*August 16th (photo: Myself, Allison, and Christina)
My roommates and I arrived in New York, Christina bravely behind the wheel of our 17-foot UHaul. Special thanks go out (again) to all who helped us pack that beastly vehicle. We spent four hours unloading our earthly possessions and the rest of the day trying to replace the water weight we lost. New York was sweltering that first week. Even with our fans whirring constantly, it was hard to do anything but sweat. On that note, let me talk a little bit about smells. New York is stinkiness at its most potent sometimes - of course, if you happen to meet a New Yorker who has been out west, they'll try to tell you Montana smells "weird". What they are referring to is the lack of garbage, urine, and rotting earth smells that flow through the streets here. Every morning, I get assaulted by especially dramatic smells as I pass the fish market. Happily, I've gotten used to these olfactory abuses and can go on living a normal existence.
(photo: my bedroom)
Our apartment in Brooklyn is nicely remodeled. The woman who lived here before we moved in had been rooted in the apartment for twenty years. She was an old southern belle who had more latches on the door than you could count on both hands, and we suspect she kept cats judging by the felines who still come calling at Christina's window. I'll have to post more recent photos of our place soon since Christina bought an Ikea couch the other day and our diggs are enviably cozy now.
When we first got here, I was editing long-distance for HCTV and shipping my final project back home for airing. It was a six-part miniseries about where garbage goes when it leaves your curb, starring our local Helena garbage department. (side note: I couldn't imagine doing such a project about New York's waste collection!) After I finished that task, I began seeking employment in the movies over here.
Within a day, I had landed an internship on a feature film shooting in Oyster Bay, about 35 miles Northeast of Brooklyn. The internship was with Production Designer Inbal Weinberg, and the film was an independent romantic comedy written and directed by Max Winkler (son of The Fonze - ayyyy!).
(photo: The Seacroft Estate, where "Ceremony" filmed for the most part)The flick starred Uma Thurman as an older woman being wooed by Lee Pace (Pushing Up Daisies) and youngster Michael Angarano (Will & Grace). My job was to help execute the artistic look of the sets and I got to help construct dozens of wedding decorations, fill bottles with colored 'alcohol' for set dressing, photoshop pictures of the actors to be used as props, and distress furniture and frames. We had to fill a 1907 mansion with kitschy antiques, so the days spent onset were fairly involved with lots of heavy lifting, but I made friends with many of my co-workers and was able to enjoy a wrap party at one of the most exclusive bars in SoHo for all of my free labor! While this was going on, I got an unexpected opportunity to be a P.A. (Production Assistant) on a show called "Mercy".
"Mercy" is an hour-long hospital drama (as if the world needed another!) about a nurse living in New Jersey who just returned from Iraq and has many emotional woes to sort through but lives to save in the meantime. It's on NBC Wednesday nights, as a point of information. (wink) The hours are long - we regularly work 16 in a day- and sometimes I only have a chance to catch four or five hours of sleep before waking up and starting the cycle all over again. And don't let the glamour fool you - the pay isn't that great as a P.A.: about $9.25/hour for the first 12 hours and time and a half after that.
At first I was splitting time between "Mercy" and "Ceremony", but now that "Ceremony" has wrapped I will probably commit full-time to this show until I land a job that is more aligned with my interests (namely documentary work or filmmaking in which I'd have a greater artistic stake). I do value the learning experience that "Mercy" has been. There are many aspects of this industry that I don't like, its wastefulness being near the top of the list. With each episode costing just over 1 million dollars to produce, I find myself contemplating all of the things this money could better be spent on. And the amount of catered food that ends up being simply thrown out is jaw-dropping. Apparently New York state law prohibits this prepared sushi, linguini, and cake from being donated to shelters. Now that I've seen the hierarchies and loose flow of cash on these big studio projects, I think I'd much rather work on small projects with a crew that believes in using only what they need and treating each other with respect while they're at it. Some days I tell myself I've joined the TV Army just to get through the battlefield ahead. And I don't have the right personality for the army.
My roommates are keeping up with the hectic pace too --
Allison has been involved with an internship at Doorchester Books, learning a bit about the publishing industry and making contacts, and Christina has been tossing flour around at the French Culinary Institute. Her certification by the leading culinary school in the country will be expensive but I can tell she truly loves everything she is learning and is doing exactly what she is most passionate about. I wish I could say the same for myself! I often feel like I have too many different interests and never enough time to concentrate on each fully. If I had as many hours in a day as I needed, I'd master five different languages; play guitar, piano, and drums for hours; photoshop my harddrive full; find nature excursions to enjoy; write stories to illustrate; cook Indian food; edit videos; read magazines; and daydream a bit. I'd still leave time to hit up Chinatown for bubble tea with my friends, who I've been incredibly lucky enough to see lots of. Even though we're scattered throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, we make brave bus excursions to see one another. (Those busses are about as predictable as the numbers on Wall Street.) So there you have it: the dreams versus the reality of living here. And I can't complain: it's been a great three months.
Hi Hansi! I like that you put a self portrait you sketched as your picture! I can just visualize you drawing and doodling.Then of course photo shopping-ha~!
ReplyDeleteWay to go! MOM