Opportunities

About six months ago, I'd gotten a text from an old friend (Sal) who'd I'd work with in Santa Monica. He'd wondered if I were still working in post-production. "Yeah" I said.
Then he asked me specific technical questions about compression, conversion, digital workflow and so forth. All pretty standard. I knew he'd left the company we worked for in duress. Broke his contract, in fact, since he wasn't being treated fairly.

Sal was a b-boy who you would never know was really smart. He'd worked his way up the ranks to be one of the highest paid conform artist. Conform is taking an edit from the studio and matching it with the raw files that come from the camera. He simplifies it by comparing it to being at a potato factory. Someone cleans the potato and asks you to move the potato from here to there. That's it. He oversimplifies it, to be honest. It's a lot of shuffling. He thinks it's monkey work. Considering he is also a DJ who mixes. He turned records at the company Christmas party that year.

I sat with Sal, to see what he was doing. Most of his co-workers were middle aged men with a family, a mortgage and were definitely world weary. He was a young cat with creative energy that was being stifled by potato moving. To me, it was a pretty cool job, considering you dealt with editorial. Sometimes the director would come in and want to watch their cut of the movie. I really enjoyed hanging with Sal. My training wasn't all that involved since I really enjoyed just talking to him one on one about his future. He really liked that someone took an interest in him, rather than throwing a work order in his face. I know the upper management didn't really fully like me being around since he was getting paid a large sum for what he did and any time away from the edit bay, was time away from work. He was a very negative person. I think he'd be the first to admit it. I think he thrived in being a ball-buster. Would openly criticize the company and the boss, even to clients sitting in the room. They all had a great laugh over it. Sometimes people without filters are who we admire the most.

When he left, I was bummed. My training went out the window. And the new people they brought in were much like the people who always did this type of work. Dry and dull.

So he texted me to ask me if he could call me. Which I was curious, since he seemed so excited. It turns out that a position had opened at a company "up north" (I can't mention it since...well, I was told not to) and he wanted to offer me a first crack at it. Holy shit! Really?! A lot of things raced through my mind. In particular the logistics of moving up north. He told me if I was interested, a plane would fly me there to interview and then sign a contract. Six figures and stock options, better treatment, cleaner air.

I paused. I'd been in L.A. for over 10 years now. Although I had no real ties to this town, I was gearing up to do another movie. It was in germination process, and I was desperately wanting to do something creative. That's when he heard that hesitation in my voice.
"What the fuck, Thom?"
"I've got a movie I want to do."
"Do it up here."
"It's on film."
"Well, that's not going to happen."
"yeah, I know."
"Listen, just send your resume, and we'll go from there. You really should consider this. Even if you want to take a few trips down to make your movies, cool."

But I knew, once I left this place, I'd drop it all. The interest would wane, and I'd be that face in the crowd. To boot, I'd been off the sauce and was feeling the residual effects. I thought it would be frustrating for him to deal with my affliction. And my brain was fogged, trying to make heads or tails of it all. Some may believe this was the dumbest decision of my life. It's hard to say, since I've never shared this story, as I find it unnerving that most people would consider this sabotage. It's hard to know what the outcome would be. Knowing Sal and his high standards and commitment, at that point I felt if I was going to abuse myself, it may as well be for my own interest. Some would also consider this fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of success. I didn't feel all fear. It was an instinct.
I didn't hear from Sal after this. I really didn't want to, because I really didn't want to tell him the reason why I couldn't take the job. Because I didn't want to be chained to a potato factory.