I like to call myself a master juggler, but this week, I dropped the ball. This weekend, I volunteered and attended the Screenwriting Expo, managed a web project, entertained a friend from out of town (shout out to Lucy Loo), finished screenwriting coverage assignments, and had an interview before and after the weekend. With all of this scuffling, I broke the cardinal rule of interview preparation.
While working as a office production assistant for a film called Out West, I received two calls on the same day. One was for an unpaid talent management internship position, and the other was for a paid executive assistant position at a commercial agency. Because the executive assistant position was paid and because I had some issues confirming the interview, I spent all of my spare time and energy on that company.
Therefore, I was somewhat unprepared for the internship interview. I mentioned that I had a job interview on Monday, and indicated that I would take the paid position, if offered. I never expected to receive a call on Friday night with an offer for the internship. The only reason an unpaid internship posed a conflict was because there is a real opportunity for growth, specifically doing what it is that I am interested in and an opportunity to connect me to the kind of industry people that I want to be connected to. None of this is true for the paid position. The real dilemma was posed when they wanted me to start immediately, and make a three month commitment.
Though I think I would like to work at the commercial talent agency, I think the unpaid internship is a better decision to achieve my career goals. I will not get a response from the paid position until about two weeks. Therefore, after the interview with the commercial agency, I called the management company and agreed to start the next day.
I walked into the management company completely unaware of who their clients were. So when I was individually introduced to members of The Rej3cts, I nodded and smiled politely, having no idea that I know their song, and that they are a YouTube sensation. My bad. I hope this lesson will not only prevent me from making this same mistake, but will inspire the four of you who read this blog, not to make the same mistake yourselves.
Stay tuned to find out if I am offered the paid position, what I will do if I am offered it, and to read about my adventures at either company.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
My Experience With "The Help"
Over the last month, I have been in a lot of conversations on Facebook and in Hollywood (sometimes literally, in Hollywood) about the film, The Help. I have read and heard all kinds of controversy about the film, but I am grateful to finally have been able to experience the film for myself. I was especially grateful that the experience occured in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
My wife's family reunion was in a community center in Jonesboro, which is the biggest town closest to her hometown. The community center featured a small museum about Jonesboro's history. I saw pictures of the graduating classes of the colored high school that stayed open until the late 60s, even though schools were desegregated over a decade earlier. There was an exhibit dedicated to Debbye Turner, the pride and joy of Jonesboro, who was Miss America in 1990. She competed in Arkansas for years without a state title and had to compete and Missouri to move on to the Miss America pageant. I was told that her race probably contributed to that issue.
I have been to Arkansas with her two other times, but I was never exposed to Arkansas's culture like I was on this trip. My experience was taken to a new level when my mother-in-law, my wife and I went to see The Help. As we were walking to the theater, my mother-in-law ran into two high school classmates who had just left the movie.
They spoke of how much the movie touched them, and the three of them reminisced about their childhoods in Arkansas. The classmates were Caucasian, and they insisted upon the fact that they could not have afforded to have maids, but if they did, they would have never treated them the way the women did in the movie. One woman spoke of how hers was the only white family on a block of African-Americans. They remembered the whites only pool being shut down because black kids would throw things into it, out of protest. The white classmates couldn't blame them for doing so. They reflected on the separate, yet "equal" facilities. As we walked into the movie, we giggled about how the classmates seemed to feel as if they needed to apologize on behalf of their race.
A lot of the controversy I have heard about them film relates to how most of the team involved in its creation are Caucasian. Regardless, I think it was a terrific film. In my eyes, the color of the content creators did not affect the quality of the film and the truth in this story. This film, and my weekend, shows how far we have come in this country.
The huge theater was filled was filled with Caucasian people, and my mother-in-law said that the first time she went to see the film, it was filled with Caucasian people then. Clearly, the book that the movie was based on had a major impact on the culture of the south, and it continues to do so. Movies like this, is what inspired me to move out to Hollywood in the first place.
My wife's family reunion was in a community center in Jonesboro, which is the biggest town closest to her hometown. The community center featured a small museum about Jonesboro's history. I saw pictures of the graduating classes of the colored high school that stayed open until the late 60s, even though schools were desegregated over a decade earlier. There was an exhibit dedicated to Debbye Turner, the pride and joy of Jonesboro, who was Miss America in 1990. She competed in Arkansas for years without a state title and had to compete and Missouri to move on to the Miss America pageant. I was told that her race probably contributed to that issue.
I have been to Arkansas with her two other times, but I was never exposed to Arkansas's culture like I was on this trip. My experience was taken to a new level when my mother-in-law, my wife and I went to see The Help. As we were walking to the theater, my mother-in-law ran into two high school classmates who had just left the movie.
They spoke of how much the movie touched them, and the three of them reminisced about their childhoods in Arkansas. The classmates were Caucasian, and they insisted upon the fact that they could not have afforded to have maids, but if they did, they would have never treated them the way the women did in the movie. One woman spoke of how hers was the only white family on a block of African-Americans. They remembered the whites only pool being shut down because black kids would throw things into it, out of protest. The white classmates couldn't blame them for doing so. They reflected on the separate, yet "equal" facilities. As we walked into the movie, we giggled about how the classmates seemed to feel as if they needed to apologize on behalf of their race.
A lot of the controversy I have heard about them film relates to how most of the team involved in its creation are Caucasian. Regardless, I think it was a terrific film. In my eyes, the color of the content creators did not affect the quality of the film and the truth in this story. This film, and my weekend, shows how far we have come in this country.
The huge theater was filled was filled with Caucasian people, and my mother-in-law said that the first time she went to see the film, it was filled with Caucasian people then. Clearly, the book that the movie was based on had a major impact on the culture of the south, and it continues to do so. Movies like this, is what inspired me to move out to Hollywood in the first place.
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