From: STRACZYNSKI [Joe]
Subject: Well, color me stupid.
To: GENIE
Date: 9/1/1994 6:42:00 PM
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Well, color me stupid.
Preface: as has been stated before, since no studio facility was big
enough for our purposes (we now have 20 standing sets and 57 swing sets, some
120' wide or more), we took over an industrial facility roughly the size of
Latvia and built three soundproofed soundstages, costume facilities,
construction areas, dubbing room, prosthetics wings, you name it. It's sort
of a Lucas Ranch operation, everything under one roof.
A number of shows have taken over and converted such facilities to shoot
series, but I'm proud to note that this is the *first* such conversion to be
finally, officially and formally redefined by the city as a working studio.
It's the *first* new studio in town in something like 10 years. There's
nothing else like it unless you want to actually go on the lot of a major
studio. (And it has the advantage of being off the lot, away from people who
might wander into your stage and, oh, start giving you notes. If you're a bit
away, they have to drive over, and the hassle ain't worth it.)
Anyway...my office is at the very end of the script wing. As you walk
down the hall, my office is on your right. Then you hit the door at the end
of the wing, go through into an open space, and twenty feet away is the door
to stage C. I picked the office because it was as close as you could get to
the stage without actually being *in* the stage.
So I've been in there for, oh, about a year and half now. Now I noticed,
upon putting in my new computer, and putting it a bit closer to the far wall
(the one opposite the stage), that the monitor began to flicker. I figured it
was a software problem, or a glitch in the hardware. Nothing worked...until I
moved it further away from the wall.
"Hmmm," says I, "I wonder what could be doing that."
Then I remember that on the other side of my office wall, roughly 24
inches from where I'm sitting, is the wall-length set of transformers and
electrical equipment that powers the entire studio (and we use a LOT of
power...you could fry Godzilla with what comes into our facility).
Now I begin to wonder...waitaminnit...just HOW BIG is the EMF
(electromagnetic field) that I've been sitting in, that's been bleeding
through this wall? So we bring in a guy who measures such things, from a
reputable company.
The maximum safe amount of EMF is a reading of 0.4. The guy approached
my desk, my chair...and his jaw dropped.
The EMF level was 200.5.
Which explains why, at the end of the day, for the last year or so, I've
been practically dragging by mid-day. I always seemed to get more work done
at home. Now I know why.
And the stupid part is, it's not something you can miss, the
transformers/generators are huge. Just never occured to me.
Since he left ("You've been sitting there HOW LONG?!"), I've had my desk
moved across the room, to the safe (0.4) area. And suddenly I'm back to full
speed (well, not suddenly, it's taken a few days, but I'm there), barrelling
through drafts and keeping up the pace right until I leave at 7-8 p.m., which
is what's *normal* for me, and was normal except for the last year and a half.
Four hundred times the proscribed limits...oh, man....
jms |
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