Killer Films Internship: Day 2
Wonderful, nutty day two of the wonderful, nutty internship. I got up around the same time as I did on Tuesday, 8:15am. Well, actually, 8:20, cuz I hit the snooze. I figured that since I wasn't trying to buy an album beforehand and that the trains didn't take as long as I thought, I could leave a bit later. So I ate a bowl of cereal, watched a bit of some movie on Comedy Central and left around 9:15. I actually wound up getting into the area real quick, around 9:35. So I can leave yet later, and sleep yet more. That's good. To kill the time, I walked around the neighborhood, scoping out places to eat for lunch later in the day. I considered maybe just going to the Subway that's about a block away, but since I'm an out-of-towner in the city, what the hell's the point of going to get something to eat if you're not going to sample little city places? Anyway.
Got into the office promptly at 10am. Maybe 10:01. I didn't shave for this one. Yee Yeo has scruff, I figure I can too. Shaving is annoying. I didn't wear the button-down shirt over my t-shirt this time around, but I did bring a long-sleeve shirt in my bag because the office tends to get a bit chilly. It was just so fucking hot on Tuesday that it was a relief.
Alissa was already there when I got in, apparently she got there a bit earlier. Another guy was already there, but was in the bathroom at the time. I think that was Greg, who's a very nice guy. He was wearing these shorts that were cut-off jeans, except they were really tight jeans, so the cut-off-ness was amusing to me. Also since nobody was really there yet, I was able to snag a computer. Hooary! Jason, I think, came in next. He was also pretty cool. He laughed at my little jokes through the day, which I always give folks points for. Then Aimee and Paul. Paul was wearing a Germs t-shirt, so good for him. Also a nice guy. Nice people work at Killer.
There was nothing for us really to do for a while until the intern to-do list came out. Today, there were some of the tasks that us interns are more loathe to do, such as dropping off/picking up Christine's laundry, buying her cat food and cat litter, and picking up a dartanion and six lemons (not five, not seven, but six) from Dean & Deluca. There were also a few runs. A Sloss run, a Pam run, something about an EPK. So I continued dicking around on my computer, trying to avoid getting stuck with the laundry, kitty or lemon runs.
Alissa and Jason opted to do the laundry and kitty stuff, which was nice. Aimee asked to use the computer I was on initially to figure out some flight stuff for Christine and her daughter, which was fine, since I wasn't doing any work. Jason got off the front desk computer, so I hopped on and chatted with Paul a bit. There was also a call that I picked up and accidentally hung up on. Again. But they called back, so that wasn't a big deal. At some point, I faintly heard Charles in the back calling for someone, but I couldn't tell if he was calling an intern. Then as I saw a flashing instant message from Yee Yeo, I heard Charles again...
"HEY, I NEED SOME HELP OVER HERE!"
"Charles needs an intern," Yee Yeo's IM flashed. So I shot up and sprinted over to Charles' desk and was handed a piece of paper to fax to a person. Not really being familiar with the fax machine, I asked Paul to help, which meant he basically did it for me. But at least now I know how to send a fax. Then there was more downtime during which I finished a script I had started on Tuesday.
Next kind of intern-y thing was that Yee Yeo asked Aimee to set up the printer to print a few scripts (which means switching out the normal paper to 3-hold-punched paper), which she was unsure how to do, so I assisted. So did Paul. It's easy for one person jobs to become three person jobs around here. The scripts printed and Aimee and I brass-tabbed them and I ran them back to Yee Yeo. He asked if we checked to see if all the pages were there, which we didn't. So Aimee, Greg and I did that. My script had two pages missing, which Yee Yeo found were missing from the scan. So hooray for it not being my fault!
[I apologize to anyone who found that part of this entry very, very boring. I find it that way too. But I remember it, so I'm writing it.]
Soon after, Yee Yeo came out and informed us that he had a task for all of us. He wanted a list of all movies shot in the New England/Tristate area in the last two or three years, made for under $10,000,000. He wouldn't really say why. Paul and I started to get to work on it, and so did Alissa and Jason, when they returned. It took a while for us to figure out the best way to go about this. For once, Wikipedia wasn't really a help, in terms of having a useful list. Studio System was working out pretty well, because we were able to search by budget and location.
After about ten minutes of this, there was another run up, which I volunteered to do. This run was to a post-production office of a movie they're wrapping up to pick up a DV Cam tape from the cutting room. So I grabbed my music and was on my way. The subway ride there was actually insanely easy and convenient, the building was less than a block away from the stop I got off the train at. The building was crazy. And by crazy, I mean really lavish and reflective. I could see myself in just about every surface, most of which seemed to be brass. Myself and a few other people piled into the elevator when it arrived. A few of them got off on the fourth floor, which was apparently the headquarters of Broadway Video (as in SNL, Letterman, etc). Another guy got off on the fifth floor, which was more of Broadway Video.
Myself and another guy got off on the seventh floor, which was the company housing the post-production office for the flicks. I went into the office and kind of stuttered my asking if this was the post production office for movie in question. The lady at the desk figured out I was from Killer and handed me an envelope addressed to Charles. I fumbled it and dropped it, but caught it before it hit the floor. I may or not have kind of hit my side on the doorway. Any way you look at it, I bumbled. I am one bumbly dude. Anyway, it took me a little confusion to figure out how to get back downtown on the train I came in on, but I did, and I got back fairly quick.
When I got back, Jason was working on EPK stuff for another movie wrapping up production. I think he was going through clips and figuring out what to title them, and it seemed work had stopped on the New England movies list. So I kinda just hung around and started to read a script that was kicking around cwith a title that intrigued me. After only a few minutes, Yee Yeo asked if anyone was working on the list, so I had to get cracking on that again. We all tried to figure out getting back into Studio System to do the specific search again, but we couldn't get the login info correct and Paul (who had logged in before) went on a run to Sloss during the time I was getting the DV Cam tape. So I figured out how to manipulate a normal IMDb search to my interests. I was also, thankfully, able to get back on the PC and off the iMac. Which I hate.
After I got into a bit of a good swing of the search, after Jason had returned from a brief run and was not working on the EPK anymore, Yee Yeo asked how the EPK was coming. Of course, it wasn't, so I had to go back onto the iMac and keep up the search while Jason worked on the PC. To make it so I didn't have to go back to the iMac, I took this opportunity to grab lunch. I think I went to "Le Sandwich", but that sounds stupid, so that probably wasn't the name. Obviously, by this time, I had completely forgotten any of the places I had scoped out earlier in the morning. I got a burger and fries and they were very, very tasty. When I got back, I read the first few pages of another scipt called, which had a pretty grabbing opening sequence. I'll be trying to finish that over my next few days there. The one I picked up before, Greg said wasn't really that good. How sad.
So I did that for a while longer, and Jason and Aimee went out to pick up the laundry and I switched back to the PC. And then I proceeded to work for about another half an hour before Yee Yeo informed me that he also wanted the name of all of the Unit Production Managers for the flicks I was finding titles, locations and budgets for. So I had to double-back and find those names. Now, I realize that in the summary here, it doesn't sound like I was doing this for a terribly long time, but I was. A very long time. Like, almost non-stop (except for the lunch) for three hours. Possibly the most monotonous thing I've ever done. If it's not, it's up there. Once I was finished, though, that was a very nice relief. Things were really winding down at that point. I asked Yee Yeo if I could come in a third day next week because an intern named Jen is away, and he replied "of course", which is awesome. So I get three days next week.
But there had to be one thing in the day that brought me down. I mean, there had to be. It was my second day, and I hadn't really fucked anything up. So then I fucked something up. Not to go into too much detail, but I took a message for a call without finding out if I should have even taken a message. I felt very small. But I won't fuck up that procedure again.
Half of the interns had already gone and the other half were just about to leave. Yee Yeo came in and asked us to do one last thing, copy a DVD. So I volunteered to do it to try to redeem myself a little bit, I guess. Paul left and as Aimee left, she pointed to my They Might Be Giants button on my bag and said "Ooh! They Might Be Giants! I like them, very cool!" So that was neat. I took the next fifteen minutes to copy the DVD, and Yee Yeo asked me to put them in sleeves and give one to Charles. So I placed a copy on Charles' desk and he smiled and gave me a thumbs up (he was on the phone). I like that the guy is appreciative of something done right.
Before I left, I bagged a a headshot that was sent in and was going to be thrown away, unwanted, and headed back to the apartment.
I feel markedly better about the second day of this madness. Despite the thing that happened at the end of the day, I know that I'm in much better shape after today than I was on Tuesday and that I'll be yet better come next week. I'm starting to get the hang of this crazyness, and I'm still pretty enthralled by it. Really looking forward to my three days next week, and of course, the TMBG show next week as well.
Got into the office promptly at 10am. Maybe 10:01. I didn't shave for this one. Yee Yeo has scruff, I figure I can too. Shaving is annoying. I didn't wear the button-down shirt over my t-shirt this time around, but I did bring a long-sleeve shirt in my bag because the office tends to get a bit chilly. It was just so fucking hot on Tuesday that it was a relief.
Alissa was already there when I got in, apparently she got there a bit earlier. Another guy was already there, but was in the bathroom at the time. I think that was Greg, who's a very nice guy. He was wearing these shorts that were cut-off jeans, except they were really tight jeans, so the cut-off-ness was amusing to me. Also since nobody was really there yet, I was able to snag a computer. Hooary! Jason, I think, came in next. He was also pretty cool. He laughed at my little jokes through the day, which I always give folks points for. Then Aimee and Paul. Paul was wearing a Germs t-shirt, so good for him. Also a nice guy. Nice people work at Killer.
There was nothing for us really to do for a while until the intern to-do list came out. Today, there were some of the tasks that us interns are more loathe to do, such as dropping off/picking up Christine's laundry, buying her cat food and cat litter, and picking up a dartanion and six lemons (not five, not seven, but six) from Dean & Deluca. There were also a few runs. A Sloss run, a Pam run, something about an EPK. So I continued dicking around on my computer, trying to avoid getting stuck with the laundry, kitty or lemon runs.
Alissa and Jason opted to do the laundry and kitty stuff, which was nice. Aimee asked to use the computer I was on initially to figure out some flight stuff for Christine and her daughter, which was fine, since I wasn't doing any work. Jason got off the front desk computer, so I hopped on and chatted with Paul a bit. There was also a call that I picked up and accidentally hung up on. Again. But they called back, so that wasn't a big deal. At some point, I faintly heard Charles in the back calling for someone, but I couldn't tell if he was calling an intern. Then as I saw a flashing instant message from Yee Yeo, I heard Charles again...
"HEY, I NEED SOME HELP OVER HERE!"
"Charles needs an intern," Yee Yeo's IM flashed. So I shot up and sprinted over to Charles' desk and was handed a piece of paper to fax to a person. Not really being familiar with the fax machine, I asked Paul to help, which meant he basically did it for me. But at least now I know how to send a fax. Then there was more downtime during which I finished a script I had started on Tuesday.
Next kind of intern-y thing was that Yee Yeo asked Aimee to set up the printer to print a few scripts (which means switching out the normal paper to 3-hold-punched paper), which she was unsure how to do, so I assisted. So did Paul. It's easy for one person jobs to become three person jobs around here. The scripts printed and Aimee and I brass-tabbed them and I ran them back to Yee Yeo. He asked if we checked to see if all the pages were there, which we didn't. So Aimee, Greg and I did that. My script had two pages missing, which Yee Yeo found were missing from the scan. So hooray for it not being my fault!
[I apologize to anyone who found that part of this entry very, very boring. I find it that way too. But I remember it, so I'm writing it.]
Soon after, Yee Yeo came out and informed us that he had a task for all of us. He wanted a list of all movies shot in the New England/Tristate area in the last two or three years, made for under $10,000,000. He wouldn't really say why. Paul and I started to get to work on it, and so did Alissa and Jason, when they returned. It took a while for us to figure out the best way to go about this. For once, Wikipedia wasn't really a help, in terms of having a useful list. Studio System was working out pretty well, because we were able to search by budget and location.
After about ten minutes of this, there was another run up, which I volunteered to do. This run was to a post-production office of a movie they're wrapping up to pick up a DV Cam tape from the cutting room. So I grabbed my music and was on my way. The subway ride there was actually insanely easy and convenient, the building was less than a block away from the stop I got off the train at. The building was crazy. And by crazy, I mean really lavish and reflective. I could see myself in just about every surface, most of which seemed to be brass. Myself and a few other people piled into the elevator when it arrived. A few of them got off on the fourth floor, which was apparently the headquarters of Broadway Video (as in SNL, Letterman, etc). Another guy got off on the fifth floor, which was more of Broadway Video.
Myself and another guy got off on the seventh floor, which was the company housing the post-production office for the flicks. I went into the office and kind of stuttered my asking if this was the post production office for movie in question. The lady at the desk figured out I was from Killer and handed me an envelope addressed to Charles. I fumbled it and dropped it, but caught it before it hit the floor. I may or not have kind of hit my side on the doorway. Any way you look at it, I bumbled. I am one bumbly dude. Anyway, it took me a little confusion to figure out how to get back downtown on the train I came in on, but I did, and I got back fairly quick.
When I got back, Jason was working on EPK stuff for another movie wrapping up production. I think he was going through clips and figuring out what to title them, and it seemed work had stopped on the New England movies list. So I kinda just hung around and started to read a script that was kicking around cwith a title that intrigued me. After only a few minutes, Yee Yeo asked if anyone was working on the list, so I had to get cracking on that again. We all tried to figure out getting back into Studio System to do the specific search again, but we couldn't get the login info correct and Paul (who had logged in before) went on a run to Sloss during the time I was getting the DV Cam tape. So I figured out how to manipulate a normal IMDb search to my interests. I was also, thankfully, able to get back on the PC and off the iMac. Which I hate.
After I got into a bit of a good swing of the search, after Jason had returned from a brief run and was not working on the EPK anymore, Yee Yeo asked how the EPK was coming. Of course, it wasn't, so I had to go back onto the iMac and keep up the search while Jason worked on the PC. To make it so I didn't have to go back to the iMac, I took this opportunity to grab lunch. I think I went to "Le Sandwich", but that sounds stupid, so that probably wasn't the name. Obviously, by this time, I had completely forgotten any of the places I had scoped out earlier in the morning. I got a burger and fries and they were very, very tasty. When I got back, I read the first few pages of another scipt called, which had a pretty grabbing opening sequence. I'll be trying to finish that over my next few days there. The one I picked up before, Greg said wasn't really that good. How sad.
So I did that for a while longer, and Jason and Aimee went out to pick up the laundry and I switched back to the PC. And then I proceeded to work for about another half an hour before Yee Yeo informed me that he also wanted the name of all of the Unit Production Managers for the flicks I was finding titles, locations and budgets for. So I had to double-back and find those names. Now, I realize that in the summary here, it doesn't sound like I was doing this for a terribly long time, but I was. A very long time. Like, almost non-stop (except for the lunch) for three hours. Possibly the most monotonous thing I've ever done. If it's not, it's up there. Once I was finished, though, that was a very nice relief. Things were really winding down at that point. I asked Yee Yeo if I could come in a third day next week because an intern named Jen is away, and he replied "of course", which is awesome. So I get three days next week.
But there had to be one thing in the day that brought me down. I mean, there had to be. It was my second day, and I hadn't really fucked anything up. So then I fucked something up. Not to go into too much detail, but I took a message for a call without finding out if I should have even taken a message. I felt very small. But I won't fuck up that procedure again.
Half of the interns had already gone and the other half were just about to leave. Yee Yeo came in and asked us to do one last thing, copy a DVD. So I volunteered to do it to try to redeem myself a little bit, I guess. Paul left and as Aimee left, she pointed to my They Might Be Giants button on my bag and said "Ooh! They Might Be Giants! I like them, very cool!" So that was neat. I took the next fifteen minutes to copy the DVD, and Yee Yeo asked me to put them in sleeves and give one to Charles. So I placed a copy on Charles' desk and he smiled and gave me a thumbs up (he was on the phone). I like that the guy is appreciative of something done right.
Before I left, I bagged a a headshot that was sent in and was going to be thrown away, unwanted, and headed back to the apartment.
I feel markedly better about the second day of this madness. Despite the thing that happened at the end of the day, I know that I'm in much better shape after today than I was on Tuesday and that I'll be yet better come next week. I'm starting to get the hang of this crazyness, and I'm still pretty enthralled by it. Really looking forward to my three days next week, and of course, the TMBG show next week as well.