How to Get Free Pizza!
What ever job you have, there are things you like and don’t like. For me I would always rather be out filming something, but there are sometimes you are glad when the filming is over and you get to go home.
I don’t really have set working hours, I can be in the studio from anywhere from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM and work most weekends. Not full days, but I try and do a few hours. A couple of weekends ago I worked Saturday and Sunday filming. Some people might think working all weekend is the worst, but for me I really enjoyed it. The shoot involved filming people who were taking part in a 24-hour event where they had to make something. It started at 9AM on Saturday until 12 midnight, then started again the next day from 9AM until 3PM.
When it got to about 7 o’clock on the Saturday, I knew I recorded all of the footage I needed for that day. I have learnt not over shoot when making a film as you spend a lot of unnecessary time looking through unneeded footage. So it got to 7 o’clock and I could have gone home as I knew I needed to be back there for 9 the next morning, but I stayed until about 11. There were 4 reason for this –
1 — This was the first time I was shooting on my new camera, after having my old one for three years. So the experience was allowing me to learn how the camera works, and figure out where the buttons where. Also I filmed this project in a different way, I used a technique called lens whacking were you don’t attach the lens to the camera. Might sound strange, but it gives you a certain effect to the video footage that would take a long time to recreate in post-production. So it was fun to experiment with this technique as the filming was very relaxed.
2 — Like I have said the event was all about making something and ever since I was a kid I have always enjoyed making things, whether that was out of Lego, paper airplanes or making up stories. My medium of making things is film making, so when I get the chance to film people making things, it’s an added bonus.
3 — The people who were taking part in the event where all creative, there were programmers, engineers, sculptures, writers and some people who I did not really understand what they did. As the hours went on I started too interacted with different people, asking questions about what they were building for the video and also because I was curious.
I found that everyone there was just a nice person, I know that might sound strange, but they were. I was getting paid to give up my weekend, but the people taking part in the event were not. Most of them work full-time during the week so they only have the weeks off, but they chose to be there because they love making things.
4 — The last reason I stayed longer, and some people might say this was the determining factor, free pizza. As this event was a 24-hour contest they decided to order pizzas for everyone and I will never turn down a free pizza.
I know I only stayed for an extra four hours, but this did take my hourly rate down and I could have just done the bare minimum to make sure I was making more money for my time. When you enjoy your work though, money is the second thing you think about. You still have to get paid, but I would rather spend more hours than necessary filming, to make sure I am creating a good film for my client and also for me.
