As most of you know, my procrastination caused me to lose my precious domain name to some woman who writes fairly unintelligible articles. I plan to re- register under a .net or maybe a .tv. As it is now, I'm in the middle of a logistical nightmare with moving etc. Until then, please direct anyone you know to be a reader to this address. Posts may be slim for a while unless Azurgrip finds time under his own busy schedule to put up something. I am taking any guest posts you may send me to keep the thing interesting. If you are an experienced dolly grip, or a newcomer with a fresh perspective, please don't be shy about emailing me something. I may punch it up a bit but the credit will be all yours if you wish. We're not going anywhere, and have big plans for the future. We're just on a little hiatus after almost five years of continuous activity. I've met some great people and colleagues in the creation of our community and I'm grateful to all of you for your support. I can't tell you how great it has been to meet all of you and share our common experiences.
I would like to congratulate a couple of good friends. Two camera operators I work with are up for the SOC Operator of the Year Awards: Simon Jayes, my good friend and co-worker on True Blood, and Will Arnot, whom I did a feature with a couple of years ago.. Simon is a truly gifted camera operator and it has been my pleasure to be his Dolly Grip for many years now on three tv series and more shots than I can count (both kinds). With Simon, it's more fun than work.Will Arnot, is up in the feature category for The Help. Will is a fantastic operator and a truly great person. I look forward to working with him again. Will makes it look easy. Andy Crawford was his Dolly Grip on the picture and Will would be the first one to give him credit where it's due. Congratulations gentlemen. It has been an honor to work with both of you and call you both friend. Good luck!
Until next time, stay safe and keep it on the track.
D
I have nothing grippish to offer, but I just wanted to concur that your domain-name-stealer is utterly incomprehensible. And I get that her name is Dolly, but I haven't a clue what she might have a grip on.
ReplyDeleteHi D,
ReplyDeleteI too congratulate Will on his nomination. He is really a good operator and very, very pleasant to be around. The Help was truly one of the most positive experiences in my career.
In your last post, on January 1st, you mentioned meeting a guy who shrugged you off as just another local. I have learned some of my best tricks from locals who some guys might think are too inexperienced to be useful. The reality is that they often have plenty of experience that just differs from ours. When you are always around other guys who do everything the same way you do, it's easy to forget that there might be another way to get something done, often a better or more efficient way. And when guys don't have the resource of the infrastructure of Hollywood behind them, they sometimes have to come up with solutions that we'd never think of. I think we who go on location should always give the locals the opportunity to show us what they can do and it always bothers me when I hear of guys who go out of town and assume that no one they work with can know anything because they're not Los Angeles grips.
I hope you're good and enjoying some deserved time off!