Digital Bread Crumbs

I'm supposed to be studying for another exam right now, but my head is still mushy after a nearly three hour midterm earlier this afternoon. So instead I'll ramble on about how these last few months have been a blur with me still trying to balance work, family, and grad school responsibilities.

There was a trip out to Indiana a few weeks ago where I ate a tiny octopus, lost another fancy pen, and chased high school theater kids around. Then a few days dodging weather delays and scheduling issues with a good crew and a camera package I mostly enjoyed. Out in Connecticut I ate well and closed the rings on my Apple Watch each day before 10a while working with a bunch of younger student athletes. Don't forget that other shoot with the Cherokee Nation and their rad XR studio out in NE Oklahoma before that quick trip out to Shreveport so I wouldn't miss our younger monster's birthday again. I believe there was a film festival and an U.S. military air show in there somewhere too, but I was much younger then.

I have these photos on my phone that act like a trail of bread crumbs to remind me of where I've been lately. Forget actually trying to make something interesting looking, I'm just trying to remember what happened.

What's kinda wild is that my bread crumb photos have all sorta started looking the same. I wear the same blue collared shirt when I'm traveling by plane to a job and airports for the most part all kinda have the same look and feel. Then there's the black collared shirts I'll wear on set in trying to look like an adult. Well, unless I know I'll be working mostly outside and then it's the safari outfit with the green bandana to subtly let others know I'm down for women making their own decisions. Then there's the "Where'd I park?" and "I should take a photo of this lighting setup so I can remember what we did" set of photos. Not too long ago I'd mentioned something to St. Anne the Wife about how normal it is in this line of work to be picked up from the airport by complete strangers, work with them like crazy for a few days, and then peace out at the end of the job never knowing if you'll ever see them again.

I know too I wrapped up a couple more MBA classes around the end of June, then jumped straight into two more. During the summer semester we've had each of those eight week classes essentially crammed into two, five-week periods. I keep telling myself (and the wife and kids) that this short-ish 18 month period of doing my MBA won't last forever and will be crazy helpful in the long run.

In time, things will calm down and I'm sure I'll be bored out of my mind along with thinking I'll never work again. At least during this round of crazy busy I'm not fighting off "stress induced physical pain."

Busy enough

Well dang... It's been six weeks since the last blog post. During that time I had a trip out to Denver with the OU MBA program, two work trips out to Bentonville, AR, another work trip out to Springfield, MO, and a crap ton of grad school work to plow through. It's been busy to say the least. Like, "stress induced physical pain" levels of busy. As always, crazy thanks to Saint Anne the Wife for putting up with my nonsense and keep our two housefires from burning the place down while I've been so busy and traveling .

This last week I had my final exams in both my Managerial Economics and Business Law & Ethics classes. I've not seen my final grades yet, but I'm confident I landed an A in my economics class and goodness knows what I got in that legal class. I'd applied to law school years ago, but decided against going. Still pretty sure I made the right decision, especially now after going through these last seven weeks. Still, there's plenty I picked up in that business law & ethics class considering the nearly 80 pages of handwritten notes and the 19 page study guide I'd put together in studying for that final.

Work-wise I got connected to a true crime show that kept me crazy busy. It's been a two camera shoot on Sony cameras (FS7s and/or FX9s) as well as a couple drone days on my Mavic 3. As much as I'm not a fan of Sony cameras and their dumpster fire of a menu, those FX9s are kinda growing on me; those FS7s can go straight to hell.

I picked up a couple used Hive Hornet 200-Cs LED lights that were on sale and I'm for sure a fan. I'm diggin' being able to control the color and intensity of my Titan tubes and now these 200-Cs with my iPhone. As much as I love the Hives, I've had some issues with the units shifting colors while I'm using the app, but so far I'm blaming user error. I'd love to pick up one of their Super Hornet 575-Cs, but that's crazy money. I also got introduced to some 3d printed gold mount plate covers that were super interesting. Can't say I'm rusing out to pick up a couple of my own, but the possibilities are interesting.

Another gem from the last few weeks was landing short-term drone insurance through Skywatch.ai. My current production insurance won't even consider covering drones, but I was able to pick up a month's worth of covereage for a client shoot for about $62. Not bad.

That trip out to Denver with the OU MBA program was an opportunity to meet with a couple businesses out in that part of the world as well as a chance to spend some time with fellow OU MBA students. We got a VIP tour of the Coors Brewery out in Golden, CO, plus we got to meet with a consulting firm and a few other OU MBA alums who're killing it in the business and finance world. I'm still hoping to use my MBA to better understand the business end of the work I get to do, but hot damn it's been worthwhile getting to be a fly on the wall in other industries and expand my business worldview.

I'm still hoping to write up some blog posts anchored in what I've been studying in these graduate business courses. My Managerial Economics class had me studying different pricing models and that has all kinds of implications to day rates and equipment rentals. My law class had an entire section on contract law that I actually used with a client in the last couple weeks and saved myself from losing a good deal of money. I've also been digging into artificial intelligence via ChatGPT, but that's something else entirely. Here's part of a ChatGPT response I got recently regarding cinematographer rates:

"...As an AI language model, I cannot provide a specific or exact figure on how much you should charge documentary clients for a full day of camera work since this can vary depending on various factors, such as your level of experience, the location of the shoot, the equipment needed, and the specific requirements of the client. However, there are some general guidelines that you can consider when determining your rate. The first step is to research the standard rates for cinematographers in your area and for the type of work you will be doing. You can look at industry associations, online resources, or ask colleagues in your field. Next, you should consider your level of experience, your qualifications, and the type of equipment you will be using. Generally, more experienced cinematographers can charge higher rates than those who are just starting out, and the type of equipment you use can also affect your rate. You may also want to consider the scope of the project and the expected length of time it will take to complete. Some clients may require additional services, such as post-production editing, which can also affect your rate. Ultimately, the most important thing is to determine a fair rate that takes into account all of these factors and ensures that you are being compensated appropriately for your time, expertise, and equipment. You can also negotiate with the client to find a mutually acceptable rate." - ChatGPT

My Filmsupply sales have absolutely tanked these last few months. I'd gotten spoiled with those licensing fees covering my monthly overhead and then some. I can't say for certain what's causing the decline, but I'm assuming it's related to rising interest rates eating into advertising budgets, where we are currently in the U.S. election cycle, the scope of my stock footage portfolio, and the world being on this side of Covid. That said, one of my clips was in a recent Joe Biden spot – now my third stock footage placement in a U.S. presidential election. It's a follow shot from a manufacturing plant and about 30 seconds in.

The Opposite of a Cakewalk

Well, it's been a bit again – and that's totally fine by the way. The last few weeks have been a freakin' whirlwind.

I finished out the first module of my MBA with an A in both my Financial Accounting and Quantitative Analysis classes. Let me rephrase that: I earned those two As considering I was studying 30-40 hours a week in addition to my work and family responsibilities. The graduate work I'd done back in 2005-06 was an absolute cakewalk compared to what I went through these last eight weeks. We've already started our second module for the semester, and I'm taking classes in Financial Management and Leadership. Soon enough I'll start sharing what I'm learning in those classes, but considering how little time I have at the moment, I'll just leave you with a couple quotes I've already read for my leadership class:

"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." - William James

"When you say everything is a high priority, then nothing is a high priority. It really indicates that you're unwilling or unable to make a decision, which means you won't get anything done." - John Maxwell

During the tail end of finals week I was over in Amsterdam meeting with and interviewing the incredibly kind people behind Royal Posthumus. I'd mentioned it in an earlier post, but their story plays a large roll in my rubber stamp documentary. I'd been wanting to connect with them in person for what feels like forever at this point and I'm stoked it finally happened. I'll save the storyline details for the film, but I'm actually hoping to share some of the logistical experiences I went through in making that nonsense happen and what I learned.

While I've travelled alone internationally before, I've always met up with American crews on site and had producers and directors who were the "adults in the room." I'd not had to hire out and pay foreign crew in local currencies, deal with the whole Carnet thing, plus a notebook full of other things. Beyond that, there's the whole thing of me being up way too late studying and taking one of my MBA finals in a European hotel room and having to figure out how to keep my computer charged using my rental car's USB-c port because I'd accidentally left my charger at home.

There's also those other shoots I could talk about since my last post – Life.Church and Habitat for Humanity shoots here in Oklahoma City and that last minute job out in Kansas City, MO – but you'll just have to trust me and a few iPhone photos without context to prove I've been working my tail off lately.

Washington, D.C. with the Cherokee Nation

So about last week...

I'd gotten a last minute call from the Cherokee Nation about a shoot they were doing in Washington, D.C. A Cherokee citizen, Dwight Birdwell, was being awarded the Medal of Honor for acts of heroism during the Vietnam war. He was one of four Vietnam veterans being honored at several events throughout the week and the Cherokee Nation was out to make a feature for their Osyio, Voices of the Cherokee People series.

We filmed quite a bit with Dwight Birdwell as well as a few of his Army buddies who were actually there that day in January 1968 when Birdwell helped drive back as many as 1,000 enemy troops during an assault on a Saigon base. Spending time with those veterans, hearing their stories, and seeing them find the names of their fallen friends on the Vietnam Memorial wall was incredible. As difficult, frustrating, and exhausting as this job can be at times, experiences like this past week in our nation's capitol help make it worthwhile.

Beyond getting to meet and hear the incredible stories of these actual heroes, the highlight for me was getting to visit the White House. This was the first time I'd gotten past the heavy metal gates and actually into the building. The Cherokee Nation producer/director was cleared as a guest for the event, but the sound recordist and I weren't supposed to have gotten in at all. We somehow got cleared for entry and were corralled in with the rest of the media in the White House Briefing Room and then escorted to the East Room for the event. As the Secret Service walked us through those historic hallways and into the largest room in the White House, I tried to absorb whatever I could while also pretending like I was supposed to be there. By all means the White House is one of the classiest places I've ever been and I was furiously trying to remember the building layout by way of all the time I'd spent watching The West Wing.

The East Room was packed with invited guests and the press was kept at the back of the room behind a rope line. Thank goodness my Oconor tripod legs extend as high as they do, otherwise I'd have been blocked out by all the other media who've been there before and thought to bring their own step ladders. I was able to wedge myself in-between a still photog from the New York Times and another agency I'd never heard of. Good Lord too you'd better believe I made sure that little red record light was on when it needed to be and that my image was as sharp as I could make it. None of this "double-clutch" nonsense that keeps people on my side of the camera awake at night.

Washington, D.C. is a wild place to be during the July 4th holiday. It was crawling with people and security was even tighter than normal. We had a good deal of downtime and I was able to go hunt down the rubber stamps I could find, wander around with my still cameras, and live that luxurious life of eating take out on top of washing machines at laundromats. Georgetown University is something else and I found out why random tourists were laying down to take awkward photos on a crazy steep staircase. I also stopped by Bridge Street Books to pick up a copy of Ready Player One and a book about debt over the last 5,000 years which I'm sure Saint Anne the Wife can't wait to hear me talk about.

I've done the whole National Mall thing before, but never made it to the other side of the U.S. Capitol and out to the Supreme Court building. Considering all the news lately I made it a point to visit the place where a lot of the sausage gets made by nine fancy lawyers who aren't voted into political office. The day I was there with just my stills cameras was pretty tame. There were a few pro-choice activists with signs just outside the newly installed barricades. The next day was July 4th and I was back out at the Supreme Court building with our sound recordist to film "Washington, D.C. b-roll" for the Cherokee Nation. We unintentionally wound up in the middle of a spat between a large group of abortion rights activists and a handful of pro-lifers looking for a fight.

A white, brown-haired, college-aged girl in a blue dress walked right up to the edge of the abortion rights activists and held up her "We Won't Stop at Roe" sign. In the time it took for the dude she was with to take a few photos, she quickly got mobbed by the other side, creating even more fodder for r/LeopardsAteMyFace. I didn't see any punches, but it got rowdy and I remember seeing her sign getting skewered by the tip of a small American flag just before someone ripped it in two.

Pretty quickly the nearby U.S. Capitol Police got involved and stood between the two groups who were still yelling at each other. Within minutes those Capitol Police grew by about a dozen more, and then another 2-3 dozen officers. It wasn't like they were siding with either of the groups, but it was obvious they weren't playing around.

Afterward I dug through Instagram and found the girl in the blue dress along with several other posts from the event. Her recollections aren't what I saw and she for sure leaned into being the victim online. It's not worth giving her more attention, but I'm sure you know how the internet works and can find her yourself and the conservative merch she's selling on her website. I'm always down for protests, but simply looking for a fight is something else altogether. No clue if the footage I shot of the spat will actually see the light of day considering I was there for something else entirely.

Travel Week

It's a travel week and I'll be on road through this July 4th holiday. St. Anne the Wife is maintaining her role as family superhero while I'm hustling through airports and hoping my footage is exposed and framed well and somewhat in focus.

It's Saturday as I'm writing this and I'm on a three hour layover in Houston before my next flight. Both the airport shuttle driver and the ticket counter agent asked if I was getting paid extra to work over the holiday weekend. I'm assuming it was the stack equipment cases I'm traveling with that suggested I wasn't out for a summer vacation like the rest of the world. Two plus years is a long time to be putting off leisure travel and a lot's changed since I started flying again during the pandemic. Those nearly empty airports and flights back in August 2020 are long gone and it's certainly back to fighting for empty seats and armrests.

I'm flying from a different city on another airline and meeting my producer/director & field audio at our destination. Luckily my 7am flight out of OKC had no issues, but they're delayed and hoping to make their connecting flight. If you've been paying attention, they're not the only ones dealing with yet another Covid related dumpster fire.

Delays and cancellations have plagued air travel, and the Fourth of July weekend may be the biggest test yet for the airline industry, which has faced scrutiny from customers, regulators and investors. - Lauren Hirsch, nytimes.com

Still, as a freelancer who's certainly gone months without work – especially this year – I'm a happy clam to jump on an early flight to a paid gig.

In the meantime, the July-August edition of EdibleOKC just came out and includes a two page spread about my rubber stamp collection. I'd connected with EdibleOKC Editor and Co-Publisher Stuart Husdson via Sam DuRegger (Woodshed Tea & TMRW Coffee). The fine folks at EdibleOKC heard about my stamp hunting and are doing a series on food related collecting. Stuart and I connected for a couple different interviews for the print piece and they sent out a fantastic freelance photographer based in OKC named Charlie Neuenschwander. I'm an awkward person to begin with plus not used to being on the business end of a camera. Crazy thanks to both of them for putting up with me, let alone being interested in my project. I've yet to see an online version of the article, but I'll make sure and include a link if and when it's available. While I'm writing this too, make sure and check out the other work Charlie's website.

35 More Hours in NYC

Back in New York this past weekend for something like 35 hours. It's turned into an incredibly busy time here at the Herriott house, so why not include a somewhat last minute trip? On top of that, Elliot and Saint Anne the Wife got Covid right before I left town while Housefire Two and I are still testing negative. Did I also mention it's the last week of their school year?

On Saturday, May 14th, there were abortion rights demonstrations happening across the country. According to BuzzFeed News, there were something like 10,000+ protesters out doing their thing in New York City and marching across the Brooklyn Bridge. Considering the historical significance of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion and what's at stake, I thought it was important enough to be there with a camera and see things first hand. I'll be cutting a video from the event, but this fight isn't going away anytime soon.

Here's the actual journal entry I wrote the morning following the leak:

We're still reeling this AM following last night's leaked Supreme Court document laying out the overturning of Roe v. Wade... Neither Anne nor I are the same people we were in our younger days. Had this decision come in our late teens, early 20's, we'd be having a different conversation. I'm absolutely in favor of letting women decide what they do with their bodies. This is ridiculous. Again, the black and white lives we led have no doubt turned incredibly gray and we're better people because of it.

In the meantime, just know flights and hotels have gotten INCREDIBLY expensive the last few months. I'd gotten spoiled with $300 roundtrip flights from Oklahoma City to New York during the scary parts of the pandemic. Flights for this quick trip ended up costing $700+. I'd also found a groove with a $150/night Hilton in Long Island City that could've listed as my second address considering how often I was there. I 'bout puked when I saw those same rooms now going for $300-600/night. There's no way I was up to spend that kind of money, so crazy thanks to a DP buddy of mine, Jeremy McDaniel, for letting me crash at his place a couple nights.

To DC and Back

It's been about a month, so surely it's time for another update.

The Washington, D.C. trip came and went a few weeks ago. For the first time, I kinda got to "peak rubber stamp" considering how saturated the week was. Looking through my notebook those few days I landed something like 65 different stamps. Most were directly related to ones you could find at National Park sites, but that's totally fine considering it being the main reason I drove about 3,200 miles in seven days.

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There's also the new buddies I made out in eastern Tennessee. Picasso Gaglione and Darlene Domel let me spend most of the day at their place in Knoxville and talk rubber stamps till I ran out of hard drive space (and then some). They were both incredibly kind, interesting, and their creative worlds and experiences went way beyond the scope of my rubber stamp documentary.

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With all the stamp hunting between Oklahoma City and D.C., I'm pretty sure I found the best egg sandwich in the country at Fox In The Snow Cafe in Columbus, OH. I'd already had at least three coffees in about four hours, so I can't speak to their espresso offerings but damn that sandwich probably changed my life. There's something to be said too about A Dopo Sourdough Pizza in Knoxville, TN and how I'll be making my own pizza dough plus thanks to A Baked Joint in D.C. for reintroducing to Tabasco sauce. And thank goodness to the coffee shop owner at Redhawk Coffee in Pittsburg who kinda blew my mind with a quote about "cup stamping being the backbone of the hipster economy."

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For the actual National Park Travelers Club conference in DC, I'd not really had a plan going into it. All I knew was what I'd learned during my interview with Mike Brown back in June and some of the time I'd spent on their website. Ideally I'd have gone into the event as a producer with wireless video signal and headphones connected a dedicated camera op and production sound mixer/boom op. But, there I was like an idiot trying to do all the nonsense myself seeing as how I didn't have an additional $1k-1500/day to hire out a crew.

I'm pushing hard on this project to do what I can with what I have, so I was out there with my RED Weapon, a set of prime lenses, and some filtration/NDs. If I were to do it again, I'd have tried to spent the $1k to rent out a couple of the Angenieux EZ cinema zooms for the week and at least used a monopod vs. trying to keep the camera package as SUPER lean and unobtrusive as possible while filming the conference. I'd also planned to shoot some sit-down interviews with convention go-ers back in my hotel room, but that never panned out. This project is more a marathon than a sprint, so I'll probably be making some changes as I go.

I'm still hoping to make it overseas and meet up with some connections I've made (London, Melbourne, etc) plus get some of the Eki train stamps in Japan, but that's quite a bit of money I'll need to come up with to make that happen. Seeing as how I'm planning to pay for all this via my stock footage revenue, I did shoot quite a bit of skyline footage with my drone while I was out (Little Rock, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis) plus a handful of things with my RED. I'm also considering reaching out to some production companies and other connections I've made over the years to see if those could be options to help fund this nonsense.

Rip Van Winkle'd

Dang... I Rip Van Winkle'd this blog for a solid chunk of the summer. Last thing I remember was talking about a DIY case and then somehow slipped out this website. It's not like I've "not been doing the things." Freakin' far from it. That's probably what happened. That mysterious "work" came around and brought it's bill-paying elixir, only to have me fall asleep on trying to keep to healthy writing habits. Still got that 'ol Moleskine notebook habit going though. There's plenty in there from the last bit...

A quick recap on what's happened the last two months:

  • I've been back and forth to NYC twice now: once for work; another with fam (and more work).
  • There was that one day shoot at the Oklahoma State Capitol about a bounty (alive, preferably) on an Oklahoman Bigfoot. You'll notice I tried my best to dodge the news cameras.
  • Then there was a solid weeklong project with me cam op'ing on a network pilot shooting here in Oklahoma City; bulletproof vests and minivans were absolutely involved. Thank goodness for EasyRigs being stronger than 12 hour days and a full-kitted out Amira with cine zooms.
  • Finally another weeklong shoot full of 12+ hour days, but this time as a still photographer sweating my tail off in the heat on a feature shooting up in Guthrie, OK. I legit shot and had to cull through something like 10,000+ still images from the week.

With all that going, I've still kept at it with my rubber stamp doc. I'm three interviews deep at this point and sitting on about 1.4tb of footage. I'm actually heading out Tuesday for a cross-country trip to a rubber stamp convention in Washington, D.C. at the end of the week with the National Park Travelers Club. The drive should take about two days each way, so you'd better believe I'll be picking up some new stamps along the way. I've also super stoked about landing an interview with a guy out in Knoxville, TN, to talk about his world of rubber stamps and the mail art projects he's been part of over the years.

DIY Tube Light Case

It's been a bit quiet around this part of the website the last few weeks. I'm neck deep in an edit for a project I directed/DP'd a couple of weeks ago and I'm prepping for another shoot in NYC this coming weekend. Turns out there's only so much time in a day.

That being said, I did manage me work out a DIY PVC pipe case for my two Astera Titan tubes. There aren't a ton of case options for LED tube lights unless you've got quite a few of them. I've been looking for case options for individual tubes that could fit in another case vs. dedicated cases that would just be an additional checked bag for flights and/or one other case I'd be lugging around on shoots. I've been using the cardboard tubes the lights ship in, but they got rained on during a shoot and quickly started coming undone.

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Astera has a fancy $1,500 case for their Titans that's super nice, but it holds eight LED tubes, is heavy AF, and tough to travel with. They've also got a soft case, but it's not a good fit for what I'm looking to do. Hot Rod Cameras has a custom case for Quasar tubes, but again, I'm not looking for an additional, dedicated case that'd most likely end up costing me more in checked baggage fees than if I'd just rented at the destination.

Surprisingly, the Google searches for "DIY tube light case" were more about building your LED lights which is something I'm not even close to wanting to do. There are tons of YouTube videos for DIY PVC pipe cases for fishing rods, so I figured that'd work. Freakin' kudos to the YouTubers and the rest of the internet for making step-by-step tutorials for the rest of us to follow. If I hadn't been rushing to get these done in between my normal work day and family responsibilities, surely it'd have made for a useful resource.

For this project I used a 2" wide PVC pipe and glued a fixed cap on one end and a screw top setup for the other. The pipe came in 5-6' pieces, so after working out the measurements with the Titan tubes, I hacksawed them down to 41" long and sanded off the painted and raised labels on all the parts. For the interior padding, I glued 2" of dense foam to the interior end of the closed/fixed cap. I also ended up making something like a sock to put over the light so it doesn't get scratched and banged up once it's inside the rigid case. There's a bit of extra fabric on the open end of the sock to act as additional padding to keep the whole thing snug once the cap is screwed on.

All in I think I've spent about $50 on parts, so that's like $25/case. They haven't traveled or been on a working set with crew yet, so I'm curious as to how they'll work out. If I were to do it again, I'd like to find a bit thinner walled PVC pipe and not be as messy with the purple primer/glue process. The sock is made out of some fleece-type fabric my mom and I scrounged from her sewing room. I'm hoping the seams hold and the fabric doesn't stretch too much. The DIY PVC cases are close to the same length and diameter as the cardboard tubes I've been using, so it's not a problem to fit them in my 48" Tenba stand case. I'm planning to also get a couple of C-stands with turtle bases to go in the same case to make for a travel-friendly, battery-powered interview lighting setup.

UPDATED 6/1/21
Traveled back and forth to NYC in mid-May with these DIY PVC cases. The lights did fine and were packed in that long case with a couple of C-stands with turtle bases. The case did get a bit heavy but was still under 70 lbs, even with a 15lb sandbag.

The TSA did go through and open both PVC pipes while in the screening process on my flights out and back. They left their handy dandy "TSA Screening" note inside the main case and I could tell they'd pulled the lights out of their blue socks. No harm, no foul, and they lived to fly another day.

Traveling & Working During a Pandemic

Traveling for work during this nonsense is...something. The last week of September I was out in central Wyoming and back in New York City the next. Do understand that I'm stoked to be back on the road, but there's new adjustments in doing the thing.

It's weird to admit feeling spoiled by New York City Lyft drivers compared to using the app in another part of the country. In leaving for my flight to Wyoming, the Lyft driver wasn't wearing a mask until I asked about it from behind my own. She fumbled around a bit before putting on her mask and then started blasting old school country music I'm assuming to remind me of where I'm from.

The process at the airport was pretty much normal short of most people wearing masks and just about all the food options and most stores being closed. The OKC airport traffic was way down, but my layovers in both Denver and Houston felt like business as usual. The only time I whipped out my eye protection while flying for my Wyoming trip was in the Denver airport. It's not like I was having to avoid people trying to lick my eyeballs, but the place was nearly shoulder-to-shoulder packed in some areas. Just wearing another layer of protection at that point seemed more responsible than dealing with an unnecessary panic attack.

With most of the food options at airports closed, I figured my salvation would be behind the walls of the United Club. Nope... After piecing together a dinner of chips, a cheese stick, and a vodka tonic I re-joined the masses at the airport Chick-fil-As and Shake Shacks. Nothing says "luxuries of travel" like sitting on the floor, facing the wall, and eating fast food out of a paper bag. Oh, and don't forget to brush your teeth any chance you get; those KN95 masks aren't forgiving.

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An unexpected benefit at the moment is United Airlines lowering the requirements with their MileagePlus policies. Currently I'm Silver and somehow most of my flights had me upgraded from economy to First Class. Being at the front of the plane during Covid isn't the same as what it was like in the Before Time (masks, additional fear of death, etc.), but I'm absolutely not complaining about the perks especially considering how full my flights have been. Still, I'm absolutley using that airline provided alcohol wipe to disinfect my seat and tray table.

Now granted, the flight attendants and pilots were only wearing the basic blue medical style masks and no eye protection. I felt ridiculous wearing goggles, especially with them fogging up the entire time, but more than anything I was wearing them to help me calm down when I needed to. Nearly everyone had a mask on at the different airports and most were wearing them properly. It was odd seeing people in those full on splash guard style face shields like they were about to deliver a baby, but I'd rather be doing the thing next to those people vs. the True American Heroes not wearing a mask at all.

In terms of actually being on set, things weren't dramatically different. I've seen a multiple things about the Covid safety preference of using a shotgun mic to record audio, but both my shoots used lav mics. By all means I'd stress the importance of having multiple monitors on set so everyone else isn't up in your business trying to see the image. We didn't have one for the Wyoming job and we should've. For my NYC shoot, we were able to have one for the client and an additional one off set.

Out in Wyoming we shot almost entirely outdoors. There was plenty of space to spread out so social distancing wasn't a problem. At one point I stepped in to help the talent fix the placement on her mic. I'd kept my mask on and she said, "Oh don't worry, I'm not infected. I'm a nursing student and get tested all the time." I kindly replied, "But you don't know that I'm not. I'm not from here and I've been around a lot of people I don't know." Her eyes widened a bit and you could tell she understand my caution.

New York felt completely different. Each of the Lyfts I took while in the city had drivers in masks and a plastic divider between us to stop the spittle. I'd not ridden the subway since mid-March, so it felt like home stepping down into the sights and smells of that underground world even though I – along with everyone else – was wearing a mask. For my shoot, we had to fill out a Covid questionnaire beforehand, wore masks, had plenty of hand sanitizer, and weren't allowed to have food or drinks (other than water) on set.

Several friends of mine living in NYC have talked about how the city somewhat feels back to normal – short of wearing masks and using hand sanitizer all the time. One mentioned how it seemed like most people there were on the same page about masks and fighting back against Covid. It sucks that the rest of the country isn't.