I've gotten a promotion. It isn't more money, not yet anyway, because no one was being given raises for at least two years because the company is so new. But their second year anniversary is coming up, but then again they did buy that company jet....


My title also doesn't really change, although a whole slough of new responsibilities are coming my way. For instance, I'm going to be working more on the pre-production of the commercials, you know, rather than just managing the office. In fact, I sat in on a conference call for a bid with Chevy today and transcribed the conversation. I transcribed the conversations for three main reasons: 1) So that everyone has the same amount of information and so no one is left behind on the creativity uptake. 2) In case they want to shoot this commercial in another country, which is often the case, there is always a lot of paperwork to fill out and they can supplement the paperwork with the transcription, which cuts down about 75% of the call volume. 3) It gets me familiar with the pre-production process.


You know, for people who make probably 6 figures a year (not including decimal points), they are not an articulate bunch. In fact, they repeat themselves repeatedly (heh) in a way that is the complete opposite of eloquent. As I went back to revise the transcription, I found myself editing their comment because they were superfluous (and because the writer inside me just couldn't bear to give people something to read which technically I had written that was "written" so poorly). I revised about 80% of the phrasing because I just couldn't stand the sentence fragments, dangling participles, and the over-usage of the word "cool." I am probably 30 years younger than everyone who was in that conference call, and it was the 23 year old who was getting uptight about the intelligence of the conversation. Everyone always automatically understood each other, even when they were being hopelessly vague, or nonsensical. I guess when you're a director who just wants a job, you're going to put up with agency splooge because in the end you're in control of where the camera goes. You're in control... until the agency sees the final cut, and then they say, "We want more footage of the product." Then it's back to the editing board. But I digress.


I'm also going to start writing treatments for the directors. This is infinitely cool because theoretically I could make a living writing treatments as a way to support myself through grad school. I see how much treatment writers make ($900 flat rate... and that's for a treatment of a commercial. I can't imagine how much a treatment writer makes for a documentary or a feature).


Lydia, my boss, and basically everyone's boss, went to the doctor today and the doctor told her that she is to stay in bed until her son is born (she's about to pop, but she isn't supposed to pop for another 25 days, and she was supposed to go on leave in 10 days, but now she's leaving us sooner than anticipated). She is the head of production and post-production, so she handles everything. She works like 12-16 hour days, but still shows up every morning at 8:30 AM on the dot. We're currently in the midst of working on about 15 commericals, not including the ones we're bidding on. This does not include the documentaries either. I answer the phones, and seriously, she'll get anywhere from 3 to 5 calls at once, everyone needing something different, and she'll systemically talk to each one of them. I can't imagine why she has high blood pressure and the doctor is making her de-stress her life... Sheesh.


We were already planning for the time when Lydia was going on maternity leave, but it's getting bumped up 2 weeks ahead of schedule, which is a problem, since the lady replacing Lydia has only been there two days shadowing Lydia and she could barely remember our names. Anyway, that is forcing a lot of the nitty gritty details of pre-production upon Lisa and myself. I'm going to start making pre-pro books and maintaining our pre-pro book website. The pre-pro book is like the guide that keeps everything together and on track. It has the director, the producer, the agency, the client, the talent, the pre-pro crew, the production crew, the post-pro crew, location scounts, vendors, storyboards, and everything pertinent to the job in it. So I'm going to have to keep in close contact with everybody to make sure I get all of the necessary information so I can keep them on track.


The coolest part of my job, though, I think will be the location research. Lisa and I will be given specific things to look for, like windmills, and we'll systemically search the Internet collecting as much information (and pictures) as we can. Then we'll narrow the selections to the most asethetically appealing ones. So she and I are going to play a big role in where commercials are going to be shot.


I may not be making more money at the moment, but I think my job is hecka cool.



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