About My New Job

So everyone has been wondering about my new job. Well here's how it went down: Monday 9-12, I wake up to a voicemail from my friend Aaron. He says that a guy left his work for a different job over the weekend and they want to fill his position that day. So I call back immediately, setup an interview for 1pm, come in, and it was a pretty chill interview, and they basically said, "We love Aaron, and so if he recommended you, you must be good. When can you start?" "Now," I reply. So that was that, all of a sudden after months of looking for work I was suddenly employed. So far, I have no complaints. I love my job. The company is called Collins Avenue, which is a production company that develops and produces various reality television shows. It's right across the street from where I went to school, so I ride my longboard to and from work everyday in 5 minutes or so. Im in the corner of the room, if I look out the window to my right I can see downtown LA, if I look out the window in front of me, I can see the Hollywood sign, that never gets old.

My job title is Development Producer/Editor. Development is the department that deals with developing ideas for projects and pitching them. Basically the development managers come to me and my coworkers with an idea for a show. Then we take the idea and over Skype (or if possible in person) interview possible people to be the cast for the show. We then decide whether or not they would fit for what we want in the show. In this sense we cover a lot of the casting at our company as well. Then what we do is take footage of these people in action (or pull footage of similar action), edit in the video footage of the interviews, create titles and graphics and compile all of this into a 3-4 minute promotional video which is basically like a movie trailer for the show. It shows the characters, explains the premise and story of the show. Then the two or three in charge of the company take these videos with a presentation and pitch it to the major networks and if they like it they will buy a season of the show which our company will then write and film.

It's been really great, even though I'm far from being a huge reality TV guy, it's a really good step in the door. All of the jobs I had been applying for were mostly production and office assistant jobs because I thought that would be all I would get - answering phones, filing papers, delivering packages, and here I am with a pretty decent job out of college. And a job where I can be creative and use my talent writing story and editing. It's also cool getting to meet a lot of unique different people from all over the country on the Skype interviews. The people I work with are awesome and very welcoming... and let me make my occasional stupid jokes. I get to work with one of my best friends out here, Aaron Inman.  And lastly, but not leastly, we have a kitchen that is constantly stocked with snack food and .... cereal :)

I really appreciate everyone who has been encouraging to me in the long months of looking for work and also those of you who have prayed for me.  If you read everything I wrote above, you can see that I really don't have anything to brag about on my behalf, only on God's.  I have God to thank as my provider, and Aaron of course!

Lastly I would like to leave you with an anecdote, which if you have hung around me enough, you have heard before (and will hear again).  A couple years ago, I took a CLEP test to opt out of Biology at Evangel.  I studied like crazy for a couple weeks and went in to take the test.  Of course I begged God to help me pass before I took the test.  When I completed the test I had no idea whether or not I would pass, it was pretty tough.  As always, the computer scored it for me immediately and told me that I had passed.  I literally jumped out of my chair and said "YES! Thank you Jesus!"  God spoke to me right away and said, "If you hadn't passed, would you still praise me?"  BAM!  We all know the answer is "no".  Who thinks of praising God in the midst of failure, pain, undesirable circumstances?  But yet that is what the New Testament continually pushes us towards.  I'm not saying we should praise God for what he hasn't done or for the bad things that have happened to us... but let's praise him for the good he has given us.  And more than that, let's praise him for just being who he is.  I had a great professor in college, Randy Quackenbush, who once said in a class, "If God just created us and put us on earth and never had anything to do with us, he would be worthy of our whole life in praise to him."  And look how unimaginably much he has done for us beyond that.  In the months before I got this job, I struggled through these thoughts again, and once again had to come to a place of praising God where I was - poor, unemployed, discouraged.  Yet I looked at what I had - I was in LA pursuing my dream, God provided me with a new car, an apartment, friends, an incredible church, a network of constantly encouraging family and friends, he provided me with food daily, and at least I got to work on a ton of TV shows as an extra.  That's not so bad.  But it's easy to let unemployment make us feel like less of a person because in this world, a job is what defines you.  And to insert my recent quotable quote, "I want to be defined by my creator, not by my career."  I knew that God wanted me to learn to be content with what he provides me (not give up on where I'm headed) but be thankful and focus on what I have rather than what I lack.  And in the end of things - all this stuff is just stuff, and if our goals and dreams are just about us... in the end it will be for nothing.  You're not taking your cash, car, house, coveted job, diploma, or mahogany desk with you when you die.  When I'm gone I want to find heaven filled with the treasure that I have invested there.  I want to leave knowing that I made a positive impact on this earth for God.  And I hope that I've accomplished some of that in the past 22 years.

I love you all!  Thanks again for everything and reading my blogs... hopefully they encourage you.  We all know I suck at calling people on the phone, but please call me anytime you need to (or Skype).  I promise I'll call you back if I don't pick up right away.  And just a heads up, I am actually working on another blog which will tell you more about what I have done all summer.

(Another) New Chapter SUMMER 2011

Here I am back in LA. I wanted to let you all know what's going been going on with me in the past few months.

After graduation my dad and I spent like a month and a half searching craigslist daily for cars. Finally I found an awesome car for an awesome deal - 2004 VW Jetta. It's nice to get rid of the AntiChrist (my old cadillac) and get something more modern (and that works the way a car should).  I absolutely love it, I can get up to 33mpg in it, only 90k on the engine, and its quick and small. It took me a while to learn to drive a stick but now I feel like that much more of a man. And if a zombie apocalypse occurs and I only have access to a manual transmission vehicle... I will survive.  Also manual transmissions are way faster and really fun to drive, I don't think I will ever go back to an auto.

I moved to LA in the last week of June and moved in with two friends from last semester at LAFSC in the same apartment complex I was in before.  This was helpful, because I knew the area really well, and it was great to have some good friends to live with.

I spent many weeks applying for jobs in the industry, along with contacting literally every person I know in the industry or the area.  I worked a few shoots as 2nd assistant camera (2nd AC) meaning that I update and use the clapper, switch out camera lenses, and assist the camera department with any other help that they need.  That was pretty enjoyable, but I couldn't find any continuous paying jobs for it.

End of July I got to go with my roommate to the LA Coliseum to see Muse and Rage Against the Machine.  My sister came and visited me for a couple days and she definitely kept me busy showing her around the town.  The week after that my parents came to visit.  It was really nice getting too spend some good quality time with family.

Following that, I began my acting career doing some background acting.  The downsides are that it pays very little, work is sporadic, and it is literally the lowest job in the social hierarchy of jobs on a film set.  Like even PA's avoid and don't talk to background actors.  It's kind of hilarious.  The great thing about getting to do that was getting to meet a lot of cool people, I got to spend adequate time on most of the major studio lots-  Sony, Paramount, Universal, WB.  I was on a couple no-name shows, some indie films, but I also got to be on shows like CSI, New Girl, Two Broke Girls, The Sing-Off, and Glee.  Another benefit is that you get plenty of time to sit around which is good for reading books or writing scripts.  It was great for the two months I did it, but I was definitely ready for a real job (and a resume-worthy job) at the end of the summer.  And as my previous blog discusses, I did indeed find a great job.

I made the most of unemployment doing plenty of recreational activities.  I have done a ton of hiking (which is a great way to see the beauty of California, and get away from hordes of people for a while).  I have made it my goal to visit the beach every two weeks, and can honestly say that I have succeeded in doing this.  I therefore have at this point, visited every beach from Zuma in Malibu down to Laguna (Zuma and Huntington are my personal favs).  One favorite hobby of mine is longboarding (skateboard) along the beach because there is a 20 mile bike path along the coast.  My roommates and I also got boogie boards.  But just know that the ocean here is never warm, it may look nice and warm, but don't let it fool you, cause it's not!

To top off my summer with awesomeness, I got to drive down to San Diego to hang out with Kyle Van Kirk and his family for a few days.  They were taking Callie to Cali and decided to let me join their family reunion for a few days.  It was a great mini trip.

Welp, thats summer, and it certainly wasn't a bad one.