Sometimes Christmas comes early....... It all started when the phone rang while I was giving my son a bath. The voice on the other end was calling from New Jersey and asking me if I could possibly assist a photographer in Iowa for a 1 day shoot at a casino. I was hesitant at first, but given my personal economy I said sure, not expecting much more than a long drive there followed by a laborious day of assisting and a butt numbing drive back.
After exchanging some info with the producer in Jersey, I started to learn more about this shoot. It would also involved a film crew, something new for me. This was getting more interesting. When the producer told me the name of the photographer I would be assisting, I googled him & was over the moon when I saw his work. The guy was amazing and hip and all that I wished I could be with my midwestern skills. I was also more than a little freaked out about being up to his standards technically. What did I get myself into?
I met my ride Steve Holm at Cinequip at 2:00pm and we headed out of town for the 5 hour journey to Dubuque. Steve was super cool and we hit it off right away which made the trip go by a lot faster. We arrived at the resort (yup, they put me up in a resort) around 8:30 that night and after the blood rushed back into the missing places, we checked in and I found the producer Eric to get the lowdown. Dominic was to arrive at 11:00 that night, hot off a shoot on the east coast. I was worried he would be a little gruff after such a long day and did my best to be ready to help him out so he could get to bed for the 6:00 call time.
When Dominic arrived and I finally met him it was around 11:00. I helped him with his bags and finally introduced myself as his assistant. Right away he was super cool and nice, even after his killer day. He gave me a quick idea of what to expect in the morning and was off to bed while I was off to inventory the gear and make sure everything worked. Got to bed about 1:30am
5:00 am comes way to quick... I got up a little early to get the equipment bags ready and some coffee to get the mind rolling. Dominic and I met for a quick breakfast at 6:00 and then we headed to the shoot across the street at Diamond Jo's casino. The film crew was already hard at work producing some clips of people winning at the slot machines and we would follow up by shooting the stills. The original plan was to set up Dominic's lights for the scenes, but the film crews set up was working so well he just went with it and would mix it up sometimes with the modeling light from his Profoto packs. I even got the chance to shoot secondary shots and behind the scenes images. This gig couldn't get any better, or could it? oh yes it can!
After shooting for about an hour, Dominic asked me if I would mind shooting a band that night that was opening the bar in the casino. The band was Cheap Trick and we had access to shoot the first 3 songs. Uh, sure-no problem. I felt at this point I should have purchased a lotto ticket cause I was sure feeling lucky to be a part of this group.
So after an almost 13 hour day. we quick ran to our hotel rooms, brushed our teeth, ran to get a super quick bite with some of the company heads (Frank & Jan) and headed to the venue to shoot Cheap Trick. Needless to say it was great and after a few shots and 3 songs, Dom and I did what all good photographers do at the end of the day. Drank a cold beer and laughed a little.
Now back to reality and looking for work for me.
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