OT: Sick and still working on deadlines

[Moody Glasgow]

The sickest I have ever been and went in for a full day of work was my first day of Smoke class. In the middle of the night I woke up with a horrible stomach flu and without being too graphic, let’s just say I spent most of the night in the bath room. I got up in the morning decided that nothing was going to stop me from learning the Smoke, so I drove an hour with a large bowl on my lap in LA traffic to get to my Smoke class. I had to take a few extra breaks that day, but I made and stuck to until the class was over. I’m glad I did.

moody glasgow
smoke artist / editor

[Tom Matthies]

I had to spend the day shooting on location while I had the flu. Felt like crap warmed over. The ironic thing was, I was shooting doctor interviews at a local hospital. Everyone of the doctors noted that I didn’t look too good but NOT ONE of then offered to help out in any way.
The flu came on so suddenly that I didn’t even have the time to schedule a doctor visit and since I was scheduled to do the shoot and it was too late to change the crew (5am call, mind you) I showed up. Of course everyone else on the crew didn’t want to catch it. My sound guy ran long cables and sat in another room to monitor the interviews.”Uh, it’s quieter in here” was the reason.
I finally had someone offer to take a look later in the day. Ironically, it was a PA that heard me hacking up a lung from another room and told me to get my butt into the examining room-NOW! and sit down. She got one of the docs to finally take a look, so I got treated while on break and then went right back to shooting a half hour an later. Made it to the end of the shoot at around 8pm in the evening. That’s about all I can remember about that day. I was toasted by the time I got home. Drink lots of fluids…
So far, so good this year. Knock on wood…
Tom

[Bob Cole]

My commiserations to the people who got sick and had to work through it. I started a similar thread over on the discrete editors forum awhile back, because I had noticed that I only got sick the day AFTER a big project was done — “postponing” that sickness. Turns out I’m not the only one, whether as a result of fatigue after long days and nights, &/or knowing you have to work anyway, so you can’t “afford” to feel bad.

For people operating very small or single-person businesses, sickness is a major issue. If your illness messes up the client’s schedule, the client may well think, “Hmm, a bigger production house might be more expensive, but they have backup.”

But even so, it’s not a great idea to work sick. Besides giving your bug to everyone else, the fact that you are fatigued raises issues of safety (shooting near hot lights, etc.) and quality.

My response has been to work very hard developing a list of terrific colleagues who can step in for me if/when I have a sick day.

And… this sounds nerdy, I know, but it can be just as important as knowing the latest greatest FCP filter or whatever…. wash your hands, have that flu shot, and get a good night’s sleep.

And I hope you’re feeling better.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Evan Schafer]

I had a nasty cold last week that I couldn’t shake. Like everyone, I had deadlines to make and decided to muscle my way through.

I hit the wall on Thursday when we had a big commercial shoot. I was running the camera during an interview and had to stop halfway through because I was literally 2 seconds away from passing out. Luckily, we had someone there who was able to run the camera while I went home. The next day, Im back in the edit suite, with a 103 fever, finalizing a show for delivery.

Now, Im out of work with bronchitis and pneumonia. So the bottom line is, if you can get some work done without pushing yourself too much, fine. But like alcohol, know your limits. Sometimes you have to put your health at the forefront, tell that client the bad news and take some PT to get healthy again. A day or two to rest up is better than not being able to work at all for a week.

[John Pale]

Worked the US Nationals Figure Skating event for ABC/ESPN a couple of years ago. They flew me out to St Louis and put me up a nice hotel for a week long job. Unfortunately the night before I was scheduled to leave I came down with a the flu coupled with sinus infection. I worked the night shift, 9pm-9am all week constantly blowing my nose with a horrible pounding headache. I got virtually no sleep due to the illness……the only thing that kept me from praying for my own death was the support of the people I was working with….really a good group of people, most of whom I didnt know before the gig.

[David Roth weiss]

[Bob Cole] “I only got sick the day AFTER a big project was done”

Mental illness doesn’t count Bob…

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Winston A. cely]

I think the worst time I had sick and still had to work/edit was when I was on a shoot last year. It was a cold, but worse than the one I have now. We were out on a lake, shooting b-roll for a fishing product in 30 degree weather that felt like 0 degrees if when the wind blew. And it was always blowing! It was a Sunday, I think, and I had to drive back the next day from Georgia to South Carolina. Since I don’t work in a big office there’s just me, so I didn’t have to worry about getting anyone else sick – except on the shoot, and I think the only reason no one got sick from me there, was the heavy use of hand sanitizer, and keeping a good distance away. I got home, and finished the edit in a little over a day. I got over the cold after a few days, but still had a nasty cough for a month. Not fun. I’m taking a cue from that, and sleeping in all day tomorrow and sunday. It won’t give me as much time to finish my edit’s, but I still feel confident if I’m feeling better, I can actually get the work done.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 | Aja Kona LHe

[Bob Cole]

[David Roth Weiss] “Mental illness doesn’t count Bob..”

Everything I know about insanity, I learned from you, David.

(Look at DRW’s sigline, folks — notice he says, “the usual insanity.”)

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650