Shoots are few and far between these days. I think in the past 1.5 months, I’ve worked 2 sets. The first was a commercial (or promo?) for Arby’s with Stun Creative. This was easy-peasy. Al brought me on as his gaffer. It was a regular 12-hr day, but could’ve easily finished in 6 if it weren’t for a the director. At first, I appreciated his manner on set. He was pretty soft-spoken, not the overbearing and overly self-involved vocal types you usually get on gigs like these. Turns out he had never really directed before and he was just being quiet because he didn’t want the entire crew to know he was mad green. The rumor was this cat was one of the motion graphics guys who the bigwings wanted to give a shot to. He was a nice enough guy, I guess. But man, when you’re shooting 6 hours of footage for just 20 seconds of usable material, you’re really just pissing off the crew. I also secretly hoped we’d get all-you-can-eat Beef N’ Cheddars for lunch. It was vetoed by everyone over the age of 19…which was everyone.

The second was a short film called The Greatest Adventure which appeared to be (I didn’t have/read the script) about some kids on their first day of kindergarten. The schtick, though, was all the kids were played by adults. Every time Albert calls me for a freebie, I always try to convince him to either A) get some cool toys to play with and/or B) do some cool things with the toys that we do play with.

On Pincushion, we did this pretty cool dolly shot in which we set up some curved dolly track around a rotating chair on which an actor would sit. I then rigged two long arms from the dolly to the seat so that when the dolly would move from one part of the track to the other, the seat would rotate at the same rate. So when the actor is seated facing the camera, he would always be facing the camera no matter where on the track the dolly moved. This creates the effect that the background is moving. If it’s still unclear, here’s a quick sketch that might help you visualize. (a clip will come later)

The shot turned out pretty damn cool since we were able strong arm a tweenie from a lollipop on a combo stand. This gave slick hard light directly from above the subject. It was Robert Richardson-esque.

Anyway, on The Greatest Adventure, we shot in a room with a pretty low ceiling. Al and I decided to rig 2 4ft. x 4-bank Kinos. Nothing too crazy, right? Well, because of poor location scouting (the inability to determine if the ceiling was strong enough to support grip hardware and 2 lighting units – which can get pretty heavy) I decided the best way to get them up there is to remove the bulbs from the fixtures themselves and then ziptie them to pieces of white foamcore.

I was essentially making a much lighter casing for the Kinos that could easily be screwed into the drywall ceiling. You can kind of see it in this pic. At least I thought it was drywall at the tech scout. Turns out it was actually wood planks that were covered w/ the pocorny stuff on most home ceilings.

[NOTE: If there was a ladder at the tech scout, I would’ve been able to determine that it was indeed wood up there and rigging Kinos up there would’ve been textbook: baby plates, gobo heads, kinos – easy peasy.

All in all, it was a pretty fun shoot. I mean, as long as there’s an Ed Estrada, good times are guaranteed. Got to meet a few more of Al’s CSULB peeps and I’m confident I’ll be working with some of these cats again – even if it’ll be way down the road. I’m linking to set pics from the director Gabe Yeh’s blog – Day 1 and Day 2.

I’ve made jokes about being the Willaim Wallace of my department – uniting my countrymen and then challenging the treacherous Longshanks. [NOTE:  I think I'm more like Andy Dufresne getting the rest of guys some cold beers after working on the roof all day. I was the one who set up the initial complaints regarding the parking structure situation] But I have since been disemboweled and my limbs now rest all over Scotland to set an example for anyone else who dare rise up.

SHORT STORY: I was given a verbal warning for my gradually (or exponentially depending on who you talk to) increasing negative attitude over the past few months. For fear of contaminating some of the new employees with my toxic thoughts about this company and how it is run, I am being moved out of the seat I have had since I started this job outside to an area that is called “The Counter” where it’s rumored you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. It is basically a long shelf that runs along the window where my workstation will be placed. (I’m kidding about The Counter being full of scum and villainy – I just don’t know the editors well enough yet…but some of them ARE kind of weird)

Although I can’t really blame them for doing it. Or can I?

LONG STORY (dude, it’s REALLY long): To recap, the past few months have not been particularly pleasant at the day job. A part of it is the tedium that naturally occurs with assembly line type work. My frustration also stems from how this company has handled a job opening I applied for back in June. Now I have no one to blame but myself for the way I feel about this issue, but let me be clear – I am not the only one here who is frustrated. There are many other reasons aside from mine that would cause someone to be. And because we are all cooped up in a small room, complaints get voiced and soon enough, it’s a pressure cooker. It all came to a head last Tuesday.

Last week, the Operations Manager (OM) set up a meeting with the entire research team and the Content Managers. I assumed this was to discuss some of the procedural changes that have been instituted over the past week or so. Many of us came prepared to discuss the changes the concerns we had regarding them. The OM came in and sat down.

He says, “We will not be discussing any procedural issues. I’d like to address the negative attitude that is going on in the researcher room downstairs.”

It caught me off-guard, that’s for sure. And though the conversation would have probably veered in that direction as we brought up issue after issue, starting the meeting with the topic was unexpected. You know how these go – one side brings up an issue, the other side voices a defense. Then there’s a rebuttal, and a rebuttal to the rebuttal. Before you know it, it’s labor vs. management in not-so-pleasant discourse. I’ll be the first to admit that I got heated. What can I say? I get emotional when it comes to this sort of stuff. (I’ve been reading Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, so I get inspired to rise up every now and again)

After 1.5 hours of discussion, I learned the following things:

On concerns about the length of time it takes to get a response for certain procedural concerns we voice to the manager, and also the vague nature of the responses we get once we finally get them

The OM responded by saying that if you want an answer, it is the responsibility of the asker to pursue pester someone until you get the answer you want. We were told the company culture is set up this way to encourage people to really go after it if they felt that strongly about something. The OM disclaimed that sometimes there are more pressing issues he must deal with and the less important ones often fall to the wayside. He insisted that he (and the other persons in a management position) were not intentionally trying to blow us off, but that they just forget. He claimed this happens a lot at large companies so we just have to get used to it and roll with the punches.

At first, this sounds like a cop out. It’s our responsibility to follow up? This tends to happen at large companies? I call shenanigans! I’ve worked for 2 Fortune 500 companies (eBay and VeriSign) and I have never once experienced anything like this. Usually, BOTH sides check in. Surely, things get forgotten, but simply stating that it’s the “company culture” is absurd.

What’s happening here is that issues do get brought up multiple times. And they’re noted multiple times. But whenever we get vague answers like “oh, a solution is 2-3 weeks away” and check in 2-3 weeks later only to hear the same thing, you tend to get sick of asking. But because it’s the “company culture” to follow up bug someone about it, it’s our fault that none of our issues ever get resolved. How about some accountability? We did our part – bring up an issue that we think is important. Continually ignoring said issue suggests that it’s not really important. So if none of what we bring up ever gets addressed, how are we supposed to know if something is important enough?

It’s also disappointing that everyone in this company realizes that the company culture is flawed, yet no one seems to want to try and improve upon it. But I think they all drank the Kool-Aid. The OM told me that working this way is actually efficient – that things get done because you get so frustrated from people not responding to your requests that you have to go out and do it yourself. Um, yeah. That makes COMPLETE sense.

On concerns about the the possibility future incentives – like raises, promotions, and/or full-time employment.

The OM stated that because this division is so new, the company can’t really tell how profitable it is yet. He stated that there’s always the potential of promotions and he used the new Content Manager who was promoted from within our team as an example. (this was the job I applied for, by the way)

The concern here is that the lack of a target or goal is causing much of the frustration. We think the company is saying “work really hard, guys, but we’re not sure if anything will come out of it.” The OM brought up this analogy of a guy who has a goal to do 100 push-ups and compared it to each of us who has a certain goal we’re supposed to hit. He stated that in the beginning, we are all doing well but over time, we tend to get lazy and then take days off. But the flaw in this analogy was that he didn’t bring up the incentive to do the 100 push-ups in the first place. When you do your 100 push-ups, you end up with a body like Atlas (promotion, raise, and/or full-time job). When you don’t do your 100 push-ups, you get fat. At this job, we have neither. Having one or the other would provide at least some sort of motivation. Here’s to hoping they choose the positive one.

I get it – this is a part-time job, and will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future because of the economy and the yet-to-be-determined success of this division. It would be nice if we were picking up some skills in the process – to make us more marketable for positions at this or other companies – instead of just being asked to do what a monkey can do. (which they can – I’m pretty sure I saw it on Discovery Channel the other night) Sadly, this company just wants grunts who they can underpay. [NOTE: In fact, we think that the recruiters are looking for employees who are just skilled enough, but not so much that they'd be quick to jump ship when they are offered a much better position somewhere else. They need to keep turnaround reasonable, after all.]

Anyhow, when it was all said and done, we were all told to just accept the fact that the way things are here is the way it will be. We just need to accept it. And. Here. It. Comes.

“If you’re really that frustrated, then perhaps this isn’t the right job for you.”

Bam, there you go. I was waiting for that. Despite all the comments I’ve received in the past about my “solid work performance” and how they “value my thoughts and opinions to improve the process,” they’re basically telling me that I’m expendable. My value (and very likely others’ too) is so insignificant that they would rather threaten us to just leave instead of try and work to improve things.

Everything above was stated during this all-hands meeting. The OM and I had another 1:1 meeting a couple of days later, which was probably how the issue should’ve been handled in the first place. Issues were discussed sans emotion. I got to say what I wanted to say and he got to say what he wanted to – which was to check my my attitude. He said he has noticed my negativity increasing over the past few months (which I attributed to the Content Manager opening that I found on my own). But I also told him that if he noticed it months ago, he should have talked to me about it. But according to the “company culture,” the onus was on me to bring it up.

I owned up to my attitude and told him I’d play ball. As a sign of good faith, I erased the fantasy rankings (bottom of the page). The game isn’t as fun when management knows that people are disgruntled anyway.

But to be fair and clear, I am partly to blame for this whole ordeal. I’m stubborn and headstrong and it failed me this time. The company and I don’t see eye to eye about what is broken. I’d do things differently if I were running this joint. But I don’t run this joint and the ones who are can run it the way they please. Serves me right for setting my expectations too high here.

It’s like the girl who wants her boyfriend to act more affectionate without having to tell him to act more affectionate. She never says anything hoping things will change. It simmers, then boils and then after a fight that ends at 3AM on a Tuesday, she realizes it was partly her fault all along. She expected him to be someone he wasn’t. This is just how he is, you have to just accept him for who he is – or leave him with the hope of finding a better match.

And I’m confident there will be…someday. Until then, I’ll sit my ass down, shut up, and just work. But hey, at least I’ll have a window now. I mean, I probably could’ve just asked for one – but where’s the fun in that?

I’ve slacked on sharing my thoughts about movies and TV lately, so I figured I’d do it quick and dirty.

Film

Inglourious Basterds - Liked it a lot overall despite some valid criticism from people about the self-serving nature of Quentin Tarantino’s writing and some inflated scenes. (What I mean by this is I felt some scenes could’ve been edited down a bit and tightened up) I felt the scene at the bar with the German actress played out a bit too long, but that’s just me being nitpicky. I did love the tension in some of the scenes with Landa, particularly the opening scene and again when Shoshanna meets Landa for the streudel. It was a fun time and it definitely had the feel of a QT film.

It was what I expected it to be. This is always a plus.

Zombieland - I probably would’ve skipped it but a few trusted viewers had gushed about it so I decided to go for it. This was a good idea. This was a pretty good summer according to my previous posts, but Z-Land was just flat-out fun -this and Star Trek were probably the most fun films I’ve watched this year. It’s coming-of-age, action, road picture with fun characters, great set pieces and a supremely awesome cameo that ends the 2nd act.

TV (new series)

Glee - I don’t love it as much as everyone else seems to – but I know why they would. The pilot was great – witty, original, and fun. Oh and of course the musical numbers outshine all the other merits. But here are my problems:

Characters – I cannot sympathize with any of them. Most shows I watch take great care in letting characters reveal their personalities and intentions. I get that this is a comedy and sometimes you don’t always need to have well-rounded characters, but I think I just expect more. I like to sympathize with the characters and none of the characters on this show are particularly sympathetic. A reason for this could be…

Story Pacing – Wow, a lot has happened already from a plot-standpoint. What was great about the pilot was that it sets up the conflicts that the season will explore. You have the Glee teacher vs. Cheer teacher, love triangles between Glee teacher, his wife, and counselor, as well as the love triangle between football captain, cheerleader, and glee club star. (forgive me, I don’t even know the character names)

And in the first month and some change, you’re already starting to see some solutions to said conflict. I do understand that the show probably has more twists and turns up its sleeve for the remaining 16-17 episodes, but so much has happened already. I feel like they really could’ve built the tension of one (or both) of the love triangles over the course of half a season.

The combination of thin characters with lots of plot elements that push the overarching story along over the course of an hour makes me care less and less about the characters. I don’t feel anything when the football player thinks he got his cheerleader girl pregnant because there isn’t enough time to dwell on it.

But maybe you’re not really supposed to. I mean, this is from the guy who created Nip/Tuck where no one in that show is particularly likable either. But you know, I understand who Christian Troy is – enough to care about why he makes the decisions he makes. This isn’t the case with Glee - at least as of yet.

Flash Forward – It’s got enough mystique to keep me watching. The show does suffer from some overacting – Joseph Fiennes who seems to brood too much and John Cho’s aggressive nature feels forced. I can’t comment on plot at this time because I’m about two episodes behind. I’ll let you know in a few weeks if this is one of the shows that just falls to the wayside.

Modern Family – This is the best of the bunch for me. It’s sharp like Arrested Development but also has heart. It’s shot verite or documentary style, much like The Office, but I can’t recall if the 4th wall is broken for the narrative sections. I do appreciate that when they shoot the interviews, they’re mostly shot as a medium 2-shot instead of the standard talking head. It’s also an opportunity to show off the relationship dynamic between the couples.

This week’s episode with Shelly Long as Ed O’Neil’s ex-wife was pretty damn good. The pilot is hilarious as well.

I’ve heard some good stuff about Community so if I can find some episodes online, I might give those a shot. The next post will cover my thoughts about returning series. Stay tuned!

So if you’re reading this post with an RSS reader, then you probably didn’t notice the major change, which was in the look of the site. Recently, I found a photoblog template I liked and implemented it because I was A) looking for something new and B) intending on taking a lot more photos. Turns out that I’ve been blogging text more than photos so I decided to go back to the previous theme and just make some minor modifications. The colors for the header image are quite possibly the ugliest ever created in Photoshop so it’s just a placeholder for now. I really just wanted to get the css where I want it.

Also, I found a pretty cool WordPress plugin called Scrippets by John August that allows you to post certain scenes in screenplay format without forcing users to download a document.

As a test, I’m putting up two short scenes from an under-developed and thus unfinished screenplay.

Ever since the SF Giants baseball ended without a post-season cameo this year, it’s not surprising that I’ve shifted my focus to being more creative. I’ve been inspired to put together a super duper small project before the end of the year. To keep the production modest, Al-Jay and I thought perhaps the best option is to come up with a very short script, or even just a single scene from a larger piece to shoot. After all, if I want to be a writer/director, I should have stuff that shows I can actually do those things. And while it would be ideal to shoot a complete story, showing you can construct a scene wouldn’t be a bad way to show off your skills.

This led me to sift through some of my old scripts over the past 8 years. (WOW – it’s been that long since I’ve started on this film thingy) I came across a script I wrote that was meant to be my senior thesis film. Of course, this was before funding ran out and I had to take a break from school. The last time this file was modified was June 4, 2002 and it’s been at least 5 years since I’ve actually read it all the way through.

The script is in the same vein of Bryan Singer’s short film Lion’s Den in which pent up tensions flare during a brief reunion between old high-school friends. In my script, members of a now-defunct mobile DJ group are forced to deal with their interpersonal and internal issues when the group reunites to DJ a party for a common acquaintance.

Well, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone when I say that it was bad. Every writer – amateur, professional, or otherwise – will admit that the early stuff was horrible. I notice mistakes novice screenwriters typically make – expository and stilted dialogue, extensive action-description, non-distinct character voices (basically, everyone sounds the same), and unsatisfying cop-out endings.

And on top of these general scriptwriting faux pas, the theme is thin and the point of view narrow. Not to say that there isn’t value in a story about friendship, it’s just not as powerful when it’s obvious the author doesn’t really have a whole lot to say about it. This is the impression I got when I re-read Beats Per Minute. [I REALLY like this title - in fact, I stole this title for another script (still unfinished) because I didn't want to waste this gem on such a crappy story]

I know there’s value in looking back for signs of progression – shit, that was really the intent of this blog. It’s good I can look back and point out the mistakes. It shows I’m learning this craft – slowly but surely. I’m light years away from a good screenwriter, mind you, but I’ve also come a long way since then.

[NOTE: I was THIIIIIIS close (picture the smallest possible space between my thumb and index finger) to uploading a .pdf version of said screenplay, but I'm afraid that A) you'll laugh at me for how bad it is, B) you'll notice uncanny resemblances between the characters and my friends (who are also the ones who read this blog) and/or C) that you will tell me something to the effect of, "wait, I don't see the difference between this script and the stuff you write now."]

BTW: Cereal Monogamy is up on imdb now.