Not every job on a movie set is glamorous. It takes a lot of menial, tedious, and downright boring tasks to keep the machine running at peak efficiency. The important thing is that enough people stay dedicated and motivated enough to perform such tasks. No one exemplifies this as completely as Tim Ngo.
Tim is a man who gets stuck with the worst of the worst jobs on set. As transportation coordinator and conscripted 2nd AD, Tim frequently gets stuck driving talent home to Fremont from SJ (half hour each way) or more consistently – spending the day quietly away from set watching the equipment or driving people to and from campus. More often than not Tim eats lunch alone, sits alone with the grip truck all day and spends his OWN gas money driving people around.
Tim never gets to be near the action. He spends his whole day not even seeing the camera and yet every single time I happen to wander far enough to see him sitting vigilant at his post he’s in a cheerful mood and he’s smiling. I can be yanking my hair out about the delay on the next setup and storming off set for a moment of furious fresh air and there’s Tim – whose day is painfully less eventful than mine and far slower – ready to jump in with an offbeat peace of comedy or something downright weird but NEVER a negative comment. He’s as noble as he is committed to the cause and he’s one of the truest believers in what he does.
So thank you, Tim – you have my very sincerest gratitude.
JI
