MetroFocus Education Innovation

It's been a while since I posted anything that I've done, but despite that I've been pretty busy. Just as an update on things, I left NJ Today in February (though I've been back several times to help when they need it, which is a pleasure because everyone there is always so much fun to work with) to work on a documentary that didn't fully happen and I believe is still trying to work itself through some financial issues. Since then I've been hired as a freelance producer/editor for MetroFocus (that happened at the start of of last month) and I've been working on that since. Below you can see our first episode on education innovation, which aired last week.

Watch MetroFocus: "Education Innovation" Full Episode on PBS. See more from MetroFocus.

Delivery Fail but Plushie Win, so lets just call it even.

I ordered Big Bird off of Amazon.Com last week -- only it wasn't really Amazon.Com, it was more BabyAge.Com selling through Amazon.Com, which wasn't a problem cost wise because it was discounted significantly with free shipping. ($16 -- how could I pass up the 20" plushie? -- that usually sells for $40 mind you)

At anyrate, I had it shipped to my office and got a call today about it being in. -- The packaging had BabyAge.Com written all over it and I realized how bad it looked/what it seemed to imply.

But look at how awesome that is. Big Bird was totally worth the mailroom people thinking I'm having a baby.

By the way, Big Bird looks totally gangsta in a fedora.

What I did yesterday.

Oh the joys of getting work done early and being by a Toys "R" Us

For the "Harry Potter" version, click here.

Why I love my job

On an analysis of Sonnet 18:

Teacher: "So now, knowing that, can you re-read it from a different way?"
Boy: "Oh I knew it, I knew he was talking about a woman"
[Teacher Laughs]
...
Teacher: "...And summer, it's way too short, and you're longer than summer, alright? you're better than summer because summer's always too short"
Boy: I would compare, certain females I know, to winter.
Girl: Cold?
Boy: Yes
[Long awkward pause]
Teacher: I think I'm too young for this conversation
[Awkward pause]
Teacher: Stay in the poem Brandon, stay in the poem

---

After that I was laughing so hard I have no idea how I kept the camera steady.

I LOVE MY JOB!!!

A Good Thing

He knew it was a rather fortuitous event that had transpired over a week ago. Truthfully, he felt kinda bad about it all at first, but after a good night's rest he felt fine and before the next week even half passed he already had begun to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Recently, however, he had been getting reminders of that place; they invaded his dreams. Somehow finding himself back at that office doing the same things he used to do for money, it was rather frightening.

It was rather reassuring. If he had nightmares about working for that place it was probably a good sign that he was out.

Back to square one

After much debate on how I was to present this post I decided I should do it in my typical way since this blog is SUPPOSED to be writing practice for me, but I digress.

---

The check was for roughly $750. Normally that amount would look about right for a week's worth of pay for an entry level position in most industries. The thing was, that check wasn't for a week's worth of work; it was 3. Three weeks of work amounted to roughly $750. Seeing it in numbers on a hard, tangible check in front of him made that figure all that more realistic than the vague ethereal figures crunched off the top of his head. He laughed at the fact that his friends actually expected him to join them in living in the city, with how much he made a month he could probably make rent, but he wouldn't have anything left for food. Though, if that weren't enough of an excuse before, he certainly had more of one now.

He strolled casually into work, half frozen beverage from 7-11 in his hand, a present for himself for managing to complete a hard day's shoot just no longer than an hour earlier. The receptionist looked up at him as he strolled in and delivered his typical "hi". She caught him just as he walked past.

"Roger is looking for you" she said as he headed towards the back to clock in.

"Ok," he replied nonchalantly.

He searched around the office, not finding him at his desk or anywhere else around the office. As he searched, he though "this can't be good," yet at the same time, the feeling of "oh well" passed through him as well.

He eventually found him coming out of the bathroom and greeted him with a "what's up?"

Roger, a 5'5" middle eastern man with an accent as thick as his glasses, asked him to come with him and he followed his boss to the small accounting office where he was informed his help would no longer be needed as there was a new employee in accounting and he would be called should they need anything in the future. He was then handed his final paycheck, the past 3 weeks rolled into one, and left alone.

It was odd. He felt it was coming for a while now, or at least something like that. He was fairly certain it wasn't because he had begun to mess up; if that were the case he would have heard about it. But, he shrugged and picked up his bag and made his way throughout the office, saying bye to everyone.

It was interesting because just a few days before he had had a conversation with a fellow employee about how they both didn't even care if they were fired from that job, and here he was, exactly in that position.

He actually felt kind of good about it; having a legit excuse to not have to go to that crapshoot of an office was quite a nice thing to have, though it did make conversations a bit awkward sometimes. He was cautious though, he knew that this good feeling could just merely be his brain, reacting defensively and releasing all sorts of feel good chemicals to make him feel better. He knew he would know the next morning truly how he felt. Until then, however, he was going to enjoy his night.

Updates -- Overworked and Tired

So its managed to happen again; I've managed to get myself booked for way to many things. Recently I've submitted my film "哥哥“ to the "San Diego Asian American Film Festival" as well as "Sundance Film Festival," so now I'm just waiting on confirmation that they've received my screeners -- which they should have since I sent them out about a week ago, but Withoutabox still tells me no (which perturbs me because San Diego's deadline was postmarked by the 11th, which was last week... and so if USPS sends me my package back instead of delivering it I'm going to have to go to the post office and raise some hell) so USPS just might be being retarded... as they often can be.

Aside from that I'm trying to find a bar for my friend Nick Feitel's film, which he hopes to shoot next week... (great Nick, just great, you ask me to find you a bar to shoot in in the middle of the World Cup... I see this going really well...) meanwhile I'm trying to get the materials I need to shoot my Interpretations Film as well as, as of last week, am now trying to make a short stop-motion spot for a coffee house called Coffee Foundry -- and yes, this is pro-bono work.

Today I woke up really early in the morning to go to the city to pick up a camera I dropped off/stashed in one of my boss's offices in PBS Friday night for a shoot up in Cooperstown New York -- which is a 4 hour drive from Manhattan. This was for a shoot for Picturing America which is that series being headed by Gail Levin -- who I've mentioned in previous posts. My plan for that was to go to sleep at 10PM and wake up at 5AM to catch a 6:17AM train into the city since I was supposed to meet up with the director of this episode at 7:45AM at 43rd between 2nd and 3rd (just a note, PBS is at 33rd between 9th and 10th) -- the go to sleep early plan was good -- in theory. I just ended waking up at 1AM and couldn't get back to sleep. I went to the shoot, passed out in the car for the 4 hour drive up, did the shoot, drove a good part of the way back and then got done with everything relating to that shoot at 10:30PM and then went to work until 12:30AM and then ran to catch my train home. Back home I ate a little bit and then, once my parents went to sleep, went to working on that coffee commercial -- which I'm trying to get done by the end of the week... I finished with the stadium. (I'm trying to make coffee beans play soccer... should be interesting, I'll post the final product up here) Tomorrow hopefully I'll be able to try some animation tests... something tells me I'm going to have to try to make a ghetto lens bellows system to get close enough to the coffee beans, but I guess I'll figure that out as I come to it. Right now it's 5AM and I'm tired and I need to be up at 8AM so that I can catch a 9:17 train in for another shoot (A Steve Brodner shoot for Need To Know.)

More later.

Getting Old?

I found a gray hair attached to my head today. It so happens to be smack dab in the center of my head, so that's a pleasant find. I realize I'm 23 now, which means I'm old to some people, but I'm not THAT old, not old enough where gray hairs are normal, so I'll chalk it up to my schedule finally getting to me; as if the occasional break-out or 2 wasn't hint enough as it was. Typically I'm not one to worry about these things, and really, I'm not. Honestly, I never worried about my appearance much and I still don't for the reason that, well, it can't really get much worse and there's not much I can do about it anyway, so why worry? No, I bring this up because it probably means my body's trying to tell me something, which I will go ahead and promptly ignore. Yays!

In other news, I submitted my senior film 哥哥 (Big Brother) to the San Diego Asian Film Festival, so lets see if I get rejected from there or not.

Something I've Been Involved With Recently

With the retiring of Bill Moyers from his show on PBS, a new current events program has appeared and I've been fortunate enough to become involved with a segment of it.

Below is a link to the segment I've had the great opportunity to be involved with, I'd love to hear feedback about it.

Who Is Hamid Karzai

On Wit

"You're turning out to be a real wise-ass".

"Oh, if you think my ass is smart you should hear my mouth".

Money

Today I got my first paycheck from USA Studios. Yay! I'm surprised at how good that feels.

Lack of Things to Blog About

Lately the amount of things to blog about has fallen to a very low point, and not because there's nothing going on in my life, quite the contrary, there is way too much going on in my life, leaving me with barely enough time to sleep, much less socialize. No, the lull in things to blog about is due to the fact that all the things that are going on in my life are extremely monotonous, a lot of quality checking tapes at my new freelance/part time/whatever job and a lot of the same thing at PBS (yes, I am working both my internship at PBS AND my new freelance job at USA Studios. I actually believe I mentioned that before.) My friend Ashna has warned me that I'm working too much, but I guess we'll see? I did, however, think up a comic I'd love to try to draw or something... just a strip of something... will post it if it ever gets done...

Miscalculation

He felt the part of his face around his left eye. The pain was almost entirely gone, save for a single tender spot near his temple. This all was the result of a miscalculated step-in, one that resulted in his brother's fist unintentionally thrust in his face while sparring this past Thanksgiving. It was all a rather entertaining and laughable situation, a story sure to guarantee laughs around tables, camp fires and the like for years to come.

The minor injury to Matt's eye was just one of many miscalculations within the past few months that had resulted in needless pain; the others not nearly as entertaining or funny when thought about in retrospect.

Matt had spoken to several people about the issues he was going through, which helped a lot because it released a good amount of the pressure building up inside of him. However, as the ghost haunting him evolved and changed and the time of reckoning drew nearer he felt his brain chemistry begin to do a 180. All of this was scary because he felt the irresistible urge to act in ways he, prior to this entire mess, would have immediately identified as irrational. He was afraid he was losing it.

This was his second sleepless night in a row, probably 5th this past month alone. His friend told him she was concerned for him and told him he aught to get his insomnia checked out. Insomnia; he never thought of it that way, putting a name to whatever was plaguing him made it seem like there was actually something wrong with him, he didn't like to admit that there was something wrong with him; it made him seem handicapped and complaining about a handicap was too similar to making excuses for his liking. This was some ridiculous logic, he knew it was, but all the same he held fast to it, resigned to take the harder path.

He offered up an excuse for his insomnia; "the ghost," he said, "I blame the ghost!"

"That's certainly a stress er, but you were an insomniac workaholic long before you even crossed paths with your ghost," the friend replied, "you need to take your health into consideration, lack of sleep can ruin your mental state later down the road if not immediately, you need to give yourself time to rest,".

He offered up some pitiful response in defense of himself, knowing that she meant the best and that ultimately she was right; he should listen to her. However, still, the word felt odd; workaholic, what an odd way of describing him, if anything he felt like he wasn't working hard enough.

Maybe that was the problem.

Stand By Me

Over the weekend (actually, starting on Friday) I PA-d on a music video for the classic song "Stand By Me" performed by a Hispanic R&B Artist named Prince Royce. This music video was directed by a guy named Danny Hastings and produced by an NYU alum named Andrea Wong (whom I had met earlier through Nyle when I was following him around) and their (Danny's) production company called Atomicus Films. This was a great experience for several reasons, some being:

1.) I was pa-ing with an acquaintance and now friend named Jackie Soller (we took Advanced Production Sound together and both got this job through our mutual friend Anthony (Ant) Jones.

2.) I was able to wow people on set with my G&E skills.

By the end of the first day Danny said "I like this kid, I wan him on all my sets," by the end of the second day he had said it several more times. If you couldn't guess already I had essentially been upgraded from PA to Gaffer and lit the shit out of the stuff we had shot in the studio he second day using 4 Kino's and 2 babies. The first day was all exteriors with no lighting except for the second half where we shot outside and used two battery powered LED panels on essentially c-stand bodies (minus the legs) that we boomed in Strawberry Fields, Central Park.

I was on a production high from that music video, essentially since everyone was so eager, rather talented and a lot of fun/easy to kick it with. I know that I would work with any of them again in a heartbeat, that's a feeling I got from Hayden 5 Media too.

BTW, check out Prince Royce: this is his website, I think he's pretty good and when the music video comes out I'll post it here.

How I started working 17 hour days

Ahh!! The streak of at least 3 posts a week has been broken! Shame!!

First and foremost, my apologies to anyone actually bothering to read this blog for my scarcity in posting, I've been unusually busy recently and this busyness looks like it will be continuing for an indefinite amount of time. Additionally, for the past five days or so I have been staying at my grandma's house, which has left me internet less and effectively stranded from the going on-s of the normal world, but enough of that, my post below.

"Did you eat dinner yet," she asked over the phone. "Yes," I replied over the phone. I had straight out lied because I knew that if she knew the truth she would yell at me and I didn't have the energy for that. It was 9 PM Tuesday night and the truth was that I hadn't eaten anything sustainable since 10:00 that morning, when my grandma sat me down and made me eat breakfast before rushing off to my internship at PBS. Now, I was standing in front of several racks of tape decks, the number of which was an impressive one, but not as impressive as the Dubs facility in PBS, and I'd imagine pretty standard for a post house specializing in duplication and the like.

I had begun freelancing as a junior editor for USA Studios Monday evening. USA Studios was the afore mentioned post house and the reason I had cut my hair two weeks prior (I had an interview with them) and I was now working the graveyard shift qc-ing (quality controlling) masters sent to us and the dubs made of them. The work wasn't very exciting or an area where I imagined I'd make many valuable connections, but work was work and no matter how much I loved interning for American Masters, I wasn't getting paid. So, when this opportunity came up I jumped on it, even though I had just come off a half day (7 hour) shoot that I had gotten up at 5 AM for, although more on that shoot later. I arrived for my first day at USA Studios at 4pm and left at 11:30pm, being dismissed by the head of production, Roger, but I was asked to return the next day, which I did, this time starting at 6pm and finishing at 5am.

I began my day at 6pm because I figured out that I could leave PBS at 5:00 and make it across town to USA Studios in half an hour, which would give me enough time to grab something quick for dinner. However, as usually occurs on days I need to get somewhere, I worked up until 5:30pm, wrecking any chances of getting food and being on time. I decided that it was best not to be late on my second day, so food was passed up for work.

Finally, I had gotten off work at 5:30 am, when the guy in charge of the overnight hours wanted to go home and kicked myself and my friend Sania, who's been working with the place for the past 2 or 3 months, out so he could lock up. I hadn't taken a lunch break the entire time because I'm terrible at telling myself to eat so when I got out I was pretty hungry, but then I ran into the dilemma of 1) finding food and 2) taking the hour long trek back to my grandma's place to get some sleep so I could get up the next day to go to PBS again, even though I was told not to come in b/c it was the day before Thanks Giving. Again, I passed on food and headed back and went to sleep but missed out on PBS, so not eating was kind of pointless.

However, I've figured out that I can work 14 hour days and still get enough sleep, so I'm staying at PBS while I work for USA Studios.