Saturday's Passage Of The Week

In my upcoming book, Service IS The Business (working title) I share a behind-the-desk perspective of what it is like to work at a real San Francisco hotel concierge desk.

Enjoy this brief segment from the third chapter.

After graduation, I knew I couldn’t commit to a full-time schedule at the Franklyn Hotel and still be available for film work. I had just earned a bachelor's degree in film and wanted to learn my craft. So I gave the Franklyn my two-week notice, and thus began my not-so-glorious career in the film industry. As I did with the bellman I first queried about his job, I sought counsel. I didn’t really know how to be a location manager outside of the walls of the film department. I knew I didn’t want to get busted by the police for not having the right permits to shoot on location.

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If you work in the film business in the San Francisco Bay Area you own a Reel Directory. It’s kind of a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for the film business in Northern California, giving one access to all manner of aspects of the film business. It’s where you go to find costumers, caterers, equipment rentals, or location managers. I found a name on the biggest ad under location managers, and called him on a whim. To my surprise, he answered the phone, but sounded busy, so our conversation was brief:

“Hi. Thank you for taking my call. I’ve just graduated from the San Francisco State film department, and I want to pursue a career in location management. I am familiar with your work [which I wasn’t – I had just found his ad], and would like to know if I can take you out for coffee and ask you some questions about the film location business?”

“I’m really busy, and don’t have time for this,” he barked. “Have you done any location work before?”

“Yes, on student films.”

“Do you know the permit process?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how to get daily and weekly insurance for productions?”

“Yes.”

“Good, I’ve got three jobs I can’t take and I’m giving them to you.”

That’s how I got my foot, and leg, in the door of the film business, and so began my life as a film location manager. In reality, I was more of a scout and an assistant, and often worked for other people. Most of my work was on commercials and print ads, but occasionally I would find work on larger productions.

I was working fairly often, but like most jobs in the industrial film arts, they were short and then they ended. It felt like I would work 18 hours a day, then spend another 18 hours a day looking for work. There was a lot of filming going on in San Francisco in the mid and late 1990s, but most Hollywood crews came up from Southern California already fully staffed.

Very few locals were hired and I needed money. My new career in the film industry had not been the demise of my earlier one in hospitality, so I was grateful I had not burned my bridges with hospitality and had hotels to fall back on when there were no film jobs.

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