Never say it can't get worse cause sure as shit it will certainly get worse - usually in ways you couldn't even imagine.

I didn't do this fatal flaw on Tuesday but what I didn't know was that someone else had tempted fate for me......

Couple weeks ago, the writer on one of the pilots I worked on emailed to ask me for a working draft of the script. Seems they were planning on doing some re-shoots.

I never heard anything else about it and figured they didn't require my services for the re-shoots.

I figured wrong.

Monday was a slow day at the office. Around six pm, a friend writes to say she just got handed tickets to a concert that evening at 8P - can I go? I wasn't doing anything and said sure, why not.

I pack up and am out the door by six thirty.

By 7:30P, my cell rings. I don't recognize the number and let it hit voicemail. About an hour later, I'm on line getting snacks and decide to check my voicemail.

It's the first assistant director from the pilot calling to say he heard pages were emailed to me and was wondering when he could expect to receive them.

I call him back, get his voicemail, and say I hadn't heard anything about pages, that I would look into it tomorrow, but that I wasn't aware that I'd be working on the re-shoots.

Oh silly silly Wabbit.

I then decide to check my email via my cell and realize pages were indeed emailed to me - about ten minutes after I left the office. No warning. No nothing.

The first AD texts me to say not to worry, it's been taken care of and we'll talk tomorrow. But doesn't explain what he means by "taken care of."

Next day, I'm on the bus to work when the production coordinator for the pilot calls me. Says they are waiting on me to prep the pages so they can distro to the crew. I say the 1st AD told me it was taken care of. She says no, we just gave the pages to the actors so they could learn their lines - we didn't give it out to anyone else.

Joy.

I get in, quickly prep the pages and put them out.

Couple hours later, the production coordinator calls me - we work in different offices just to make things more interesting - and says the 1st AD just got different pages from one of the producers with a new scene that wasn't part of the pages we put out earlier. Do I know anything about this? And of course, I know nothing.

I call the producer, ask about the pages with the new scene. It goes something like this:

Producer: Yea the writer sent them out last night. You didn't get them?

Me: Nope.

Producer: Really? He didn't send them to you?

Me: Unfortunately not. Can you foward them to me? (meanwhile the writer is on a plane flying across country for the re-shoots the next day)

Producer: Yes, but I only have them in PDF, not in Screenwriter.

Me: So I'm guessing I shouldn't have put out those goldenrod pages earlier today since these replace them.

Producer: Probably not.

Grand.

Get the PDF of the pages. Furiously type them into the script and get them sent out as quicly as I can. My email went something like this: Please find attached the 2nd Goldenrod Pages. The attached pages REPLACE the 2nd Goldenrod pages that were put out this morning.

About two hours go by and then my phone rings again. It's Emily in (insert state). Emily in (insert state) needs me to email her the script in Final Draft so a different writer can work on some more revisions.

This causes several alarms bells to go off.

First being I don't know this Emily chick from a hole in the wall.

Second being - a different writer? What the heck? There is ONE WRITER on this show and he's on a plane right now.

Third being - the program we used on this show was Screenwriter which is sadly not compatible with Final Draft.

I call back the producer and try to figure out what exactly is going on. Between him and some other people, I find out that they have JUST brought in a new writer, that Emily is a new Associate Producer, and that I'll be getting more revisions - probably in a word document - from this new writer and also from the regular writer when he lands.

Time goes by. I get my two different sets of revisions - one from each writer - incorporate them into the script and out goes the 3rd white pages at 8:30P.

About two hours later, I've finished up the other work that needed doing and am journeying home.

At 11:30P, my cell rings. Unlike the night before where I let it go to voicemail, I decide to answer it. It is Emily. She's sorry to inform me they have more revisions and I need to put them out immediately.

It is also at this time, I realize I've put myself on the wrong bus going home. Don't ask - I'm still not sure how I managed this feat - but there I was not traveling towards my apartment but towards my parent's house a good twenty minutes away from my own home.

I inform Emily I'm on a bus going home, that I live a good hour away from the office, that I don't have my computer with me, that it is locked up in the office and I don't have the key to get back in. It's gonna have to wait till tomorrow.

Her response - that's not my problem, you need to get back in and get these pages put out. They're for tomorrow - first scene of the day at 9A.

Fantastic.

She says she'll call the office to see if anyone is there to wait for me to return and I call my parent's to see if I can wake them up so they can drive me home once I get near their house.

Oh insanity.

I then call the producer. Not surprisingly, at midnight, his phone rings and rings and rings till I get his voicemail and leave him a message. I tell him what's going on and ask how he'd like to proceed. I then call my former boss, who is also involved in this project, and his phone goes right to voicemail. This tells me his phone is most likely off and he won't get my message till the morning so I don't bother to leave one.

Emily calls back to say there is someone there and she told them they had to wait for me to return to the office. Thinking that she's called the office I work in, the one she called me at earlier in the day, I ask who she spoke to there. She says some girl. Still thinking she's called MY OFFICE and not the office for the pilot, I say you can't do that. You can't make our paperwork production assistant (who at that hour would be the only one possibly left in the office) wait for me to return. She doesn't work on the pilot and she has to be on set for the series I work on early in the morning.

Her response. Not my problem. She has to wait for you.

Sigh.

It then dawns on me, she probably didn't call the right office. And I was right, she called the production office for the pilot. I inform her of this and remind her that I don't work there so chances are my computer won't be in that office. She says it doesn't matter as they have to wait for me regardless so they can copy the pages for filming the next day.

Oh frustration.

I then try to explain to her that I still don't have a way to get into my own locked office and access my computer. I also haven't heard back from the producer and am wondering if I'm really gonna have to go back to work and potentially break into the office to get these pages out.

She decides to call the executive producer because she thinks he'll have a key to my office.

Silly, silly Emily.

The EP does have keys - to his own office. He has his own production company - where he has his own large office and assistant. This EP works not only on the pilot but also on the series I work on. But he rarely if ever visits our offices and he certainly doesn't have keys.

Emily tries to argue with me saying He's the EP! Of course he'd have keys to the production office of his show! I try to explain how things work but my words fall on deaf ears. She asks how I've gotten back into the office in the past when this has happened. I tell her this has never come up before so I've never had to find out. Thankfully her frustration with me drives her to hang up so she can call the EP and work something out.

The EP tells not only does he not have keys to our production office, he also doesn't agree with her idea of having me trek the hour plus back into work in the middle of the night. He does however agree the pages have to be put out prior to filming the next day.

Great.

This posed a problem.

At some point during all this, I remembered my office wasn't going to open until 7:30A. Filming on the pilot was slated for 9A. This didn't provide enough time to prep the pages, make copies and get them to set all before 9A.

I don't tell this to Emily though as I didn't want to make her panic and waste more time talking to her. I get off the phone and try to figure out how exactly I'm gonna make this work.

First course of action - getting keys to the office. I'm not sure who has keys and I don't have a ready list of numbers with me at home to call. It is now 12:30A, my time to find someone who has keys and is hopefully awake is running out.

In the end, a former co-worker still had keys to the office and was awake. Yay - access has been granted!

I then call the production office for the pilot and tell the poor soul, the production coordinator, who's been waiting around for me - per Emily - to go the heck home. I ain't gonna have anything for at least another two hours - by the time I drive to this person's house, get the keys, drive into work and then prep the pages. Get some sleep and come back in the morning, I say.

He treks home and I start my trek back to work shortly before 1A.

Buses to my home stop running at 1:30A which is why I'm forced to drive. I get into my car, travel to get the keys and then into work without a hitch.

Retrieve my computer, put out the 3rd Blue pages, and am back home and in bed by 4:30A.

I am mud.

I decide to work from home that day. After that night's fiasco, as I'm leaving the office, I bring everything I could possibly need with me home.

I rouse myself around 10:30A. I email the producer and my former boss to explain the activities of the previous night.

Former boss man emails right back to let me know exactly what I did wrong.

"Please contact me when these things happen. Word of advice: Use your voice mail. Don't call them back until you check with
us. Make yourself unreachable first. It could have been done in the morning."

Ugh.

I explain to him - as I did in my initial email - that I did call him and the producer to no avail. No one was awake and no one returned my phone call. I also explain that I thought coming in that morning was too risky.

He replies "It would have been fine. "

Yea that's great but it's a little late now.

Producer writes me back, much later that day, and says "That sucks. Sorry I wasn't available and you had to go through that. I have to say you do a really great job. Thanks."

I like this response oodles better.

During the course of the day, more revisions come in and I end up putting out the 3rd Pink pages.

Oh and I found out who invited insanity to visit. The production coordinator on the pilot - having just finished a crazy job - said to himself when starting work on Monday. This is a one week gig for re-shoots. Sweet. This will be easy. Nothing can be more difficult or crazy than the job I just did.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....aha.....ha.

He now knows better and we have been forever bonded after the experiences of that night.