Frenchie trainee diary - by Léa
Hi there guys and gals! How are you today? I’m Léa, a frenchie camera trainee born in London, and raised in France. I moved back at the age of 17 to my birthplace to step into the fabulous and frightening world of filmmaking! I studied in EaIing for about 2 years, learning to become a semi-independent semi-adult during University. After a big post-graduation freak out I decided to jump in and start networking, putting my name out there and working wherever I could to help me build up my experience.
I worked 3 jobs for my first 3 months of freelancing: waitressing, kit room tech in my old school and freelancing in film. It was tough but it was worth it as it bought me time to build a network of people. I then started to work as a camera trainee about a year ago, of course like anything, there were some ups and downs but I have been loving it! I have had the opportunity to live unique experiences, to meet so many wonderful people and to learn so much about my work and about myself while growing in this industry. Honestly, looking back at this year and a half, it’s been quite the journey!
So I don’t know about you guys and gals, but I’m well excited about sharing this diary with you all. Everything will be open for discussion. Obviously, like every diary, this is extremely subjective and about my own point of view. Basically think of me as a newly acquired film friend. I hope you’ll enjoy the ride. Let’s get to it, right?
Winter… we meet again! You know, back in France, I’ve always been a fan of winter, snow, skiing, Christmas (big fan!), family reuniting, and coming home to a homemade hot meal (biggest fan!). But winter in London is very different: icy roads, night time from 3pm onwards, flu season at the ready, hot tubes and freezing dry weather! I managed to escape it half of it last year when I went on a spontaneous holiday with a friend, but this year’s winter is creeping in on me slowly and am dreading every second of it. So I’ve decided to be extra prepared and form a budget-friendly survival kit!
As someone who always runs cold (not kidding I am sometimes cold in summer, it’s ridiculous!), I need a lot of prep to the winter weather. I will always remember the first time I was filming in winter, it was in Ealing in the end of November - night shoot. I was not prepared at all! I mean, sure, I rocked up with a hat, gloves, 2 jumpers and a coat, but that’s about it! I ended up borrowing an extra 2 jumpers from the producer who luckily brought extra ones! However the downside of this was that it was hard to move in 4 jumpers and a coat: it’s not exactly the most flexible and warm outfit to work in! So I guess lesson 1 is to buy appropriate coats and jumpers, especially thermals - life saviours! I was always a bit hesitant of buying expensive coats, as when you’re a trainee, it’s hard to budget for this. But after spending last Jan to March filming in Switzerland and London at sometimes - 10°C , I have finally decided to never freeze again and treated myself to an expensive, comfy and practical jacket. So far it’s been the best decision I have made for this pre-winter life! (side note: you’ll do a lot of exercise on set, pushing magliners around, carrying boxes, going from van to set to van to set, walking up 2 to 14 flights of stairs, which will make you super sweaty, so you need layers that you can put on and take off quickly, cause you’ll go from cold to hot and back to cold in the space of 5mins!) I’d also advise to always take a bag full of spares when you’re on set: thermals, neck-warmers, socks, gloves, hats, shoes, jumpers, waterproof trousers and jackets. It’s always good to have a bag of spares on you so that you can change, in case you get soaked by the rain or snow. It's even handy if you just want to get comfy at the end of the day when driving or taking public transport back home.
Survival tip 2. I know this won’t blow your mind but these are essentials to keeping you happy and warm: reusable hand warmers. You can find a lot of different ones online but I recommend the ones that last between 8 and 12 hours, as usually you’ll be on set for 12h or more. Just put one in each pocket of your jacket and you’ll be a lot happier when confronting the harsh weather conditions, believe me! You also can use hand warmers to help your lenses to climatise faster when moving from cold to warm environments! It can also help to keep your camera batteries warm and charged - when we were filming in -10°C with no access to power in Switzerland it definitely helped us through the day!
So, after you have picked your clothes, spare clothes and charged your reusable hand warmers, I strongly suggest buying a thermos . It will be a wonderfully heartwarming addition to your dark chilli winter lives on or off set (and better for the environment than plastic as you know) . All those hours spent on public transport, at work, and outdoors on location will be so much better with a thermos filled with hot coffee, tea or hot chocolate, don’t you think? It is also common practice that you’d do coffee runs while on set for your department, so when winter comes, make even more coffee runs to keep everyone warm and happy ! I’d even suggest you get one thermos for hot drinks and one reusable, filtered bottle for water (and don’t forget to label them both!)
I think the most difficult thing for me in winter, and I’d imagine a lot of people would agree with me on this, would be that I rarely see any daylight. With early calls and late wrap times, if you’re working inside rather than on location, it can be quite hard mentally to not see any daylight for months. Being a beach baby, growing up in France, there’s rarely a day where you don’t see daylight and have your daily intake of vitamin D. I needed to find a way to wave goodbye to S.A.D and fight for my intake of vitamin D. So, BUY VITAMIN D in any shape of form. My mother has been talking about them for so long and I never took them, I’d just put them away in a drawer and forget I’d even have them, but recently I was starting to get ill, and got up at 4am for a shoot and was feeling awful, so I thought ‘What the hell, i’ll try it!’, and it really helped (never dismiss what your mother says, as you know ‘mother knows best’)! I also always chuck in my bag a bottle of Vitamin B and C (for those weeks where you are working 24/7 and need a little boost), Baby powder to put on your feet to dry the sweat (which keeps your feet warm), and sunscreen - you never know when the sun will hit! Even though it’s winter, the sun can sometimes power through those big grey clouds and find a way to give you a sunburn in winter. Believe me, I was surprised as well when it happened to me, so just throw it in there. Better safe than sorry!
If you are someone like me and get affected by the sudden change of weather, I think it’s important to find activities that will keep you sane during these months. Here are a few things I personally love to do: go out to a pub and socialise with people I haven’t seen in a while, drive to a random place in England for a weekend, have dinner parties/take-away parties with friends, and meditate in the mornings and evenings. Obviously it’s hard to keep commitments to these activities with freelancing as it ends up happening quite rarely, but it’s lovely when it does!
Basically what I want to say through this is BE PREPARED. Find your own things to keep you happy and warm and make winter less horrible for you mentally and physically! Alright… well, I’ll go back to snuggling in my duvet, watching Netflix, and making about 5 cups of hot chocolate. Enjoy your festive December! Despite the piercing cold it is a wonderful month that opens up possibilities like walking through Christmas markets, drinking hot wine, eating melting buckets of hot cheese and most importantly spending time with your loved ones!!
Have a very merry month, and take care of yourself! Speak soon,
Léa xx
