workin'

The third installment of my “catchup session” is finally here, and it’s all WORK.  

**Just in case anyone reading this isn't sure what exactly I had been doing for work for the past seven months or so, I was employed at a production company which was founded by a group of former Vh1 execs and is still somewhat in its fledgling stages.  I'd been brought onboard to handle the set-up of the actual office space -- from networking printers to managing vendors -- as well as assisting each production crew that came in for various pilots and series with everything from research tasks to booking travel to getting maps of Boston printed up to delivering the final product to its designated network.

What it's like working in reality TV production.
Except there's more screaming.

Because this post is long and full of extraneous details, I'm posting the short version here.  Feel free to read the rest if you'd like, but it's mostly for my memory's sake that I jotted it down.

• Late September: My boss decided to transition me from Office Coordinator to Creative Production Assistant.  The change would have happened right after I got back from my two week trip to Germany and my parent's visit.

• Late October: I returned from Germany to news that the series I'd been put onto in a creative role had been "pushed" (postponed) and that I'd have details as soon as my former employer did.  I started applying for design jobs, which is what I really want to get into, and also began receiving unemployment insurance payments weekly.  This was nice because it kept me from burning through my savings any more than I had to.

• Mid November: I sent my resume (on a shameless whim) to the graphics house I'd worked with through one of my former employer's pilots.  They had seemed like an amazing group to work with, and I knew I didn't have the skills necessary to work as a designer for them yet but I kept holding out a flame for them.

• Late November: the graphics house called me back!  They interviewed me and said that they'd like to hire me as a paid graphic design intern starting in January.  Later, they e-mailed to ask if I could cover the Production Coordinator's position while he was out on Grand Jury Duty.  I said yes, and haven't looked back.  At Mantra (the graphics house), I hope to learn animation, 3-D rendering, and after effects.  I'm thrilled that I don't necessarily need to go back to school to expand my skillset into that realm.  My goal is to have my own design firm in the next five years or so, and hopefully to relocate to the northwest.  Now, I just need to learn all I can about the business.  

If you'd like to take a look at the sort of work Mantra does, here's their website:  http://www.mantradesign.tv/#/home




Now, for the rest of the story. 

Back in late September, about a week before I left for Germany, my boss Mark asked me to sit down in his office.   It was an unusual request considering he rarely sent me an e-mail that included even one complete sentence, and most often spoke to me while wheeling his mobile office into the elevator on his way to meetings.   I guess you could say he was succinct.  He opened the sit-down meeting with a question: “How’s the job going?”

I smelled a trap.

“Well, this week’s been busy, but I’d say everything is going pretty well.”

“Look.  You want to get into design, or graphics, or some sort of creative realm, right?”

“Well, yes, ideally.  I’m still considering going back to school in the next couple of years for design.”

“Right, right. But you don’t particularly enjoy the work associated with your current position.”

“I wouldn’t say that –" (I knew at this point that the talk I’d had in confidence with my supervisor, Bonnie, had leaked to Mark by way of patchy, second-hand details.  Great.) – “I would say that this position has pushed me to grow tremendously, and it has involved greater responsibility than any job I’ve held in the past. A lot of the problem-solving has actually taken so much creativity and resourcefulness that I’m really proud of the work I’ve done here.”

“Oh, absolutely.  You’ve done great work, everybody feels that way and everybody recognizes it.  But we also know that this isn’t what you want to be doing, and that you’ve had some frustration with the position.”

We then talked about how the position I was filling was intended to career-track into Production Manager in two to three years and Line Producer in seven to ten.  I guess I knew what was coming, but I made the most of my first real discussion with Mark.

We talked about how the time I had spent assisting the creative team as Graphics Lead on our last pilot had made going back to being the office lackey all the harder, and that working in an office where my role meant being constantly dumped on by every single person with any and all of their needs - from technical to interpersonal -  was definitely a job that kept me busy but that I felt frustrated that nobody talked to one another and therefore nobody knew how much I was juggling at once every single day.  I was regularly asked to stay late and deliver edits across town by way of public transit at 9:30 p.m. or later when I'd already put in a 12-hour day.  And never was I asked, "Oh -- did you have plans tonight?"  Such is the industry, I suppose. 

I guess, the fact is -- I would have been happier to do all of that in an environment in which I felt that the coworkers I was helping at least appreciated my potential, got to know me, and -- more importantly -- that they liked one another. If I could have seen a future for myself there, I could have continued doing the work I did with as much gusto and could not have had a complaint. But, since i was the sole witness to the constant back-stabbing, martyrdom, and gossip, I truly couldn't see a future at a company that produced terrible shows and employed immoral people.  I want to leave the world a better place with my existence here, and I don't see reality TV as the road to the promised land on that front.

Anyway, Mark then cut to the chase by saying "Look, we're at a point where we really need to lock into your position somebody who does want to be on that career track to Production Management and who would stay with us for at least the next full year."

"I don't want to call this a termination, uh, but more of a transition."  (He shifted in his chair.)  "We'd like to use you in other ways where you can be working toward involvement with the creative side of what we do rather than sticking with this just because it's a job.  And don't get me wrong, I've stayed far too long at jobs that were just jobs to me because sometimes that's how you survive.  What we'd like to do is have you spend the next week wrapping up ends as the Office Coordinator and then we'd like to transition Isabel into your current role and when you're back from Germany, we feel very confident that we could keep you with us on more of a project-to-project basis after that, working with the creative team on our next series, which is about a six week stint and then that gives you time to build up your resume more and market yourself around.  Or, there's every possibility that we'd have another gig afterwards to throw you onto."

I listened to everything he said and took it for what it was: My Logistics & Planning boss being strategic.  While I appreciated what he was saying about working with the creative teams when I came back from Germany, I knew better than to believe it outright.  I'd seen the company string along three producers, dozens of camera guys, editors, post supervisors, and our Production Assistant, Denny.  And, truth be told, they're starting to get a bad reputation for this sort of behavior.  New York is too small for that sort of thing.  Often, I'd had to be the bearer of broken promises for them.  I'd follow through on Mark's request to book a camera guy for two weeks of work only to be told last minute that the shoot wasn't happening and to call him and cancel.  One of our burned producers, who had been locked in on a seven-month show when it was abruptly canned due to under funding, once wrote me an e-mail just to personally reach out because he felt that I was too good for that place and said that if I ever wanted to leave, I should hit him up for work.  My favorite post supervisor we went through used to e-mail me just to check and see whether I still had a job there.  She left her position because of the poorly managed, instable chaos. 

So, for my last week at the Comp'ny, I was treated like gold and it surprised and amused me to no end.  Their motives were shallow enough to read through the murk:  they needed me to leave on good terms, handing over peacefully every detail of how the office had been set up and how it ran and who to call if anything went wrong and how to fix Wendall's possessed printer and how to manage intern recruiting and how to rip videos from online and how to order supplies.  I had the details of the alarm system, the codes for entering the building after hours, the keys to everything, the files for every chart, password, and vendor contact, and the details they needed to be operational.  They couldn't afford to have me just storm out, and they couldn't afford to have me think I wasn't going to be employed after Germany for fear that I wouldn't cooperate.  Which is stupid.  If they knew the sort of person that I am, and that I possess some level of integrity, they would have been honest with me and I would have been grateful.  As it was, I spent the week in utter disbelief of how uncharacteristically kind Bonnie was being, laughing at my jokes and agreeing with me on things she normally would have shot down just for the sake of feelign superior.  STRANGE.  Twilight zone strange.

****Fast Forward****

I got back from Germany to an e-mail stating simply that the series I was supposed to assist with on the creative team had been pushed (a.k.a. "postponed") and that the Comp'ny would let me know more news as soon as they had it.  I was actually incredibly relieved and began searching for new jobs in design.  I was fairly sure I'd need to go back to school to learn some of the programs and to expand my art style, but on a whim I sent my resume and a cover letter to the graphics house that had done a pilot intro for my former employer.  I'd worked closely with them during that time and saw what an easy-going and supportive crew they had and knew I wanted to work for them but didn't think I had a chance.  They responded to my e-mail, though, and we met for an in-depth interview towards the end of November.  While I was in Philadelphia that weekend, I received an e-mail stating that they'd like to hire me as a paid intern and also asking if I would like to cover for their Production Coordinator for the month of December!  I said yes and have to say that I couldn't be happier.  I'll be learning motion graphics and animation as well as 3-D and effects and was told by the producers that the timing is great in that their company is looking to expand and that they hired their last intern and if I fit well with their team, they'll do everything to keep me onboard.

So, even though my departure from the other employer came somewhat suddenly, it was the best thing that could have happened and I'll be sure to update with news of my new job as it comes!

The Flatiron District, where I now work.

Here's the website of my new employer, if you want to see what we do over there in the Flatiron District:  http://www.mantradesign.tv/#/home