I worked a publicity shoot today with Jeremy Piven, who was in town for the annual Piven Theatre gala at Rockit Bar and Grill… And I learned a few things (with commentary in parenthesis):
1) I am still jaded, because I was neither impressed nor speechless when I talked to him… And its not that I dislike Piven; in fact, I think he is brilliant as Ari Gold in Entourage (although I think the series is past its prime)…and I think he was severely underrated in “Smokin’ Aces”…plus I loved “Cupid”…I have just found that my “star struck” gene is still lying dormant from working in LA and just realizing, yet again, that Hollywood celebrities are all the same…human beings.
(Piven had just had lunch with the Mayor, was tired as hell, and barely found time for us (albeit he did do it!), so what was supposed to be about a 40-minute shoot ended up being 15 minutes).
2) No matter how much you prepare, the reality is, something will change.
(All morning I was writing the scripts for him to say, then was told he would be improvising, so I never brought the scripts…turns out, he needed keywords.)
3) There is a lot of a “hurry up and wait” philosophy in TV…and in life.
(Arrival time: 2pm…shoot time 5pm…shoot done 5:15pm…home at 8:30…)
4) Cameramen are the most patient people in the world…must learn from that.
(With all the extra time and setting up shots and lugging equipment around, they didn’t complain once…not once! Granted, I know they are getting paid overtime, but still…)
5) No matter how much you know you are right, there will always be someone in the room with a higher status than you who will tell you you are wrong.
6) Nobody is going to pat you on the back in life…you must take a moment to breathe and take it all in, and realize you did a good job…and then you must move on.
7) The world is a very small place…especially if you grew up in the North Shore of Chicago.
(The assistant to Joyce Piven was there, and it turns out, she went to New Trier (a neighboring high school to mine), and lived in Glencoe (a neighboring suburb where I grew up)…we kept throwing out names at each other and realized we knew the same people…just made me realize that even in the midst of all this “Hollywood in Chicago” hoopla, the world really is just a six-degrees of separation circle.)
8) It never hurts to ask.
(I really wanted to edit the spot, but wasn’t sure if my boss wanted me to, so I took a chance and asked, and now I get to edit a national spot of Jeremy Piven! WAHOO!)
Excuse me while I Mastercard-ize the event:
Parking for publicity shoot: $26
Overtime for camera crew: $500*
Life lessons from Ari Gold…priceless.
*I have no idea what their overtime was, nor do I care, because I didn’t pay for it.
That’s funny…I feel the same way about professional athletes! Piven starred in and is a friend of my favorite actor, John Cusack, so I’m sure I would have been a little more star-struck than you were. But that being said…they are just people who happen to be famous acting like other people. How impressive is that? I feel like we should be more impressed with professors and surgeons. Have fun editing the spot! Sounds like a great opportunity!
Okay I guess you forgot to mention to him that his sister Shira taught at the Academy when I was there. And that I absolutely would of been star struck of course because I love him. And him and John Cusack together are priceless. I would of been speechless. At least you have class.Got My Boys today. THANK GOD. I can watch it after recovering from Nannie’s 90th birthday.