Friday, February 16, 2007

It's a Wrap

My work in Hollywood is way similar to attending public school. There's the rush of energy in late summer, with new clothes and seeing old friends again. Then by Halloween it's the old routine and by Christmas it's waiting for the season to end. Most shows end in January but our 165 episodes didn't finish shooting until early January so we worked for another month in post production editing them.
But Friday was the last day for this season. As I drove home it seemed like an eternity since I had a long weekend, since I didn't have to rush through everything to get it all done and be ready to drive out back to work on Monday. Maybe it's the long hours, where I work for 50 hour weeks routinely and then add on overtime.
It's funny, when I moved here work weeks were routinely 40 hours. But sometime after that I found that it was expected that there was going to be overtime. I often resisted but now when I talk to people about work 50 hours is the expected work week and one of my neighbors usually worked 90 hour weeks with gusts up over 100 hours.
The last time I worked on American Idol it was like that -- the crew and staff on that show routinely work 20 hour days, catnapping before coming back to work the next day. When you're young the novelty and excitement carry you through. But after 38 years in the business I am aware that it's always a crisis. No matter what, things are put off to the end and "fixed in post." But today the crisis is over, and I return back to my little ranch to tend my chickens and garden.
So this week I'll order my chicks.