Michelle Morte

Tag: freelance

  • Been A While Hasn’t It?

    Been A While Hasn’t It?

    Hello all,

    Sorry I haven’t been as active as I was in the past. This year up until now has been a bit of a whirlwind. So why don’t I catch you up to speed.

    January

    I flew to the Philippines to visit family and while I was there, went to Thailand for fun – to take in the sites, culture, and most importantly the food. Granted I was in the PH for the same reason, well family and then food. Either way the trip was amazing, and it gave me a better appreciation for my culture as a 1st gen Filipino American.

    February

    A week and a half after I land from my trip overseas, and quite restless for work, I’m back at it coordinating a small commercial. I hadn’t realized how much I truly loved my work until I was thrown into it again. My job in production isn’t the most glamorous because we handle a lot of the accounting as well as making sure every human on set is taken care of, in terms of gear and such. As I said, not the most glamorous (since most people think that working in film is such a glamorous industry), but it’s quite satisfying – despite the long hours and endless emails.

    From there, I was recommended and landed a job that would become a huge career move, UPM’ing (unit production managing) an extremely low budget feature. I have been told this multiple times and I will always relay it those that do not typically work in features,

    Features are a beast in and of themselves. There are days where you will feel helpless and hopeless. And some days you may even want to cry. You just have to learn to make the chaos zen and the rest will be easy.

    It’s the best words of wisdom I had ever received since I began working in this industry.

    March

    Going into principal photography of the feature. Prep becoming more and more intense as the day grows closer and closer. I will not say this feature was easy. It was challenging as f*ck. I had my fair share of egos and challenging personalities and fires that needed to be put out in order to make the entire shoot go by smoothly. Despite all of that, I did learn quite a lot. Most importantly, I learned what kind of leader I was and how to be one.

    April

    Finished shooting the first block, and going into our second block of filming. Where? Middle of no man’s land, Palmdale/Lancaster. That was definitely an experience. A place I don’t necessarily will go back to on my own free time. But hey, first business trip? Woo, I suppose. Always got to look to the silver lining right?

    A week after I officially wrap, I pick up a day playing gig on a show and reunite with the people I typically work with. I made the wish that I was going to coordinate commercials after the feature… Little did I know that my wish was going to come true.

    Looking back, April was probably my most active. In total, I worked on three different shows. UPM on a feature. PA (production assistant) on a series. APOC (assistant production coordinator) on a branded content (essentially a commercial) video.

    That commercial was intense. I can’t talk about it much, but all I can leave you with is that it was intense. The show moved so fast the minute I had hopped on. My email was blowing up like there was no tomorrow. And the lovely wrap binder was growing to the point that it looked like I needed to buy another one.

    And the adventures that await this month? 

    I’m still waiting on the official offer, but my summer is going to be completely booked. However, while I wait for that I’m currently coordinating a pilot that’s shooting approximately 20 minutes away from my house! My commute for once is going to be 20 minutes away! That’s simply unheard of! As you can tell, I’m quite excited about this commute.

    And then I’m finally taking a much needed break in the east coast to visit my best friend and then family. But I’m getting ahead of myself, that’s next month.

    Anyways that’s all I have for now. Sorry again for not writing as much as I used to, but as you can see I’ve been keeping myself quite busy. Here’s hoping it stays that way for the rest of the year!

    Alright, until next time!

  • My 2017 in Review

    My 2017 in Review

    I’m sure you can tell that this type of post is going to be a yearly post.

    Well let me tell you, this has been one hell of a year. Definitely full of ups and downs, I’d like to think that it was more ups than downs. To be honest, thinking about it now I don’t really remember what my goals and resolutions were for the year. With that being said, I do feel like I accomplished quite a bit this year.

    So let’s review this year shall we?

    JANUARY

    • Started off the year in New York with my mom’s side of the family – had a white Christmas and New Year
    • Did an adult thing and got myself a gym membership
    • Started working for the school for my last semester as a coordinator on shoots and a student assistant in the classroom.

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    FEBRUARY

    • I reconnected with an old boss and got to work on a spec pilot that I recently learned is going to Sundance, which is really exciting!

    MARCH

    • I signed on to be a Line Producer to a ULB (ultra low budget) short in July
    • Took a spontaneous trip with the family to the central coast #whereintheworldisMichelle

    MAY

    • Coordinated my first PSA (and got a spot as an extra 😉
    • Graduated from college
    • Watched U2’s Joshua Tree Anniversary tour

    JUNE

    • Worked on my first commercial and television series

    JULY

    • All Time Low’s Young Renegade concert – got introduced to a new band (Waterparks – if you haven’t listened to them, you should go and check them out)
    • Production for short
    • Travelled to Solvang to decompress from the short I had Line Produced

    AUGUST

    • Worked on Jameson First Shot – first APOC (assistant production coordinator credits!)
    • Signed on to be a UPM (Unit Production Manager) for a short shot in November

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    SEPTEMBER

    • Worked wrap out on a YouTube series
    • Worked on a reality shoot – I was a walking disclaimer for a cool minute
    • Visited my best friend in Washington #whereintheworldisMichelle

    OCTOBER

    • Worked on a feature for the entire month (yay being employed for a month)
    • Went to the Rams vs. Seahawks game
    • Saw Tom Hanks do a promo for his book – thanks to NPR

    NOVEMBER

    • Wrap out of the feature
    • Prep, shoot and wrap out of a short

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    DECEMBER

    • Saw Tommy Wiseau in person for a screening of “The Room” at the Egyptian theatre
    • Worked on my first music videos (two in one shoot) – the exciting part about this job? I was the Coordinator!
    • Did a holiday horror double feature (also at the Egyptian) – and went on a general adventure for the rest of the night afterwards
    • Went to my first ballet, The Nutcracker (and I got to put a new coat of mine to the test)

    I feel the downs that I experienced weren’t that many. If anything I would say, the few (three days to one week) breaks that I would get, I would start to get bored and question my ability to do a job because I wasn’t working. But then again I feel like that happens to most people who work freelance.

    Just a word of advice to newcomers to the freelance film world…

    Don’t be down because you’re not getting work. Just keep applying and hustling and sooner or later you’ll land a job. And remember: no job is too small. Don’t think that you’re better than being a PA, everyone starts somewhere. And remember, don’t let your mistakes define you. Apologize, then do better.

    With that being said, and me explaining how my year was, how was your’s? Feel free to comment below!

  • What are you thankful for Michelle?

    What are you thankful for Michelle?

    The typical answer is always: health, home, family friends, food (aka everything stated in the featured image – which is also not my image)

    **UPDATE: This is my 20th post woot woot!

    Whenever someone is asked that question, and I’m guilty of this too, I don’t think they really think about this question too hard. Mainly because they starved themselves the whole day knowing they have a fat meal waiting for me, which again is also something I’m guilty of. However, this year I figured I would really explore my answer to that question.

    So what are you thankful for this year?

    Everything, to be honest. I’ve been lucky enough to work in an industry I thought was going to be a pipe dream. Instead two years ago, I was lucky enough to meet my mentors while interning on a feature. And since then, they’ve given me the opportunities to help me grow within my department. And starting this year, not even a year out of college, I got to move up from being a production assistant to being an assistant production assistant (APOC), coordinator (POC), unit production manager (UPM) and line producer on ultra low budget shows.

    I’m extremely thankful for where I am in my career now. And thankful to everyone who has supported me along the way. My career journey doesn’t stop here, and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. Just keep on following and we can both see where tinsel town is going to take me.

    With that little blurb on what I’m thankful I’ll leave my comments open for you. So tell me, what are you thankful for this year?

  • A quick and easy recipe for filmmaking

    A quick and easy recipe for filmmaking

    No pictures this time. Just words. 

    I feel like a good majority of the time that I post anything on my blog it’s mainly going to be 20/20 hindsight. To be fair though, I did get this just through my second day of working on this show.

    Now I’m not going to go do a bullet point list of everything that went wrong whilst working on this. But I am going to give just a warning for those of you who want to go into filmmaking.

    FILMMAKING TAKES A LOT OF PREPARATION BEFORE ACTUAL EXECUTION.

    Anyone who tells you otherwise, is either lucky, or an idiot. If there’s one thing I learned from working in production there’s five steps in the filmmaking process:

    1. Pre Production
    2. Prep
    3. Production
    4. Wrap
    5. Post Production

    Those are probably going to go against what you learned in school. But if you work in production (the department I mean) then you know what these steps entail.

    Now most of you may think that Pre Production and Prep should go hand in hand, when in reality they go one right after the other. In prepro you need to make sure you have the funding and schedule locked down. No exceptions. Except for the schedule, because that can always change. Funding, however, can not. This is where the line producer will come in. They will prepare a prelim budget to run with the producers and the producers will then try to see if they can cut anything or make the budget work and try to get the money. If you’re reading this and suddenly have the idea that this is the post where you will learn where to get funding, I hate to break it to you. But this isn’t that kind of post. Think of this as more of a recipe for filmmaking.

    So important things that need to be locked down in pre production:

    • Funding
    • Schedule

    Once you’ve locked down those two things then you can go into prep. Now this stage is just simple execution of your (or the line producer’s) budget. This is where you make sure you button up EVERYTHING. I do not know how else I can stress the importance of this stage. In prep you lock down the following:

    • Talent
    • Crew (incl. post production – but can be locked down during shoot)
    • Scheduling
    • Department needs
    • Locations

    Like I said, this is where you button up EVERYTHING. Now this stage can take from as little as two weeks to two months. Preferably, two months just because of talent and locations.

    Once you feel comfortable enough that prep is all good and ready to go (even if you’re not because your shoot days will not move because you do not feel comfortable enough) you will then move on to the production stage. Some departments may think that production is probably one of the hardest stages in filmmaking. Which don’t get me wrong each department has their own challenges and I understand why production is challenging. But for Production, this is the easiest. Why? Because, like prep, it’s all about execution, execution, and execution. To be honest, once you pass prep it’s all a breeze from there. Production and wrap are the easiest stages.  The main thing to keep in mind if you work production is that during this stage, you need to always make sure your crew is happy. An unhappy crew means an unhappy shoot. But you should do that with everyone not just crew, but it’s important to remember that they are the ones who put in man power to help make the film what it is.

    Now once you’re done with shooting, it’s important (if you’re not doing payroll) to take a breather before going into wrap. Take a few days, a week even, either way take as much time as you need depending on how intense the shoot was before going into wrap. Why is this important? Because you’ll be drowning in paperwork. And you deserve to take a breather, if anything, you deserve to refresh yourself after x amount of 12-14hour days. This is the stage where you make sure all of your accounting is updated and ready to hand off to the accountant. This is where you close all your vendor accounts. Make sure your logs are up to date. And, if you’re like me, make sure everything can be found both digitally and physically in a wrap binder. Wrap should never take any longer than a month – but again this is also depending on how big of a show you were running.

    Well, I guess this is the most wisdom I can bestow upon you for now. Please feel free to like, share, comment any other pearls of wisdom you may have about filmmaking here. Or if you have any soecific questions about it (because I know I only really spoke about it vaguely) feel free to comment or contact me via the contact page and I’ll answer them as fast as I can! Now go out there and shoot (film) something!

  • The pros and cons of living in a long term Show (and the importance of taking a mental health day – or weekend)

    The pros and cons of living in a long term Show (and the importance of taking a mental health day – or weekend)

    Much like any relationship a show takes work. But what happens when there’s no more work to be done and you’re just kind of.. stagnant? Well surprisingly enough that can take a toll on you mentally too. I didn’t learn that until this recent show I started to work on.

    Originally I was brought on as a day player to help do an airport pick up. What was supposed to be a day playing job turned into a month long engagement. Which, don’t get me wrong is great, because that meant that I didn’t have to look for work because before I hopped on to this one I was struggling to find my next show (as what most freelancers do). So yeah, I was pretty happy about the situation.

    But then as the days went by, the tasks that needed to be done started to dwindle. Mind you I was brought on for the wrap portion of the show. So that mainly consisted of returning equipment that needed to be returned, cleaning what needed to be cleaned, and storing what needed to be stored. Easy enough right? Unfortunately for me and my fellow PA, we were raised in a fast paced environment where efficiency is key. Which pretty much meant that we finished what needed to be finished two weeks into our residency with this show, and all we had to do was wait for out next move. Unfortunately for us, our next move didn’t come until another week later.

    So here we were stuck. We made sure we came in, looked at everything, then went to our devices. Which hurts as a PA, because I always feel bad for checking on my phone if I got an email or a text – because it could mean another job opportunity. But most of the time there was nothing. We just stayed stagnant.

    This week however, I was tapped for a feature for next month – and I know what you’re thinking — if you’re complaining about staying stagnant because you’ve been on a show for a whole month what makes you think you won’t feel the same way with this feature? 

    And my answer to that is this… I won’t be working just wrap. I get to work both production and wrap. Which means being on set in a fast paced environment. Which means constantly having tasks. Which means not being stagnant.

    Okay enough with my ranting about staying stagnant…

    So in the title I mentioned the importance of taking a mental health day – or weekend – and here’s why. About three weeks ago, back when I had first started this show, I was working long-ish hours just because I was constantly lifting, moving and inventorying a lot of items and every time I came home I was just absolutely exhausted. Almost to the point that I would just pass out on the couch then wake up to go to bed. That exhausted.

    So going into my first full week of working here I had gotten a call from a coordinator friend of mine asking if I had wanted to work over the weekend for a short shoot. And because I had been struggling for work for a while, I said yes. Little did I know that it was going to almost push me over the edge. I worked over time both those days and had work the following week. I had no weekend to catch up on sleep and I was basically over working myself. The following weekend I was flying out to the other side of the country to visit my best friend. So I was able to get a bit of a mental break. I went in to work that next week still overly exhausted, luckily my fellow PA and I worked so efficiently at the beginning of our time here that we practically worked ourselves out of tasks to do. So it wasn’t that mentally straining.

    It wasn’t until this past weekend was I really able to have a mental health weekend to myself. I slept in and for once in almost three weeks straight did not wake up to an alarm. I took my time with almost everything last weekend. I was able to do what needed to be done, run errands at my own pace. It was actually quite glorious. I made it a point that I was only going to take care of my needs this weekend.

    Getting back to my point,

    it’s important to rest and to give yourself a break.

    You can’t do your best unless you’re at your best right? I understand how easy it is to get yourself caught up in the freelance film world and overbooking because you want to just keep on working. Trust me, I do. I’ve been doing this for about two years now. But it’s also important to take care of yourself, both mentally and physically. You want to get hired for more work right? So you have to stay on top of your game. Take a breather and say no to a job once in a while. You deserve the rest.

  • And just like that summer came and went… Now what?

    It’s strange, not going back to school. You go to school for almost 20 years that to finally be done and not have to go back is a little strange. To be fair though, I didn’t realize it was that time of year until I saw it on my social media feeds of people younger than myself going back to school.

    But I have to say that this summer I was extremely lucky when it came to work. I think it’s because I juggled work while I was also at school. That finding work (or work finding me) immediately after graduating came easily. As you may know, I went on back to back shows almost a month after graduating. I hopped on to a commercial, then day playing a few days on a TV show, then a short, and finally a shorts series. To say that my summer was busy is an understatement. Again, I was extremely lucky when it came to work.

    But now that I’ve hopped off this short series and I finally find myself unemployed. Now what? Well you hop right into the freelance bullet train. You apply every where. Keep an eye out for all job postings. Answer all phone calls. Read all of the emails. Never stop until the next opportunity comes. Even when opportunity comes, you don’t stop looking.

    For those of you, who read this and are on this same bullet train or trying to get onto this bullet train. You can do it! Just have to constantly put yourself out there. Don’t stop looking, even if you are currently working on a show or another job. Don’t expect jobs to just come to you or you’ll never get your pinky toe in the door.

  • That’s A Wrap on The Only People

    That’s A Wrap on The Only People

    So I just wrapped up my first ULB show as the Line Producer. And I have to say it was most definitely a learning experience. The amount of fires I had to put out was ridiculous. But I am happy to have this experience under my belt and see that I really am capable of being a Line Producer. I do have some more learning to do, but I mean who doesn’t? I’m also happy to have been able to work with old friends and meet new ones. Hopefully the people I brought on to this show, also learned or got something out of this show too.

    When I first went into this show, I couldn’t help but feel a bit intimidated just because I had never managed a show this big. But as the show went from prep to production and eventually into wrap, I couldn’t help feel that this was what I was meant to do in film. As most of you know, I weirdly love logistics. There’s just something so soothing and therapeutic (most times) when you look and organize everything.

    Production will always be my home and honestly, I couldn’t have done it without the help of my mentors who have taught me everything I know when it comes to production.

    I first started in entertainment four years ago as a PA and eventually produced my own stuff. And then I took some time off to really focus on finishing school. It wasn’t until last summer where I started taking on more work and juggling school in the process. Going into March I took on my first coordinating shoot on a PSA for the OCDA’s office. From there I went into becoming a department head for this shoot. It really does show you that if you really want something and will put the time and effort into getting it. You’ll eventually move up and get rewarded for your hustle.

    Until the next show guys!

  • Fitness blurb (or how to stay relatively active when working production)

    Fitness blurb (or how to stay relatively active when working production)

    So I’m going to keep this one short and sweet. No pictures to accompany, unfortunately, because I’d feel really awkward taking a picture of my gym while I workout. So bear with me, this post is going to be just words.

    So the other morning, I went back to the gym after taking a break because of work. For those of you who understand set life, you know why I took the break. For those of you who don’t – set life consists of 12-14 hour days. Intense right? So after a long day of work all anyone can really think of is just knocking out when getting home. However, a good life hack for this is to work out during prep and wrap and to eat healthy when on set. Yes, it is very easy to go over to crafty and get a tray of sour patch kids (or any candy of your choice really). As you can see, very easy to just munch on junk food when on set. So I’m going to try and give you tips on how to stay relatively healthy on set.

    Well first thing is first, it all starts with catering. If you happen to work in the Production Office then you can help picking out which caterer to use. Personally, I like going with Full Moon Pickles just because they’re organic and provide vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free options. But I mean take a look at their menu and tell me you don’t want to hire them as your production caterer.

    Now that’s during prep. So basically, it’s easy to stay active, fit, what-have-you during those stages of a show. Because though you’re on for the full twelve hours, you really get off around 6 because you’re dealing with vendors at that time and most (if not all) vendors are closed by that time. So it gives you a good amount of time to go to the gym or workout at home or go to some fitness classes. Bottom line: it is very easy to stick to your workout/health routine during prep and wrap.

    Production/shoot is a very different story. For those days, at least if you work in my department, you should expect 12-14 hour days either on location, stage, etc. And naturally you’re not going to want to go to the gym or even bother eating healthy because well first off you’re going to get fed when you work on set (please refer to the third paragraph). And half, if not most of the time, you’re too busy helping out around set or out on runs (if you’re a Set PA) to really care what you’re going to be eating because you’re too hungry to care.

    With all of that being said here are some of my tips for staying active and relatively healthy while on set:

    Don’t sit around all the time. 

    Stay moving. Not only is this going to keep you awake while on the job, but for those of you who are avid fitbit users, you get to get those much needed and highly craved steps in. — side note: trust when I say that those steps are highly craved. This is sometimes, especially hard to do when you’re an Office PA because all you do is sit around staring at your computer for a good 12 hours. To be fair I’m not, not doing anything, but a good majority of my job usually consists of a lot of sitting. But even if you’re a Set PA and you’ve been assigned to do fire watch or security, try to stay moving. Do little ankle lifts or something.

    Try not to visit crafty too often.

    Like I said before it’s very easy to find oneself in crafty getting some candy, chips, etc. to hold you over and give you an okay energy boost for half an hour. But trust me when I say the crash from a sugar high is not worth the tray full of sour patch kids.

    For those especially hot days, and any day really, STAY HYDRATED.

    This is self explanatory. I’m sure we all know just how life giving water is for us.

    I know I said I was going to keep this short and sweet. But as I started writing this (about two days ago – sorry about that, been busy working as per usual) I couldn’t help but think, “I should try and make this post about the importance of staying active and healthy when on set.” Because I know how hard it is do this and how easy it is to just go straight home and sleep from exhaustion.

    For those of you who do work production, share your own fitness/health tips in the comments below! I’d love to read what you know!

     

  • Summer so far… (part 1)

    Summer so far… (part 1)

    Just wanted to give a bit of an update into what I’ve been up to. Apologies for not being able to update as much as I wish I could. Especially with the Summer of Museums page. Work kind of picked up a lot since then.

    FullSizeRender 5I got to day play on a Disney show as a Set PA – which mainly consisted of doing runs and helping out any department that needed an extra set of hands. Nothing much to say except that as always it’s hard and fairly honest work being a set PA – I also got to reunite with an old friend of mine who has been trying to hire me for a while and I hadn’t been able to accept because of school. But now that school is over and done with – guess who has more time to work? This girl!

    IMG_6850From that job, I had gotten a text from my mentor asking if I was interested in being an office PA for him from prep to production to wrap for a toy commercial. Of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Not because of the pay check (though that’s always a plus) but because I love doing office work. For those of you who are new to my blog, my department is Production. I don’t know why. I just have an affinity for all the logistics that go behind making a film – be it a commercial, short, feature, etc. etc. – Production is the department for me.

    We actually just finished shooting the show this past Thursday and I’m going to be doing a couple of wrap days with a day break in between (maybe) and then back onto the Disney show that I day played on.

    The commercial was interesting because I got to do more work than I usually do when I office PA on most of the jobs that I get on to. So it gave me more experience to talk to vendors, filling out certain paperwork, and all of that other fun stuff.

    Also! Some other exciting news! I got to see my name on the big screen! Twice! Same movie but I saw it twice! The movie is And Then There Was Eve. The first time was for the cast and crew showing and the second one was for the LA Film Festival showing. It just goes to show you that yes, it’s a lot of hard work but to be able to see your name there on the big screen is one of the most satisfying feelings ever.

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    So as you can see, I’ve been staying fairly busy. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. But mostly good. Now all I need to do is figure out a way to fit going to the gym into my hectic work life and some semblance of a social life and then I would have figured out this whole “adulting” thing. But until then, I’m just going to take everything one day at a time, learning as much as I can.

    Well that’s all I have to say for now. Will update soon!

  • LA Cine Fest Semi Finalist Woo!

    LA Cine Fest Semi Finalist Woo!

    Hello all!

    I know it’s been a while since I last posted anything, but I’m excited to announce that Because I Love You (2016) is a Semi Finalist at LA Cine Fest!

    IMG_1333Exciting stuff right!? So I had the privilege to work on this amazing short film a little over a year ago. This project is one of my more meaningful projects because of the message behind the film.

    The film itself is about Audrey (Diana Diaz) who after escaping her abusive ex boyfriend (Derrick Dover) falls into a spiral of depression and paranoia. Her mother (Paula Lauzon) pushes her farther by conveying a message from Derrick asking for another chance. Audrey’s cousin, Charlotte (Stephanie Mills), wants to help her out of this vicious cycle, but only she can help herself when her nightmare comes to visit.

    We will learn if we’re finalist by hopefully the end of next week. So keep an eye out for more announcements regarding this beautiful short film 🙂