Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs (eBook)

30 Years of Film & Television Production with Life (& Near Death) Lessons

Tommy Burke (Autor)

Erin Anderson (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
236 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-2314-0 (ISBN)

Infos

'Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs' is a captivating autobiography that follows the author's journey from bar bouncing in Boston to working on award-winning television shows and movies. This is an endearing story of overcoming the odds through dark humor, tenacity, authenticity, and happiness. Initially envisioned as a memoir about a man who had beaten Hodgkin's Lymphoma and lived to tell the tale, the author was then thrown a major curveball with a Parkinson's disease diagnosis. Equal parts pep-talk and gut-punch, this unvarnished and vulnerable memoir-meets-handbook shares lessons learned in life and work. These pages encourage readers to keep moving forward, embrace resilience, step out of their comfort zones, and take life head on.

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My day was far from over. Every other Thursday that summer of 2004, I would finish shooting Jerry Bruckheimer's acclaimed TV series Skin and then tack on a four-hour nightcap at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. As tough as my days were, I knew they'd get a lot worse if I skipped my date with four bags of poison at the all-night chemo ward. I would pass the hours of those late-night infusions watching classic 50s reruns, thinking about work, and thinking about life. Where I had been, where I was going, what I'd leave behind. That's where the seeds of this book were planted: in the 24 hour chemo room of Cedar-Sinai, while I waited for my fortnightly poison cocktail to empty into my arm and get to work. Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs follows me from bar bouncing in Boston to working on award winning television and movies as I made my way up the entertainment industry ladder. It is an endearing story of overcoming the odds through dark humor, tenacity, authenticity, and a smile. I had originally envisioned this as the memoir of a man who'd beaten Hodgkin's Lymphoma and lived to tell the tale, but that was before I was pitched a curveball called Parkinson's Disease. Equal parts pep-talk and gut-punch, this unvarnished and vulnerable memoir-meets-handbook shares lessons I've learned in life and work and encourages readers to keep moving forward, embrace resilience, step out of their comfort zones, and take life head on. Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs is 73,000 words and stands alone, but I also have stories in mind for a follow-up book. I look forward to hitting the road and supporting this book as I have brought hope and inspiration speaking about the film industry for the last thirty years. I've been in the industry for nearly forty years. Nicknamed "e;the Irish Bull"e; by my west coast colleagues, I earned my reputation and secured Assistant Director credits on productions including the film Close to Home, Skin, CSI Miami, the pilot for Desperate Housewives, and many others. I spent the last five years of my film career on location in Chicago, working as First Assistant Director on Chicago PD from 2014-2019. After my Parkinson's diagnosis in 2019, I hung up my AD walkie and returned to the west coast to enlist all of my drive, determination, spirit,

Textauszug

Chapter 1

Just Another Day on the Job

POP! POP! POP! POP! Machine gun fire peppers the side of a sedan, shattering the windows and raining glass on the plainclothes officer crouched behind it. “Yeah, I think I‘m made,” he cracks wise into his walkie, his breath foggy in the frigid Chicago winter.

Three unmarked squads and a black SUV speed up in quick succession and more police join the fray, ducking for cover and exchanging fire with the shooter in the second floor warehouse window.

“10-1!” calls a sergeant to dispatch from behind his SUV. “Multiple shots fired at police! We are taking heavy fire! Need immediate backup! Requesting SWAT!”

Bullets spray the ground and the warehouse wall in clouds of sparks and dust and a van emerges from the loading dock. “Van! VAN!” shouts the sergeant as he motions for two detectives to tail the vehicle. Car doors slam shut and the partners peel around the corner in hot pursuit. Tires splash into gray slush and the chase is on.

CUT!

That’s right … cut. Hold up, rewind the clip, and pull it all the way back to the set. If this was one day, it was hundreds. I have worked so many stunt days in my long career in film and television, I know them like the back of my hand. But that doesn’t mean I ever set the cruise control. Quite the opposite: I know, from all my days on all kinds of sets, that what ensured a successful—and safe—stunt day was near obsessive attention to detail. This was one of those days.

Late 2014. It’s so dark when I pull out of my garage that it might as well be midnight. But the traffic tells me it’s early morning. It’s just me, some cabs, and the salt trucks out at this quiet hour. I make my way across town, pull around the corner, and park close but not too close to the set. On days like today, I have to consider the possibility of collateral damage, so I keep my ride safely outside the critical radius. It’s going to be a big day of action, in more ways than one. My call sheet shows car crashes and plenty of gunfights, all hopefully before we lose daylight—in other words, just another day on the job.

When I open my car door, I’m greeted with the full force of Chicago winter. My heated garage and car gave me a chance to wake up before the cold hit me, but it still stings like a cheery slap in the face. A little harsh, but welcoming all the same. I’m early to the set—I’m always early—so I brace myself and head for the first most important part of my day: my coffee. I spy craft services waiting for some direction on where to make camp for the day. I sluggishly point to a small bit of real estate that the camera won’t see, and they begin setting up. I need my giant Dunkin’ Donuts coffee with enough almond milk to turn it from the color of tar to a nice, light toast.

Coffee in hand, I can start what the crew calls my walking the field. It’s my way of walking, both physically in the set space and mentally in my mind, through the shot list for the day and getting all my proverbial ducks in a row. Like a coach, or maybe more like a haggard platoon sergeant, I walk the field to make sure nothing unexpected will ruin my chances of making my day. I’m not talking Dirty Harry, “make my day.” When I say making my day, I mean completing all the work on the call sheet—because time is money, and time is always a limited resource.

As 1st Assistant Director (1st AD), I am responsible for almost everything on the set and my job is to make sure that everyone—from cast to crew to extras to craft services and everything in between—has the information they need to do their jobs successfully and on schedule. Whether from my oversight or not, mishaps affect the rest of the schedule and you can’t just create more time. On a soundstage, we might have some flexibility. But on a location set, outside, in winter, in a residential area, with limited daylight, car stunts, blanks, squibs— this is the polar opposite of flexibility.

So I just have to be on alert, and make sure any small problem (because there are always going to be some problems) doesn’t turn into a big one. Walking the field, I spy a pre-rig crew climbing out of their truck, and in the predawn darkness I hear one whisper, “Yeah, we can leave the truck right on set because I don’t think they are going to shoot here first. Let’s go to breakfast.” Alarm bells go off in my head and I’m there to catch it before we’re stuck with a truck in the shot while its driver is off enjoying some eggs and bacon.

I never went to film school. Boston College is a great school, but it sure didn’t prepare me to be an AD. My professional education came from the great men and women of this insane business of ours—everything from Oscar and Emmy winners and amazing working actors to stunt professionals, grips, and even a Boston cop thrown in. You name it, I’ve been screamed at, sworn at, laughed with, and thanked. I’ve had producers fly me across the country to work on a satellite feed for just three hours. I’ve held and comforted a frightened toddler, distracting him while explosions were firing for a stunt scene. I’ve kept extras out of harm’s way. I’ve even had someone off camera pass away on my set. This book will be about the carny circus that is the film business, the unusual challenges I faced, and the unique ways I handled them. I’ll get to those experiences (there are many), but this chapter is about today. And like they say in this business, “The most important shot is the one you’re working on right now.”

Today will be a big stunt day. I’ve had more than my fair share, and I’m known for wrangling even the most difficult stunt days. I’m loud, I plan everything out, and I make my intentions known. I’ll be the first to say that I’m not like other 1st ADs. That’s not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. It just is what it is. But I am vocal, I take a team approach, and I’m big on safety. I have high expectations of my team, and I’m also fiercely protective of everyone on set. I’m known to use my “loud voice” in safety meetings. I say, “The only person on my set who gets hurt is me,” and I mean it. In my younger days, if an actor was going to do their own stunt, I would insist on trying it first to make sure it was safe. I like to say that I wouldn’t do that with stunt performers because they put themselves in danger on purpose and are slightly crazy, but I guess I am too. I can just see producers’ thought process right now: That’s not the point, Burkie; no one is supposed to get hurt. But also, I’ll take it.

It’s mid-morning by now, and we are clipping along as quickly and safely as possible. Rehearse, tweak the lighting, shoot, repeat, and onto the next shot. We’ve shot almost all the actors’ coverage, which are the bits and pieces of dialog and reaction among the cast that occurs between the stunts. It’s choppy work, but each bit of film is a puzzle piece that will be put together in the editing room. The actors hit their marks, do their thing, we cut and do it again. We sometimes do what’s called a “cowboy or Texas switch,” where an actor and their stunt counterpart seamlessly switch places behind a set obstruction, like a parked car or hedge. That way the actor can perform their dialog and then in a blink, they slip out and their double slips into place, guns blazing or ready for some risky physical stunt. In these days of digital effects, it’s pretty amazing how effective the simple switch can work in a scene. No CGI, just good storytelling and a little sleight of hand.

In the warehouse shooter scene, we’re working with a lot of blanks and squibs. We need to capture guns being fired AND bullets hitting cars, the building, and the ground. You might assume that blanks are harmless, but nothing could be further from the truth.

With any gun, there are a host of components to consider. One misunderstood detail can derail everything. Sometimes semi-automatic guns end up pointing at the camera, and thus directly at the cameraman. Sure, they are loaded with blanks; but blanks can be deadly. They still have an explosive charge and the cotton wads inside blanks still discharge at bullet speed. Within 18 feet, they can kill. Everything has to be measured out. This is especially complex when you’re shooting an action scene with multiple performers moving throughout the set, dodging and shooting. And once you have figured out the massive algorithm where everyone will be at the time the guns fire, you have to consider the hot shells flying out from all of those guns. Just because they are blanks, doesn’t mean they don’t have shells. Will the shells get in the shot? Will they hit anyone? Will the camera operator need extra protection? Luckily, we know that shells fall to the right, so positioning performers and crew takes this into account.

Time is ticking and we have limited daylight on...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.1.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-2314-0 / 1667823140
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-2314-0 / 9781667823140