Tag Archives: occupational folklore

The Martini

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Film Student (Producer, Assistant Director)
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 3/16/12
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

In this image my informant holds up a slate for a video project titled “Two Portly Guys.” There are martini glasses drawn around the shot number “2” – this is meant to indicate that this shot will be the last shot captured on that shooting day.

It is a strange paradox of working on film sets that the experience on the set has little to do with the subject matter of the film itself. There is no way to extrapolate from a finished film the experience of the crew members working on the set.

In a set environment at a film school, students who have known each other and worked together for several years are often thrown onto crews together for a project. The familiarity of the students with each other creates a unity to the entire filmmaking process, from pre-production (planning of the film) through post (editing and sound designing the film) that does not exist in the film industry outside of school. For instance, on a USC project the on-set crew will likely know the students who will be editing the film. However, at the USC film school in particular, the way that some classes are organized require that the editors of a film not be present on the set. This results in some pranks played on the editors within the footage.

My informant (in the image above), who had held the slate for a USC undergraduate thesis film prior to the “Two Portly Guys” project, told me that drawing martinis on the slate is one way to bring the editors – friends of the set crew – into the set experience, albeit after the fact. “The martini” is the name given to the last shot of the day before everyone goes home. There are various stories about why the last shot has been named this, but it is an accepted and recognized term. It is common among film students at USC to indicate the “martini shot” on the slate by drawing martini glasses onto it. The slate, as the marker which tells the editors what shot and take of that shot is being captured after the slate has been shown, should be (if the shot was taken correctly) the only indication throughout a single shot that the film crew is there, thus it is the only time that the crew can communicate with the editors as fellow filmmakers.

I feel that the martinis on the slate can also be an indicator of set morale. On the “Two Portly Guys” set I noted that the crew was greatly enjoying their work because the scenes they were taping were humorous. My informant seemed excited when told that the last shot had arrived and quickly draw the martinis. However, my informant also told me that there were days on her undergraduate thesis set that she did not draw the martinis. Though she did not connect this to crew morale, she also told me that there was rarely a day on that set that she didn’t feel tired or stressed by the miscommunications among the crew, or the slow pace of the work. Thus I believe that a crew that is working together well and runs into few problems throughout the shooting day will be more likely to be in good spirits by the end of the day, and have the energy and inclination to take a moment to draw the merry little icons onto the slate. If the last shot of the day lacks martinis, it might be an indicator that by the end of the day the crew was too burnt out to have any fun with the slate.

Assistant Directors Make No Friends

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 21
Occupation: Film Student (Sound technician, producer)
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/13/12
Primary Language: English

Informant Bio and Context

The following joke was told on the set of a USC student music video. My informant was a grip (crew member working in the lighting department) who told the joke to the assistant director (or AD: production manager who keeps track of time) of the set. My informant is currently a film student at USC and often works in the sound department, but who like most USC film students has held positions in other departments as well. She has also worked as an assistant director and producer, for instance. On this set my informant knew the assistant director from classes and by reputation, and likely felt that the joke would amuse the AD who works as an assistant director almost exclusively.

Transcript

Hey, so why are ADs bad in bed? Because they think two minutes is a really long time.

Analysis and Background:

Understanding of an assistant director’s job sheds light on the reason for this malicious sounding joke.

In the United States, the assistant director (AD) belongs to a film’s “production” department, meaning that they work for the director and producers in a non-creative capacity. Their job is to “run the set” so that the crew is able to capture every shot planned for that day. The AD is responsible for scheduling the order of the shots taken that day for maximum efficiency, communicating with every department so that they know what they need to prepare for as the day moves along, and keeping track of the time. This can mean that the assistant director needs to make decisions that place higher priority on one department’s work over another. For example, if the crew is running thirty minutes behind schedule, the AD may need to talk to the director about cutting a shot, or to the art department about spending less time dressing a part of the set, or to the director of photography about making the lighting on the actress’ face a little less perfect than he wants. Anything to save time. Because assistant directors serve the big picture, they are often viewed as the enemy of the individual departments.

This joke belittles the sexual prowess of the assistant director by using the AD’s primary function as the set’s time-keeper against him. The intention of this is clear – while the joke itself does not undermine the authority of the assistant director on the set, it separates him from the rest of the crew, and depicts him as being the same as, even less than, everyone else in other aspects of his life. The joke tells the crew that while the AD’s watch has power on the set, off of it, it would make him look like a fool.

My subject felt that the joke was humorous simply because it is, in her words, “accurate.” Assistant directors are always keeping track of the time, but off-set in many situations this trait is often inappropriate. In this way the joke also comments on another aspect of life within in the film industry, which is the necessary separation of one’s life in film production, from their home life or social life. The long, fast-paced, stress-heavy hours of film production work are often compared to being at war. One’s mental, emotional – and as this joke implies, sexual – health can only be maintained by a clear separation between life on the set, and life off of it.

Notice too that the joke seems to imply that the assistant director is a man. (Jokes revolving around the premise of climaxing too quickly during a sexual act are typically aimed at men.) This assumption within the joke is not entirely inaccurate as the majority of crew positions in the film industry have historically be held by men. In this particular case the joke was told to a female assistant director, who laughed in spite of her position.

Accountant Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: Accountant
Residence: Oceanside, New York
Performance Date: March 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: None

“We don’t bury our mistakes, we only erase them.”

 

I found this joke interesting because I don’t find it particularly funny, but, according to the informant, accountants enjoy the joke a lot. The joke refers to another profession: doctors. According to the informant, the joke means that doctors bury their mistakes whereas accountants only erase them. The joke seems to operate on a couple of levels. On the one hand, the joke implies a rather negative view of the field of medicine. It seems to say, well, accountants might mess up, but at least we don’t kill people when we mess up. On the other hand, the joke also indicates that what accountants do is not as serious as what doctors do. Accounting can be a very stressful job, especially during tax season, and the joke serves as a reminder that their job is not a matter of life and death. It is almost a way of comforting fellow accountants by reminding each other that if they make a mistake they can simply erase it and start over.

Dirty Accountant Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: Accountant
Residence: Oceanside, New York
Performance Date: March 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: None

“Accountants do it with double-entry.”

 

This dirty joke is a double-entendre. It implies a sexual situation, but really it refers to the fact that bookkeeping is a double entry system. You enter information in a total column and a transactional column (hence, two entries.) The informant is an accountant and I believe that one of the major reasons the informant likes the joke and repeats it is that his profession is generally viewed as boring and accountants tend to be stereotyped as suit-wearing, brief-case carrying, straight-laced professionals who spend their days working with numbers and doing taxes. The dirtiness of the joke is unexpected and telling the joke seems to be a way for the informant to prove that he is more than a drone.

 

Proverb

Nationality: American. Self-Identified Ethnicity: Caucasian
Age: 56
Occupation: Attorney
Residence: Champaign, IL
Performance Date: 4/24/11
Primary Language: English

The proverb as performed by Jim:  “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.”

Jim told me that he learned this proverb around fifteen years ago from a lawyer in Tennessee.  The two were working on a case together and discussing settlement terms.  The opposing side didn’t offer as much money as Jim wanted, so the other lawyer told him about this “Tennessee saying.”  The phrase stuck with Jim, because it taught him the lesson that one should never be too greedy.

Jim said that the proverb, very simply, means that a little greed and competition results in gain, but too much is never healthy.  Since originally hearing the proverb, Jim said he uses this phrase as a guiding principle in his law practice.  He references it if clients are unhappy with the amount of money that they’re set to get.  He said that clients need to hear this proverb because they often think that their cases are worth more than they actually are.  Jim said that people need to learn to be reasonable.  Jim also uses this proverb in his daily life, but applies it most often in the workplace.

For the most part, I agree with Jim’s interpretation of the proverb.  A “pig” generally refers to a greedy person, or one who indulges in something.  Therefore, “Pigs get fat” signifies that a little bit of greed results in happiness or success.  When applied to humans, “Hog” has a more negative connotation than “pig,” generally meaning extremely greedy.  “Hogs get slaughtered,” then, signifies that those that are too greedy ultimately end up with nothing.

It’s interesting to note that, for at least a small network of attorneys, this proverb has become a form of occupational folklore.  Most of the attorneys at Jim’s law practice use this proverb as a loose guiding principle, and Jim has thanked the Tennessee lawyer for teaching him the saying.  Because law practices generally deal with taking money from people, this proverb acts as a type of moral compass for the job.