Day 4 Wrap

The good: Grabbed a great shot of the Minneapolis skyline at sunset
The bad: Most of the other footage will need to be reshot
The ugly: Forced to improvise our location because of one unflexible person

Plans were made to shoot Emily (Chloe) and Anna (Jazz) walking along the sidewalks of this tight dead-end warehouse block in Minneapolis. A good friend of mine had offered his studio to shoot the skyline at sunset and he assured me we'd have no problem shooting outside the building. We started unloading and mapping the area we had scouted weeks earlier when the building manager forced us to pack up shop. Liability was the biggest concern which is the very reason I spent the money to get production insurance. The manager thought I'd created a fake insurance policy on my computer. Who does stuff like that? Instead of trusting me and showing some heart for a producer on a tight budget and schedule, she pushed us away without batting an eye.

Don't get me wrong; I understood her liability concerns and I agreed with them, but there comes a point when you just throw your concerns out the window and show some compassion for someone working his butt off to try to make a living to support his family. Never did I raise my voice with this woman and never did I treat her with anything but respect, and even now I don't hold any resentment toward her as a person. I simply disagree with her decision to allow herself to remain so uptight about a relatively harmless situation. My grandpa always tells me he raised his family in the greatest time back in the 50s and 60s. In situations like these I tend to agree with him because, from what I understand about that era, people were more willing to help each other. It seems today we are scared of others and the biggest concern is "what's in it for me?" We are so egocentric today and it's only getting worse.

Wow, I've sure digressed here. My underlying point in this rant is that more compassion is needed today. I felt very hurt by the manager of the building Monday night and there was nothing I could say or do that would even convince her to consider letting me shoot outside the building. A wise man once said, "The mark of an educated mind is to entertain a thought without necessarily accepting it." Had this woman at least entertained my proposal I would not have been as hurt as I was. Saying no is one thing, but backing it up with flimsy reasoning is such a slap in the face.

Once more I will say (or type if you will) that I never raised my voice and I never lost my cool. I'm not patting myself on the back by announcing that, but it's important for the two readers of this blog to understand that anger does not fuel this rant, but rather hurt feelings and disappointment in the mentality of many people today. Rules should be followed, but helping your brother man should trump the rules you think you need to follow.

Then again, I may be wrong.

~ Justen