Set Etiquette and Protocol Seminar

Today was the day I took a seminar at the Grant MacEwan college. It was a five hour seminar by some Costume Designer who has being with the IATSE union for the last twenty years. Although most of the seminar was lengthly and boring, it was very useful in meeting people and finding out exactly what I need to do to get some experience in the industry and do some workshops.

There were about twenty other people there, and when it came time for the introductions there seemed to be people interested in almost all areas of filmmaking - from set design to makeup to special effects, directors to A.D's to writers. Most of the seminar was going over all of the protocols and procedures of actually being on a film shoot which included a lot of rules. One of the said rules was how you are not allowed to talk to actors, unless the actor initiates a conversation first. We also went over a lot of terminology, some of which I knew and some I didn't, for example "Turn off the blond, shut down the red head and kill the baby" (one I knew), and "Get me a pancake and a half apple" (one I didn't know).

Apart from the IATSE Local 210 Union (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, its Territories, and Canada... boy oh boy is that a long name) there are a couple of other Unions/Guild's I'm interested in joining, including the International Photographers Guild which covers everything to do with filmcraft and becoming a Director of Photography, and the Directors Guild of Canada which covers directorial roles as well as editing for some reason.

The most interesting prospect to come out of taking the seminar was finding out that they are filming at least 13 episodes of Fear Itself here in Edmonton, which is pretty much another Masters of Horror type series. Which means as in the Masters of Horror series, each episode will be a different director including John Carpenter. They begin filming this coming Wednesday and are going right through to June, with the possibility of continuing on to October to bring the episode count to 22.

The good news is they are looking for a lot of assistants to help with production and random stuff, so I will be sure to drop my C.V. off to them hopefully by tomorrow and hope to get accepted. The lady taking the seminar said they are fairly desperate for people, and if you start off at the bottom as a production assistant doing random jobs you're almost sure to get in. I also got the numbers of a few people there who were really friendly, a 1st A.D., a Sound guy and a Makeup/Set Design girl. All in all it was worthwhile, and I will receive a certificate in the mail for taking it which is cool.