This is all mundane stuff. It feels like you’re in the eye of the storm because everything is in place and secure, all is quiet, and yet you know there is a shit-storm that is about to occur… A shit-storm that you have planned, created and delicately orchestrated all by yourself. Hurray!
Prep Breakfast
If you are planning to serve breakfast but are ordering it, call whomever you are ordering it from and place the order. Whether it’s the bagel shop down the street, or a box of Starbucks coffee, egg croissants from McDonalds or Krispy Kreme doughnuts, call the day before and find out what has to happen to make sure the food/beverages arrive about 15-20 minutes before call time.
They either will deliver or you will pick them up. PAs will be arriving with the rest of the crew, so, unfortunately, along with everything else you have to do, you will also be a runner until the day officially begins.
Prep Veggies
Just a personal opinion, but I believe every Kraft service table should have a veggie platter. Actors like them because they’re low fat, busy DPs like them because they can grab a handful of carrots and go back to what they were doing, and they add the perception of expensive, quality food to your table.
Everyone knows what a supermarket veggie platter costs and it’s not cheap. You’re being smart and thrifty by doing the very mundane task of cutting up veggies the night before the shoot and making them look pretty on a platter.
It always amuses me when I get to this point because I have so much going on and have been on the phone or in a meeting for the last month, and now, here I am, the day before we start shooting and I’m cutting up celery. Perhaps not the best use of my time the day before, but I find that it is also relaxing to me in its simplicity. So I do it. And I take pleasure in it.
