Spring 2020
AT WORK WITH
By Matt Gamarra
"I always appreciate life's unexpected moments," says assistant director/2nd AD Eric Lasko, who recently worked on Ad Astra and the upcoming Christopher Nolan film Tenet.
"One night, I was in charge of getting the distant crew back to their various hotels after wrap," he recalled of his work as 2nd AD on Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005), an adaptation of the classic science fiction novel by H.G. Wells. With nearly 20 vans arrayed in a curved line over half a block and dozens of crew to clock out and load at once, Lasko recognized that he had "too much ground to cover in order to accomplish the task efficiently." ADs often have to make unconventional decisions, so Lasko decided to roll with the challenge, literally. "I quickly put on my rollerblades to increase my ability to load multiple crew members in multiple vans and increased my efficiency threefold."
Describing the essence of what he does, Lasko says: "I think your enthusiasm and your hard work is really what translates to other people, which inspires them and helps motivate them to get the job done."