For
most of my career, I’ve worked in either media production or some
aspect of construction. Perhaps surprisingly, these two skill sets have
converged in more jobs than might be expected. I acquired carpentry
skills at a very young age, working with my father around the house
building cabinets, constructing a deck and renovating a bathroom. When I
was accepted to New York University’s film school in the early ’90s, I
didn’t expect those same skills to provide a path to work in television
and film. Yet, after graduation, I consistently found work in the art
departments of television and film studios, building and dressing sets.
In
the 1990s, the primary media format to shoot short subjects for film
classes was 16-millimeter film. Most feature movies were shot in 35
millimeters and sometimes, for very high-quality resolution,
70-millimeter film. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is a
prime example of the use of that larger format. Regardless of format,
all film needed to be loaded into a magazine in a dark bag or a dark
room. Then, the magazine was mounted back onto the camera. Next, the
exposed film needed to be developed — a process that could take a day or
two. After waiting a couple days, you could view the fruits of your
labor on a film projector or flatbed-editing table. You did not have the
luxury of playback at the film location.