Hmmmaybe I shouldn't ignore this sign. (I won't.)

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Learning some stuff for sure, especially valuable to learn from instructors, guest speakers, and industry people how to go about getting a job in the biz. It's not Overly complicated, but a bit different from traditional union halls that simply dispatch based on seniority. Gotta apply to the unions as a permitee, then send resumes out to various local production companies and get someone interested in hiring you, then they'll call the union hall and have you assigned to their production. Different in that other unions simply dispatch vs. people applying for their own work. I mean, you Can just wait for a dispatch - but then maybe you wait for a long time.

Another interesting thing I've been told is that due to longer hours film set construction doesn't attract regular family man types and "higher calibre," construction people.. it attracts a lot of people with no lives outside of work, and amongst them apparently a higher rate of thieves - so the one lead carpenter I talked to told me he has all of his high value tools Lo-Jacked for tracking. $150/year app service, but that's less than the price of one stolen tool/year.

Pretty smart idea ...Apple has that tab devise of somekind might be a idea too.? good to think ahead ..

You certainly live in the right place if you want to get into film production. Do you think you'll still have the necessary stamina to keep up the pace 20 years from now?

If I choose to work in this biz that long, yes. 20 years from now I’ll only be 60. As long as I keep active and don’t sit around and become a fat f**k I should be able to do it with ease. Probably for another 10+ years after that, too.

Working in film might actually attract a lot of aspies.

Chatted with a lead carpenter for an HBO show and he said the quality of people tends to be lower in film, more thieves, fewer family men as the hours are longer - 10-12+ hours/day so a lot of family oriented types won’t do it.

Got me thinking that maybe there are a lot of aspies on film set crews. Few friends, no relationships, limited social life etc = may as well work 10, 12 or 16-18h/day full tilt on a film project and stack cash.

First day of in person training at a movie studio. We’re building a set for a little sci-fi short. Guy’s dad goes missing, him and his fiancée go over to the dads house looking around.. head downstairs to the basement, end up finding a secret door in a brick wall.. open it, go through and end up in a small cave with portals all around it built by and left there by aliens for inter dimensional travel.

Far nearer than the doctors office waiting room & front desk a class built last year. Stairs, fake brick walls, secret doorway, fake cave, neato alien portals etc.

We build, then the paint students do their thing, grips & lighting do theirs, cameras come in and film, then we tear it all down and bin it pretty much. :/

Most interesting thing I learned today was that a big crew will have 200 guys in the construction department of a film production. That’s more than any construction site in the city unless there’s a mega project going on like when I worked on the renovation to a stadium before the 2010 Winter Olympics.

I did watch something about Dr.strange and the sets built for that. Wondered how that stuff got built so quickly.

Finished product after the paint crew comes through gotta be just lovely ...... Sounds very Sci Fi-ish .
Enjoy..,,

Yeah, it'll be neat.

There's a possibility I might Also take the Paint department course in the future - maybe - just to be able to learn how to do the ageing and faux finish processes. But I also might be able to just get jobs in that department and learn on the fly since I can already do Tape & Mud like a pro and in a pinch I can roll paint. (but I need a lot more practice to be considered a painter - I don't Like painting so I avoid it lol but I CAN do it. I mostly don't like it because I'm so picky it's frustrating if there's a single run or drip and until you have a lot more experience, they happen and then it takes more Time to deal with them.) So much of this business is all just who you know and who likes you - Big Time - so might not help one bit to take the course if I just meet someone that offers me a job in that department on a set.

Everything is as fake as possible, though. The door at the top of the stairs leads to a 4'x4' deck only, nothing more. Go through, close the door, that's it. Backdrops outside windows or doors are printed or extremely minimal - looks like there's a hallway there and they're shooting on location but really it's just several feet of fake wall panel outside the door opening and that's it, or a printed background outside a window with one fake tree in front or whatever.. focus the camera lens on the people in the room and that stuff is a bit blurry through the window anyways.

Also kinda nuts how much TV/Streaming has grown.. $1-2M sets built for one episode, shoot it, tear it down and throw it all away. You could build a reasonably nice custom home for $1M or so in materials and labour. Nutso that society values this form of entertainment so highly. (Or rather, advertisers.. because viewers buy their stuff and it's worth it to them to sponsor these shows with their ads.)

Nuts and bolts of the business ....and faux backgrounds ...All in the business...reminds me of the Winchester mystery mansion.built by the widow , of Mr Winchester of the famed rifle. Stairways to nowhere etc.
The mere appearances of a world that media inhabits but for awhile ..but after all isn't the real world just made of props .? Make it all look good .

Today was a good productive day - everyone was blasting out components for the set like a little factory.

The girl I worked with today was amazing to work with. Super smart worker. Def would be my first round draft pick if I were in charge of hiring ppl.

Learned a bunch of stuff about how much higher level people in the construction departments get paid & how much coordinators get paid to rent their tool kits etc. ($500/day, but they own $50-250k worth of tools)

Also learned that scenic carpenters in the USA get $55usd/hr + benefits. People get paid less in Canadian dollars here, but it’s still Good money for here - very good. Production companies save 40%+ doing work here in Hollywood North in Canadian dollars so film is booming here and suffering in several Americans cities - LA, Atlanta, Orlando etc.

There are 1600 union carpenters locally. Not sure if that includes helpers and labourers or not - maybe just carpenters and above.

Also learned that since there’s no apprenticeship hours logged or anything like that it’s 100% who you know and who likes you as to how fast you get a better job title and responsibilities. Could start as a labourer and on day 1 get promoted to carpenters helper if you have all your own tools with you - so, I’m gonna drop a couple grand or whatever it costs on more tools pretty much right away so I don’t miss an opportunity. (A full set of tools probably costs about $3500-4k, but I already own some and my father is giving me some good ones he’ll never use again as he can’t work anymore.)

One annoying think I’ll have to buy is a rolling toolbox.. pricey - the dewalt version is $328, but the better built milwaukee one is $400 or so + tax so around $460 for a mostly plastic with a bit of metal tool box on wheels. But whatever; cost:benefit. Tools always cost money, but put them to work and you make much more soooo..

I've taken several photos but we're not allowed to post them on social media. Not sure if they're going to use this set and scene in something For Real or if it's just practice to get us used to the fact that you're not allowed to leak stuff because production companies want a big reveal when their shows air.

We've done some neat ageing of wood beating it up a bit and staining in multiple colours, and coated foam brick & wood walls with thinset to mimic concrete. Looks fairly realistic - but with more time it can look Very Realistic.

Spent a bunch of time yesterday making templates and routering out slots in the hallways of our portals so the lighting students can backlight them with coloured LED's that'll chase down the hall. Should look pretty neat when it's all done.

Okay .. this is sounding more like fun practice than work .. Sorry .... As long as they are willing to pay you for it eventually . These crafts i think can carry over into many trades or Businesses .?
Perhaps you are Glad you did not ignore this "Sign " As the topic of this post suggests ...

It’s neat kinda fun work, especially with the neat faux finishes etc. But chances are when I get a job I’ll start as a labourer then as a carpenter’s helper aka cut slut.. just measuring and cutting hundreds of the same pieces all day long - factory production style type work. Not necessarily boring, just not as neat as getting to build and finish the whole thing.

Also, get paid eventually - yes - but I might have to do a bit of volunteer work first. Help build some sets for student film projects or some volunteer movie. Apparently there’s an all volunteer Star Wars fan movie being shot not far from where I live. Idc about Star Wars, but it’d be great experience to make connections with another construction coordinator and crew - maybe find work out of it. Plus there’s some amateur film fest thing coming up called Crazy 8’s - I Think they form and enter teams and make their short films in 8 days. Could get on building one of those that week. But the goal is to get paid to do it. Gotta do what I gotta do along the way, though. Apparently film picks up big time around August/September this year - but I might land something before that.

Also learned that the main local union needs to hire 800 new people every year to meet their contractual obligations to be able to shoot movies here for American production companies. Plus all the other people required to make movies here = thousands of jobs/year.

800/year for 19 different types of behind the scenes workers, though. That’s a lot of people. No construction union in the province adds those kinds of numbers. Film is big here & growing.

Thumbs Up...! might try applying directly to Disney . After you get alittle actual field experince , Just a thought .
But be possibly prepared to go where you need to get to for interveiw ..? And Might mean travel . Disney Buena Vista has been a huge growing concern since forever. But they are located in Burbank . Just a offhand thought .
If you get down there someday , This is just a thought , but if you can make application to the Screen Actors Guild, their office is nearby , the Buena Vista branch of Disney .. Might look good on a resume , in the industry .
(If idea seems over the top just ignore my suggestion.) Unions do have potential to be limiting in some cases.
But seem to almost always be a good place to start . ( Just Thought offerings).