Whenever I think of Turkey, a few things come to mind. First, our family dog who came with the odd name of Turk (that’s him pictured with the cone of shame after some life saving surgery). He was the central figure of the Pearlman Family from about 1986 until his passing in 2000. The other association is the classic song by They Might Be Giants where we are reminded that Istanbul was once called Constantinople. A history lesson into the Byzantine Empire isn’t necessary for that tidbit, although I was always fascinated by the Ottoman Empire…
I love stories of social networking leading to actual jobs. Back in January of last year, my friend Jodi Elliott informed me that her friend had posted to their wall that they needed a DP for a job in Turkey. Actually, it think it was a posting by her friend on behalf of another friend, thus making this a game of six degrees. I eventually got into contact with one of the Producers of the project and we’ve discussed the different incarnations of the film over the following months.
Schedules kept changing, the scope of the project waxed and waned, and finally it seemed like I was out of contention after the director was able to get his usual cinematographer onto the project. I hadn’t heard from my contact in a while, so I assumed that production went through as planned and all was well in Istanbul.
Apparently that wasn’t the case, because I received an email on Tuesday afternoon checking my availability to come to Turkey. The timing was a little nutty considering I had just gotten off the phone with Joel David Moore about shooting with him in the coming weeks and I had just gotten back to Santa Monica a few hours earlier from Argentina! Nevertheless, I’ve been hoping that this job would work out and I would end up in Istanbul.
I woke up at 7am on Wednesday and the next thing I knew I was negotiating the terms of my contract and booking a flight to Turkey. I needed to get there immediately, but the non-stop flight wasn’t available that evening. So instead of leaving LAX at 5:55pm, I had to fly to Chicago at 1pm, which left me with very little time! I don’t think I’ve ever packed so quickly in my life. In hindsight, I wish I had brought more warm clothes because it is cold here and my blood thinned in the heat and humidity of Brazil!
My mind started to race a little bit as I waited for my connecting flight in Chicago because I hadn’t received a contract or heard back from my contact as had been promised. Did I just buy my way into an organ harvesting scheme? That would’ve been hard to explain to friends and family (not to mention any missing internal body parts). Despite this fear, I took advantage of an empty aisle towards the rear of the plane and got some sleep. My fear spiked again when I couldn’t find anybody holding a piece of paper with my name after I stepped out of customs. Finally, after walking around the airport for almost an hour, I finally met Seda and got some much needed information.
My organs would remain safe for at least another day.
I’m writing this on Friday, after a long day of scouting and meeting most of the crew. I’m a little anxious to see how things will work out on set tomorrow. Neither the director or I had much time to prep the material and neither of us speak Turkish. The language barrier with our crews may be a huge obstacle. The fact that our translator today never showed up wasn’t a comforting sign. Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow! Should be interesting, we have 3 Canon 5Ds, but no way to monitor all of them. Who doesn’t love DSLRs? I’ll give you a hint, he has two thumbs and will be running around set to his three camera operators trying to see framing on their 7″ monitors and give them notes/instructions in a language that neither of them share.
Have you ever gotten a job through Twitter, Facebook, or Linkedin? I’d love to hear about it, so please post your tale in the comments section!
Leave a reply