful. While we’re filming they were yelling out “background back to one” (which ultimately resets our background) – how is that not disruptive? How is condescendingly yelling over a megaphone, “Thank you (insert actors name here),” while he is trying to get through a scene, not disruptive? How is getting into a fight with crew members just trying to get through a long hot day as quickly as possible so they could go home to their kids not disruptive. By the end of the day the small gathering of picketers turned into 50 plus picketers, not including their kids that they brought out to picket. And then they started to sing, and “thank us” for listening to them. Don’t believe everything you read people. Sometimes a spin is just a spin, not the truth.

I understand why you’re doing this, writers. And I think you deserve your fair share, but why can’t you do it in a way so we all win? Because once you get your money? Us,  below the “below-the-line” people, just go back to work. Same wage, same treatment as always.

I don’t know am I being a hypocrite? Can I support something and not support it at the same time? I think the thing that angers me most is just the whole spin the news is taking on this. Making the writers look like heroes and the rest of us look like idiots. They need to stop causing other people trouble and start getting back to the table to negotiate. Because without even being willing to negotiate, to compromise, then we’re all in trouble.

As of right now, I guess I still support foundation of the strike. But the longer this goes, and the longer they refuse to negotiate, the harder they are making it for me to support them. I’m ready for this thing to be over.

It’s funny how quick a switch can be flipped…

Ps: This article doesn’t say everything I want to say, but it is getting quite long!