The midas touch

I knocked my interview out of the park today. Not to say that was very difficult - the director was amazingly nice and a CMU grad directing alum. We had a lot to talk about has he went to school with some of the people who taught me over the last few years. He was an awesome guy. His name is Craig Belknap and you can read up on him a little at the following website:

http://calarts.edu/faculty_bios/theater/faculty/craigbelknap/craigbelknap

Anyway, it was a great interview - he liked me, my motorcycle, and how I take my coffee (which was a bit of a lie since I don't drink coffee, but asked for it black which is how he drinks it too). I have learned one thing in an interview - if you get offered a drink, take it. It makes everything so much more relaxed. 

I also found out that he requested the interview with me just because I went to CMU - good thing $50k a year is getting me somewhere.

Improving the Blog

Hello all,

First of all, I have to change my attitude. I am going to be positive - whether or not it kills me. I have changed the title of my blog to reflect my new attitude and given it a description that parallels my determination.

On a less poetic note:
I have modified my blog settings, so now ANYONE can comment directly on my blog and you no longer have to do annoying word verifications. However, word verifications weed out spam, so if it becomes a problem I will have to undo those. Also, when you comment it will email me, so I can respond back to you right away.

Best,

M

Behave yourself.

I spent almost my entire day (10:30 AM - 4:30 PM) at the CA DMV (or driving to and from it). That's right, it took me 6 hours and 3 trips to get my CA license. But I have it. It's not even worth retelling the battle thereof.

This morning (9:15 AM) I get a call from the producer of the touring show. It was a very positive phone interview, and I will know about that in a week. The position is less of an ASM and more of an all around production assistant, but the pay would be about $750 a week including per diem which is -- fantastic -- considering the current financial state of everything and the drop offs in the arts.

While at the DMV (waiting in one of many very long lines), the production manager of a nearby theater called me (her name is Becca and she's an alum of the CMU SOD). She asked me to interview with a director tomorrow to see if we would be a good pairing for stage managing a show in their season. Of course I'm going to do the interview tomorrow @ 11:30 AM, but the problem with the job is that stage managing a show in rep gives you a very awkward schedule (weeks off at a time, but working at a 110% efficiency other times), and as such, the pay is not very good and the erratic schedule doesn't allow you to supplement your employment. Maybe it would be okay with temp work, but it might be a stretch :-/

Anyway, I am going to stop counting my chickens before they hatch.

Tomorrow: Interview
Wednesday-Sunday: PA on a short film

(PA = Production Assistant for those of you who may not know)

And the Heavens opened

Yesterday was the worst interview I have ever had. Macy's retail group interview. One woman in my group would not stop talking about her financial desperation, and another guy had a blinking twitch that I couldn't help but stare at. HOWEVER, due to the unfortunate people in my group, I was definitely the shining star. BUT, the manager made it clear that they no longer had any jobs available, so they were just doing general inquiries. So not only was it awkward, but it was pointless and a waste of my time. I did a light batch of retail therapy (spent $7 between a coffee drink and a set of STRAP PERFECTS) to make myself feel better.

BUT THEN SOMETHING AMAZING HAPPENED!
I got a call yesterday that I missed from Sam's ex-boyfriend (a guy we went to school with together for a while; we actually worked on "Three Sisters" together). His name is Dan, and he has practically handed me a job on a silver platter. A friend of his, Andi, is looking for an Assistant Stage Manager to go on tour with a big band show she is stage managing. I do not know Andi, I do not know the name of the show, I do not know where it is touring.

You might ask: "Well, Maddie, what DO you know?"

I know that it will pay $500 a week (not great, but not minimum wage either).
I know it will cover my travel expenses.
I know I will receive per diem.
I know that it seems a lot more productive than what I am doing right now.
I know that it would tour September - November.

So I talked to Dan for a while about this job, and he sold it to me as, "If you want it, it's yours." He and Andi are very close and he has referred me very highly to her. Something for which I am in a huge debt to him.

So I just finished polishing my theater resume and I sent it off to Andi. I will let all of you know information as it comes to me. Fingers crossed.

Test test... Is this thing on?

Hey family of mine. Just making sure some of you are still out there.

Tomorrow's interview #1. Please wish me luck!!!

Interviewing with a permanent placement temp/staffing agency - hopefully this can be a source of steady work. I have to do computer standards tests - typing speed, excel, etc. I am SOOO not worried about those.

If it goes poorly--we'll lets just say I have a $2 bottle of wine and a $4 bottle of champagne who will greet me with open arms! Just kidding.

Silver linings

OKAY!

I grew up a little today (in addition to eating a piece of humble pie). I have an interview with a permanent placement temp agency on Monday, a retail interview with Macys on Thursday, and filed for consideration with a executive assistant temp agency today.

If I don't get hired to work at Macy's... let's just say I might be down an eyebrow.

I will be sure to keep you all in the loop as things progress.

It's not all glitz and glamour...

So if the day I worked on the independent horror film was fun, last monday was AMAZING.

I know the second second assistant director on Californication (who has now moved on to work on Grey's Anatomy) whose name is AK, so I emailed her to see if she knew of any work out there. She said she didn't have any paying jobs (Californication actually stopped shooting its season today), but told me I would be welcome to follow her around on set one day. So I did - two days ago!

It was possibly the most fun day of my life. I got to watch David Duchovney work on set alongside Natascha McElhorne and Madeline Watkins (who also goes by Maddie). Funny enough there are actually two Maddies in the cast.

Anyway, rather than just shadowing the AK they put me straight to work. I got to work on my first real television set! Still unpaid, but invaluable experience. I got to work right alongside the other PAs, facilitating the shoots and working the trenches. The first half of the day was on location in Venice (which is beautiful with its little canals and bridges everywhere). I got to be on radio so I was always in the loop. My call was 9 AM and we were in the first location until about 2 PM. At the first location, I was positioned near a construction site. When the first assistant director announced that sound was rolling over headset, I would yell out "ROLLING" at which point the construction workers would hold what they were doing so they wouldn't make any noise. The production manager arranges this ahead of time, and the construction crew is paid to offset the time they lose in their day. When they were finished filiming, the first AD would annouce "We're cut" over radio, and I would shout that so construction would resume. The order of radio commands goes:

"LOCK IT DOWN" - everyone gets into their 1st position
"SOUND IS ROLLING" - which means sound department is up and running
"BACKGROUND" - something I would also yell out loud to cue any extras we are paying to start their action, for the first shoot I was in charge of cueing a dog and dog walker to begin making their way down the sidewalk.
"ACTION" - scene commences
"CUT" - scene ends
"BACK TO ONE" - reset so we can shoot again

After shooting at the Venice Canals, we moved to a second location on Venice beach. In the TV show, this is where David Duchovney's character lives. It was the scene in which his character is getting arrested (I am not sure for what). It was a very public area, so most of my job was keeping bogies (people who shouldn't be around) off the set and out of the scene. However, we couldn't keep the paparazzi away, so the shoot hit several gossip blogs:
http://bauergriffinonline.com/2009/07/duchovny-cuffed-for-californic.php
Anyway, for this shoot, I got to cue a speeding cop car and 15 background (extras). It was AWESOME.

All in all, the outside shoots spanned from 9 AM - 8 PM, and -my mom will be unhappy to hear- I got really sunburnt. No one on the production team hesitated to point it out. The second half of the day was on stage, so we got to go back to the studios to work. It is remarkable how quickly the departments can pack up their gear, we were out of the on site locations in less than 20 minutes. David and Natascha were done for the day after the outdoor shooting, so the evening work was all with Evan Obrient. When we got to the stage, we were really overstaffed in terms of PAs, but I hung around until they were done so I could get everything out of the experience possible. All I really did there was eat dinner, call out "ROLLING" and "CUT", and make sure the AC was off when they were shooting. We finished filiming around 1 AM.

The last thing PAs do is get the sign out times from every department. The way they do time on their timecards is a little bizarre. If you stay after midnight of the day you were called, instead of doing standard military time that would go back to 0 (midnight) after hour 23, you go into hour 24 and hour 25. And istead of minutes or fractions, you use decimals to the tenth of a unit, each representing 6 minutes, rounded up. SO, if you were called at 9 AM and your day ends at 1:15 AM, your sign out time is 25.3. I thought it was both hilarious and stupid. But whatever floats their boat. I will do sign out times on an abacus if that means I get paid someday.

Craft services - the name for the food service used on set - is possibly the best perk of working in the tv/film industries. AK says that when she is working she MAYBE goes grocery shopping once a month. You are provided 3 meals a day, and there are always snacks and drinks. It was pretty nice. Lunch was lobster and filet mignon (so were not talking pizza and soda here).

Anyway, I'm glad that I liked it, because it means I'm not chasing after something I will hate. It's hard to stay standing for 16 hours, but the people you get to work with make it worth it. All in all a great experience.

New TTRs:

Last looks: last minute hair & make-up touchups right before we are rolling

Bogey: stray person on site or set or frame

I have more - I wrote them in an eNote on my phone, so I'll catch up with them later. Take care everyone!

Post Mortem

I live to tell the tale of my first day on set!

Gut reaction:

• very low budget (but NOT no budget)
• very nice people
• love the director of photography & head of SFX makeup
• other PAs were nice
• a bit unprofessional
• people seemed impressed with what I knew and how I worked

I don't know if I would work for them again or not - I guess it depends on how bored I am.

BUT! New TTRS:

Striker: Extension cord

Strike: Turn on

Screen Frame: What is in the picture/shot (called out to calculate sound boom placement)

Tomorrow I am going to be on the set of Californication (a hit Showtime series). I plan on watching an episode of it today so I have a clue of what is going on. I will be a volunteer PA/shadowing the 1st assistant director. She's an alum which makes it more understandable as to why I have this awesome opportunity.

Well, I have to rest today as yesterday was a 14 hour work day and tomorrow's going to be the same.

1st gig in LA

I will be working on a horror film tomorrow as a set PA. It's an unpaid job, but lets all keep our fingers crossed that I happen to shake hands and smile at the right person.

:)

Call is at 7 AM, end of day is at 8 PM. I'll try to remember to write about how it goes.

Wish me luck!

Nice guys finish last...

Well, I have applied to no fewer than 100 jobs in the last week and a half. I have heard back from 2 places.

Place #1:
Being a production assistant on a short film shoot August 1-3 close to my home (unpaid, but it will be good experience and a nice resume line). I hope to make contacts to get some more work headed my way.

Place #2:
A Noise Within - a theater company in Glendale (about 10 minutes away) - is considering hiring me as their house manager. The pay is not great ($65 per show), but there are 125 performances in their season which spans September through February. The Production Manager there is an Alum of CMU, so I am hoping it can lead to some run crew/assistant stage management gigs for a bit more $$, but I'll let you know. I will be interviewing with their artistic directors sometime after July 20th.

I'm kind of freaking out. There just aren't that many jobs to apply to. And believe me, I am applying to ANYTHING and EVERYTHING for which I may qualify. This does not mean just film, tv, and theater jobs. It means I have applied to be a nanny, cleaning lady, etcetcetc. There is no way to look at it other than - NO ONE IS HIRING.

It's either that or no one wants me. I would prefer to think of it as the former.

Anyway, I had a really great conversation with my friend, Rustin, who does pretty much what I want to be doing (and graduated 3 years ahead of me). He, too, is unemployed right now. But he gave me some people to email and some companies to look into so I am going to follow up with all of those leads before I tuck my tail between my legs.

I have been trying to balance the hours on end I spend applying for jobs with a few funtivities. I saw the second transformers movie and today Sam and I went grocery shopping. However, funtivities are hard when there is $0 coming in and $LOTS going out. I try to spend as little money as possible, but LA is expensive (at least compared to Pittsburgh), and I'm a bit nervous financially.

But that's enough brooding on that.

It's beautiful here. It hasn't rained once since I moved in. If I am going to be broke and unemployed it might as well be somewhere fabulous. And at least I have friends who are also unemployed so I am not home alone all day. Ahh! I thought I was going to stop brooding.

I suppose I am of a one track mind at the moment.

Tomorrow I might go get by CA license. That will be very exciting. If I can find a scanner I will scan it in so you all can see it.





Here is a photo I labeled Fridge Fiasco. This is evidence of our friends, Joe & Derek (Joe is the only one that can be seen in the picture as Derek is on the other side), hauling a disgusting refridgerator into our apartment that Sam and I bought off of Craigslist for $100.

The kicker?

The fridge didn't work.

I am starting something new!

New idea to help me learn the ropes in LA and perhaps share a little of what I am picking up with you. I am going to start making posts with Terms To Research (TTRs) in them. I will include any information I can find, and if you know anything about it please feel free to add and comment. I hope it can be the beginnings of a personal entertainment glossary.



Today's TTRs

Vault Runner:

A (B) Roll:

ACDSee:

Grip:



Dad: I know I owe you a phonecall. I promise you'll hear from me tomorrow.

If it makes you happy it can't be that bad.

For those of you curious as to how I spent my time with Ohio Bike Week, please refer to this photographic evidence of my hard work:

Baby Groundhog.Cougar Cub.

With the good comes the bad...

Well, I suppose an update is overdue.

Good news first. Sam (my roommate) and I are in love with our new apartment. We have managed to both beautifully and frugally stock it with furniture and necessities. One hiccup in the process is that the first refridgerator we bought (most LA apartments do not come with refridgerators) was cheap - only $100 - but absolutely disgusting. Sam and I spent an entire evening scrubbing it out. The evaporator pan was gross enough to warrant a few dry heaves in and of itself. But the real kicker came the next day when it did not work. However, the next day we found a beautiful fridge for only $150 and it works flawlessly.

The apartment is fabulous. For those of you who are curious, our new address is:

250 S San Fernando Blvd
Apartment 128
Burbank, CA 91502

Now the bad news. Having met my amazing boss in a very positive meeting on Monday and arranging for today to be my first real day of work, I received an email last night informing me that it would not work for us to work together. So currently, I am back to being unemployed. The scary part is that now I am in Los Angeles, with a very high rent (not high for Los Angeles, but higher than any rent I have ever paid before) with no current plan for income.

I have spent the last day and a half feverishly applying for local jobs, and all I can do is cross my fingers and hope something pans out in the VERY near future. I broke the news to my friends here last night at dinner and they are all being very supportive.

All I can do is hope for the best and eventually something will come together. Until then I refuse to spend another dime until I know I have more dimes coming.