Oh right, a post about Post

How easily I forget! I highly do NOT recommend going to school part-time and working full time. It's really not terribly fabulous and the idea of doing homework once you're home from work itself is really quite, quite horrible. I mean, there's dinner to be made, laundry to do, Grey's Anatomy to watch. Come on!

Enough of le whining. Let's talk about post baby.

So, what have I cut in the past 3 weeks? Industrial videos, industrial videos, oh yeah, and more industrial videos (which are also known as corporate video work). Industrials are usually training videos, which is always a snore, and occasionally there's fun stuff. Oh, I also cut a video en espagnol. Hey, you say, I didn't know you spoke spanish! Neither did I! Crazy what can be cut to a script...

In other editing news, I recut one of the first few films I made down in DC. MAN my sound levels were heinous. Did I always mix that badly? (It was a 48Hour Film so I may have run out of time for a proper mix. I hope.) What was nice is that a professor of ours had recommended always recording "wild lines" when doing dramatic work, meaning recording the actors lines in a quiet place if the natural environment is a loud mofo. So we did, and I got to do ADR with it. Fun!

Oddly enough, that's been the only film shoot I've been on where we did wild lines. I should do that more often.

Uhh, right, so that's all. I hope to update y'all with an update on a new doc of mine.

Pixel Wrangling Full Time

So it's probably about time I post something about my job, eh?

Things anyone who reads this blog (which must be 2 people) should know is that I will never get specific about 1) people in the office, unless it's downright hilarious, and 2) the clients that I'm working for. I have no interest in becoming a Dooce, you know, one of those people who blogs about work and then gets herself shitcanned. Je ne suis pas stupide.

Ok, not that stupid. Generally.

I do not like being shitcanned. I like to leave workplaces on my own terms, or at least cause as much ageda as possible before I leave. Watch out boss people!

Hmm. Perhaps this is why I should consider freelancing full time someday. Until then, classes and 9-5s!

Ok, 9:30s. I am NOT A MORNING PERSON.

Apparently, this is the post before I post about work :P

Something for Nothing

Seriously folks, what is it with companys WITH MONEY that are trying to get shit for free? I'M TIRED OF THIS SHIT.

First there's the internships, which students in my field pretty much MUST DO unless they are god's gift to filmmaking. You show up for work, yet you don't get paid. You don't show up for a class, yet you must pay the university for your internship credits. You're out 3 grand (or less, if you're not at AU) not to mention no paycheck. WTF? But at the end of the day, it's usually a necessary evil.

Then there are your usual small companies and non-profits, who want various asundry things for free. Videos, websites, newsletters. But generally speaking, you end up feeling good about doing work for these companies because of either the work they do or how your work will help them up. Tickles the subcockles of your heart so to speak.

But NOW there are asshat institutions WHO CAN SO AFFORD TO PAY THE MONEY FOR THIS WORK trying to lure in students to do it dirt cheap. Case in point:
Discovery who's jumping on the YouTube bandwagon but taking it a step further. Spoof a show in 10 minutes or less and it gets shown on TV! At first I was like, um, ok, and then a friend pointing out to me it was "viral" marketing. You see the spoof and it goes in your eye and sits in your brain. And then you want too see what it's based on.
Chipotle is doing a student contest for a 30 second commercial for which the winning team will get paid 10 grand. Well, at least there's money involved, but come on. A commercial for 10 gs? Good night moon!
Chevrolet is doing a contest for students to make a Super Bowl Ad. This is only for writing, the top 5 then get flown to Detroit to pitch and then 1 is chosen. But, no money. No thing. DUDE. SERIOUSLY. Let's think about that SuperBowl spots even cost. Ok, I can't, I have no idea, but it's huge money. Probably more than my academic debt for a 15 second spot. Ok, I know it must be more than that. And they want me to write an idea? For fucking free? Go suck it. It's not the American Heart Association or anything. FUCKTARDS.

I think what's so infuriating is that this is a double edged sword of sorts. On one side you have students, who want the guts and glory, and will do this. And there are the companies, who know the students will do this and are rubbing their damned greedy hands together.

AHHHH MOTHERLAND. I really cannot stand to see people taken advantage of. It's one of my buttons. It's why I speak up against horrible teachers, rant openly about imbecilic bosses, and get all antsy in my pantsy about shit like this. AH. Fucking A.

Don't do stuff for free. Please. It only encourages this type of shenanigans and takes money out of the production companies and independent producers you will either work for, be, or own one day.

Don't be an asshat. Leave that to the big, misery companies.

The doc that shall live in infamy

Also known as THE MUSHROOM DOC. Oh the Mushroom Doc! How I adore thee.

Simply put: the Mushroom Doc is *amazing*. Quite possibly the most amazing film you shall ever see in your life, if you are so priviledged. More amazing than Citizen Kane you ask? I would say yes. Clearly, your life is not complete until you see the Mushroom Doc.

So, what is all this Mushroom Doc nonsense about? Other than an inane post on my blog? It's utter genius I tell you.

While I was up in Maine this summer, the posties would occasionally make mention to something called "The Mushroom Doc". At one point, they wanted to make t-shirts about the mushroom doc. Obviously I was oblivious to what they were talking about. (That and who the hell were all the Lost characters they named the hard drives after.) I always asked and was always told "You haven't seen the Mushroom Doc??! We'll have to dig it out sometime". And then it was never dug out.

Until one day, it actually was unearthed. And much, much enjoyment was had. The mushroom doc was a Workshop student documentary from 2 years ago. It was the final project of a 4-week Documentary Film school student, and obviously was about mushrooms. Rumor has it the filmmaker didn't want it to be shown, but the instructor insisted. Ever since then, the reputation of the Mushroom doc filtered through the campus, year after year, much the unknown horror of the original filmmaker I'm sure.

The Mushroom Doc is the finest example I have ever seen of how NOT to do a film. Every mistake you could possibly make is in there. There are black frames, horrendous jump cuts, mics not turned on, heinous talent, shitacular photography, disastrous sound mixing and also a camera getting rained on. With rain dripping down the lens. You could not make a worse film IF YOU TRIED. And that's what makes it so entertaining.

My friends and I watched it last night, and I swear it took us an hour to get through it, even though it's only 15 minutes long. We laughed too much, needed to rewind and review the piece several times in order to experience the true beauty of the mushroom doc. The power of the mushroom doc is not only to entertain with it's sheer shittiness, but also to make us as filmmakers feel alot better about what we have accomplished. That and we also learn that a mushroom is a fruit.

*also this post is entertaining, since I don't think I could end more sentences with prepositions if I tried.