You Heard It Here: Hollywood Perks
I think most people know that as glamorous as show business seems, it’s really a ton of hard work for everyone involved. Take for instance my day yesterday. 14.5 hours. Yep. If you include the commute, you can tack on another hour. From the cast to the crew, no one gets off easy. The hours can be brutal, especially when you’re working on a show that deals with special effects or visual effects and stunts. Oh and the occasional crazy makeup and wardrobe issues. Add in shows that are written “big” and you’re left with a long work week.
Because we work so many hours, the producers in charge are very sweet about trying to ease the pain. They tend to bring in coffee trucks on our longest work days. Sometimes the writers of the current episode will bring in an ice cream truck, or like this past week, a churro truck! Yes, you heard me right. We had a churro truck this week. (Yes, they were delicious!) Although I failed to get a pic of the churro, I did take a couple of bad pics near the end of tonight’s show. As you can see, my pics are pretty bad, but I just wanted to give you a taste (pun intended) of what one of the tables looks like.
On the far end of the table is a pie and what’s left of a decadent chocolate cake. The next pic is cake we used for the show. (We had about 5 of them and this was the one not used in the shot.)
So, I’m going to see if I can remember all the fun perks from a few of my last shows. Here it goes in order of what I remember most by the frequency of the times I’ve had it and a little description of what we got:
Coffee truck – pretty self explanatory. They serve coffee, teas and sometimes smoothies depending on the company.
Ice cream truck – also self explanatory. They serve anything from soft serve to ice cream (in cones or cups), to smoothies or even sandwiched between cookies.
Crepe truck – one of my favorites. They usually serve a choice of several. My favorite is the apple/cinnamon crepe.
Fruit truck – Yep. Just like it sounds. Your choice of fruit and it’s usually topped with lime and a sprinkle of hot pepper.
Churro truck – I was new to churros until this year. Had never tried one. It’s like a cinnamon doughnut. Yummy bad-for-you goodness.
I know we’ve had more, but I just can’t seem to think of them at the moment.
Yes, I’ll admit it’s nice… but frankly, I’d trade in a 14.5 hour day for a regular 8 hour one.
How about you? Ever had a never-ending job?
Being an RN for twenty-five years, and working in the hospital with bedside nursing for eight of those, sometimes something called “mandatory overtime” occurred. You got that right. If someone called in sick on the next shift and they couldn’t find any volunteer replacements they’d go through the mandatory list and you’d wind up doing a double shift – 16 hours. I occasionally volunteered, but honestly, I too often wound up getting sick after working evening into overnight shift. It just seems wrong to watch the sunrise from a hospital window if you aren’t a patient, and you showed up for work the day before at 2:30 pm, you know? Oh, and they never sent any treat trucks, just good old hospital coffee to keep us going. lol. Thanks for reminding me, lady!
Hi Lynne,
My hat is off to all nurses and people in the medical industry. I don’t know how you all do it (or did it!). That is one of the hardest jobs out there and so underrated/underpaid! (Right along with teaching.) You make me feel guilty for the perks. But not enough to quit enjoying them. Haha. Thanks for dropping in and reminding me who the heroes are.
Great post. Many, many, many years ago when I did a couple of tech gigs on set, I remember the catering being the best!!! I’m still not sure if it was due to the food be amazing or it was simply because of the long hours any break was to be savored.
Hi Allison,
We’re lucky the craft service is petty good on our set, but that’s not always the case. Some productions have no money and no perks. But I think with longevity comes more perks and we’re in our 3rd season, so we’re seeing stuff we didn’t see the 1st season. It’s nice to be appreciated with the fun stuff. Thanks for dropping in!