Jumping to the Next Level Too Soon

As we make our way in our careers, we all want to get to that next level, the bigger movie, the more experienced crew, the bigger names, the top-rated shows. Most people’s careers take a slow upward momentum and continue to grow over time. For these kinds of careers, the shows get incrementally harder and more demanding, and most people can step up to the challenge pretty easily.

Occasionally, though, early in one's career, it can happen that, for a variety of reasons (being the only one available, knowing someone, being in the right place at the right time), a crew member can get offered a job that is way out of their league. This is an exciting prospect, because, if you take it and stick the landing, it can change everything. But, if you take it and blow it, it can derail your career. When these opportunities arise, it's extremely important to make sure that you are up to the task before saying ‘yes’.

Very early on in my career, long before I was booking full time work, I was called for a huge commercial that was way out of my league. The 1st AD knew me from a freebie and when the cast of usual huge name suspects wasn’t available, he threw my name in. The job was with a massive commercial director who was known for destroying crew and being extremely tough to work with (things I wasn’t aware of at the time) but it paid more in a day than I had made that month. Mind you, all of this was pre-internet, so you all you knew is what you were bing told.

I remember telling the AD who called that I was really worried that it was too much for me. He assured me it was an easy shot that he knew I could handle. I was concerned, but said yes anyway, partly excited for the opportunity, but mostly because I needed the money.

The job was about four hours away, in the desert, and I was told to show up the following morning. I packed my equipment in the car and arrived about 30 minutes early. I met with the AD, the producer and a few others and was told that my shot would probably be up last, so I could relax. As I had been up quite early, I went back to my car and went to sleep. I woke up for lunch and was told that my shot would be in a few hours. I asked the ACs if they had any info and was told relatively nothing. After lunch, while they were away shooting, I decided to start opening my cases and, to my horror, realized that the plate I had to connect the camera to my equipment wasn’t there. I had it at home on the bottom of a practice weight I had been using and had totally forgotten that it was there. So, basically, there was no way to do the shot they had hired me for, no way to get the plate there in time, and, because I was new in the game, I had no idea who to call to help.

I flagged down the producer I had met, told him what had happened. 

He pretty much freaked. 

He wasn’t actually as angry at me as he was concerned about what this director who was known to have a temper would do to me. In retrospect, I think he knew I was out of my league. He told me to just get out of there and he would tell them I had gotten sick and had to leave. I packed my gear as quickly as possible and hightailed it out of there as fast as I could.

Now, the reality is, anyone can make a mistake any time and forget something, but to be booking a job of that caliber, I should have had the redundancies on equipment that I do now, so that, should something happen, I can always move forward. Thankfully, there were no repercussions to that day or beyond (running into the AD years later, nothing ever came of it.) I was lucky, but, in retrospect, I know that I was in way over my head, and had I been able to build the gear, I often wonder how things would have gone that day, because my level of expertise was nowhere near what was expected of me.

Lesson learned. When that dream job lands, make sure you are ready, and make sure you bring ALL your gear.