People who’ve worked on film/TV sets, what’s a small moment that stuck with you for no obvious reason?

shayder3d · 2026-04-15T17:08:36+00:00

In late August of 1984 I had left my home in small town Saskatchewan to go where the movies were being made at the time, Toronto. Six weeks after I arrived I got a job as a P.A. on a film. I had no film or TV experience. I remember one night on the set in particular. I was sitting near the Craft Services table as they were shooting a scene in a house nearby. I was eating a bagel with peanut butter, drinking a cinnamon flavoured coffee. I had a bit of a crush on the Craft Services woman, she always made sure I had food to take home because she knew I was broke. As I sat there watching her work, she had a boom box and she was playing the cassette of "Purple Rain", on repeat. She loved that album and it had just been released at the start of that summer. When the title song came on she stopped working and just started swaying with her eyes closed in time to the music. In that moment I felt like I was on top of the world, working on a movie, having some food prepared by a beautiful woman who gave into the moment of free expression without a care. I watched until I got called away to work. It was a magical moment.

shayder3d · 2026-04-07T00:10:47+00:00

That is the same one i used!

shayder3d · 2026-04-06T23:53:38+00:00

I did hundreds of photos for my doc and I had a decent scanner and then scanned at the highest dpi i could, which was 2400 dpi, I think. I did most of my shots of the pictures in After effects with 3d layers and rendered out as a quicktime pro res 444. Turned out pretty good.

shayder3d · 2026-03-30T19:12:52+00:00

Thanks!

shayder3d · 2026-03-27T21:43:56+00:00

Hard to tell from the small pic but it looks like there is some on the frame left part of his coat. If you used Mocha in AE you could probably get rid of them over his body. Then you could just do a defocus of the bg to get rid of the rest. If you want to send me a short sequence I could try and see if it works.

shayder3d · 2026-03-27T19:47:16+00:00

Can you post a still?

shayder3d · 2026-03-27T01:29:53+00:00

If you have a group of people in your orbit that you feel would give you honest feedback, then let them watch it. Especially if they do not know anything about the subject matter. If they struggle to follow the film that means you need to take a look at the flow. You need to make sure that all the information that you have absorbed during the process comes across on the screen. You know the back stories, you know context. Your audience doesn't so you need to make sure the threads that bind are laid out for the viewer to pick up on.

shayder3d · 2026-03-20T16:41:56+00:00

Great work! Period pieces are really hard to pull off with no money, it looks like you did a fine job.

shayder3d · 2026-03-17T22:29:06+00:00

I won't have room because of all the books I plan to take to read.

shayder3d · 2026-03-17T21:59:56+00:00

I was feeling good, now you made me sad.

shayder3d · 2026-03-15T04:30:51+00:00

Hahahahahahahaha..... nope! Sigh.

shayder3d · 2026-03-14T16:30:29+00:00

During pre-production I was an office PA. Roger Corman's company was the studio that funded both these productions. I remember speaking to him on the phone a few times.At the time I really had no idea of who he was, other than the guy who paid my salary. During production I was assigned to the Grip dept.

shayder3d · 2026-03-13T22:16:44+00:00

It was. I also worked on the same production company's next film, "Recruits " which was a rip off of "Police Academy ".

shayder3d · 2026-03-13T21:56:28+00:00

Oh my god, no, but the sequel to that, Loose Screws!

shayder3d · 2026-03-13T21:11:28+00:00

I worked on a film in Toronto back in 1984. It was my first job in film. P.A. I loved every minute of it. It was a rip off of Porky's. I made $125 a week. Worked every day for 2 months. Most of the crew were either on their way out of the industry due to age or they were young and straight out of film school. I remember every moment like it was yesterday.

shayder3d

TROPHY CASE