Friday, April 08, 2005

Conversations: Commercial Editor


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you!! way to stand up for your beliefs!!!
...ummmm...just out of curiosity, what was the name of the post house, and how much did they pay???

jonathan goldstein said...

ha ha ha! very funny. i can relate.

Anonymous said...

Rock on dude!

Yup. Ain't easy being "the bitch" I revisited that position last year and it pretty much kicked the fuckin "passion" right outta me...

I mean sure, some houses do PSA's so it won't be as hot when they go to hell later...or was it for charitable tax breaks? I can never remember...

Keep shopping around.

But if ya got to bite the bullet, remember these mantras:

1. "It's not forever."
2. "Water off a duck's back"
3. "KY reduces the pain...sorta..."
4. "This is a dying art form and I'm making history!" (this may amuse some co-workers and befuddle some ad-execs)
5. "This CHEEZE-INNA-CAN campaign I am working so passionately on will save some ad-exect's ass. Who, feeling invincible will forget the seatbelt and die in a horrible humvee accident..thus making the world a better place"

Ah, fuck! I gotta get to starbucks or they're going to fire my ass.

Dave Counts said...

"I quickly realized, you either become a power, or you're crushed."
-- Joe Strummer, The Clash

The funny thing about being an artist is that even when you are critical of society, you depend on that society for your existence. Michelangelo worked for the Pope. DaVinci designed weapons. Ultimately, the artist earns his/her keep by the grace of some wealthy patron whether it's the Medici family, the NEA or 20th Century Fox. And that money, just a tiny percentage of the profit extracted from the labor of others, is itself just an investment creating a stable, profitable society.

One glimmer of light is the idea of delivering art directly to the consumer over the web, but you're already doing that.

Joe Strummer lost 10 years of his career in a contract dispute with Sony and was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, posthumously.

"It may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody."

YRG said...

It sounds like you don't want to work your way up to commercial editor from a runner position, so this story may not be relevant, but when I was a younger man, and lived in LA, I got a job at a B movie production house. It was so B it might as well have been a C movie. The biggest star was some model I'd never heard of. I got the job through an accountant at my old job.

The production house for my old job was closing up shop as production was over on the series they were producing. My old boss told me I could go, to start work on the new job. I'd had maybe a week more to go. It was unfortunate, because I wanted to spend the time at the old job, saying my goodbyes and experiencing some closure. My boss insisted that I move on.

During the interview at this C movie production house, the new head of production kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to work there. She said she was prone to yelling like a crazed woman and having daily meltdowns. I said I was sure. They told me I'd be cleaning out the back room, answering phones, typing production reports, the usual office PA work. I was fine with it.

The first day on my new job I arrived to a locked empty office. No one was there. I went around back and no one was there either. A runner from the film developer's office came by with the dailies, the most important piece of a film. The dailies are the developed shots from the previous day's production. No one else was there, so I signed for them. I thought it unusual that the film would allow me, on the first day of my job, to sign for the dailies.

A friend of mine convinced me that his mother would have a job for me on her film, which was due to start production in a couple months. I'd told him about this job and how crazy it seemed, how it was a C movie, etc. He said if I didn't like it I should quit, and I'd have a job on his mother's film. So when the woman who got me the job arrived, I did just that. I handed her the dailies and told her I was sorry, but I couldn't work there. I hoped that she'd be able to find someone, and I asked if it was okay, otherwise, I could stay for awhile longer. She said it was okay, smiled, told me not to worry about it, and closed the door.

I never got a job on my friend's mother's film.

When I went back to my old job to get my final check, one woman stood up and scowled at me. She said I'd screwed the woman who had gotten me the new job. I was naive. I thought she'd forgiven me with a smile.

A few months later, I interviewed for a job. After I finished up some typing tests, I thought I heard someone in the office say my name and "He'll never eat lunch in this town again." I stood baffled. What was this, a movie? I couldn't have just heard that. The woman who was interviewing me came back and asked me where I was working and what else I was doing. I told her I was going back to school. She said I should stick with that.

I never worked in the film industry again.

Anonymous said...

"You know what the biggest difference between you and a rich man is? He has money and you don't! And if you were smart, you would ask yourself why!"

"Do you know what the biggest difference between successful and unsuccessful people? Successful people do even the things they don't want to do."

- Ruben and Ed (1991)

ryanne said...

i feel like i'm having this conversation in many different places today. i have to argue that sucess is determined by the individual. so if i think that editing a pepsi commercial is success, then so be it.
however, if i think turn work like that down and finding a way to make money doing other things like teaching videoblogging, then so be it.
to each his own.
people have to do things they dont want to do, esp in a career?
i beg to differ.

Anonymous said...

Ryanne, don't wonder whether you have to do work you don't want to do. You do not. You are a pioneer of this videoblogging thing. You obviously love it and you're having quite a few successes with it. One great way to get more money than you need is just do what you love and do it agressivly. Ask Bill Gates.