Jay: Hey, sorry I'm late, everybody.
You know, I had to get some coffee and, you know, the coffee here is not very good.
What time's lunch today, anyway?
Are we gonna wrap at a decent time?
I mean, I don't wanna be here all night.
I've got some things to do tonight.
Here's 10 easy ways to get yourself fired when you're on set.
You're fired.
Hi, this is Jay P. Morgan.
Today on "The Slanted Lens," I'm gonna talk about the 10 easiest ways to get fired when
you're working on set.
Number one, don't show up on time.
Are you kidding me?
Everyone knows what time we have to be there, plan accordingly.
Get yourself to the set on time.
If you're not showing up on time, you're probably gonna be fired or at least not invited back.
Number two, just show up on set and don't have a single thing with you, just you ready
to have everyone else take care of you, give you some tools you might need, give you some
gloves you might need, give you anything you might need.
Just show up in the morning and walk around your with coffee in your hand for the first
hour because everyone knows that a one-handed person works just as fast as a two-handed
person.
But if you wanna show up with a little kit that has a pen and a multi-tool and a pair
of gloves and it looks like you're actually ready to come to work, you're probably not
gonna be fired when you're on set.
If you've got a great idea on how the shot should go down or what should be happening,
you should tell the director and you should mention it to the producer and you should
make sure everyone understands your great ideas because, obviously, you know how it
should be done.
That's a great way to be fired.
It is really a breach of etiquette for someone on set to start telling the director or mentioning
to the director they ought to do this or they ought to do that or to be saying, "Well, gee..."
After a while, it's like, "How many personalities do we have on set?
How many people are gonna be driving this truck?"
Be a good soldier.
Support the process and get in there make it happen.
I was on set once and a person walked into a shot.
It looked kind of compromising, the way the woman walked into the shot.
And one of the PAs laughed, "That's never gonna work."
And at that moment, the client came running out of the other room.
The director looked at me, looked at the PA, now there's a big fight between the director
and the client.
And I'm going to the PA, "Who are you to say that's not gonna work?"
You know, it's like he created an issue on set that created a bad relationship between
my director and the client, which was really unfortunate.
Number four, the person who hired you obviously wants you to sit on your phone and text and
chat and do all of those kind of funny things, all the cat videos you missed in the last
week.
They want you to do that during the workday.
They want you to be on your phone and checking things out.
And that's pretty much a great way to be fired.
The proper way to be on set is so the phone is never seen and that you're there to work.
And when you have breaks or it's lunchtime, you check your emails and you do your things
you need to then.
But the rest of your time, you're there to work.
Number fine, just stand off in the corner and chat with the people who are over in craft
services or the other heads of the departments or the other people you're working with or
the bride or groom or whoever.
Perhaps a better way to do it is, if you're on set, you stand close to your department
head or close to your photographer at a wedding shoot or close to the person who's kind of
in charge, not right on top of them because no one wants you to stand there with your
nose in their face, but close by so when they say, "We really need an apple box here," you
can go, "Coming in.
I've got an apple box."
Now all of the sudden, you're a useful member of the crew.
You're doing things that are...you'll start to realize there are stuff that needs to be
done all the time.
"If I just stay within earshot, if I just listen to what's going on and I get with the
flow of the job of the day, I'll find out I can be very much a contributing factor to
things that need to get done just by sitting close by and listening."
Number six, go to work to eat.
Just get over to that craft service table and make sure that you get as much food as
you possibly can.
Or, perhaps you should just grab something quickly at the craft service table and get
back to the work that you need to do.
Number seven, as soon as you get to set or on that wedding, you want to create as much
of a connection as you possibly can with the client.
You're there to be able to establish a relationship with a client.
Or, perhaps, you should allow yourself to do the work you're supposed to do and not
create a connection with the client.
No one hires an assistant because they want them to create a personal relationship and
to start trading cards with the client on set.
That's considered a really bad breach of etiquette when you do that kind of thing.
Number eight, don't clean up after yourself.
Leave a mess everywhere you go.
When you do a job, just leave it half done at the end and pretty much a mess that someone
else has got to clean up.
Because everyone knows that you were hired because your employer wants to clean up after
you.
No.
You're supposed to be there to make the day go easier, not create a mess and a weight
behind you that someone else has to clean up.
So tell us your story when you got fired because of something you did on set or when you fired
somebody who was on set.
Share your stories on people who don't quite understand the etiquette of being on set.
It'll help everyone to learn and know the things they can do to be better when they're
on set.
So subscribe to "The Slanted Lens."
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So 10 ways to not subscribe to "The Slanted Lens," I mean, if you really don't want your
work to be better and you think that your photography is absolutely amazing and you
have nothing to learn whatsoever and your girlfriend has your camera and, besides, your
mother-in-law doesn't like photography and your grandma said that photographers were
people who don't make any money.
I mean, those are only five of the ten reasons why you shouldn't subscribe to "The Slanted
Lens" and I'm sure there's others you could come up with, so...
But if you can't come up with any more, maybe you should just subscribe.