LifeHouse

I didn't get to see Eliza at LifeHouse tonight, however I did get to meet Cecilia Kong and Samantha. We were asked by Kenny, the den leader of this particular Lifehouse, to go door-to-door in the neighborhood and "represent" -- sort of a preview of what F.A.I.T.H. will be for me starting next Tuesday.

During the F.A.I.T.H. Lite excursion we ran into a couple of potheads, an East Indian family and a grandmother who each wanted nothing to do with us. Cecilia had never done this sort of thing before and was nervous as hell. Samantha has too much experience yet is so mousy was unable to really get anyone's attention.

We met a guy named Mike and his family. He's going through some stressful times, his wife is going back to school and they have three kids. They were doing the barbeque thing when we happened upon them. They were apparently cutting back from their eating out ways by staying in because of a recent car wreck which sort of bled them dry.

They were nice and let us pray over them. Samantha got my phone number and I got Cecilia's. Overall, it was a productive evening.

Larry

I wound up reshooting the footage for Larry's commercial today. This time, I had engineers manning their stations so it got done the way it was supposed to -- with clean audio. Cesar passed me to Veronica, the television controller, who passed me directly to Larry. Every one was afraid to be in the same room with him. I politely waited for him to get off the phone and calmly showed him the commercial. He was fine with it except for the footage of the DJ's doing the on camera. He also wanted me to add the time of their morning show to the beginning as it is in the ending. I said "sounds good. Will do." and promptly left. After meeting with some sales people, he then came into my office and elaborated on an idea to reshoot them in their studio.

Larry said something about these DJs having a face for radio. To which I replied, "when we reshoot them, maybe we can put masks over their heads." Larry laughed. Now we both know we can joke with each other. I think he has a good idea of how I'm getting along within the ranks and is content with my work. He had made it clear that my work was fine, but it was the on-screen talent themselves whom he did not care for.

Today was also my first edit with a client. There was no voiceover. Cesar showed me how to use the scanner then I took over. The client, an agenct for Breedan McCumber, a local ad agency, will be back around 9:30 tomorrow morning to hand over the voiceover and to complete the spot. I'll also continue work on Crazy Buffet, an english spot being translated to spanish with in-house footage I started on today. I didn't have a script so I went to altavista.com to figure out the english to spanish translations. When I told him this, Cesar was pleased at my ingenuity. I wound enjoy it if he were just as pleased with the final spot once it's finished tomorrow.

I also sat down at the Avid Adrenaline to figure it out. I'm going through the online tutorials momentarily. It's a brand new program I've never, ever seen before in my life. I should have it mastered in a few days.

This evening at Calvary, the choir was impressed at my new wardrobe. They now expect to see me as dashing every day now. We'll see. The chorus was busy calling on church members to join the choir as there is a very short attendence this summer. Apparently, they should be getting five more people this coming Sunday.

During band practice I sat in as drummer and Scott, our interim music minister, motioned for me to make a drum flurish. When I did -- and surprisingly well, too -- he smiled. Scott later said "Let's all welcome our new drummer." Leorah, a guitarist, said "you rock." Scott later asked increduously, "and you haven't had much experience with the drums before?!" I said, "not since I was, like, three." I then asked we play the song He Reigns again and we had fun doing that.

I have comitted to buying a lunch plate for $5 at work tomorrow. Then I loaned a single to a fellow employee. He said he'll pay me back tomorrow. In the meantime, I have about $30 in my bank account so I'm pretty much broke. I wonder when I'm going to get my first paycheck from the new job.

Tomorrow evening is the Christian singles group from Baptist Temple's weekly get-together. I hope Eliza will be there.

First Day

My first day of work. A thin woman named Gabrielle took my hand as she introduced herself. She then listened intently as I told her my name. She smiled. Most of the women at this office are stunningly attractive. Many, I hear, are touchy-feely. Even better, the majority of those types are also single. Gabrielle's one of those girls who has a warm and friendly face. I'll probably enjoy working here.

I had to shoot three radio personalities on camera. Master Control wasn't monitoring the audio levels so it wound up being distorted. I wanted to reshoot today but the studio was being refitted for the newscast later that evening. I used the footage I had and completed the spot, regardless. Everyone agrees the footage sucks, but the post I applied to the spot really stands out. I'll have to reshoot tomorrow. This spot is for Larry, though, and he'll come looking for it soon. I won't back down. I will tell him what happened and show him what I had done, explaining that the new footage will simply be placed over the old footage and voila! Finished commercial.

I worked so hard on the spot that I didn't take my lunch break. It didn't really matter -- I wasn't hungry, anyway.

In the afternoon I created a commercial for a home healthcare business. It had to be done by 4:30 and I managed to do so. Cesar later admitted that he knew he was starting me off kind of hard. I told him I didn't mind -- I love a challenge.

It's bedtime now and I look forward to my second day of work tomorrow.

I'm Hired

Cesar called me in this morning to see Larry, the General Manager, for an interview. Apparently, when you're asked to see the GM it means that the other managers have decided to hire you and then only need his final approval. I arrived five minutes early wearing beige slacks and the olive dress shirt I bought with my one expensive black suit a few years ago. Cesar sat with me in the GM's office.

Larry looked over my resume and asked a few simple questions. "Where are you from?" "How did you get in this business?" "Do you speak Spanish?" "You know Maya?" I responded with simple answers. "I'm from here." "I started editing right out of high school after taking Cesar's television class." "Not really, but I've made tons of spanish spots over at FOX/Televisa." "I've toyed with Maya Complete a little bit."

Larry glared at me like I had just called him an asshole.

"If I call Kellie Wright over at Televisa, is she going to give me a good review about you because you go to the same church as she does?" he asked. He must have read the part about me currently being the chief sound engineer over at Calvary. I wondered why he had called Kellie by her maiden name.

"No, sir. I've known her a long while before I started working at Calvary. We're actually good friends," I said. Larry turned to Cesar.

"Let's get him on one of the machines and we'll see what he can do while I check his references." It's like I wasn't even in the room. I stood up, not saying anything and reached out my hand. Larry responded lazily, not even looking at me. Must be the don't-mess-with-me facade corporate managers often have. At least he meant business.

After a while, Cesar took me aside and told me I got the job. I told him my last job paid two grand a month. I wonder what these guys are planning to spend on me. Personally, any amount will be just fine with me.

As the day was ending I saw Sherry and she began to walk with me down the hall. She was asking me how everything went when we happened upon Larry.

"You know this guy?"

"Oh yes; from Calvary. Jason's very dependable," Sherry said. She has my back, I thought.

"I'm dependable on Sundays, anyway," I joked.

Sherry agreed and Larry finally smiled at both of us.

"Well why didn't you say so," he said.

I think he was showing that he felt he had made the right decision in hiring me. I'm not about to make him regret it.

That evening, I was editing at Calvary when Sherry and her husband Mike called to congratulate me. When I told her about the interview, Sherry told me that Larry used to be married to Kellie Wright. It made sudden sense why he didn't call her McDaniel, her new married name. Sherry told me they were still friends, though. I was relieved.

Sherry then said that had she known I was coming in to interview today, she would have just used her influence at the office to persuade Larry to hire me on the spot. She wouldn't have done that for just anyone, she said. I appreciated the offer, but I silently enjoyed the idea of proving myself today. See, world? I can do this!

Tomorrow will be a good day.

The Silence of The Lambs

One of my favorite films is Jonathan Demme's The Silence of The Lambs and its not because of the [little amount of] gore or the disturbingly profound ideas of human cannibalism and mutilation. The writing is clever, the acting is spot-on, there was clear direction and the violence/gore was tasteful in a Hitchcock-in-the-90's kind of way.

Hannibal (2001), in contrast, was apphaling and shabbily directed and I only say that because it was Ridley Scott and he should have known better. The only scene that's worth a damn in the entire movie is the final five minutes at the dinner table. Hannibal de-evolved into a slasher -- that wasn't scary -- where the gore is merely there for shock value and provides nothing for the context of the movie, especially considering how well the violence, or rather, the absence of it in Silence, plays to audiences today.

Red Dragon (2002), however, reminds us that violence doesn't have to be overdone to still be effective. People like to criticize Brent Ratner for fashioning a film that so clearly evokes Jonathan Demme's direction of The Silence of The Lambs in 1991 but really, it was exactly what the film needed.

You don't need gore to be scary. I've posthulated that untalented directors will use an overabundance of gore to make up for their inadequacies as a director. This is not true most of the time, however. Keep in mind the adequately scary Evil Dead and the delightfuly screwed-up Dead Alive. In that respect, I offer a different view on movie violence.

There is "gore", and there is "necessary violence". Gore is having a guy's face get ripped off by zombies. Necessary violence is a disemboweled soldier in Saving Private Ryan.

Remember to watch movies with an eye for intent. What was the director's intention of showing us the mutilated soldier? War is hell. What was the director's intent of showing the fountain of blood spewing horizontally out of the wall? To make us laugh. What was the intent of showing a guy's head get blown off with a shotgun? To make us gag.

The point to all of this, as Mystery Science Theater 3000 so rightly reminded us, is that a movie, no matter how poorly made, as long as it is entertaining, can still be a lot of fun to watch. The Silence of The Lambs entertains us because it's raw and disturbing and fun all at the same time. You are entranced by Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill; completely engaged by them.

And in the back of your mind you want Clarice and Hannibal to have a romantic relationship. She's terrified yet completely attracted to the good doctor. Meanwhile, Lecter is... well, it's pretty clear how he feels. Remember how he caresses her finger moments before she is torn away from his holding pen in Memphis? Ah, the notion of a never-can-happen relationship. Reminds you of real life, doesn't it? Oh how I'd love to be in Nicole Kidman's arms right now.

Silence was fun. Hannibal was not. If Hannibal had been fun, then the gore wouldn't have mattered. Instead they tried to make the movie fun by making it gory. In retrospect, Silence wouldn't have been as much fun if it were as gory as Hannibal.

I have no ending for this, so I take a small bow. :)

"Ready when you are, Sargent Pembry."