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I work in the service industry. In other words: I deal with the general public. I’m not in an office where it’s the same people everyday, presumably with some level of common sense. No, I get to deal with all types.

I’ve been in the service industry ever since my first “real” job at the age of 15. Whether it’s being a ticketseller, being a computer sales associate, or being a tour guide – and over that time, I’ve dealt with some pretty nasty folk.

For instance, one guy a few weeks ago railed on my boss on my boss’ apparent inadequate French skills. He then came to me, to rail about something else. Getting weary of putting up with his crap, I gave him a choice – get on our boat, or get a refund. He wasn’t pleased. Lo and behold, a few days later he sent that same boss (he was unaware of my boss’ status) a nasty letter about me. Essentially, making up shit that I didn’t do as to get me fired. It failed.

Today, my roomate got spit on by a customer. He works in the deli department of a big chain grocery store. The man didn’t believe the price of the meat he was buying. So he spit on my friend. My friend calmly walked away.

Had it been me, I would of been over the counter in a heartbeat. Had it been another captain I work with, the guy would of been on the ground with a black eye. That’s the one downside of the service industry. You deal with a bunch of good, honest, people… but then you have to deal with all the fucktards too.

Well, today was quite the shoot. It *technically* began at 8AM, and the key people didn’t go home until 2PM~ish.

Because a few actors couldn’t make it today, I had to push off a few of the main scenes to next week. Furthermore, one of the main guys is leaving for three weeks. What that meant was that I had to get everything of his done today, as three weeks from now the set on which I shoot will no longer be available. Not only that, but it had to be done by 10:30AM (for his stuff) because he had to get to work.

Nevertheless, despite the fact we started an hour after I would have preferred, it was a resounding success. Lots got done. I have about an 1h20 of footage caught on tape. Amongst them a few classic scenes, which will be shared on this blog soon.

Saturday’s shoot went really well, all told. That niggle I spoke of in the previous entry got resolved in the nick of time (yay for Craigslist!) On the negative side: It started to rain, which meant that I couldn’t do two of the main shots I had intended to take care of. On the positive side: everyone showed up, they were all wonderful actors, and we finished on time. Even the most difficult scenes went off without a hitch.

Interesting Story: I had actually scheduled 3 backups to come in for Saturday. None of them showed up. But all the main actors did, safe for one. Screwed was I? Nope – because one of the actors, who’s a buddy of mine, brought a common friend of ours to come see. So he took on the role!

Despite these good news, I’m not out of the woods yet – there’s still lots more footage to be taken. But at least now I can breathe a little easier.

I’d update this entry with photos, but unfortunately I still don’t have Internet at my new place (which makes organizing shoots a royal pain in the %##$!) This Internet-outage is brought to you by Rogers.

September 15^th looms closer. Everything is organized. There’s one minor (alright major) niggle in the way (missing actor), but that should get resolved by the 15th (hopefully.) (Yay for parentheses.)

Meanwhile, the deadline for “Major Combat Operations”, that is to say, the filming involving the major film set – the boat and the kiosk – has to wrap up by October 7^th. It’ll be a challenge, to say the least!

Can I get this done? Well… September 15^th will determine that.

Simply said: September 15th is incredibly important in the filming of Docks. This is the day when all the actors are supposed to show up – together – for a scene. Actors who aren’t being paid for what they’re doing.

And they’re expected to show up on a Saturday morning, at 9AM. There’s a 2 hour shooting window. If one actor doesn’t show up, I can’t just reschedule everyone. It’s not that easy. It’s already asking them alot simply to show up. Plus there’s the fact that this particular date was chosen because it works around everyone’s work schedules. Not that I could shoot later on anyways: the set I’m using is literally packing up shop in 3 weeks – and all the filming has to be done by then.

But back to September 15th – the day of truth. This is the day when I’ll learn whether the $1,500 I spent on this project went to waste.  I’m planning like all hell to make sure that the day goes smooth. Whatever the end: it will be a day that will live in infamy. For better, or worse.