To be or not to be: that is the Question

Apparently I should be an actress... at least, according to the security guard at Raleigh Studios! haha.  As I was leaving the lot today, I had to go through the "guest exit" and hand in my pass to the security guard.  In the process, this friendly guard excitedly asked, "So how did it go!?"  Confused, I replied simply with "I'm sorry?"  He then continued, "Did you get the part?" He noted the confusion on my face and quickly added, "OR... did you already get the part!"  As he was saying that last part, it clicked that he thought I had come to audition for a role.  Happy to have finally solved the mystery, I replied, "Oh!  Oh no, no - I'm actually crew.  I do sound."  Disappointment set on his face as he asked, "you're not an actress?"  I smiled and said, "Nope - just crew."  He paused for a brief moment, then lit up again and said "Well you SHOULD be an actress!  You would do very well at it, I can already tell!"  I like him. :)

I started to get incredibly frustrated with the mixer today.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for him - he got me 10 days of paid work... but he's just a grumpy old man with no social filter whatsoever.  I realized today that there are apparently about 925 different ways to "properly boom."  Each mixer I have worked with has shown me a different way.  And each mixer is certain that HIS way is the best way, and will constantly 'correct' me from whatever way I am currently booming.  The first few that I worked with I ate up every word because hey, I was brand-new and didn't know what I was doing anyway.  But I have been doing it for over two years now and while that isn't exactly 'seasoned' or 'veteran' status, I DO know what I'm doing.  He kept coming into the room to see how and where I was booming and telling me how I should do it instead (and mind you, "his" way was the exact opposite way from what the last mixer I worked with said).  

The other thing that really bugs me is the whole process of "speeding."  In a regular production, the 1st AD will say something along the lines of "Okay everyone - quiet on the set!  And let's... roll sound."  The mixer then says quickly into his little hard disk recorder the scene number and take.  As soon as he's done, you know he's ready and boom then says "sound speed" or "speeding" and then the 1st AD says "roll camera" once sound is speeding.  However, this mixer doesn't do that and if I don't say "speeding" on my own, he will talk into the headsets (there is no private line for mixer-to-boom on this thing) and say "say speeding please."  But... how do I know that he's ready unless I hear it from him first?  ...And he gets upset when I wait to know he's actually there and ready to go??  And if I were to say "speeding" and he wasn't there and we started rolling without him, then he'd get mad that I didn't wait to make sure he was there.  I can't win.  

Okay, enough venting.  That really is the only frustration that I have with this production.  I absolutely love the crew.  Pretty much all of the crew is late 20s-mid 30s so it's a really fun environment.  And I am working on it all next week as well!  Hopefully more gigs will keep coming in from here on out...!

Oh and I gave the one day of the other gig to my friend.  I was originally going to take that one and give him one of the webisode days, but it was just going to be too difficult to do that.  I initially thought "but if I don't take that one, that's a whole separate set of contacts I could have made."  But then I realized "duh, I'm not losing those potential contacts.  I'm the one getting their replacement."  So if anything else comes up where they need a mixer and boom, he and I could do it together next time around.  Hurray for connections!