Thursday afternoon I received an email from Rebecca Lando that went something like this:
Wow! Great work on the episode. I was blown away that you got so much accomplished, and your rough cut was super helpful and really well put together. You are a fucking rock star.My pride did backflips after reading this email and my whole body may have as well were I athletic enough. It's not a feature film, it's not a big prime-time television show, but it's something that I did and did well enough to be referred to as "a fucking rock star". Swimming in a pool of Hofstra students, I am aware that my talents are slightly above average, but this email is something I'll carry with me as proof of it and a small inkling of an assurance that I can make out there in the big bad world once I finally graduate in May.
We're going to bring the drive by NNN Thursday night so it'll be there for you Friday AM with the footage for the Bo Ssam on it. I have a mtg at NNN Tuesday evening, so I'll just pick it back up then.
Thanks again for all your hard work. You're the best.
As Rebecca promised, I walked into the office today and it was minutes before someone approached me with the familiar LaCie HD full of footage for the new episode. Bo Ssam, Scallion-Ginger sauce and Jalapeno-Garlic sauce. Logging took about four to five hours, broken up occasionally to deliver extraneous props and wardrobe to the studio that Erik had accumulated in his office over time. (Included were Jason masks, a tool belt, two toy pistols, a plastic Jack-O-Lantern bucket, a plastic cauldron bucket, a styrofoam cheese block hat, a lab suit, and various shirts of all shapes and sizes, a variety of things too comical to omit from this recount.) Rough cutting was difficult to begin, confused as I was as to where to start, but once the ball rolled it never stopped!
In a few hours I had the entire cooking segment of the show thrown down on my timeline. Total time of the rough cut: approximately 4 minutes 30 seconds. That's it! I can't help but wonder if maybe this rough cut is too finely done around the edges, but I have the weekend to mention it to Rebecca and all of Monday to play around with it if need be.
A theory as to why it's so short: As opposed to just blindly following the show list, I'm adopting the show's quick-paced style and trying to capture that in the edit from the start. I know that the episode's final cut will show a two second clip of dicing scallions as opposed to six or seven seconds. So, naturally, the clip I add will be closer to two or three seconds. Hence the insanely short rough cut...
Major point of interest. Ryan Nugent sent me a message asking to talk with me regarding my work with Rebecca and Working Class Foodies. When he finally approached me, he prefaced by saying that Hungry Nation is a network in it's infancy and that the company was really trying to get behind it and push it towards success. WCF is one of two shows it currently has, so any and all help that could be given to make it exponentially better was welcome. This is where I fall into play, Rebecca raved about my work so much that she asked Ryan and another woman at NNN if I could work exclusively as an intern for WCF. Exclusively.
I pondered this for a moment and my reaction to it was both surprising and mutual among myself and Ryan but was most surprising of all was that I vocalized it. When in these sorts of situations, I bite my tongue, choosing to help the team however I can and keeping my own desires out of the picture. But today, I plainly told Ryan that I would do anything they asked me to, for my purpose as an intern is to help Next New Networks however I can. That said, I didn't want an exclusive internship under Hungry Nation and Working Class Foodies to prohibit me from gaining additional experience from other jobs for other networks. For example, would I ever get to shoot another episode for Beyond The Trailer if I was spending my days putting together rough cuts? Obviously, I did not present this as bluntly as I am now but my sudden ability to articulate these thoughts left me a little awed. Seriously.
Ryan, bless his soul, felt the same way. (About my opinion, not my articulation.) He said he had hired myself and the other interns with the promise that we would work in a variety of different environments for a variety of shows and people. Restricting us to one project was taking away from the experience he and Next New promised to give. Hallelujah! Rebecca is an awesome, professional, personable and intelligent person to work with but I'm there to help her and Grace and Erik and Justin and any one of the other equally great individuals at my internship.
What did I learn today? Whether this is a legit rule to stick by has yet to be seen but, adopt the style of the show you are creating a rough cut for. It not only saves time, but makes you look better for knowing what your boss is hoping to see in the final product. (God I hope this is true!) The deceit of the Internet is strong. After watching the raw footage of WCF and contrasting what's actual true with what is said in interviews, a lot is inferred and a lot of stock is put into people simply believing what you are saying because you're on the screen and they, the viewer, is not.* Most importantly, stick up for what you believe in. You never know who might have your beliefs in mind.
*Probably should expand on this...maybe next time.
