Spring 2020
AT WORK WITH
By Brandon Kyle Goco
When it comes to assigning responsibilities, New York-based 2nd AD Rachel Jaros keeps her game face on. "It's kind of like chess," says Jaros. "It's going to be a slow play no matter how fast the day feels, but I position my team in a way where everybody feels super-integral to the process."
Working second unit on Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, Jaros got to play with an even larger chess board. "We did car driving plates," recalls Jaros. They planned to film the cars driving on a long highway that did not have walkie or cell reception. "After we had scouted, I knew we were going to have communication problems in a few different locations," she says. "It was just what I imagined filmmaking was like before radios."
Jaros and her team came up with a strategy. "We had a relay system," she explains. "If a driver saw another car moving, that was their action cue. The drivers would give each other hand signals to signify that we needed to do resets."
Jaros cued the relay from one of the picture cars. "It was very fun stationing (the AD team) in different cars and just trying everything to communicate with each other," she says. "It ended up being really successful."