Exhausted

This weekend was long but INCREDIBLY rewarding.
I shot two different projects. One my own the other not. BUT what it did was get me moving again. Pump up the blood, the lungs, the vitality of movie making. Hearing film roll through machine is so gratifying, I pity you who never get to experience this.

Though, it is exhausting. Forgive me for bitching and whining, but a task that doesn't require much thought...such as most jobs, are for the most part...auto-pilot. Not a bad thing, if you go 40 hour weeks. So what makes movie-making so difficult? It depends. For me, it's the small details. It's a brain exercise that I don't think most people understand. The reason why my professional friends don't do so much is because of these mental exercises. The details KILL a film shoot. Straight up KILL. You forget things in urgency. Some people can thrive in it, most will not.
It is a juggling act. So many questions. And then the doubt. Can the big dog directors silence ALL of this. Listen to Martin Scorsese and you understand why his brain rolls so fast.
So people really on set don't completely understand why you act weird when trying to get everything going.
In the end, the mind moves as quickly as you want it to. Worry and stress.
On one of the shoots, I remember we were in Burbank, and the director casually wanted us to wait until the sun was just about the set. Fine. He calculated a few hours, betting on us eating a meal we'd be finish. I worried a lot more than him because, we're really attempting to chance a moment that cannot be recaptured. On top of that, we shoot on film, which the sensitivity to light is different. Then factor in it was expired film and that we were doing special processing of the negative. You put those thoughts in a spin cycle and see which comes out on top. These are the reasons why ignorance is bliss.

So, all you laid back cookies who want to shoot movies, maybe you have a different process that doesn't cause this type of stress. Would love to hear it. Yes, it's not brain surgery...BUT time is precious.