Aw man. I had to go back to my suck job this week after that lovely couple of weeks off. I’m still working 50 hours a week doing a job I hate and killing my already shitty vision staring at a screen all day (just like now!). I produce subpar work daily for marketing scumbags (not even art directors anymore) and watch all of my good ideas shot in the face and get watered down to what is deemed a more consumer-friendly level of mediocrity.
Oh Lord! Please don’t let me be misunderstood! I’m not afraid of hard work and I wouldn’t mind the ridiculous hours BUT I just know that there is no chance of advancement in my company and more importantly no way that what I’m ever doing will be great or creatively satisfying because it’s not MY work that anyone will ever see. I get jealous of everyone I see when I slip away to lunch, even if they are valley folk. I want to be one that hangs out at a coffeehouse at 3 o’clock on a weekday. Lucky Bastards. There is a YMCA behind my work where people with Yoga mats and not a care in the world drive Mercedes and BMWs. I assume they all married up while us poor suckers are color correcting Abe Vigoda. I wish I never had to go to the Valley unless I was visiting friends or going to IKEA.
Los Angeles (Proper) Employers: Please hire me. Seriously, dozens of things I could be doing right now at a world class level. Each day is a little bit of death.
Now that I’ve ruined your day and brought you down to my level; have some inspirado… 40 speeches in 2 minutes.
Warner is trying to cash in on next year’s remake by having the company I slavishly work for redesign the DVD/Blu-Ray packaging for 1980’s original Friday the 13th. Of course I had a million ideas for what should be done and what the fans would like to see. I know this because I myself am a huge fan of Friday the 13th. So when I read the creative brief (description of what the client wants to see) I was shocked to see phrases such as “Redesign the Title Treatment” and “NO KNIVES!” but what sent me over was “Include the Mask”….wha, huh? We’re talking about the first one, right? So being the designated fan in the office I was asked to burn a copy of the movie for everyone else to watch… because nobody else in my office had even seen it! I’m kind of not surprised, it’s not my favorite in the series. But I thought for sure this was a classic slasher that transcends the realm of horror fans, right? I mean, Kevin Bacon is in it! Well, not so much.
Warning: This is just a job dissatisfaction rant. You may find little to no value in this; unless you want something to help you feel better about your own situation.
Now I know that I could be doing MUCH worse in life. I make enough that I can afford an apartment in one of the better parts of Hollywood proper…but it’s not much. I’m still sitting at about $3,000 less than I should be making… in Nebraska. So that doesn’t say much for my negotiating skills when I accepted the job. But, Fuck It. At the time I was living in the worst situation in my entire life (in Burbank) and I just straight up needed the money. It was the 2nd job I applied for, so I thought it was “lucky” or “meant to be”. (I could be doing shit work at Liquid Generation and driving all the way down to Wilshire.)
Aw man. I had to go back to my suck job this week after that lovely couple of weeks off. I’m still working 50 hours a week doing a job I hate and killing my already shitty vision staring at a screen all day (just like now!). I produce subpar work daily for marketing scumbags (not even art directors anymore) and watch all of my good ideas shot in the face and get watered down to what is deemed a more consumer-friendly level of mediocrity.
