Sunday night I got a call from my roommate. He said a buddy of his from work was working on a music video and that the video's producer was looking for some production assistants. He gave me the producer's number, I called and was in. It was my first paid gig, for a musical punk rock/electronic group. It was a lot of fun--it's amazing how talented practiced lip synchers are ;)
It was technically my first non-independent production. Lots of things were the same--craft services sucked, people joked around on set, hair and makeup took way too long--but a lot of stuff was different too. For example, set-up for all the different scenes didn't take forever and a day--the lighting crew was on it. Also, the director, camera guys, and most of the producers didn't hang around for clean-up (that was left to us) as opposed to in independent productions where help is so scarce to find that everyone does everything and so while I was a little disgusted with that, earlier events actually left me impressed with the higher-ups. For one thing, the cameras were amazing and they had two of them--this made for more efficient shots of the party scene and it meant that they didn't have to lug one camera up and down the stairs to the other location and they could do set-ups while another scene was being shot. The director put me off at first; my first thoughts upon seeing her were "Cool, a girl director, this is new and awesome" and "Wow, this girl must have been really pissed when "Tik Tok" came out cuz she thought Ke$ha totally stole her style." She seemed really on top of things and organized as far as directing went, but I couldn't shake my impression that she was a little bit of a ditz somehow. Then she completely caught me off-guard at the end by coming up and giving me a hug and telling me I hadn't been overlooked. I was really impressed that she used my name. Most directors don't give a crap but I was really impressed that--whether she knew all along or had just asked someone before coming over--that she took the time to at least try to show that she cared. I have a lot of respect for that. Then she left after wrap at 8pm, and me and the rest of the Art Department were cleaning up the apartment until after 11pm. Whoever decided the party scene needed feathers, popcorn, and glitter was not the one who was going to clean it up. Tri-fecta of the art department's worst nightmare.
Meanwhile, I got another email from the professor at Cal State about the Mexico trip. He's still going, State Department be damned, and he's looking for takers. The rents say no, but I can't pass up an opportunity. The more time I spend in offices, the more I realize this is not the kind of life I could live for a long period of time. I really want to get out and do something new, experience something completely different. So I'm torn--not going on any trips would give me time with my family but going would give me a new insight on what I want to do with my life. So I don't know. The trip costs $500 and I told myself if I find a new job in the next two weeks at a decent rate, I will consider going on the trip.
As for the job search, I haven't heard back from many places--make that one--I have heard back from only one place. I went in for an interview at a beach club in Santa Monica. I think I intentionally flunked the interview though--as soon as the girl interviewing me (she looked like she was fresh out of high school) started talking about how working with kids is one of the best things in the world and how I would be go go go all day and would work all weekends until the beginning of June, I felt like this probably wasn't a good fit, especially since it only paid about 7-8 dollars per hour. They said they'd call if I fit the bill, but I'm pretty sure my lack of enthusiasm for the job showed thru--it's not that I don't like kids, I just don't know if I have the energy to keep them engaged for 8 hours a day (they described the job as literally dragging kids off the playground--to participate in activities like capture the flag and tug-o-war--the sort of thing I hated as a kid). I guess I'll just keep applying . . . or hope that more production gigs come my way.
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