Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/569837
8 dga quarterly ot many ADs who have worked on four Martin Scorsese features can say they owe their career to their janitorial ser- vices. But that's how 1st AD Chris Surgent got his foot in the door. About 20 years ago, the New Jersey native was one among "an army" of PAs on the Robert De Niro-directed A Bronx Tale (1993) when longtime Scorsese 1st AD Joe Reidy asked for a volunteer to clean the toilets in the rental apartments housing the film's many actors/mobsters. "I raised my hand," says Surgent. "It was horrible, dirty work. But my willingness to do anything for the production got Joe's attention, and led to bigger things," starting with his stint as a DGA trainee on Casino (1995). As Surgent moved up the ranks, he continued to go to great heights on the job. While working as then-rookie director Ben Affleck's 1st AD on Gone Baby Gone (2007), Surgent made a 40-foot jump into a water-filled quarry to help keep the produc- tion on schedule. "There's a pivotal scene where a character [played by Ben's brother, Casey] has to jump into the quarry at night," Surgent explains. "It was sum- mer, we only had eight hours of darkness, and Casey didn't want to do it. So I did the jump and said: 'See, you'll be fine.'" Working as director Francis Lawrence's 1st AD on The Hunger Games series, as well as a 2nd AD on Scorsese's The Aviator (2004), required a similar kind of dedication. "Doing a period or sci-fi film with huge crowd days means you can't afford to dress 1,000 extras in the absolute best costumes," he explains, "so you usually organize and dress them in various levels. A's are the most ornately dressed, all the way down to D's, who may only be wearing certain color clothing to stay within the color palette and are only used in the deep background." On Mockingjay – Part 1 and 2, the "incredibly or- nate and unconventional" costumes were only part of the problem. "Shooting a crowd panicking, with 50-caliber gunfire, tank movement, special effects explosions, and stunt choreography in every setup, all while chasing the sunlight and moving on and off the Technocrane makes for a challenging day." Surgent says some on-set moments are so unique they will never come again—like a scene from I Am Legend (2007) where Will Smith roars through a Manhattan devoid of humanity in a Mustang. "Firsting on a large movie usually means dealing with a thousand extras and total chaos," he says. But to shoot that scene, Surgent says 2nd 2nd AD Matt Power convinced 220 PAs to spend their weekends keeping the nearby streets clear. "We locked up 10-block sections of Sixth Avenue, and I remember how amazing it was, right before we rolled, just star- ing at this empty city," he recalls. Surgent admits to taking every shot, in every pro- ject, very personally. "An AD is an island because we have to make the call, time and schedule-wise," he says. "But we don't have a physical hand in anything—changing the camera, doing hair or makeup, dressing sets. So we just ask a lot of polite questions, that are also very leading to keep [everything] moving along." PHOTO: MARCIE REVENS P RO F I L E S On the Job With... By David Geffner Christopher Surgent All-Purpose AD N