A Lesson in Complaining

Everyone, in everyone job, complains at one point or another. This job is no different. I like to think of it as soldiers on the battlefield hiding behind stuff and complaining about how mean and stupid their superiors are. It's the same thing. When in fact, superiors often have very good reasons for the decisions they make. While it's often nice to think you could make better ones, the truth is, you probably couldn't. There's too many factors involved, and in many cases, only certain people are aware of what all of them are.

A grip on this show told me that he learned on another show that if the crew wasn't complaining, something was wrong. I see his point. Everyone complains, but who wants to be that guy around the crafty table on "Empire Strikes Back," going on and on about how George Lucas is a moran for wanting to do all this science fiction crap? Or who wants to be the guy in New Zealand talking about how "Lord of the Rings" is going to fail? There was probably some guy on Kevin Smith's crew for "Clerks" bitching about low budget it is they couldn't afford basic things like coffee. I'm sure there were those poeple out there. Every crew, at any time, any where, is the same in those respects.

-Mark