CS's Top Twenty Five Movies of the 2010s

That's cool about your job - I'm trying to wrap my head around "working for a studio on a specific project." Are you saying you work for a, say, Pixar, and then work exclusively on that studio's films? Do you think that's a better situation than moving from movie-to-movie?

And I gotcha on delving into details. I met a girl at a concert, and her platonic dude friend showed up later on. We were both doing the whole "so what do you do for a living" thing, but neither one of us wanted to really get into it.

Context: I was working for a major record label (Warner) here in Austin, TX, where you can throw a rock and hit a musician, so I got a little weary of people knowing what I did for a living since they'd immediately go the "can you hook me up and get me signed" route, pester me on how to make it in the biz, or ask me to give them free passes/tickets to every show in town. Anyway, I finally caved and told the dude at the show where I worked, what I did, and he said he was a producer for Midway Games, which I wasn't all that into minus Mortal Kombat and Ares 51. However, when I mentioned I was hoping to hook up with Elijah Wood since he wanted to move to Austin and start his own record label (that never came to fruition here, he did it in CA instead), the guy immediately shot down that idea telling me all these weird personal details about Elijah - turns out it was his brother, Zach Wood. 

I got my start by singing up to be a Zwan (Billy Corgan's band after the Pumpkins) street teamer because I wanted them to succeed and do my part to help them out. My FMR asked me if I wanted to intern more officially, then she told the L.A. folks to hire me to replace her, and that's how I ended up a FMR (Field & Marketing Rep) for Warner. It was fun on the musician and work side of things, but I despised all of my co-workers except for my boss (he was this 50-year-old dude who wore dad socks up to his knees, khaki shorts, bald, dorky), and the fat cats were the kind of jerks you'd expect up the ladder in a music company. I made friends with some decently-known musicians, and they all left Warner one-by-one. Billy (Corgan) later told me signing to Warner was the worst thing that ever happened to him. I remember they wouldn't give me any budget for promoting his solo album after he told them he wasn't gonna give them a SP album (he put one out a few years later, after all).

Anyway, I look back to all the fun and access I had. The musicians and their crews/fans were always a joy to meet. I got to run meet and greets and see fans flip out meeting their music heroes. I stupidly did a meet n greet for Muse, then bounced and missed their show to meet up with a girl - ended up loving them later on. I got to walk around venues freely before they opened to the public, and introduced my sisters to their favorite band at the time. I surprised multiple friends by asking them if they wanted to check a show, then marching them backstage to meet folks. That was all fun, but the industry is a cruel beast, and I saw big names like Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billy Corgan, and others go through some shit because no one is too big to be immune to corporate, record-company greed. 

Was a good snapshot in time in my life, but I feel I did the right thing. I'm in the corporate life at Apple now, business managing Risk and Compliance systems and teams. It's a good gig and pays much better. I imagine Apple has to have some sort of interface with the media companies, so I've been interested in finding a marketing gig with them.

Hey I'm at Fox (or Twentieth Century Studios I should say) so technically i've already done the Warner to Disney jump.

So I'm what we call 'freelance' meaning that I don't have a contract with a studio to work specifically on their films. I've worked for Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., I've bounced around. There are pros and cons, cons being that I'm constantly looking for my next gig and my benefits are changing with each new job but the pros are that I can climb up the ranks and pay scale quickly compared to other industries. Lots of people in film are freelance, it's not uncommon. There are of course studio people who work from film to film and that has its perks like 401ks and benefits but freelance people are really in the thick of the whole production process. It's long hours, often very long hours, constantly stressful, I'm always juggling 800 balls at once and drop about 100 of them but at the end of the day I'm thankful that I was able to get my foot in the door and I'm always afraid I'm going to screw it up haha.

Basically I got into the game in my late twenties, almost thirty. I had a friend who was working on a gig, knew I was looking for an in and referred me as an assistant. I had 0 film industry experience and was applying for a job that 22 year olds usually do but I ended up getting hired on The BFG and things went from there. It's only been a few years since I started but I've climbed a few rungs up the ladder, met a lot of great people and have bumped into some heavy hitters. Better late than never I say. No idea what I'll be doing 5 years or even 6 months from now but sometimes the uncertainty makes it exciting and hoping one day I'll be giving the creative notes that I'm constantly taking for other people, we'll see!