life of andyman

And by “a lot has happened” I mean almost nothing happened at all for about 3.5 weeks, and then in 4 days KABOOM.

The lotta of nothing can be summarized in the following sentence fragments: Hating working at Domino’s. Failing to find a better place to work. Loving Morgan. Apple orchard.

Then, last week, on Wednesday, I was at work at Domino’s. The owner/my boss was there talking to a kid that designed the iudominos.com website. He was asking the kid all kinds of questions that were half website/half marketing stuff. I’ve been so bored recently at Domino’s that I looked a little closer and realized the kid he was talking to was just that–a kid. Some college kid, or possibly a recent grad like myself, and it occurred to me suddenly, “That kid’s just a kid. I could do his stuff…” So I went up to Mike Ownerboss and asked him if there was office-type work I could do for Domino’s. (The subtext, which was never spoken, would have read, “…so that I don’t have to deliver pizzas anymore.”)

Long story short, he said yes, and I’ve been doing part time office work for him, which is actually a bit more fun than I expected. And yet something else was to happen this week which would overshadow it.

Next day, Thursday the 5th of October, I did something that for me has recently been wholly commonplace. I applied for 4 or 5 more jobs, these ones jobs for various generic clerk positions at various IU departments. I had a conversation with Morgan about an internship she was applying for. I thought, maybe I should be applying for internships, too? With a “why not” sigh demonstrating literally that I was not holding my breath in excitement, I looked around a bit. I even applied for an internship.

I had an e-mail the next day, Friday, from the internship I had applied to. He wanted to know my availability. I told him “practically total”–then ingeniously mentioned that if it were an unpaid internship I would have to get a job to be able to afford it, thus limiting my time. Monday I have a message on my cell phone, asking for an interview and a “demo reel.” Well, interview’s are cool…I sure don’t have a demo reel though…so I’m still breathing normally because in all likelihood it’s an unpaid internship that, more importantly, I won’t get.

But, I call him back. Those of you who are close to me might have realized that if I want to do something, I will tend to want to get started right away. In fact, I’ve sometimes said that my motto is, “I’m down; let’s go.” So I did what I often do with this type of situation. He said to me, “Well, if you’re free, we could do an interview tomorrow around 7:45.” “Sure,” I said–and if I had answered any more unthinkingly I might have interrupted what he was saying.

Only later did I realize…his office is in Indianapolis. So it was that I had, in the often unwise eagerness of a dog chasing a car, made plans which would require my waking up at 5 am to fancy myself up, leaving Bloomington at 6, and arriving in Indy around 7:30 after stopping to get an Egg McMuffin and an Orange McJuice.

But that was tomorrow. Tonight I had something else suddenly on my mind. A Demo Reel. A demo reel? A short piece or a few short pieces of video that form a visual resume of my skills and experience? Where am I going to get one of those? And, what do I need it for? I confess, I have been holding out on you to build tension. I have not told you what the internship is for.

It is a video production company in Indianapolis. Anytime anyone needs video production, they call up and hire these guys–full service camera, audio, lighting, post-production video guys who’ll do whatever you need them to do. You may look them up at Seguim-Arnold Productions. Be sure to click on “portfolio” and “clients” to note that they are occasionally hired by network television, cable television, and famous TV shows who find they need video from Indianapolis and don’t have a crew there.

So this was the company that wanted from me a “demo reel” and, I might note, because of my aforementioned eagerness, they wanted the demo reel in about 12 hours, most of which would hopefully be filled with sleep.

But, very few of those 12 hours would actually involve sleep, I was to discover. I frantically thought of ways which I could make a demo reel in the short amount of time. But, actually, that was only half of my concern. The other half was, “What do I put on this demo reel?” I had the Victory Brother’s DVD, you see. Well, for those of you who know the DVD or helped make it, you can understand why I was worried I wouldn’t have anything at all that would be appropriate enough to show to someone at an interview. I mean, let’s see: there’s the one with the Dictionary, the Grandma, the bagel-boobies, and more, so…what should I do?

Anyway, long story short, I went to one of the IU labs that had a mini-DV player/recorder. I had a theory, and to my excitement, it turned out to work. To be honest, given past experiences with video, I was almost certain it wouldn’t work. Anyway, I hooked a cheap DVD player into the mini-DV deck, popped the Victory Brother’s DVD in, and viola! I was able to record the DVD onto a DV tape! Then, it was a simple matter of capturing the just-recorded video into Final Cut, and I could edit whatever I wanted off the Victory Bros. DVD!

I used Bryan Park, which is totally G-rated. I showed some speech-free, dramatic scenes from Excremento, which, with the copyrighted jazz music in the background, looked and sounded wonderful. And, incredibly, I showed a clip from Tuesdays With Grandma, though admittedly not the part where Grandma has a seizure. I showed the beginning string-game playing, all the way up to the answering of the door. Megan asks if they want to play a “Classic naval combat game” and the scene fades out, just in time to omit the proximate vomiting that ensues. Perhaps the best testament to my video editing skills was that I was able to make a pretty impressive and G-rated demo reel using the Victory Brothers DVD at all. Oh well.

I was up until 2:30 am making the demo reel, which was about 4 minutes long. Then, I went to “bed”, setting my clock to wake me up in 2.5 hours at 5 am. Adding up the day before the interview, and the day of the interview, in 39 hours I would only sleep for 3.5. Anyway, I went to the interview, and it was great. I found out that not only was the internship paid–something I thought didn’t exist in the world of video production, desirable a field as it is–but I also learned that it was somewhat expected that the internship would lead–after only 8 weeks–to a full-time job!

Ok, then. To cut to the point, ladies and gentlemen, here’s the news. I got the internship! I’m really excited, and next week I’m going to start the process of making all things ready for it. I need to try to find a sub-lessor for my apartment (although my landlord, who is an exceptionally kind and generous man has said that we can break the contract early, sub-lessor or not). I need to transition myself outta Domino’s Pizza (despite having just begun to do office and marketing work for the ownerboss). I need to decide where I’m going to live for an Indy internship/potentional job. I could live with my family, of course, and I’d save money more easily…but I’d have a 45 minute commute to and from work every day. So, I’m looking for friends or something that’s closer to Indy so I could possibly not have to commute so far.

And, I need to spend as much time as I can with Morgan, who is spending January to June studying in Dublin, Ireland. On the plus side, I think this job will be flexible enough, and hopefully also pay enough, that I could be able to visit her there, and thus get to spend a week or so in Dublin, Ireland, with free lodging. Sweet!

So, after a long stint of stagnancy, the dam of underemployment seems to have broken, and the water of Andy’s young adulthood is finally beginning to flow, and the new scenery, for now, is looking exciting. Until next time!

P.S. You may blame the tone of this writing on the fact that I’m reading Vladmir Nobokov’s “Lolita”, which is written with the same sort of flowery language I’ve been using. I always write in whatever style I’m currently reading.

P.P.S. — I just learned this, just now!!! Apparently the entire first season of The STATE is available for download from iTunes! I don’t have iTunes on the computer I’m on, so I don’t know how much it costs, but I’ll probably get it! Sweet!