Streaking Into Production
Partner Engineering Harpoons Again
They say Netflix 900+ million-dollar project near the future home of the Better Duck Inn is streaking along. I got a partner engineering harpoons again, we need to get a whale on before this bus goes further: deep pockets to cover the costs of putting in piles on the Little Silver Banks of the South Shrewsbury River.
I spent four years practicing the studio pitch. I resisted at first, but gradually, I realized that the hustle had been tweaked to perfection. There was no improvisation that was going to average better numbers than theirs. In fact, I only had one lucky session in the more than five years I shot for them out of West Orange, New Jersey, where I went every Monday to drop of film and sit through mandatory training.
The average shooter there lasted less than a month, the work was difficult, required a wide range of skill sets, perfect work habits, and the ability to suspend one’s own belief system. I got skills portion down, and had better than average work habits, but I had a difficult time with the studio lines.
The harpoon has to be razor sharp, with all moving parts expertly crafted. I had been in the presenting position thousands of times before I realized the expense and effort it took to get me up the plate. In all the training, the company failed to stress what it took to get us to get that shot at it. Looking back, if it was my call, I would start with that. But the job was already too stressful for most without even a hint about what was going on behind the scenes.
I have no idea how the advent of digital impacted the niche they had crafted for themselves over more than half a century. My last day in West Orange was the last day I drove by the last home of the Jr. Essex Troops stables and meeting place, as well as the last time I spoke to anyone at the company, which was very close to Edison’s Laboratory, home to the New Jerseys first motion picture studio known to aficionados as historians alike as The Black Maria. Below a replica:
