My crazy life
Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 10:53 am
I've been pretty much MIA the past few weeks, so thought I'd pop in with a little update. After a glorious summer off I headed to North Bay in mid-August, about 2-1/2 hours from home, to start another Christmas movie. Given the distance I'm put up in a hotel, although I usually try to get home most weekends.
These Hallmark shows have a pretty tight schedule; we prep for 3 weeks, shoot for 3 weeks and then spend a week or so wrapping everything up. You may have seen the news article where Hallmark announced they will air 33 original Christmas movies this year; it seems with the political turmoil in the US their viewership has increased dramatically with folks who just want some feel-good television with a happy ending. Hallmark now have 3 channels on the air. "Christmas in Angel Falls" which we just shot will be one of them.
About a week after I got there we got the green light for a 2nd Christmas movie - and because they also want it to air this year we started prep on it while still filming the first one. That meant I was juggling 2 shows at once and my hours increased from 12/day or 60/week to about 14.5/day plus 8 or so on weekends just to stay on top of everyting - approx. 80 hours/week. Needless to say my weekends home were cut short or eliminated, and forget doing anything back at the hotel during the week other than maybe read for an hour and fall into bed. On the upside, I was earning two pay cheques simultaneously, one for each show.
I'm now finished with show #1, other than a few reports I need to finish up. As I've told my boss paper is passive; I can plan to work on them, but then when the phone rings with a situation that needs immediate attention the paper gets set aside. I won't get too accustomed to just one show though, as in another week we start prep on show #3 - again while we're still filming show #2. So I'll be back to the 80/hour work weeks for a few weeks. Good thing I really do like my job.
Needless to say my creative activities have temporarily ground to a halt. I've popped in occasionally to catch up on the message board, although haven't always had time to comment. Know my thoughts and prayers are with all of you dealing with health issues of your own and loved ones, or other concerns from either natural causes or man-made situations.
I am actually home today, having left the office early yesterday afternoon to attend the visitation for a good friend who passed away. It was a 4-hour drive down to Toronto and then another hour home afterwards, although sleeping in my own bed was a nice change. I'll head back up north early tomorrow with the thought of spending a few hours in the office in the late afternoon, although I do plan to take a detour to view the fall colours which are peaking on the east side of Algonquin Park, not far off my route.
These Hallmark shows have a pretty tight schedule; we prep for 3 weeks, shoot for 3 weeks and then spend a week or so wrapping everything up. You may have seen the news article where Hallmark announced they will air 33 original Christmas movies this year; it seems with the political turmoil in the US their viewership has increased dramatically with folks who just want some feel-good television with a happy ending. Hallmark now have 3 channels on the air. "Christmas in Angel Falls" which we just shot will be one of them.
About a week after I got there we got the green light for a 2nd Christmas movie - and because they also want it to air this year we started prep on it while still filming the first one. That meant I was juggling 2 shows at once and my hours increased from 12/day or 60/week to about 14.5/day plus 8 or so on weekends just to stay on top of everyting - approx. 80 hours/week. Needless to say my weekends home were cut short or eliminated, and forget doing anything back at the hotel during the week other than maybe read for an hour and fall into bed. On the upside, I was earning two pay cheques simultaneously, one for each show.
I'm now finished with show #1, other than a few reports I need to finish up. As I've told my boss paper is passive; I can plan to work on them, but then when the phone rings with a situation that needs immediate attention the paper gets set aside. I won't get too accustomed to just one show though, as in another week we start prep on show #3 - again while we're still filming show #2. So I'll be back to the 80/hour work weeks for a few weeks. Good thing I really do like my job.
Needless to say my creative activities have temporarily ground to a halt. I've popped in occasionally to catch up on the message board, although haven't always had time to comment. Know my thoughts and prayers are with all of you dealing with health issues of your own and loved ones, or other concerns from either natural causes or man-made situations.
I am actually home today, having left the office early yesterday afternoon to attend the visitation for a good friend who passed away. It was a 4-hour drive down to Toronto and then another hour home afterwards, although sleeping in my own bed was a nice change. I'll head back up north early tomorrow with the thought of spending a few hours in the office in the late afternoon, although I do plan to take a detour to view the fall colours which are peaking on the east side of Algonquin Park, not far off my route.
Christmas movies in general are a big favorite. He starts watching them on TV or from his vast dvd collection, before Halloween. But, as you know...they start earlier each year. 