Sleepless in Soho

So I didn't get a chance to sleep last night. One of the reasons I hate waking up so early is 9 times out of 10 I spend the night worrying about being able to wake up. Its the worst kind of cycle. Working as a Production Assistant without any sleep wears shard on your mind and body. My only solution is to keep going as hard as I can, fueled by a coffee frenzy. Luckily the shoot is easy enough. Easy in production world means low maintenance. And low maintenance in a Production Assistants' world means a good amount of down time. It's the down time that is killing me right now. But that gives me a perfect time to bitch and moan to you folks.

When you're sleepy and you're on the subway you have to perfect a very rare skill. To be asleep while being completely aware of your surroundings. Its a necessity in New York City for countless reasons. There are way too many dangers in falling completely asleep. Relaxing your body and mind while at the same time keeping your nerves sharp. So you have to fake this weird sort of half-sleep. You don't feel fully rested but you have to take solace in the fact that that's the only respite you're going to get for a while.

To give you some context this is the third shoot I've had at this location (Old Saint Patricks Cathedral) and for the third time in a row the weather has been shitty. Perhaps my ramblings against god have gone noticed...? Or god has a beef with my production company. Probably neither. In any case it's starting to wear on me. Winter in New York City sucks in general. But this winter has been soul crushing.

I will say it's fun working with real acting talent. I feel weird announcing who I'm working with on this blog. Call it professional courtesy. Or you can call it gutless. I'll just say today it's two Lost Boys and a stand-up comedian. But you give any performer a script and some time to play with the rhythm of speech, you can really feel what it takes to do what they do.

Last night, while tossing and turning trying to sleep, I did finally have a major breakthrough in a movie script I'd like to write. I was able to see the act breaks very clearly. That's a huge speed bump for me to get over. As I mentioned on the maiden post of my Lack of Command re-launch, that I have a problem with structure. I think the problem is knowing where and how to start structuring the hurricane of people, places, and platitudes. But once I see the structure and see the pattern that makes the most sense, its easier for me to run with it. So I think this blog is helping in that respect.

But I am tired. So tired. I took a picture of Sarah and Coco sleeping on the bed to remind myself where I actually want to be today.

Save your brain.

Command Image: Hope command.