I won't lie, the older I get the more it hurts but occasionally, and I mean very occasionally, I'll push the boat out and brave the storm. There's more to life than work but when your work is your paid hobby, there's more life than work!
As is usual with most of my gigs, I'd been passed on to a new client via a legend in the business known as Ed Coleman. The shoot? four days in Venice followed by a quick trip to Athens for a day. Myself and the Invisible Assistant prepped the kit, saddled up and headed off for a ridiculously early flight.
Upon arriving, it was straight from the airport into a water taxi for the 20min journey into waterworld where no cars go. The weather was hot and the sweet smell of excitement was in the air, even though I was already tired!
As the timelapse unit (that's us) was technically a splinter group, we had our own apartment a stone's throw from St. Mark's square which was great as we'd be lugging kit around and anything that makes life easier is always a bonus.
We unpacked and headed out for a recce to check out some locations and also grab some lunch. Although technically a travel day, I decided to get a head start on the shoot so we set out to grab some shots.
Now for those of you that timelapse on a regular basis, you'll understand that the moment you start shooting, the post-processing for each shot can often take 2-3 times longer than the shot itself. So if you shot for one hour, you're looking at 2-3hrs of editing. Sometimes it's quicker but on average, easily twice as long and so the 82hrs commenced.
I won't go into the finer details but it kind of went like this: Shoot, edit, 4hrs sleep multiplied by 4 - apart from the last night when I managed two three hour naps.
Like I said earlier, I don't make a habit of this as when you run your own business, you can find yourself working an 80-100hr week without noticing. I tend to average 6hrs sleep a night - not through choice, it's just the way I've always been since my late 20's for some reason. Great for me as I have a couple more hours than the average person to play around with.
So with a heavy work routine already in place, pushing myself to 4hrs a night ain't great for the soul but it is possible when needed. But why do it? I'm addicted. Addicted to many things but work wise, I can't stop shooting! On top of this, I want to make the clients happy although the payoff for this is that I can be a miserable bitch sometimes but it's worth it I think. A lack of sleep also brings out the diva in me (we flew business class into Venice, but again, the little things go a long way when you're doing the average of two week's work in four days).
So how does one cope? It's a few things really. Exercise, coffee, small meals throughout the day and powernaps when possible. Only two days ago I was sat in Google's office in London and during the shoot, I rested my head in my hand and grabbed five minutes. It felt like an eternity but always helps out.
So without further ado, here's a collection of clips we shot (out of a total of 33) for a small cosmetics company and their 'influencer' campaign (no Athens in here, but will get round to that soon!):
Big Love to Marco and the team at Go Film for the good times and Ed for the intro!
So - how do you cope with a lack of sleep?
