Interns

Young folk are so much more sophisticated than I give them credit for. I can see they are much more savvy in terms of…everything. They absorb the newest greatest thing constantly.

We have a young girl recently who came to intern with us. She’s sat in before which is where I found out that she is a conceptual artist. Our business is post editorial. Which is mundane and…well…it could get tedious. Her first surprise is how numbers crunching it is. Having never been on a film production, I COMPLETELY understand. Even the slates used to mark scene and take can get daunting. After 10 takes, it becomes a blur. What were they looking for? In that case, the job is interesting, if you go into editorial OR directing. You get to hear and see how the studio people do it.

In her case, it’s NOT her cup of tea. She’s making the best of it, much like I would having had been thrown into…stupid internships too. For instance, one of my very first ones was for a music video company called CRASH down in Santa Monica. They represented directors. There I met some amazing artists. It was at the time when boutiques like these matched director with music artist and they’d make a movie. There was a woman there who was the producer, desperately wanting to figure out what to teach me. It was all a blur, but she introduced me to some incredibly interesting people. I think at the time, Gerald Casale was the biggest name. “Gerry” was from Ohio like me. He dyed his hair black. And older gent who was soft spoken and really kind. He was also the founder of the 80’s band Devo. It didn’t occur to me then that it does now, but you don’t necessarily always run into people like this. They are icons in their own groups. They have sites dedicated to their work. And people, to this day, STILL consider him the father of modern surrealist music videos. To me, he just introduced himself as “Gerry”. I wanted to pick his brain but not come off as pushy or uncool. To navigate your life at this age (22) is insane. I know, MANY young men back in the day went to war and came back with a deeper voice and thousand yard stares. I was ill prepared to hustle. Which I didn’t. I hid. Making sure no one would single me out. Quietly soaking in the atmosphere. For the most part, people are polite. You don’t get rude, unless you’re someone important. Later when I moved off to intern at A Band Apart, music video…that’s where the swinging dicks came out. I was there when McG, John Woo (yes, he supplemented his features with commercials), Nigel Dick, and Wayne Isham were there. A few others who were feature directors too. Wayne had the reputation of directing THE single most expensive music video (probably still) to date. Will Smith’s “Miami” ($7 million…for a music video).

In this case, there are fond memories. I was nearing my thesis project and realized they had a basement fridge full of short end film. Short ends are film cans that are taken from a shoot where they didn’t use the entire can. So they make them short and recan it for future purposes. The executive producer at the time was a no-nonsense blustery dude named Michael Bonardcheck. I went into his office, hat in hand “Um…I notice you had some short ends down in the basement…um…you throw those out?” He smiled. Knowing my angle. “Go ahead and clear that shit out, kid.” And that’s how I was able to shoot my thesis on 35mm film.

THAT internship was beneficial. As for the girl who is hanging with us, or all you out there hoping to get to do what you want to do in life…go decide where the entry point is for what you want to do and do that. Unfortunately, it means being on the bottom rung. To a lot of old timey dudes like me, it’s sometimes ego killing. BUT, you need to do something that gets your stupid face going. You will meet interesting people who you can grow with. If you stick to what you want to do. People who jump around too much never get a foothold and no one takes them seriously. I’ve self appointed my position as a film expert. If anyone needs to know, they will ask. I hope this is the case with new kids as well…that they pick an interest and make it their mission to be the best at it.