March 2006 Archives

Gosh. What a crazy weekend! We left the bay area with a MINI full of stuff, from two computers to two bikes, and clothes for two people for a month. Somehow it all fit. That Cooper S fits more than it lets on!

We drove through the overcast skies and light and heavy rain to finally arrive in Marina Del Rey, a small community just to the south of Venice.

The end and a new beginning. Tomorrow (Friday) marks the last day of my time here at Tippett Studio. I've been here close to three years, and have enjoyed every minute of it. An opportunity arose in the city of angels which I accepted earlier in the week. Charlotte's Web is done for us, so we're in a bit of some downtime, cleaning up and archiving the show as well as creating breakdowns for some of our shots.

Yep.. It seems that IMDB is becoming more and more exact and professional over the years since it's started. I currently have an IMDB Pro account, which gives a bunch of neat features, and works well for me, given my freelancing nature at the moment. Along with removing all the ads, it gives me Moviemeter and Starmeter rankings, as well as contact information for everyone that chooses to put in their information. It's great for getting information on pre and in-production films that I have a chance to jump onto in the beginning of the process.

It's also a great way to see what the qualifications of your coworkers are! Many people I meet, I'll just google them, or put them into IMDB, just to see what they've done. Some of them have worked on really great shows, and I love getting the inside scoop of how certain shots have been accomplished. I'm sure I've been IMDB'd in the past as well. Who's this crazy Aruna fellow and does he really know wtf he's talking about? I try to keep my IMDB up to date, and never entered a show that I haven't received at least one final on yet. That's why my listing doesn't have Pirates of the Caribbean yet.

I've been handed another shot to complete on this show, as the artist who was on it is going to be gone for the next several weeks. No worries, even though it's sometimes difficult to take over another artists shot, dissecting their script, figuring out what's wrong or right. Luckily we sit in the same row and had a chance to go over everything before she left today. I think this brings my shot count up to 17. Not a huge number, but we have quite a bit of compers for the show, I think around 40-50 total. I'm one of a handful that have more than 10.

On a totally different note, have any of you read about the crazy Orphanage lawsuit that's happening, or has happened? I only know what I've read, here's the San Francisco Bay Guardian article about the entire mess. One of the problems with this article is I can't find out when this happened, so I don't know if this is recent or a couple years old. I hadn't heard about this until today. There's no date on the article (that I can find). Do any Bay area readers know more? Oh wait, it says this started in July of 2006, but I don't know when the article was printed.

In a nutshell per the article,

Mornings started around 9, and the typical workday ran about 10 hours. Or it did when he started there, in July 2006.

"There was a snowball effect. It started out as a regular 10-hour workday. It slowly built to 12, then 16," Seeley told the Guardian.

At one point, Seeley charges, he was asked to work a 20-hour shift — and return to work two and a half hours later. When he didn't come in, he was fired.

Seeley sued, and the case was eventually settled. But along the way, the lawyers for the Orphanage raised a startling argument: since the Presidio is a federal enclave, they said, California labor law, which restricts the length of shifts, doesn't apply.

What I always recommend is to read the fine print in your contract and don't be too eager! While the Orphanage has a good argument, you shouldn't be in such a position. You're responsible for your own health. If you can, attach a clause into your contract that states you should have a minimum of eight hours between shifts. It's a 40 hour, five day work week for a reason. While our industry is slightly different (most places seem to be 45-50 hrs per week, but at least you get paid time and a half for anything over 40) There's no logical reason for working 20 hours straight and having to come in two hours later. I would have done the same thing. There is a point of diminishing returns.

After doing some research, I've found the public records document which goes over the case. Here's the link to the case file. Looks like it was filed in January of this year, and settled in February. Pretty recent. An interesting read as well in the filed documents (the January 10th, 2007 filing on that page).

The last possible day of the show. Everything's almost been delivered, and we're just wrapping up a couple of shots. I'm still working on one of mine, it came back with minor notes yesterday.

Given the crazy past month, certain things have slipped through the cracks when they really shouldn't have. Things like incorrect grain size, missing mattes, or erroneous roto shapes have popped up in some of my shots, and this has forced the shot to come back. The scrutiny that I usually do to most of my shots is sometimes not as detailed as I would like, for whatever reason. Lots of really little mistakes when I know that there shouldn't be any. We're human after all, but I don't like making silly mistakes that are part of the checklist procedure.

I've gotten quite a bit of email lately from India, mostly for help and mentoring or training or freelancing. While it would be great to go overseas again, I'm not in a position at the moment to do that. I've a million things (ok, that's a stretch) going on, both professionally and personally, that require me to reside in the states for a while longer. I'd love to be able to freelance again overseas, which is why you're reading this on digitalgypsy, not digitalhermit. I'm not ready to do it again just yet.