War Story, Interview with David Vaughn

David Vaughn is a photographer who does headshots for actors and models.



Can you tell me a war story, or a story of when something went badly wrong, or seamed like it was going to fall apart, but then ended up working out or didn’t work out.


“I really haven’t had any thing horrible go wrong but there are always little things that go wrong all the time. Probably the worst thing that ever happened was when I was in New York shooting headshots for an actor. We went outside to a park and it started snowing and it was just terrible weather. He wanted the shots anyway so we were outdoors for about 2 hours, my fingers got so cold that I couldn’t release the shutter on the camera, my fingers weren’t even working … but he was so desperate to have these shots we went ahead and did it.”


Do you have any advice for a person starting out in a business like photography or advice for someone coming out of college?


“Actually I have two things; one would be word of mouth. You can advertise your business all you want but some of the best business is word of mouth. Usually an actor will come to me because they heard another actor recommend me. I think that stands true with any business in the arts. Your history with clients is always really important. All the time I hear clients say “I hear you do really good headshots” from this person and so forth… Only on two occasions have someone called me from an online ad.
My other thing is, especially working with actors and models, is to keep it as low pressure and as light as possible. They are so incredibly self conscious and nervous and you want to keep them as relaxed as possible, encourage them to goof off and be as casual as possible. The more relaxed they are the better product you get in the camera.”

Jimmy Preston's War Story From Andrew W. Bofinger

For my war story I interviewed Andrew Bofinger he has worked as an Art Director for many short films, commercials, record companies, and feature films. Andrew told me a couple of war stories. The first of which I will tell you about is when he was working as an Art director on a film and the director of the film originally wanted a metal furnace built that looked rusty, so Andrew and his team built the furnace to look rusty, but 5 minutes before the shooting began the director changes his mind and wanted it to look more like concrete and wanted it to be plastered, but plaster takes 24 hours to dry. Andrew didn't share with me how that particular bad day ended.

Andrew's second war story he told me that he actually feared that he was going to get fired because he messed up so bad. The director wanted to set the scene up as a starving artist that is barely making it, so Andrew set the scene up with an old vinyl record player with sort of a old school musical look, the director absolutely hated because his vision was that the characters place has all the top of the line equipment need to make music in his apartment, but that he was struggle finiancially because he has spent all of his money on this equipment that he can't live that well and barely eat. Andrew told me that the production had to be halted for an hour and a half, not the mention the director was very upset about the whole situation. He told me the him and his team were blowing up the phones trying to find anyone who would rent recording equipment out. Andrew said the he was literally just sitting and waiting for the director to fire him. He called it the worst day he has ever had on set, but in the end they were able to finish the project on time and he did not get fired.

Andrew also said that most of the bad things that happen on set stem from last minute changes to the script or the director changing his mind about a specific thing, so to work in this business you gotta learn to roll with the punches and keep your composer when something changes all of a sudden and your put in a tight squeeze because if you can't then you will never make it in this business.

WAR STORY INTERVIEW WITH LEIF ANDERSON

Leif Anderson
Charlotte, NC


Leif Anderson is the CEO and Founder of Rhino Assembly Corporation. I found his advice can help anyone who who is trying to start their own business and deal with difficulties, no matter what type of business it may be.

1. In your job, what are some challenges you have to deal with in relating to “production” people?

They are less concerned with quality control than they should be. Meeting a certain productivity rate puts a lot of pressure on them.

2. Can you tell me a war story, or a story of when something went badly wrong, or seemed like it was going to fall apart, but then ended up working out [or didn’t work out].

It is important to look at a mistake you make in business as an opportunity. If you do a good job of taking care of a problem, then your customer knows that if they ever buy anything from you in the future and there are issues, you will be there to support it.

3. Do you have any advice for a person starting out in the business, someone who is about to graduate?

Be persistent and ask for what you want. If you are ever interviewing for a sales position, always ask for the job at the end of each and every interview.

War Story

War Story Interview

Glen Ishikawa - Production Manager - Hawaii

Can you tell me a war story, or a story of when something went badly wrong, or seemed like it was going to fall apart, but then ended up working out [or didn’t work out].

Oh yes. I was helping to Produce a pilot for a new television show. The show involved a lot of breaking through things as a main chunk of the special effects. We used primarily glass although we did use some explosions. So towards the end of the shooting week we had 1 more day left to shoot and there was a scene where the main character jumped through glass. We set up the scene but we couldn't find the glass. It was no where on set. So I had to drive all around for a few hours trying to find some glass that was safe for us to use. I literally went everywhere and nobody had any. So I started to give up when I get call from another producer on the show and it turns out our Special FX coordinator had the glass in a moving truck so it wouldn't break. We had lost 3 hours of film time but finally managed to get the scene shot. It was a rough day.

Do you have any advice for a person starting out in the business, or someone who is about to graduate?

Work extremely hard. Nothing in this business is going to get handed to you, unless you know a lot of people. So keep working hard, keep meeting people and make connections.


Thanks for taking time to answer my questions.

You're Welcome.

Okay, friends, do something and make us proud (and earn extra credit, too)

The College Access Challenge is here! Now through February 27, 2010!
Right now, students all across South Carolina are sitting on their couches thinking about whether or not college is right for them. Guess what? It is!

The College Access Challenge is an online video contest for South Carolina college students. We’re inviting students across the state to make short videos (3 minutes or less) telling those folks thinking about college why they should go. These days, an education beyond high school is virtually required for almost every career in America! That means for our state to have an employable workforce, everyone has to consider the benefits of an education beyond high school.

C’mon! Convince them to get off the couch and go to college!

Visit www.collegeaccessch allenge.org and upload your video today.

The Prizes
Our grand prize winner will receive a shiny new 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro, complete with Apple’s professional video editing software suite: Final Cut Studio!

Our second place winner will receive a new 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro, pre-installed with Final Cut Express!

Our third place winner will receive a new 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro, pre-installed with Final Cut Express!

Our honorable mention award recipients will each receive an Apple iPod Touch!

Eligibility
The College Access Challenge is open to students enrolled at the time of the contest in a college or university in South Carolina. All participants in the contest must be at least 18 years of age at the time of their contest submission.

Questions or Comments
You can find out more about the College Access Challenge by visiting the Web Site at www.collegeaccessch allenge.org. You can also contact us by telephone at 1-800-277-3245 or via email at CACinfo@scetv. org

More to Come
The College Access Challenge is the first of many exciting efforts from the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education to begin engaging youth across the state. This collaboration brings together the Commission on Higher Education and South Carolina Educational Television to promote college awareness. The College Access Challenge unites college and high school students in a creative way for a clear and honest dialogue about why South Carolina’s students should go to college.

Assignment 1a-cohen

Wayne Roelle, Production Manager

Wayne Roelle

Production Manager

Savannah, Georgia

Can you briefly define your job?

union business agent - handle all contracting and negotiations for short and long term labor contracts. i represent the international alliance of theatrical stage employees local union # 320 members and other referrals. since 2001 i have established rates terms and conditions for theatre, concert production and corporate events where my members and other referrals work. as business agent i handle labor disputes (rare thing but they do happen), employer complaints (since 2001 maybe a 1/2 dozen), employees grievances (which are non-existent). i also handle the administrative side of jobs by creating labor bills, invoicing clients, following up on delinquent accounts payable. i also advance the incoming show or event and help our clients establish the labor call for their event

union call steward - i make all the labor calls to my members and other referrals. giving them call times and locations for the work, if they are available for the work i have.

union job steward - i handle onsite timekeeping, personnel assignments, and act as the central nervous system between the venue, the traveling crew and my crew

production assistant - whatever it takes (within reason) on a video or photo shoot

production manager/coordinator - help the production company coordinate venues, rentals, labor, catering, licensing, permits, etc. more or less become the central nervous system of the shoot

- How did you get started in the business?

when i finished college in ohio (ohio university, bs mathematics, minor sociology) i came to savannah because i have family here. i had never been backstage and didn't know i wanted to do what i do. my cousin worked for a sound company and after 6 months i finally did too. i quit there after about a two years where i had become warehouse manager, pro audio manager, and a systems guy. i started working as a over-hire stagehand @ the savannah civic center. in about a year i was the # 2 guy there. then became the production manager there in another 6 months. i left there and went on a road tour. when i finished that and came back to savannah and became business agent

- How do you tell someone over you that you couldn't accomplish an assigned task?

my motto "there is nothing we cannot do". unless there is a legitimate safety issue or a lack of time, money or personnel. on a job we take a proactive approach to what we do and we make it happen. the vast majority of work we do is not impossible. for the most part what we do has been done in some way or fashion prior to our doing it. you take your knowledge from your past and always build on it then use that knowledge in your present situation. further, with enough time and money and manpower pretty much anything is possible

- Do you have any advice for a media student who is just starting out?

take all the work you can. keep the amount of time you volunteer (work for free) your services to a minimum once you cease to be a student. be a sponge and learn everything you can about what you want to do either on the job or from a book. knowledge and experience is worth the money

Assignment 1a-cohen

Jarema, Michael

Savannaha, GA 31405

jaremamichael@comcast.net

producer, production manager, field producer, assistant director...

1. Can you briefly define your job to me?

Not actively freelancing at the moment, that’s been the case on and off since 1982. Savannah is a small enough market that you have to do more than one thing in order to make a living. In bigger markets (he lived in LA) you can be more specialized. I’ve been a producer, production manager, and assistant director. My favorite is producing because you get to decide what your working on, it’s the most involved they are usually 4-5 year projects, we take a year or two to get it written by the time its written and sold 5 years go by. So in the scheme of things I don’t get to do many.

2. How did you get started in this business?

I graduated from the University of Michigan in 1882. There a used to make a lot of my own independent films on 8mm and 16mm and I was really involved in theater. Just by chance, I saw an add in the paper for a guy who was looking to put a crew together, the guy wanted to make a feature, and at the time, the home video market was taking everything. So he decided to put together a ½ million dollars and shoot the 35mm feature. So I started helping this guy raise money, and he was really good at it. A lot of people don’t know how to raise money, or never get there, but this guys was great. We raised all of it, shot the film, and then he raised another 200 thousand and put the film in theaters we cut dvds, it was great. He went on to move to LA, but I was the guy in the Detroit area who knew how to make a feature film, so people would call me when they wanted to make one.

3. How do you tell someone over you that you couldn’t accomplish an assigned task?

Sure, a lot of these people that I worked with were people who were younger and less experienced than myself, but they didn’t know what they were doing as far as directing, and beyond. These jobs like directing and producing contain a lot, and a lot of people struggle with this. It’s a lot to bring in some of these shots, and some people can’t get it done. It’s a bit of dance you don’t want to step on any toes. In LA I was working as an assistant director, and I pushed some of the guys to hard, I was trying to finish in 2 days, because that’s how much time I thought we had left, and the director became really unhappy with they way the shots came out and blamed me. I was one of those times I made a mistake and I payed for it. I should have just let things go and created a better piece, that my boss was happier with.

4. Do you have any advice for a media student who is just starting out?

In savannah I’ve noticed that because of SCAD the students coming out of that program want to be hired as shooter as a assistant director, these huge positions, but your not going to get hired as that. Your not going to transition into something like that. You have to start out as a pa, and your going to get to position faster if you would sell yourself as a pa, telling the producer your willing to do what the producer wants to do. It’s amazing no one can find a good pa in savannah because they all expect to do big things right of the start.