Author: nicklisa2001

One Monday morning at 6AM a coworker on a TV pilot, who had himself acted on a major TV show for many years, yelled out on stage “Come on Friday”.  We all smiled at his exuberance and went to work.  Throughout that day I thought about how we approach time and the old saying of  “watching the clock”.  Most people, I assume, have places they would rather be than at work.  I know that I look at my watch many times a day:  ‘How long until coffee’, ‘How long until lunch’, ‘When are we going home?’  We want the work day, and the work week to go quickly, but we want the weekend, and our time off or vacation to last.  I don’t think you can have it both ways.  If you rush through your day and your work week you will rush through your life.  The movie Click showed this through dark comedy.  Adam Sandler found a remote control with which he could fast forward through the parts of his life that he didn’t enjoy, such as a major project at work.  He realized at the end that he had missed out on most of his life and didn’t have any of the memories he should or could have enjoyed.  The key then is to learn how to enjoy the moment, even if we don’t overly enjoy our present activities.

Mindfulness is described as the state of living in the moment, a state that can help us recognize what we enjoy about our life.  People strive to achieve this state in many ways, whether through going on a silent retreat, or working out at the gym.  Forcing ourselves to focus on our present activity allows us to recognize what we can enjoy in that activity.  Some of these things might be an appreciation of our breath, and how it rejuvenates our body, or the awareness that we can expand our mental or physical limits at any time.  Concentration on an activity can be used as a tool to train our brain and our body.  I like to ride my mountain bike in the hills.  One technique I use to conquer the toughest steep stretches is to focus on short sections.  I pick a spot on the road or trail ahead of me maybe ten to thirty feet away.  Once I reach that spot I pick another, and pedal to that.  I have noticed that this focused attention frees my creative brain to roam, and often my best ideas pop into my head at that time.

Some projects on my job require so much attention that I do not notice the passage of time.  I will look up and it is almost lunch time or the end of the day.  Other assignments are so typical that I cannot help watching the clock, waiting for a break.  When I get one of those jobs I look for ways to make a game out of it.  The most basic task in my field is building flats, which are walls made of a 1×3 wood frame covered with a 1/4 inch plywood which we call luan.  The basic stock size is 8 feet wide by 10 feet tall.  One day at Universal I built 8×10’s by myself all day.  To entertain myself  I counted the number of steps I took for each approach to building: vertical, horizontal and hybrid.  That day I discovered the most efficient way to build a flat, in terms of the numbers of footsteps taken, and I believe I can still build a flat quicker and more efficiently than anyone else in the business.   More importantly, using my system activates my mind in a way that blocks out the mundane experience of flat building and frees my brain to explore new creative ideas.

Last year I got laid off twenty one (21) times.  My longest job lasted six weeks, the shortest one day.  It used to bother me, even though I know it is the nature of the business.  I have learned through the years to use my time between jobs to my benefit.  The first week I busy myself with taking care of appointments and ‘honey do’s’.  In fact I often don’t start looking until the end of my first week off.   During the second week I remember to use the time to exert extra effort in my spiritual practice, in addition to actively seeking work and everything else.  If it gets to be the start of the third week, while my wife has been getting up at her usual early time to go to work, she may look at me and say “Isn’t it about time you got back to work?”.

They now call it the “gig economy”, “shared economy”, or “on demand workforce”, which covers freelancers and independent contractors.  Some estimate that 55 million people, or nearly 35% of the workforce do some freelance work.  The benefits of this are many, including greater freedom and flexibility to work the job around your schedule or lifestyle.  The option to be able to create a work niche that allows you to use varied skills and be open to new unexplored opportunities is also appealing.  It sounds odd to say that the lack of a steady job creates security, but exploring and utilizing new skills and contacts certainly can increase ones ability to find work.  The primary downside to this new economic model is the lack of a consistent income.  Contract work can dry up quickly and unexpectedly.  Also workers need to prepare themselves for new costs such as insurance, unreimbursed expenses, and employment taxes.  The freedom of not having a boss also removes many benefits and legal protections that many take for granted, such as severance pay, medical leave and disability, and workers compensation protection.

My work does not really fit in this category of gig work because I belong to a private sector union, that ensures that my employers have to provide the benefits.  The similarity is that I have to continually find my own jobs, and my future employment depends on my consistent job performance and ability to network.  The biggest benefit that I have personally noticed from this type of employment is that it has helped me develop resilience and the awareness that my future employment depends on my current performance.  Sometimes I have an off day, for a variety of reasons, but the awareness that I am being evaluated on every project motivates me to almost always give my best effort and find ways to improve my performance.  I view that as life training.

I have developed a habit of calling everyone at work Bubba, often whether I can remember their real name or not.  I admit that this is a symptom of laziness, but it has  became so habitual that I accept it.  They say that the sweetest sound to anyone’s ears is the sound of their own name.  When you address a person with their name, it makes them feel that you value them as a person.   I have always wanted to improve in this area of being able to remember names, but my commitment has wavered.

Of the different techniques I have heard of for remembering names the primary (and easiest) one, is the use of repetition.  If someone introduces themselves to you, you can repeat their name as you give yours.  “Nice to meet you [name],  I’m Nick”.    The trick that I developed, which I am still working on fully implementing in my daily life, is a combination of repetition and association.   What I do,  and again I am still working on using this system consistently, is that I have an animal for every letter of the alphabet, and when someone tells me their name, I repeat it while thinking of the animal.  On my crew right now I have Bob bear, Bill bear, and Beth bear.  Often I may remember that someone is a bear, or cat or dog, but it will take a minute to remember the Bob, Bill, or Beth.  That does not bother me however, because I know that my system of association is working.   A coworker recently told me that he thinks of someone with the same name, either a person he knows or in the public sphere.  I believe that technique of making a personal connection may be too random to work for me every time.

I am using my renewed commitment to make my system a regular, habitual part of my life as an exercise in my own personal development journey.  They say that you should constantly use your mind in order to sharpen it.  Some people do puzzles, or study new topics that interest them.  I have decided that my name game will serve both of these purposes for me, exercising my brain and helping me make better personal connections.  I have  made a commitment to use my system on a daily basis so that it becomes my new habit.  I will give an update on my progress.  I am not, however, giving up my option to call someone Bubba if the are annoying me.

I always make a point of learning the names of the laborers on any show that I work on.  Many Propmakers, which is what they call the carpenters in my union, look down on, and even speak down to the Utility Craftspeople, commonly referred to as “Labes” or Laborers.  While I disagree with that attitude on a humanitarian level, I have a more practical reason for my behavior.  On a TV or movie set the Laborers control both the movement of materials, and often, access to equipment and tools.  I have always found that my efforts to be friendly with the labor crew are rewarded with whatever assistance I need during the course of the work day.  If I am consistently friendly to them, and treat them as a valuable part of the team, they usually go out of their way to get me what I need and help however they can.

Every business that I have been involved in has a hierarchy, a structure of responsibility, based on seniority, or position, or pay scale.  Maybe it is human nature, particularly in a competitive field, to feel superior, or look down on those you might consider below you by one type of measurement or another. But I have found that treating everyone well not only increases my enjoyment of the work day, but also my standing within that environment.  When people notice you interacting easily with all of your coworkers it builds trust, and admiration, I believe.

BE ON TIME, AND GET ALONG
I met my cousin for coffee this week.   He has worked his way up from Production Assistant to Vice President of a major sports network. I told him about the subject of this blog post, and he said “That’s what happened with me. I just kept showing up, and was nice to everyone”.

In my business, I have always said that the two basic, essential rules for success: Be on time, and Get Along. The first is a given. You just have to do it. Being on time shows respect for your employer, your coworkers, and repect for yourself.  I would say it is easy, as well, even in LA traffic.  You should always allow for the unexpected, but with traffic alerts and directions on our phones now there are not many good excuses left.  A few years into my career I worked on the last season of Picket Fences, which filmed at Fox studios, with locations in Monrovia.  When I started on the show I was the extra guy.  If they had a big set to build I would be the first one hired to help the core crew.  I would also be the last one layed off when the set was finished.  After that I would go back to the lot maintenance department, where we would do repairs and remodels.  At one point, while working on the show, a friend of mine who was one of the four regulars suggested I come in a little early to ‘hang out’ with the guys.  Shorly after I started drinking coffee and playing dominoes before starting time one of the regulars left to work on a feature film.  I took his spot, and it turned into six years of work.  I am not always very early, but I am never late, and I have seen the benefit of that.

The second part of my motto, Get Along, is the most important.  I’m sure it is the same in any business, but in film, since we work such long hours, everyone wants to be around people that they, at least, get along with, and hopefully, enjoy being around.  And really, I don’t think it is that hard to be friendly to other people.  It is a combination respecting the space and rights of others while of standing up for your own rights. This make others comfortable because they know where they stand with you.  I have a friend, a coworker, who is an excellent craftsman, probably better than me.  He is smart, and very devoted to his work.  However, several times when a foreman has asked the crew if they know anyone who is not working I have mentioned his name. This is always followed by audible groans, “Not that guy” they say.  His difficulty,  as I see it, is that he does not respect the space of others.  He gets so into his work that he loses sight of his surroundings.  Because of that people avoid him, which does not help in getting along at work.  I really believe that getting along is the most important aspect of being successful at work.

I am reviving this blog after a five year hiatus. The original entries were lost somewhere in the cyber world. During that time I worked a lot, wrote three drafts of a screenplay, endured the worst fifteen months of my marriage, suffered a business failure, and, somehow, through it all, managed to strengthen my faith. I originally focused the posts on my career as a below the line (not earning personal residuals) worker in the film and TV industry, including all of the crap that I go through to get work. Realizing that my career is just one part of my life, I expanded my focus to include faith, family, and my demons. I will continue with that approach, and hopefully discover even more about myself as I go along.

I first came to Los Angeles to study Drama at UCLA in 1983. I left after one year to follow a girl back up north. Two years later I moved back by myself to pursue an acting career. Like most self funded aspiring actors I worked in a variety of jobs to pay the bills: solar installation, toner room sales rep (con artist), and law clerk, to name a few. I had an interview for an assistant zoo keeper job at what turned out to be the Playboy mansion, but I did not get that position.

Near the beginning of my career in Hollywood I met a beautiful, ambitious actress. She had her SAG card, and played the casting director game well. Unfortunately for me, she refused to get a real job to support herself. Actually, when we met she was doing club lingerie modeling to pay her bills. I told her I didn’t want her to do that anymore, so I suppose I created the opening for that, and can only blame myself. That arrangement persisted for almost seven years until we split up. She reappeared in my life a few years later, after I had married, to say that she wanted joint custody of the dog we had gotten before we separated. I agreed to that, and she would pick up Moki every other Wednesday, and drop her off on Sunday. It was fun for our runt Golden Retriever because Cherise spoiled her with attention. Unfortunately Moki ended up at the vet during one of her visits. She had surgery for cancer, and my daughter and I visited her the next day. She looked healthy, and happy to see us. Thenext day she had a blood clot, and died. The following week Cherise invited us to the funeral, at the Calabasas pet cemetery, which you can see from the 101 Ventura freeway. When we arrived Moki was in an open casket. It sounds weird, but she had been on ice, I guess, and it looked like she was sleeping. I read the poem Rainbow Bridge, which always chokes me up, and the kids got to pet her one last time. After the viewing we headed out for the burial. Cherises’s new boyfriend took me aside to ask if I would be willing to split the cost of an $800 head stone. I told him no, that I didn’t think Moki needed a head stone, so I don’t know if she has one or not.

I started building sets for TV and movies during my time with Cherise because it offered the most reliable paycheck, even though it is a freelance, ‘temporary’ job. Also, it keeps me connected to the industry that drew me to this town. Now, almost thirty years later, I still work in that field. There have been several detours, attempts to redirect my career path, but I have always returned to set building.
Through this blog I will share my journey in the world of Hollywood production, and include my own personal development that that environment has aided and necesitated.