Things have been slow for the shop, so when another shop called and asked if I could come in for a couple days, I said ok... Now this place has a history of annoying me, but its just two days... 16 hours and I'm done...
My main project today?... Make hinges...
But wait you say, can't you buy hinges? I mean its not like I'm at the Stanley factory...
Well apparently the concept of purchaseing hinges has somehow elluded the guys running this place...They've only been in the business for probably 50-60 years combined...
I'll be the first to admit that sometimes you simply can't take something off the shelf and use it in theatre... We ask hardware to do things it wasn't designed for, or way beyond it's intended strength... We are an abusive industry... I accept all this... Hell I have people build custom stuff all the time in my shop...
The problem is, I spent 4-5 hours making hinges that I shit you not, I can buy at Home Depot... This is a union shop mind you... The pay isn't bad... So they paid me 4-5 hours, plus the cost of the material, plus the waste of space, and the wear on the tools, to manufacture these hinges that cost about $5 each at Home Depot... I made 12 hinges folks... 12 bloody hinges... I only needed 8, but I figured I'd do 12 so when they ask for an extra, I'm set... Now I can make hinges faster than that, but they kept changeing exactly what they wanted... I was also hamstrung by the way they wanted them made... There are far faster ways to do what I did, but they had to have them done a specific way simply because they got a bug up their ass...
Now I remember why I hate working for other people so much... This is one of the reasons I had to open my own place... Not only do I keep myself away from that insanity, but I end up providing a refuge for other stagehands that are trying to escape the insanity...
What a crazy business...
Posted by Backstage at September 8, 2005 08:28 PM | TrackBack