Fine Arts Career Services

After getting out of my slump of back luck and hard lessons, I finally got hired, and everything in my life started to pick up. My finances are not at all great, but I have room to breathe. My personal life is getting better. Most importantly, my job has offered me amazing opportunities. I work all day everyday Tuesdays through Sundays. It seems crazy but it worth it. I’m working with LightSound Productions, who are wrapping up a feature that they have been working on for about two years. My responsibilities are to capture the behind the scenes, and the making of the movie, and create a structure that I must edit into a featurette. Sounds complicated, but Im basically directing and editing the “Behind The Scenes” that will appear in the movie and on the dvd. The best part is, I’ll get created in the film, and get my own IMDB page. So that’s exciting. Lets see what happens next.

These past three weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster. It began with me finding out the hours that I have earned working at my internship throughout the semester, would not be counted for credit. I was absolutely devastated. Seems like EVERYTHING in my life had crumbled to the floor. I have been praying about all the other problems in my life, but finding out that school was in jeopardy, my other problems seemed irrelevant. So I searched and searched for work. I had one month to gather 150 hours of work, and let me tell you, that wasn’t the hardest part; it was a struggle finding work, no one needed interns. After making phone calls, calling in favors, praying my butt off, out of nowhere, I get a voicemail. Not a phone call, but a voicemail. I played it back, it was a guy named Brad, who heard about me through a friend. He offered me a job working long hours, but doing amazing work. From that point on, things have picked up for me. Things have definitely turned around for the best

I can’t believe this is my last week at Scott Free!  I am so sad to leave these cool, smart, fun people.  It is such an exciting atmosphere, and I’m always learning something new.  Since it is my last week, I feel like I have tons of work to wrap up here.  In addition to coverage and internship-related work, I also am finishing up my final projects for class.  Journals, treatments, pitches, and papers — oh my!  Also, I have been going on job interviews at production companies and multiple auditions that may lead to some really exciting opportunities!!  On top of all that, I am desperately looking for a place to live, since I plan to move out here right after the program.  This is perhaps one of the most stressful times I have ever endured.  I go from getting no sleep due to business or stress, to passing out in my clothes and almost arriving late to work.  Things are pretty crazy right now, but I’m sure that all this hard work will pay off.  In spite of the craziness, I am determined to finish strong.  I hope to leave a good impression at Scott Free, so I took extra time out of work today to write the best coverage I have ever written.  Luckily, I was given a script based on a classic work of American literature, so I was able to write good things about a good story.  I hope that the contacts I have made here and the coverage I have written will lead to a free-lance writing job!  We shall see…

Many internships include “grunt work” - menial tasks that the professionals don’t want to do.  One such task that I have had to perform recently?  Data entry.  BUT!  Instead of bemoaning this duty, I have chosen to see the benefits of this task.  I enter director/writer information into a system that prepares a massive database of these professionals.  I believe that the repetitive exposure to the names of these working professionals/artists will only increase my own database of knowledge, and in this town, information is key.  Knowing who writes the horror, who writes the comedy, and which ones flopped or sold at the box office will only benefit me in future conversations or deecisions.  Therefore, although hours of entering names, films, genres, agents, and companies into a database may give me a splitting headache, I have to trust that this is truly a significant part of my education.

I’m finished with my internships. The television show Numb3rs has officially rapped their 5th season. Through my relationship with Leo, the director on the show, I’m on my journey to becoming an actress. I’m working on getting into the union, which will take a lot of work, but I’m ready for it. Aside from acting, school has been really interesting. The class was given an opportunity to pitch a movie idea from some type of newspaper article, blog, book, or a story heard from a friend. I chose Assata. Aassta is an autobiography about a revolutionary in the 60’s and 70’s. The book impacted me so much, I cried the entire time reading it. Once I pitched my idea to the teacher, she was more excited about it than I was. This is a real opportunity for something big to come of this. I’m excited for the progress. Since my internships are complete, I’ve had a lot of free time. I’ve been doing a bit of volunteer work at a nearby center. I’ve also been focusing on performance art. Performance art is what I do in Austin and I’m working on my next piece. I’ve FINALLY gotten the chance to do some of my photography work. It seems like I’ve been set free to live the life I lived in Austin, in Los Angeles…and its feels like home.

Last week, thanks to both Miss Tanika and my boss, I was sick in bed with the flu.  This was great for a day or two, but after that, I felt so useless!  I really am getting used to working all the time. 

So, after I started on medicine and felt better, I dragged myself out of bed to a social event.  My roommate Suzanne invited me to a mixer held by the Young Professionals organization at Warner Brothers.  As my reach and experience has been highly limited by the small production company I work at, I decided it was now or never to start learning the all-powerful arts of networking.  Let me just say, I am not a natural networker.  I am shy.  I am quiet.  I do not like to be the center of attention.  So just the thought of showing up at an industry event with tons of people I don’t know is enough to make my insides crawl.  Baby steps.  So we went and found a small group of people to chat with. She introduced me to someone who works in marketing, who introduced me to someone who works in post/editing, who introduced me to someone who works in physical production, and the five of us sat in that corner chatting all night.  It was actually really fun!  We spent much of the time talking about our jobs and movies and the industry, but after a few hours, the bar had almost completely cleared out and we were on to talking about relationships and the differences between men and women. 

I may not have met tons of new people, but I really enjoyed this type of networking.  I gained new contacts of people that I actually liked and with whom I had had real conversations.  I had learned from their experiences, in addition to just having a really fun evening.  I hope to get out and make more connections with all the interesting, motivated, creative people living and working here.

After my flight landed in LA, things were bittersweet. My spring break was so amazing, it was hard to gather myself and get back to normal. Once reality set in, I thought about the reason for coming to LA, then everything fell into place - I thought of Leo, and going back to the set, that made me happy. But then I thought about my internship that I’ve grown to dislike, that  made me very sad. For about two weeks or more, I’ve realized that my internship isn’t teaching me anything. I am sitting in one chair reading all day. The only time I’m allowed out of my chair is for bathroom breaks. That is not my idea of a semester of learning abroad. And going to the set of Numbers only made the thought of sitting in an office worse. So before I left for spring break, I expressed to my boss how unhappy I was working there, followed by a one-week spring break vacation. The following Monday, upon returning to LA, I sat in class, and my phone rang. I didn’t get the call in time, but I checked my voice mail. It was my boss’s assistant. By the tone of his voice, I knew exactly what the call was pertaining to. So I called him, “Hey Nic, this is Dozier, I’m returning your phone call”. Nic couldn’t even get the words out…so I did for him. I said,” What you are trying to say, is that I am fired”. He followed up, almost in a relief that he didn’t actually have to say those words, “Yes Dozier, we will no longer be needing you here”. So I thanked him for my time there, and that was that. I’ve never gotten fired before. Even though I was relived that I no longer had to sit in the office, for a moment, I became a little sad. Sad of feeling someone didn’t need me. I’ve never been fired before, even if I didn’t like a job, I’d give it my all, and would be respected for it. So the fact that I expressed my unhappiness, and it showed in my work, I was disappointed with myself. But I though of Numbers; that’s were I wanted to be. The next morning I gave Leo a call. We spoke briefly and he invited me back to set this Friday, the 27th of March. So even though I got fired from one job, there was another one waiting right around the corner. (You win some you lose some. Comes with the territory). When God closes one door, he opens another

Its been some time since my last post (There was a one week break from school, and upon my return, I was unfortunate enough to catch an extreme case of the flu virus. Good thing I’ve just recovered). So many things have happened. Some students from the UTLA program were selected into small groups to go on the CBS lot, to go on the set of the television show Numbers. Wednesdays are my day off, so I attended Numbers in the 11th of March. Its so hard to express in words everything that I felt being there. It was so fascinating; the lights, the cameras, the people, the crew, everything happening right in from of my eyes. The UTLA coordinator and the rest of the group were so fixed on taking there pictures with the celebs, and preparing there memories, I think they forgot to live in the moment. While they were off in a huddle with flashes going off, I was straying off to myself; just absolutely fascinated by everything. I just glared at the ceiling, and at the cameras, and looked into the directors eyes as he gave his orders to the actors. I said to myself, “Thats who I need to talk to”. I finally joined the group, and as I did, my eyes locked with one of the main stars of the show. She smiled at me, and shortly after, walked over to introduced herself. We had a short, yet friendly conversation, and afterwards I was on a conversation friendzy. I made conversation with everyone in sight, all the while with my goal of speaking to the director in the back of my head. Before I knew it, the coordinator announces that we are about to leave….my heart dropped. I knew that I would possibly never be able to come back here again, and I couldn’t accept that. I’ve never seen anything like being there in my life. It was absolutely the most exciting day of my life (goes to show how boring my life is :)). So we left. I didn’t get to talk to the director, and I beat myself up about it. There was nothing I could do. I had work the next day, and there was another group schedule to go to the set the next day. But I was determined. I needed to find a way to get to that set…I just needed one more day…just to feel that fascination one more time…..and most importantly, I needed to talk to the director. I deceived my way out of work the next mourning (because this is being read by people of importance, I’d rather not say how I got out of work), and I forced my way into the already over booked group of people going on the 12th of March. (So now its Thursday, the 12th of March). We get to the set of Numbers, and this time it was different. It seemed as if we were rushed. The cast and crew were so busy, it seemed as if we were just flies on the wall. Lucky for me, I had met everyone the day before, so once again, as the student gathered in a group, I strayed. I talked to everyone that I had met, which was I great conversation starter, “Hey, haven’t I met you before”. I’d smile, and we’d talk from there. After talking with most of the crew, I spotted the lady that came to introduce herself to me the day prior. She walks up to me, and gives me a big hug. We talk for a while, then she says, ‘Its so good to see you”. I felt happy that someone knew me :). Then I saw the director. I knew I had to speak to him of all people, but he was so busy. Then I saw him by himself. I walked over to him….then he walked off. (Missed my opportunity). So I stand by the playback monitors. There were 4 other crew men surrounding me, so it made the monitors hard to see. The director must have seen me struggling to watch, because he came over to me, put his arms around me, and walked me over closer to the monitor. He says, “There….thats better”. Before I could even think about saying anything to him, the coordinator announces that we must leave. I said goodbye to the director, and we all walked out. Because, we had done all of this the day before, I knew that he was only taking everyone to view the rest of the lot. So when everyone went to view the lot, I snuck back onto the set. The director saw that I came back, so he made friendly conversation with me. We talked for about 5 minutes, by the end of that 5 minute conversation, we had exchanged numbers, and he invited me to stay at the set until they rapped. i gladly accepted the offer. My class found me, and I explained the situation to them, and they left. (That was the first time I felt so happy to be on my own. The director, Leo, took me under his wing. The remainder of the day, he showed me how everything worked. I had conversations with the actors, the writers, producers, crews, caterers,….everyone. The director even sat and had lunch with me. The day couldn’t have gotten better. The set raped at 10:15, which means I stayed there for 8 hours…(too bad I wasnt on the clock haha). Leo took me home. The entire ride there, we talked about my dreams and aspirations….he offered to help in every way that he could. Too bad my flight to Houston was in the mourning. He told me to give him a call as soon as my plane landed back in LA. He would allow me to come back to set….:)

Being out here in Los Angeles has been great for me.  Although I miss my family and friends, the lack of distractions has certainly caused me to look inward and focus on what I want to do.  Over the past weekend, many exciting things have transpired…

So one of the great things about living here is that everyone is always trying to network.  I was sitting in a coffee shop on Saturday, and I overheard the two men sitting next to me talking.  They were executives in different divisions at Warner Brothers.  Eventually, they apologized for talking so loud while I was reading the paper, and we got to talking.  They gave me a lot of advice and tid bits on the business and on living in that area (apparently Miley Cyrus and Ben Stiller frequent that coffee shop and live nearby!).  They were really down to earth and cool, and I’ll probably see them if I go back next Saturday.

These relationships, I’ve learned can lead to a mutual benefit.  For example, one of my best friends in the program is an advertising major.  I didn’t think anything of it until three days ago, when he offered to build me a website for free to promote my creative work and help build his portfolio!  We have stayed up late, sleeping a total of about 8 hours over the past three days, trying to get this website finished and running.

Additionally, being out here has empowered me to take my career into my own hands.  I am considering writing a screenplay, and I am actively pursuing jobs writing coverage.  I am so excited to see the product of all this hard work, and where the future takes me!

Since day one of my internship at Scott Free, I have been involved in the development of a new game show.  I have played it countless times to smooth out the kinks, researched and created trivia questions for it, and developed visual props for the presentation of the game.  I am so glad I attached myself to the project from the beginning, because now the team constantly uses me for the project.  In fact, yesterday, they took me with them to pitch this show to the networks!  In the morning we went to CBS.  We played the game very enthusiastically for two executives who silently took notes.  Then we had a sushi lunch and coffee while we assessed and tweaked our pitch.  Then that afternoon we went to ABC and presented it to two nice executives who seemed to enjoy the game. 

It was such an interesting day.  Talking to the showrunner and the producers, and seeing them present and try to sell their material, was such a unique, valuable experience.  They were very open with me, and they shared professional and personal antecdotes and pointers.  Ultimately, I got to be in the room & participate in the creation of a game that we all will no doubt watch on television this time next year.