Frank Ortega
Appearances
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
And that's expressing love to your child and disapproval at the same time. So I got my second job. All the jobs were horrible, the early jobs. And of course, I was sending out resumes everywhere. You know, film crew, anything, anything, anything. Because I did a lot of film work and I'm fast on my feet. Nothing. So I ended up at the Yale Club. This was a horrible job, the front desk.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
And one morning, I'd done the night shift. This is the early 80s. And so I come out at 8 in the morning, after a whole night at that place, and I'm still wearing the hideous outfit I hate, that Yale Club outfit. You gotta wear this blue polyester jacket, the gray polyester pants, the fake leather belt, the fake leather shoes, and the Yale Club tie, which they give you.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
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The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
And I'm walking up to my horrible tram ride to Roosevelt Island, which is like the island of death. It was such a weird place back then. And I'm walking up, and there on the street, almost to mock me, is that whole Hollywood setup. You know, the trucks, the lights, the gaffers, the rigs, the equipment, the craft table, the whole thing. And I just, it made me like, ugh.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
And I walk past it, and I walk... about a block, and this thing rises up in me. This whole, like, rebel yell comes up out of me, and it's like my body, without my mind, turns around and starts walking right back to the hive of the activity, the set. It was a restaurant, and the whole thing was focused in there. While I'm walking, I'm then having this quick conversation. What are we doing?
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna get a job. We're gonna do this. Well, what do you know? What are you good at? I'm good at, okay, I'm good at painting, and I'm good at building, and I'm good at, like, creating. Art, okay, so not lighting, not electricity, not, oh, okay, so art, art department.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
Right about the time I got to, like, the first layer of people, I go, hey, yeah, hi, where's your art director? Oh, he's inside, but you don't want to talk to him now. I go, oh, no, no, I do, I do. What's his name? Well, it's James, of course. Yeah, okay, well, I've got to talk to him. He's in a really bad mood right now. Why? We're totally under budget. We're overstretched. It's a real disaster.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
He's really mad. Okay, thanks. Where is he? Over there. I go right over there. Excuse me, where's James? I go right up to him. Hey, James. He goes, what the? Who are you? My name is Frank Ortega. I'm from Wisconsin, and I went, I studied film, and I'd love to work in movies. I want to work in movies. The fuck? What are you doing here? And I said, no, no, no, no, I can work for you.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
He goes, no, the reason, no, we're crazy right now. I don't have, we're a mess right now. This is a disaster scene. Get the fuck out of here. I go, but no, no, I can work, and my brain was flying, and I go, I can work for free. And he froze. He froze. He was really a nervous guy. And he froze. He goes, what? And I said, I can work for free. And he just goes, oh. Let me go check with legal.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
One second. And he goes away. And he comes back like a minute later. He goes, if you just sign the waivers here, you can work for us. You can work for me, a production assistant, for free. And I said, yeah. And he really said, and when can you start? And I had just worked, right, the whole night through. And I just, I love that moment because it's true. I said, right now. So I began working.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
It was this horrific disaster of a movie. It's not on Netflix. It's... No, no, but it had Elliot Gould, Shelley Winters, Carol Kane, Margot Hemingway, Sid Caesar. I mean, it was over the Brooklyn Bridge. And so, okay, it was this epic education in guerrilla filmmaking because it was super low budget. What not to do, what to do. I got to meet everybody that was there.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
I worked on the sets, and after a while... They put me on the payroll. They even gave me back pay to the day that I walked in and did that stunt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was $50 a day for, like, 15-hour days. Come on. Come on. And... We're adults here. Come on. And so...
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
So when I finally got hired, that moment I got hired, I was still, I didn't explain this part, but for five days, until I really got hired, I worked both jobs. I did the night shift at the Yale Club. Seriously, I was 21. I did the night club, because I didn't want to quit the Yale Club until I was sure I was going to get hired. I got hired. I worked that last shift at the Yale Club.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
I signed a note, really a vicious note. You know, goodbye, no notice. Beautifully written. Beautifully written.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
And I went back to my building, it was one in the morning, to the trash compactor shoot, and I stood there, and it goes down to the furnace, and I took off that blue jacket, and I took off the white shirt, I took off that tie, I took off the gray slacks, I took off that leather belt, I took off the shoes, I took off those gray polyester socks, I stood there in my underwear at one in the morning in my empty apartment building, and I was ready to enter my life of movies.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
That film I worked on, Over the Brooklyn Bridge, was shot in just five weeks instead of the scheduled six and way under budget, which made for some crazy times. I got to have a great talk with Sid Caesar about the old days in showbiz, and I loved dressing the sets down to the smallest details and realizing how any movie
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
becomes a documentary of a time, a place, and people as real as anything by Ken Burns.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
I love movies, and it's hard not to. I mean, you'd have to say, like, I don't love dreaming. And I grew up watching them, and one of my memories, a few times I was alone with my mom, we had a time together, was the Oscars when they went really late.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
Everyone else would go to bed, and she and I would sit up on the couch and watch it to the end, and she would make these special snacks that she never made at any other time. And then I got a Super 8 camera and a video camera and I would do this stuff in high school and then in college. It was just so exciting. And so I graduated and then I came to New York. I was just like itching to make movies.
The Moth
The Moth Podcast: At The Movies
And it was like hitting a brick wall at 90 miles an hour. Because it's like you need to work, you need rent, you need... And my mother, who had always been... Both my parents were very sarcastic about that line of work. My mom would be like, well, I'm sure you could go to an employment agency and just say that you want to be a director.