I just got interviewed by the Chronicle of Higher Education

The interview only lasted 5 minutes. The woman is doing a story on the new trend in Skype interviews for first rounds of education job hunting. Mostly she wanted to know if it went well or badly (well), if I had any technical difficulties (no), and why my opinion of it was (way better than phone).  So that was interesting.

The rest of my day, and most of this week, has been spend on the back deck alternating between working on Enid, and working through Avid tutorials on Lynda.com. I broke down and paid for a year of premium membership. If I'm going to be mostly unemployed I should use the time to become expert in all the relevant things. And I'm teaching Avid this fall at Fitchburg, so that's first up. As I tell my students, you need to know all three well enough to talk your way into a job, and then cram cram cram until you're actually as good as you need to be. I had 3 different professors cover Avid at BU and none of them were good at software instruction. So I never used it well, so I never liked it, so I used it as rarely as I could get away with, and now here we are. I'm starting at the basics even though most of what she's saying I already know just so that I'm sure I don't miss anything.

Life in Maine

I feel settled in. The job is going pretty well. People who knew the place kept saying oh, they're going to keep you really busy, but they haven't yet. I can't figure out if it's because we've had easier weeks so far, or if things are different than they used to be. I met a guy who was a staff editor here a few summers ago and he said they had 4 full time people his summer and they were always busy. There's 3 of us this summer and my intern is part time and the only time I feel like we have enough work is Fridays and I never feel "busy". I wonder if it's because I'm a faster editor than they're used to having. At this pay rate they usually only get people just out of school, which generally means inexperienced. Or it's possible that fewer classes are asking for Post support.

My new job

So I am half way through my first week as the post production manager at the Maine Media Workshops. It's good. Everyone is nice, though there are an awful lot of people whose names I'm meant to remember and I'm struggling with that. I'm starting with the people who actually work in my building: Owen my staff editor who is still mostly running the place while I settle in, Sam my intern, Devon someone else's intern who sits right outside my door, Skylar who is doing marketing stuff, and Emma who I think is also doing marketing stuff. Then there's the two guys who are the TAs for the cinematography class. I should really know their names since they're coming in every late afternoon to get us to string together dailies of all their footage.

Heading into my last week in Boston

Shh... I'll be back.

That's a wrap, now I can rest. HA HA HA HA

Since film school isn't officially over until the finished film gets approved and they hand me the piece of paper I guess I'll keep this going for a while longer. But in terms of what I need to be in Boston for I'm pretty much done. I'm still working on Aaron's film, Move Immovable which shoots June 16-20, but that's because I can not because I have to. In terms of degree requirements I have finished all of my classes and I have directed my film. I'm done. Weird.

I almost got a job this week

The job ended up falling through, but it is still a good lesson learned. My cinematography professor, who I love, always says to the class, "Shy don't cut it."And he's right, and I know he's right. Part of why I am where I am is because of how hard it is for me to talk to strangers.

Ghost Tours officially starts pre-production

I met with my professor today. He thinks I'm ready to start pre-production on Ghost Tours, and I think so too. Yay! I'm emotionally ready to start for sure. I really like this script. I really think it could be a great film. So no pressure or anything, but it's going to succeed for fail based on my skill as a director. This is where I find out if I am as good as I think I can be. I'm really looking forward to starting work on it. Writing was fun, but it's time to take the writer hat off.

The views from above and below the line.

The Line, in movie making terms, is the line between creative people and craft people. You are "creative" if you've got a job like writer, producer, director, director of photography, production designer, actor. These are all creative decision-makers. You are "craft" if you have a job like Gaffer, Key Grip, Set Dresser, Prop Master, Assistant Camera, or any of the legions of worker bees in each of those departments.

All my lights work

And now you're thinking, what is she talking about? It's not a metaphor, I am actually talking about all my lights working. I dragged them out from their dusty haven under my bed, plugged them in and tested each one. The process made me oddly happy. I've been shooting with school gear for over a year now. And while it's all quality stuff, it's all well used by students, and, more importantly, last used by students. My gear is never touched by anyone other than me, or someone who has had me as a production teacher. It felt really nice to pull out all my kit and have everything rolled and packed properly and certain to work unless a bulb had popped.

Back in Maine

I got invited back to the Workshops in Maine to teach an advanced editing class. This time I'm trying to make a point of actually seeing things a little bit. They put me in another gorgeous house. This time I'm in the village of Rockport. The workshops themselves are sort of half way between Rockport and Camden, though when I biked in this morning it's less than 2 miles.

Have some photos.

Living in an artists' colony

I am in Maine for the week teaching my Final Cut X class. The Maine Media Workshops is a place to go to take week long classes on topics related to photography and film/video. The classes on offer this week are: Portrait Lighting Techniques, Creativity and Invention in Photoshop, The Large Format Narrative Portrait, Designing Interactive Publications, Camera Operator, Final Cut Pro, DIT on Set, The Director's Craft, plus the 2nd week of Four Week Film School. We all eat 3 meals a day together under the tent so in addition to my own students I've had a chance to meet students and instructors from the other classes as well. So I'm surrounded all day by creative and happy people. It's really kind of fantastic.

A post from the Cape

The trampolines are open. Nothing says summer to me more than that. Not even the end of classes.

That went well

I am not going to jinx myself by making any assumptions, but I had all three of my interviews and I feel like they went very well. Really, I would be a good candidate for them; I've got experience but I am also willing to work for peanuts. They pay weekly, but I bet if you worked it out hourly it's not much better than minimum wage. A couple of them asked why I put Teaching Assistant as my first choice when my other choices pay slightly better. The answer I told them was the absolute truth: I have something to offer, but there will also be tons to learn. The job editing students' work or the other job in the marketing department producing videos for the website are variations of things I've done. They're getting teachers in with real Hollywood experience and I've never had a chance to work with people like that before. It's the nut I've never managed to crack. So even if I only sort of break even on the summer because I'll have to pay for housing, I think I will professionally come out way ahead. Can't make any assumptions. You never have the job until you've signed the I9. I will keep looking and talking to people and such. But I think I have a good shot at this. And I think it will be exhausting and fantastic if I get it.

Don't compare yourself to anyone else

I think I was getting a little complacent. I was looking at the boys, and even some of the second year students for those that I know at all, and thinking I'm ahead of the curve. Specifically where it comes to summer work and how it affects career planning. I'm going up to Maine next week for the job fair at the Maine Media Workshops, and I had sent off an email and resume to Tim at Central Booking earlier in the month. I've been asking all the second years "what did you do last summer?" and I asked John (cinematography), Sam (prod 2) and Mary Jane (Thesis Prep) what they recommend.