The First Week

Alright, I promised a more in depth update by week's end and here we are with about 4 hours till I go to bed and I am doing my best to keep my promise.

So this was it. After 108 days unemployed (AH! Freaky coincidental Lost connection!), I went back to work ready, motivated, and excited to be working in film and delighted to be at a great company, close to home and in a nice neighborhood. By week's end my expectations were met.

It is still very early, and the project that I am on does not really kick off till tomorrow, so I don't want to start sounding all glib by saying how everything is great and wonderful. That being said, the situation does seem ideal and while it will get busy very quickly, I think it will be an enjoyable situation. The biggest and most immediate change that I have noticed and been delighted about is that a production team is, for the most part, assigned to one project. While these are features and not commercial spots and thus have many more shots per project (or as it's know in-house per show), the team that is established and assigned is working on (again for the most part) that single show. Previously, I was juggling about 4-6 projects at a time and the more senior members of the production staff were juggling anywhere from 5-8 projects at any given time. This also meant that the artistic crew was split over multiple projects and on many days had to switch from project to project depending on the time of the day and the needs of the client. I'm not here to argue that it was a bad situation or run poorly. In fact it was quite the opposite. The person who managed the scheduling of the crews is so amazingly skilled and talented and she helped the studio to achieve a level of efficiency that I don't think can be topped. (Yes -- you know who you are, and yes you are that great!) It is the reason why clients would take their work there and the reason that the company was one of the most successful in New York. That being said, the sheer volume of work is definitely stressful and the split focus from 4-6 projects at a time makes it tough to really gear towards a directed focus and observe the path of the process from start to finish. Now with the single production that the team and I are assigned to, I feel that I can have a more hands-on, observant, and detail oriented approach since I will be able to focus near 100% of my attention towards the show for which I have been assigned.

As for the week itself, as mentioned, it was slower because the show does not officially kick off till tomorrow. This was good and bad, though definitely more positive than anything. The negative was that the first week was very slow and as I am just getting into the groove of the way this studio operates, there were many moments when I was not doing much and feeling unable to help. The positive though exceeded this negative, as the slowness allowed me the opportunity to be trained pretty hands on and allowed the person who will be supervising me to spend a great deal of time showing me different procedures and commands. Had I come in during the heat of the production, this would almost definitely not be possible and would force me to learn on the run perhaps leading to some problems down the line. Thus I am happy that I came in during this pre-production phase and excited that I will be there from day 1 of the kickoff.

In terms of the job itself, the skills of production carry over from house to house. I would like to believe that I am skilled at production/management and that the ideals of organization, prioritization, and communication are my strongest assets. Thus what will eventually be needed from a perspective of skill set is the same as with any other house. What differs from house to house is the nomenclature of the lexicon and the pipeline of the production. This is what I am finding to be drastically different from my previous experience and the area where the majority of my focus will need to go during these initial weeks. The pipeline is essentially the path that individual shots must follow from department to department. As I am now dealing with many more shots, I am finding that this pipeline is consequently much larger than I was previously dealing with. As for the nomenclature, I am now using many different programs and procedures than before (some for better, and yes some that I don't think work as well). It will take a bit before I fully pick everything up, but I have always been good at learning different programs and finding the best way to utilize the program for the task at hand so I am not too worried. Thus, this upcoming week will be a good test as it should remain moderately paced, but as the show will have officially kicked off there will be daily rounds and procedures that I will need to learn and take a active part in producing/coordinating.

So there you have it. The first week in the books and a good one at that. I guess I can conclude with a little bit of the trivial aspects of the job. The commute is fantastic and I am that finding the longest I have had to sit through at this point is about 30-35 minutes. On Friday in fact, I got to work with very little traffic and made it in about 20 minutes. To some, I'm sure it seems like a lot (though most readers are New Yorkers, I believe) but after the 80-90 minute commutes I was doing daily in New York, it is a joy.

The neighborhood is fantastic and that is exactly what it is, a neighborhood. There is definitely something wonderful about working in New York, and in every other city I have been to I have yet to see the same working environment. (Though I will admit, I have yet to visit Chicago). There is a great feeling to walking out of the subway, hearing the taxis and traffic and fighting the crowds to your building. It is exciting, fast-paced, hectic and yes, at least for me, a bit draining. The New York City environment is like nothing else, but alas it ultimately was not for me. Now I drive into what can essentially be described as a suburban block. The studio has five buildings, none of which is more that two-stories tall, and they are scattered by a four block by two block area. Walking from building to building there is very little traffic, and there are trees and bushes scattered along the way as well as houses, a school, and many neighborhood people. It is a stark contrast, but one that jives better with my spirit.

The other huge difference that I have noticed is the full lunch hour. At my previous house, lunch was on some days a hopeful possibility. And when it did happen, lunch lasted no longer than 20-25 minutes. The goal was always to watch a 1/2 hour show of the lunch room DVR and get the whole 24-minute show (no commercials) in before you needed to get back to work. A full hour is almost absurd to me at this point. The first day, I kept checking my watch until my co-worker told me not to worry because we still had 20 minutes. In addition, I also get to actually leave the building and the phone. There is of course an inherent negative to this which is of course, the cost of lunch. Previously while not given much of a lunch break, I was having lunch brought in by the company. Now I am seeing myself spending anywhere from $40-50 a week. I believe I will be brown-bagging it soon, but at least it is nice to be able to get out and enjoy the area for awhile.

So I guess that is it. A bit long, but hopefully enjoyable to read. I will post more as this week goes on and I look forward to updating you more as the project kicks off. So till then, have a good one and I will blog with you later.

-SMA-