I work in a factory.The exact details are immaterial, but essentially I run a rather large machine that does a very specific task. Sometimes the job is physically demanding all day long, sometimes I get to work and the machine is all set up to run I literally watch the machine run and do minimal physical labor throughout my whole shift.

I work a rotating 12 hour shift schedule. If you don’t know what that is; it ain’t no 9 to 5. You work a 12 hour shift 3 to 4 days a week; one week I Monday, Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday and the next I’ll work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The shit part of this schedule is the rotation. Every 2 weeks you switch from day shift to night shift. That’s 7 am-7 pm days for two weeks, then 7 pm-7 am for two weeks. It sucks, but I deal pretty well with it.

What does this have to do with the movie? Time.

Out of a 30 day month I work 15. Twelve hour shifts mean you’re spent for the day when you get home; no matter if you’re walking into your house at 7 pm or 7 am. But then you get 3 or 4 whole days that are completely under your control. I feel like I get more done in this scenario rather than an 5 day a week 8 hour job. Everything, whether it be housework or personal project, seems like more of a struggle when you have to cram it in after 5 before it gets dark (a lot of things I do are outside), on top of working at the day job all that day. Then you really try and stack shit up on the weekends, which then competes with the other things.

Also my schedule don’t change. I get handed a little calendar at the beginning of the year that has every day and day off, every holiday and plant shut down (more on this in a later post). All my per-production dates and meetings are setup on days off. I can give everyone that might need some of my time a definitive date, months in advance.

I know lots of musicians bar tend and wait tables, and those work very well for creative types who might have things come up last minute to do and so need a job that can accommodate and deal with them not showing up or easily switch with a coworker. Most creative types live a somewhat more freewheeling existence than I do, but that is a separate story. I don’t have impromptu gigs that I need to be ready to take. I’m working for a specific goal on a single project and so the steady, rhythmic, constant schedule I have works pretty well for me planning a movie shoot over the course of a year.