life on another feature

i woke up this morning trying to think how long we'd been shooting this movie. as consciousness came, dragging coherency behind, i remembered: today would be our second day. it felt like it's been a week already. but features always feel like that.
i'm really enjoying being a first a.c. i run the camera department, and, as i learned on the movie i shot in april, a major part of success is surrounding yourself with good people. my 2nd a.c. is phenomenal, always thinking ahead, working tirelessly, quickly picks up what she doesn't already know, and is a master at organization. our loader is doing a very good job, despite slightly messy handwriting and him actually wanting to be on the electric crew. and our intern used to live next to me many years ago at centennial.
the day doesn't fly by almost frighteningly fast as it does when i'm a d.p., but time does move quickly. we're always moving the camera, changing lenses, getting focus marks, loading the camera, changing out this or that, and generally being awesome. granted, this is a light show and a good crew who all know each other, and i guess that makes it a prime spot for me to venture as a first a.c. and frankly, i'm loving it and i think i'm doing a good job.
this evening, as we were wrapping, ryan [the d.p. and good friend] came and quietly told me that he had just talked with the lab and that there was a serious problem with the film. it sounded like something that would have been my fault, but as we examined the camera and what we thought could have gone wrong, nothing seemed to make sense. so we left today knowing we had an issue to take care of, and while we're getting a new camera tomorrow, i'll feel a lot better when i know what caused the problem.

one of these nights i hope to get a decent night's rest.