I'm thinking of a number. Do you know what it is?
It's thirty-seven.
That's the approximate number of times I've actually wished that the "thinking of a number" guy would make a comeback, and replace the ungodly, annoying singing-pirate band that does the new Free Credit Report commercials. Seriously, if I hear "They say a man should always dress for the job he wants" one more time, I'm putting an ax through my own television.
I feel very strongly about this.
Well, guess I'd better awkwardly segue into the topic of today's post.
Iggy here, blogging at you from a couch in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The weather's nice, if you have a large hump on your back to carry water, or if you normally reside on the planet Mercury. That's why I'm on the couch. Inside. Watching commercials for Dockers jeans ("Like a sound you hear that lingers in your ear...") and the Honda Element ("Oooooh barracuda!").
Yes, it's a blindingly exciting life I lead as a budding movie-maker.
But every so often a commercial for Activia yogurt comes on, with Jamie Lee Curtis, and I have to stop and take note. You've probably seen the one.
This commercial is always really interesting to me because I was an intern at the production company that made this ad.
Dogmatic Creative Production, Inc. was the name of the place. A little boutique business in a little hole in the wall in Venice Beach. It's across the street from the world-famous original Gold's Gym. A lot of hippies live in Venice Beach... I would walk the two blocks from the bus stop every Tuesday and Thursday, and every morning I could catch the distinct aroma of pot in the air, hovering around one of the splashy art-deco houses that lined the street.
I never stopped to ask for a toke. That's part of the lifestyle of Venice Beach that I didn't ever partake in, fortunately or unfortunately. Maybe if I had, the art-deco scenery wouldn't have looked so much like piles of kitschy vomit.
The job itself was very easy. I sat around watching my boss David make edits on his incredible Apple G5 setup, using Final Cut Pro, and every now and then I would get a chance to jump on there and mess around with some editing. Throughout the day, people would ask me to make runs for them. Pick up lunch, pick up tapes, return tapes, pick up groceries. Sometimes I would go into the machine room and make dubs-- basically, copies of tapes that would come in from on-location shoots.
We worked on a bunch of different projects. Real cutting-edge stuff. The Jamie Lee Curtis commercial was one of those... and you should have seen some of the stuff that didn't make it into the final cut. (She's kind of a diva, especially considering it was a friggin' yogurt commercial.)
Another one was a Carl's Jr. shoot. Dogmatic didn't handle the ad itself, just some B-roll footage. But don't let that fool you: we were involved in some real top-of-the-line stuff.
Ellen DeGeneres did a plug for some dog food-- and we were there.
Heidi Montag started her own crappy clothes line-- and we were there.
Miranda Kerr launched a new perfume-- and we were there.
(By the way, Miranda Kerr is stunningly hot. That was one of the better projects we got to work on. :)
Through it all I managed to get some experience with Final Cut, along with meeting some fun famous people and learning a whole lot about how the entertainment business works. Plus, I now have a couple of references that might-- MIGHT-- be able to help me get my next job. That's always fun.
Oh God. I have to go... I just heard the sound of Hell's gates opening up and a thousand damned souls screaming for release.
"Well I was shoppin' for a new car, which one's me? A cool convertible or an SUV?"
How about an ambulance?
No comments:
Post a Comment