A Story

Once upon a time there was a girl who worked as an office manager for a PR firm. This was not what she had been trained to do. No, her training was in broadcast journalism. Yet she was unemployed for a while and even though she freelanced for a journalism website during that time, that didn't pay all the bills or have healthcare. So, she swallowed her pride and took a job that was kind of remotely related, but was not near as much fun or as challenging. But wait, the author is digressing.

Anyway, this lowly office manager missed the fun of production work. She longed for something to keep that desire satisfied. Over the course of several months, she became addicted to Craigslist. One day she found a posting on there from a independent film company. They were looking for a cinematographer and other crew members for an upcoming film shoot.

How rad! thought the office manager, a chance to hone my skills and learn more about making a film! So she emailed, and soon learned that even though she told them she had no prior film production experience, she would be the "Boom Operator."

How romantic, she thought as the smooth sounds of Sade's "Smooth Operator" entered her head.

Soon, the first day of film production arrived, and the office manager could hardly contain her glee. She would be working on a film. Sure, the script was kind of stupid and she had no film production experience, but she thought, Who cares? I will be helping to craft a piece of art. The office manager grinned in private when she thought of the film's screening night sometime in the future. The credits would roll at the end of it all, and there would be her name up on the big screen:

Sound Recording/Boom Operator: The Office Manager

So the office manager arrived 15 minutes early to the shoot on the first day. She met the whole cast and crew and thought they were all so friendly and helpful. She felt the rush of being part of something cool -- there she was holding the boom mic over the scene, capturing the voices of the actors.

Five hours into the shoot, her arms were tired but she was still filled with a feeling of accomplishment and triumph. She had never done sound before, but here she was doing a fantastic job of holding the mic in just the right place and doing her part. The office manager smiled with satisfaction in between shots on scene 37A.

Then, she flicked the mic just to hear the crackle in her headphones.

Nothing.

She flicked it again. Still no sound in her headphones. Confusion crept in, how could she hear what was going on in the room but not hear a huge flick to the microphone?

The camera operator noticed the confusion on the office manager's face.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Um, I'm not getting any sound in the mic," the office manager sheepishly replied.

Both of them fumbled around with the mic, changing cords, flicking the mic, changing the cords back, flicking the mic. Still there was nothing.

Then they both looked at the camera. The office manager suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

"We've been getting all the sound from the mic on the camera," they both said in unison.

The room had gone quiet by then. Everyone was wondering why the cameraman and the boom operator were frantically moving cords on the boom. Now they knew.

"So she's been standing there for five hours now holding a boom over her head that's not been picking up any sound?" said the director, pointing at the office manager.

The cameraman nodded. The office manager smiled a sick smile. The director shook his head. Everyone else shuffled their feet or their script or looked away or did whatever they needed to do so as to not have to look at the office manager. She blinked.

Some time went by. There was discussion. Everyone was reassured to an extent that the camera had at least been picking up the sound. It wasn't as perfect as the sound from the boom, but it was still good sound. Most everyone had come up to the office manager and said supportive things like "Man, that sucks" or "Sorry about all that."

Still, she remained quiet and to herself for the rest of the shoot. After the initial discovery of the soundless boom, with everyone taking down the indoor set so they could move the shoot outside for the next scenes, she sat by herself outside along the fence. The boom sat next to her. She was trying to just stay out of the way for a little while.

The office manager watched the small crew move about with extension cords and lights and boxes and other film-making what-not. She watched her breath in the cool air, clutching the boom in the crook of her folded arm, rubbing her hands together.

The director walked over to her. "Alright, let's see if we can get this silly thing working," he said.

"I'm really sorry," the office manager said. "I was hearing sound in my headphones, and everything sounded fine. You know if it didn't sound fine I would've have said something so we could reshoot the scene with the correct sound."

The director nodded. He told her the cameraman just realized he hadn't switched a certain button on his camera to override that mic with the boom. They both sighed. The filming went on.

Even with that button finally switched for the final four hours of the shoot, the cords weren't the correct ones needed so that the boom could pick up both channels of the sound. So really the sound problem wasn't even her fault. Yet the office manager still wasn't finding much solace in that statement.

She still held the boom for the final four hours, picking up its one channel of sound. The day's shoot ended. Everyone cheered and shook hands and started tearing down the set. The office manager set the boom down and stood there silently for a second.

She smiled and then took it apart, laughing quietly as she put it away in its case.