Breaking

你奶奶的
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Guess I found out where someone's 'dark cloud' (or as I like to call it: the Big Bad Cloud of Arse Luck - BBCAL, for short; while not as elegant as FUBAR, seems to sum up what I'm feeling at the moment) has moved on to...

When I had to reshoot something yesterday, my supposed day of rest, it was fine because it wasn't my fault someone lost the CD of the images. (They were willing to pay for the additional day, so who's complaining?)

But today, when someone should have kept an eye, or two, on the lights, we didn't. Instead, we were all looking and marvelling at the shots from the very first set-up of the day and week when the wind decided to test the CG of the whole setup and it all came a-tumblin'-down. (For you Science geeks out there, the head weighs about 700 grams - give or take - and it was raised to the light stand's maximum height of about 2.1 metres: do the math.)

In that heartbeat, the profit margin went from shitty to non-existent. Seems like repairs could be anywhere from $200 onwards. I've set a limit though: if repairs costs more than $500, I'm getting a whole new set of lights.

There's nothing quite like having something like happen to make me start being paranoid about everything electronic in the shoot. And when the cabbie taking me home from Peninsula Plaza starts to test every conceivable G-force the vehicle and its passengers/cargo can take, it's all I can do to keep from screaming at him.

A cigarette never tasted this good.

***

Updated at 20:40

In the vein of paranoia, I've also begun backing up all the images from the last week of shooting.

Just in case.