Fine Arts Career Services

As I am working so heavily in development of feature films at Scott Free, I sometimes forget about all the on camera action.  My whole work week is scripts, scripts, scripts.  Reading scripts, summarizing scripts, scanning scripts, delivering scripts, copying scripts… except for those few times when my work is interrupted by a blood-curtling task. 

“Katy, go downstairs and bring Channing up.”

“Huh??”

That’s right. All of the other assistants were completely star struck with the advent of Hollywood’s new up-and-coming.  Channing Tatum has gained popularity over the past few years for his charming performance in Step Up, and will soon be a household name after he portrays G.I. Joe this summer.  I was not aware of this, so naturally, I had no reason to giggle at the mention of his name.  Miguel, the assistant to the producer, noticed this, and asked me to bring Channing up to the office.  Whoa!

So, heart pounding, I glide down the stairs with an unparalleled air of confidence.  I am determined to make a professional impression, and deliberately neglect his “star” status.  As I enter the waiting room, however, there are two men waiting.  One slouches in his baggy jeans, listening to his ipod.  The other is dressed smartly with slicked hair.  Hmm… I turn to the younger one. The ipod one. 

“Are you Channing?”

“Yeah.”  He beams.  He’s got such a warm smile - totally humble.  I feel instantly feel foolish for playing it so cool and professional.  Oh well, at least I’ll impress my bosses.

So I bring him up, offer him something to drink, and usher him into the meeting.  The other women assistants find various reasons over the next hour to enter my office (it has a glass door that looks into the meeting), but I just sit at my desk, typing away.  Meeting him (and as Tanika explained in her post - Jay Leno) has showed me that these are just regular people with honed skills and with an extroardinary opportunity to showcase them.  It was a very grounding experience, and I feel that with each new celebrity I meet, hopefully my confidence in myself will increase and hopefully soon, I will be able to smartly make new contacts.

This week was filled with excitement. Through my internship I met a lot of directors and producers on upcoming projects, which was a blast. My bosses were so impressed with the work that I have been doing around the office, they let me sit in on the meeting with the producers and directors. I was so thankful, I tried my best to look and act professional, until I realized that I just needed to be myself, which worked out a lot better for me.  I received another offer to work for another production company, which was bitter sweet because the job is amazing but its impossible for the man hours (totally not enough hours in the day). A big time producer came into our classroom who single handedly build Alliance Atlantis from the ground up. He was really interesting. I learned a lot from him. And to top the weekend, as I came home from a long days work, I walk up to my apartment and there are camera crews everywhere. So I put my things in my apartment, and mind my own business. Then my roommates pressured me into going to get a sneak peak of the ‘action’. Turns out its Jay Leno, filming in my apartment complex (as he apparently always does). So I talk and make friendly with the cast and crew. Not to mention I got a little up close and personal with Leno, as I saw the guy shirtless (priceless). They rap up shooting and I ask for photos. He is so friendly, in the mist of his busy schedule, he stops to talk, and take pictures….great guy. Then I went back to my apartment….his crew grew fond of me in that hour ha.

Between last blog and this one, much as progressed. My fellow intern and me started a South by South West AKA SXSW (which it will be called from here on). On the SXSW website there is a long list of ALL the performers from all the venues. We are in charge of compiling an email list of as many record labels as we can find. We do this by checking each bands myspace and searching their respected record label. This task does get kind of annoying as some of the bands either don’t put their label or sometimes they will put multiple labels. In such a case, we need to find out if that label is showcasing them at the SXSW. Also this week, I was given the task of creating a 5th street studio flyer. This was fun and challenging, as I had to learn how to use Photoshop, which is proving to be a very useful tool as far as advertising goes. Other than cleaning, I’m still having fun hanging out with the other engineers here and I’m starting to really enjoy their company. See ya next week.

-Sunka

Today I went to the Austin Museum of Art

Today I went to visit Lana Butler at The Austin Museum of Art located on South Congress Ave. It is a large building in a hip downtown area. Lana is the first person you see when you walk through the front doors. She would be considered the receptionist. The person that directs calls, greets the people and gives them the background of the museum. The museum is clean and airy. The people that work there are friendly, approachable and knowledgable about the art world. I enjoy this museum because the exhibits are constantly changing which allows the viewer to become familiar with different artists and their works of art. The also show many types of media which expands the minds of the visitors. Lana seems to enjoy her job and is learning alot from her sponsors. I witnessed her interacting with different people that she works with . The job appears to be low key yet educational. Unfortunatly they were in the middle of an installation so I was unable to see an exhibit. I did enjoy their lovely gift shop where I purchased an inspiring book of sculpture. All and all it was a great visit and I got to meet some wonderful people that may be able to help me in my near future.

So although we are gearing up for the Link Austin event on Tuesday the 17th, I have been presented with an even bigger challenge. A large part of my “internship” is to meet new people, and learn each perspective that goes into each event. Last week, I was presented with the challange of creating my own event. This includes the actual event, the people working with me to put it on, and any other jobs that pertain underneath that. Since I am passionate about music, it will most likley pertain to that field, yet not limited to. I have been watching alot of old biographys about musicians. One thing that is very obvious is that the audience has changed. People have become busy, and rarley have the time to stop and listen. Music can’t make an impact if you dont listen, yet when you do there is usually some type of relaxation and you are happy again. So I have been trying to think of a way to grab people’s attention, and help them leave with a sense of relaxation, and happieness. Easier said than done..I know! Yet being in the music school, there are so many people that feel the same way and just want their music to be heard. This was another idea of mine; helping the young musicians get their music out! If you have any ideas, please share!

Working at my internship has been going great. This past week I was really ambitious. On Friday, I devoted half the time I was there to making sure that Studio A was tidy. I made sure that everything was spotless and dustless. Afterwards, I realized that although I was finished with my duties, no one was in the studio recording that day. I still had half of my day left but I did not want to go home early. I knew that another engineer needed my help with a film project offsite. I called him for directions and went over to another studio to help out. He needed help in creating cue sheets using excel. The cue sheet contained information about the film such as what sounds were heard at the exact time and a description of that sound. I was not familiar with sound to video so I had the opportunity to observe the editing process. Unfortunately, I did not get the opportunity to ask questions about how or what he was doing because I knew the engineer was on a strict deadline. I did not want to set back any time he had left. Instead, I glanced over as I was typing up the spreadsheet and when I was done with the cue sheet, I was told to go back to 5^th Street and print out copies. I stayed a little late after work because it took a while to print out the 60 pages.

I realized that a great amount of time is spent editing sound on film. Not only do you have to create a cue sheet for the film producer, you also have to know what sounds belong and which ones should be taken out. I saw how tedious it could be to try and perfect a sound that would only last a second. However, every split second adds up and builds up to an overall polished project. Using detail and having determination as well as ambition to complete such a task is important in the editing process.

I’m in my third week now at the Austin Museum of Art. My days there have been interesting and fun; I like talking about art, and leading people into their experience of the museum. It’s interesting how different people’s desires can be; some people are eager to hear all the information I can possibly give them about the artists, their backgrounds, and the pieces in the exhibits, while others simply want to experience it on their own. I’m learning how to interpret what people might want and be better able to accommodate their particular needs. Luckily I have been given a lot of information about the artists and the shows, so I feel comfortable telling people anything they might want to hear, or at least knowing where to find it.

Sunday the 8th was the last day of the two exhibits we had at the museum, so on Saturday morning I distributed flyers about the shows in an attempt to get people in before they are taken down and changed. I went to the Neill-Cochran Museum, the LBJ Museum on campus, Spiderhouse, the Art Department at UT, and a couple of other places. Everyone I talked to was very friendly and eager to accommodate. I liked these interactions.

For the next couple of weeks, the galleries at the museum will be closed for the installation of our two new exhibits. The museum will still be open for questions and access to the museum store, so I’ll maintain my regular hours there. However, in my greater free time I’ll be doing more research and have some special projects to investigate. I’m looking forward to everything I will learn and my continued involvement!

Last Wednesday I helped with drum setup after I finished emailing potential clients and completing my daily tasks. What I have learned at school and at the studio is that mic setups are done in a certain way (by preference) which includes the positioning of stands first, placing the mic clips on the stand second and then the mics. The last things are to organize the cables on the floor and wrap the cables around the stand, plug in to the mic and then to the wall. Then you can position the mic as you wish. Simple. I didn’t get out of work until 9pm that night but I didn’t mind because I had the opportunity to sit and observe after I was done. (It did hurt my study time) Friday through Monday were my busiest days because not only did I have to juggle school with work, but I had to run errands all weekend on top of homework and studying. Yesterday I recieved another assignment for SXSW (another 50 bands) and I have to complete those in a few days. I also had to promote the studio by writing emails to those who were about to host a big event that needed live sound. Yesterday me and my partner completed a list of inventory that took up half the time we were there. We still need to complete the rest of the inventory list this Friday. After completing the list we have to type it up on a word document. As I took inventory I became familiar with where certain things were. Me and my partner think that taking inventory will help us out in the future, should anyone ever ask us where things are. After work I was so tired but that didn’t keep me from staying up to study. I have to keep up with the pace!

Just when I thought my internship at Scott Free couldn’t get any more interesting…

Wednesday of last week, I got to help the TV development team pitch their prototype for a new game show to Ridley Scott himself.  This was interesting and fun, but I had no idea it would get better.  The next day, much to my surprise, Ted, the showrunner, asked me to come with him to CAA, the biggest talent agency in Hollywood.  He wanted me to help him set up the game in order to pitch it to the television agents!  I got the opportunity of a lifetime to watch a real live pitch meeting.  We were selling the game to the agents (who loved it, and) who will now set up meetings with networks.  We will then pitch the game to them in about a week or two!

I can’t believe I am getting such hands-on experience in how Hollywood actually works.  I’m not just getting these people coffee, I am actually helping them turn this concept into a reality.  People across America may very soon watch this game show that I am seeing develop from the ground up.  Just as exciting, these executives introduce me as Katy, their co-worker, not simply an intern, and for that I am so grateful.  I keep asking myself, “How did I get here??” There are so many things to be learned and experienced, and I have found that through hard work and smart decisions, these opportunities can open up to you.