Red Carpets, Live Events, and Exorcisms
- Andrew and Melissa Curtis
- Mar 27, 2023
- 9 min read
Updated: Apr 17, 2023
Red carpet jobs are typically really fast and pretty simple to manage. The hardest parts are usually trying to find the right clothes and the right parking garage, and just getting there on time. If you're lucky you might be able to spend your workday sitting on an apple box and get a box lunch to eat that was prepared the night before. The contents of box lunches are usually a sandwich, chips, cookie, and a red apple. I assume it's always a red apple so the preparers of said lunches can add the necessary weight to each one to make me feel like there's a chicken dinner hiding inside.
Most of the day is spent getting prepared for what will be just a few hours of filming. It's really all about preparation. Historically there have been very few technical difficulties during these events, but when they do happen they wind up in the news for days afterward. I can only imagine what the crew goes through when that occurs.
In my imagination, it's your typical control room setup, and as soon as a mic doesn’t work, or the power goes out, a director starts screaming and swearing to the ceiling that whoever is at fault will “never work again”! Black listed! No more jobs ever! This director then gets a phone call from a red phone at the back of the control room and he’s notified that he also no longer has a job, and is forever blacklisted. Then it's everyone's phones all around the venue ringing off the hook; texts, emails, screens falling to black with nothing but a skull and cross bones floating on them. The same text floats ominously across the bottom of all of them - FIRED!!! BLACK LISTED!!!!
So it’s pretty important to be focused and on point, especially during these types of events.
Remember when they misread the best picture winner at the Oscars? Yeah... Me too.
But I should be writing about red carpet events I have worked on personally, so in my limited experience, I will say that red carpet events are fast, little one-day moments. There’s usually a day or two to prepare if you need that, but overall they are fast.
You will see a lot of familiar faces though, and it’s always something I’ve wondered about. Because when I see a famous person I’m usually looking at them and thinking, gosh that looks a lot like Helen Mirren, and, huh, if that guy were just 10% better looking, I’d swear it was Tom Cruise…
My personal belief is that my brain is used to the 2D version of this human being, so rather than having it all click at once, I’m fighting with my brain about who is actually standing in front of me. I have to admit though, I grew up in a time when you could build bike jumps on the sidewalk and hit them at outrageous speeds without a helmet or a single adult around. As a result of this reckless behavior, I’ve had roughly four concussions in my life, so I’m proudly pointing all blame in that direction.
Red Carpets are a whirlwind. One moment you’re trying to remember who that actor is that's on that show with the people and that one joke about the stuff and things, and then they’ve walked off and are talking to someone else. Moments later you are wrapping gear, trying not to rip your rented tuxedo, and carting it all to the next shuttle that’s running late because everyone else is leaving now, too.
Live sports events aren’t as fast as red carpets, but they offer up their own special problems. Truly anything live has its own set of issues to conquer, but with preparation (and practice) we seem to get through it each time.
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One of the most interesting sporting events I worked was the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah (and I only worked the closing ceremonies). My official title was Green Room Liaison, which meant I had access to the celebrity green room for the event. I was assigned to Willie Nelson, but once his bus pulled up, he chose to disappear into the sea of people and only reappeared for his set later that night.
This gig had an extra special set of challenges because it took place just five months after 9/11. Security was incredibly high and we had to have extra credentials with many areas completely off-limits. Most of the talent spent all their downtime in their trailers, which meant the green room was really only used for a couple of hours in the evening. This gave me a few moments to myself, and I spent my time walking around, taking in the spectacle of it all.
My full-time job at the time was working at eBay in Investigations. I spent my days looking over the details of transactions gone awry, and I saw firsthand the kind of money people could make selling rare, or obscure, items online. I figured this Olympic gig could be a great opportunity for me to keep any and all Olympic “leftovers”. To this day I still have my credentials and all the different wristbands required to get anywhere in the venue. My idea at the time was I would sell them someday and retire from their value! This is also why I still work for a living.
The best part about the Olympics was seeing the closing ceremony firsthand, and getting paid to do so. Other favorites of the job include getting a picture with Donny Osmond and watching Christina Aguilera's manager throw a massive fit in the green room when Christina's performance was interrupted by a commercial. I do realize I should stop being amazed at adults losing their shit and screaming at the top of their lungs when they don’t get their way, but I can’t seem to stop watching. Last was seeing actual Olympic athletes stop to take photos with fans, and seeing them proudly holding up their medals for the shot.
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As I think back to the first people who helped me out of the rental shop and into the gig world, there are many names that come to mind. For this next little bit, however, I’d like to call out my friend Jimmy. He really took the time to explain all angles of the job to me - how to get paid, how to invoice, how to let people know what my rate was and how I could pick any amount I wanted! Truth be told, each person should have three rates - the friend rate, the regular rate, and the “I don’t want to work” rate.
One thing I was warned about as I embarked on the path of the camera operator was double punching. I talk about it at length during our latest podcast ep, and that alone is way more info than I’d like to remember, because, frankly, it’s embarrassing. So I don’t think I have much to add about it here. Just know that if you decide to operate cameras for a living, it’ll probably happen to you. Just like you’ll likely get paid to not work at some point. These things happen and each one will no doubt turn you into a salty crew member (or will inspire you to think about it excessively and write about it later).
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Jimmy was the one who also got me a few of my most memorable gigs. In 2007 I got a call from him telling me about a show with a real exorcist. At first, I didn’t believe it, because sometimes you get calls to go work on things that are crazy sounding and they often wind up being something mundane and simple. This time, however, the call was spot on.
Possessions themselves don't really hold any weight for me. I wasn’t worried about a demon trying to infiltrate my soul and take over, or anything like that. I was raised Mormon, and now that I think about it, I think demons purposely leave that faith alone based on the religious schedules Mormons keep, alone. Catholics get church an hour or two a week at best. I realize confessions and other duties might be a part of that, but as a Mormon, it’s a non-stop commitment every day of your life. Sunday meetings are three hours long, then there are other callings, like collecting tithing. And that’s not a bowl that's just passed around, no, that’s a door-to-door process throughout an entire neighborhood. Then you have to drop your collections back at the church. This is still just Sunday I’m talking about, by the way. Then there’s always home teaching. If you didn’t get enough from the three hours at church, then look forward to another 45-minute study with two people from your ward! Monday’s are Family Home Evenings, a whole night dedicated to scripture study and electronic-free entertainment with your family. Tuesdays or Thursdays are basketball at the church (or softball if it's summer), Fridays are Firesides and Saturdays usually involve some sort of spaghetti cookout. Now, this may not be the exact schedule each week, but if I’m a demon and I get to pick who to inject myself into, the choice is clear…
Without fear holding me back, it was too early in my career to turn down work, so I took the job of AC (Assistant Camera) on The Real Exorcist. This gig was several months long and the way the schedule worked out for us was like this:
3 weeks in Portland, OR
2 weeks off
3 weeks in London
2 weeks off ( Christmas and New Years )
1 week in Scottsdale, AZ
1 week in New York, NY
1 week in Altoona, PA
1 week Savannah, GA
2 weeks off
Then four more weeks with each week being a different location.
Not to spoil it, but Altoona took all the punch out of my system and I was fried by the time we hit Savannah. In the future, I’ll delve into the exorcist show more. The travel, the people, Bob Larsen and his church, and all how they believe that Harry Potter books are portals to the Devil. Nothing happened during the shoot that made me believe there are real demons out there jumping into people so they will do their bidding. In most cases, it seems the “bidding” was to just make people sad about their lot in life. Unfortunately, the exorcisms didn’t really seem to make them feel much better about it, either.
Each week was filled with things like new airports, new food, new hotels, new crew van, new weather, and the like. It wasn’t typical to be in a hotel for more than four days. The hours were long and the days off weren’t planned out well. Many different locations meant never being able to settle down. London chilled me to the bone, New York was having a warm spell, and Altoona's time off meant doing donuts in a crew van at bowling alley parking lots.
Looking back, my favorite days off were in London, Portland and New York. London was a tough one, because we had only one day to see the sights. This meant a day of riding the tube and snapping as many pictures as possible. New York was amazing and I finally saw Spring Awakening (and that show is incredible)! Portland's day off was fun because I’d recently read Chuck Palahniuk’s Fugitives and Refugees - a walk Portland Oregon.
You can find that book at the library no doubt, or try buying it HERE.
In one story he mentions how when homes are torn down in Portland, they have people come strip them down. Doors, windows, doorbells, lighting fixtures and what not. All these items are placed in a warehouse and are re-sold, thrift style. This might be the place I’m referring to.
So, while in Portland one day I decided to steal a crew van and go to the warehouse. This was very “adult” feeling, I can’t imagine many kids wanting to wander around and look at old doorknobs and windows, or wanting to know what kind of history they had and if they would fit into your current living situation. To this day I still own a small lamp cover and a doorbell from this excursion. I might even put them up someday.
Another special mention for Portland would be that our hotels which were exclusively McMenamins. At McMenamins, they transform old locations into working hotels. It may seem corny or out of character to enjoy such a place, but it was far superior to the old run-of-the-mill Marriot or Extended Stay, and I welcomed the experience.
When you are crew on a show running this fast, with this many locations, you have to enjoy the tiny moments. The moments where you get something nice to drink, you take a deep breath and look around another cityscape and wonder, where are we?
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The last thing that I’d like to touch on today is about filming surgeries. Bringing it back to my buddy Jimmy again, he once told me about the time he filmed a breast reduction surgery.
Back then, when you had to film a human’s insides, you weren’t bothered by 4K details and color screens, thankfully. You put your eye to the camera and the image was black and white, so if you were squeamish about blood this was the perfect fix! But the problem, according to Jimmy, was the smell. Being scrubbed up and wearing masks and rubber gloves didn’t take care of that one little problem. He said that at the start of this surgery, he was okay, but as soon as that scent of sizzling breast tissue seeped into his mask, his camera work started looking a little woozy.
On my list of career-based worries, this is another thing that makes me nervous: seeing or being around this type of shoot. But it doesn’t actually matter, because I learned first-hand that in the observation room (above the surgery room) is a glass window. While you’re up there putting batteries on cameras and striping tapes to start shooting, there’s a person below you being opened up and getting something inside them fixed. You will be watching it live and you will see things you’ll never forget.
What really helps in these situations is managing conflict with humor. Not too far from inappropriate mirth, and not without reverence for the situation in front of us all, we choose humor, because well.... when you’re eating a burrito with a full view of a half-open human being, humor works best.
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