One More Week

These past 15 weeks have been brutal, but there's one more week to the first semester of my MBA. In focusing in on this goal I've had for years I've had to drastically cut back in other areas of my life. My family has had to put up with my time spent studying, I've had to turn down a few work opportunities, and I feel like my creative output has taken a huge – but temporary – hit.

Not complaining considering I knew going after my MBA would be a sizable commitment, but I didn't expect it to be this hard. I didn't realize I'd be a full-time student in addtion to being a husband, parent, and still staying on top of the work I do for a living. The most difficult and time consuming class I've taken so far has been my Financial Management course. I keep track of my study schedule and I've been clocking in more than 25 hours a week studying for that class alone. In early November it was something like 42 hours just for that class.

Still, I'm freakin' stoked about what I've been learning.

As creatives I feel like we cut ourselves off at the knees by not understanding the business end of our work, especially in finances. I'd like to see some more current numbers, but according to a 2014 report on financial literacy, the U.S. ranks 14th in the world. Some of the financial nonsense we've been covering in my classes is incredibly dense, but even the basics around time value of money and capital budgeting could be life changing to those of us who work as freelance creatives. Do I need an advanced degree in Business and/or Finance to be better at sharing stories and ideas? No. Does it help? You'd be surprised.

I'm hoping to share what I'm learning and how it applies to creatives soon enough. No hard and fast plans just yet, but I've got a decent break after this week and I'd love to start cranking out some basics ideas here on my blog.

The Opposite of a Cakewalk

Well, it's been a bit again – and that's totally fine by the way. The last few weeks have been a freakin' whirlwind.

I finished out the first module of my MBA with an A in both my Financial Accounting and Quantitative Analysis classes. Let me rephrase that: I earned those two As considering I was studying 30-40 hours a week in addition to my work and family responsibilities. The graduate work I'd done back in 2005-06 was an absolute cakewalk compared to what I went through these last eight weeks. We've already started our second module for the semester, and I'm taking classes in Financial Management and Leadership. Soon enough I'll start sharing what I'm learning in those classes, but considering how little time I have at the moment, I'll just leave you with a couple quotes I've already read for my leadership class:

"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." - William James

"When you say everything is a high priority, then nothing is a high priority. It really indicates that you're unwilling or unable to make a decision, which means you won't get anything done." - John Maxwell

During the tail end of finals week I was over in Amsterdam meeting with and interviewing the incredibly kind people behind Royal Posthumus. I'd mentioned it in an earlier post, but their story plays a large roll in my rubber stamp documentary. I'd been wanting to connect with them in person for what feels like forever at this point and I'm stoked it finally happened. I'll save the storyline details for the film, but I'm actually hoping to share some of the logistical experiences I went through in making that nonsense happen and what I learned.

While I've travelled alone internationally before, I've always met up with American crews on site and had producers and directors who were the "adults in the room." I'd not had to hire out and pay foreign crew in local currencies, deal with the whole Carnet thing, plus a notebook full of other things. Beyond that, there's the whole thing of me being up way too late studying and taking one of my MBA finals in a European hotel room and having to figure out how to keep my computer charged using my rental car's USB-c port because I'd accidentally left my charger at home.

There's also those other shoots I could talk about since my last post – Life.Church and Habitat for Humanity shoots here in Oklahoma City and that last minute job out in Kansas City, MO – but you'll just have to trust me and a few iPhone photos without context to prove I've been working my tail off lately.

Curb Stomp'd (but diggin' it...for the most part)

You wanna talk about depreciation schedules or amortization? Maybe basket purchases, asset turnover ratios, and how to dispose of those assets at the end of their service life? We could also get into Student's t-distributions and linear regression models if you're interested.

Literally no clue why any of you are still here (hi mom).

The last couple months my world has basically been a tossed salad of math, spreadsheets, reading assignments, and a couple stale croutons of creative work. There's also a side of Cub Scouts with Housefire No.2, and for dessert, an upcoming trip to Amsterdam for my rubber stamp documentary.

There's also our household getting absolutely wrecked earlier this month when we had to put down Clara the Dog. St. Anne the Wife and I got her in 2010 for our first wedding anniversary and over the last 12 years that English Bulldog was no question a member of our family. We knew Clara was getting towards the sunset of life, but her last few weeks went south quickly. We're incredibly lucky to have had such a great companion all these years and I'm glad we had the time with her that we did.

Regarding my school work, I'm freakin' floored with what I'm learning. Turns out the accountants and CPAs I've worked with over the years are true heroes and I'm absolutely not cut from that same cloth. There's also those statistical super powers and their potential I'm trying to comprehend that've basically made my head explode – in addition to literal headaches. One of our in-class examples last week worked through the actual correlation between political campaign results and the relationship to campaign spending. Freakin' fascinating.

Is this intentional mental torture getting me more creative work? No, not by a long shot. Is it making me think differently about how I approach what I do from a business standpoint? Unquestionably, and that's why I'm here.

We're more than half-way through our first eight week module and I'm stoked about my grades being as high as they are. On average, I've been spending nearly 40 hours a week studying and most the time I feel like I'm barely hanging on. Seeing as how flexible my freelance schedule typically is, I can't imagine how my cohorts are dealing with this nonsense in addition to the demands of a full-time job, let alone a family or personal life. I've got a shoot this week that'll have me missing one of my classes, and then mid-Oct I'll be seven time zones away during my finals week. I guess I'll let you know how that goes.

Speaking of seven time zones away, I'm off to Amsterdam to meet with some of the people behind Royal Posthumus. They're a company I'd learned about that played a major role in rubber stamp art as well as usse stamps to fight the Nazis during World War Two. I've been wanting to head over to do these interviews for what feels like forever at this point.

There's a bit of time during the week when I'm not getting curb stomped by my own choices and responsibilities. That's when both Housefires are bed and Anne and I have time to chill out and watch the internet. Chef's Table: Pizza is basically crack to me as a filmmaker who's interested in people and food. Atlanta, well, thank goodness for something interesting and original. And for something incredibly heavy but necessary, Anne and I started watching The U.S. and the Holocaust from documentary filmmakers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein (and a ton of others). It premiered last weekend and I'm sure it'll take us awhile to make it through the six-plus hour film, but good grief this should be required viewing for all Americans.

Anne and I started watching The U.S. and the Holocaust from documentary filmmakers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein (and a ton of others). It premiered last weekend and I'm sure it'll take us awhile to make it through the six-plus hour film, but good grief this should be required viewing for all Americans.

I Blame the Leadership

Finally finished up this two week documentary shoot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Well, Broken Arrow to be exact. We were working 12 hour days, six days a week. The timecards I'd filled out had us working something near 70 hours each week. Thank goodness for direct deposit and clients actually paying in a timely manner.

We're not supposed to share project details at this point, but I'll go out of my way to mention how great an experience it was. We absolutely got worked like dogs, but from my perspective, I felt like the leadership and production teams went out of their way to try and make us feel supported and empowered to do out best work. Treating production crew well shouldn't be the exception. I can't say enough about how rare that is in my professional experience.

I've been on these types of longer, intense documentary jobs in the past and in the days leading up to this one I was overly anxious due to countless bad experiences. Making this kind of creative nonsense is incredibly resource intensive and I can't tell you how often I'm on jobs with clients and producers who seem to go out of their way to cut corners. I'd only had a few phone calls and emails with my direct supervisor and I'd never heard of the rest of the crew.

On our prep day before the shoot, I literally cried seeing the mountain of gear cases that'd come in from a well known New York rental house. The leadership actually built in the time we needed – and paid us our full-rate – to build out our camera packages and trouble shoot the inevitable hiccups that come with that amount of gear. By the end of the two week show, we had nine cameras all sending video feeds to multiple locations on set in addition to the sound and story teams. Dealing with that amount nonsense plus everything else isn't something that just happens on its own.

There were some major take aways from this project. First, it seems like everyone on set already had some solid production experience and brought that expertise with them. I blame the leadership for putting a solid crew together. Second, we all seemed to connect and work well together, like we all were all working towards a similar goal. Again, I blame the leadership. They made the hiring decisions and brought in crew from all over the country (NYC, LA, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Dallas, OKC/Tulsa, etc.). Third, there was also a strategic move – in my opinion – in bringing us in early and doing a big meal before the shoot. There were like 24-30 of us crashing a fancy Italian place in Tulsa and they spent a good deal of money on that meal, but that early time together gave us a chance to connect before we were thrown into the fire. We lost a few crew members during two week shoot due to Covid infections and other commitments, but I honestly think that initial crew meal was key in setting the tone. Some of the team already knew each other, but most of us were new and barely knew anyone. Throughout the rest of the show, we went out of our way to spend time together outside of the 12-14 hour work days.

Again, treating production crew well shouldn't be the exception. At one point we mutinied against the catering brought in for our daily production meals. There were also some communication hiccups along the way, but we all worked together to figure things out and do the thing. At the end of the show and after I'd taken off my EasyRig and walkie-talkie for the last time, I cried as I walked to my car and drove back to the hotel knowing it was the last time I'd be working with this specific team of people. Again, I point to the leadership for making this such a good experience, worts and all.

No clue when the documentary project will come out, but I'll keep you in the loop.

 

UPDATED Feb. 2024

Did want to toss out a bit of an update with this here blog post. The actual film has yet to come out, but in the course of my MBA I've now had multiple classes cover this TED Talk from Margaret Heffernan: "Why it's Time to Forget the Pecking Order at Work."

Via the video's YouTube description:

Organizations are often run according to “the superchicken model,” where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn’t what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion — built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help — that leads over time to great results. It's a radical rethink of what drives us to do our best work, and what it means to be a leader. Because as Heffernan points out: “Companies don’t have ideas. Only people do.”

Each time I've seen this video I can't help but think about this Summer 2022 documentary team and how the leadership intentionally built in time for us as crew members to connect. It's tough to accomplish that on the typically short freelance jobs I'm on where we're usually on set for only a day, maybe two or three at most. Given the chance though, it's in the leadership's best interest to adopt this kind of mindset.

Rubber Stamps, Work, and Books

Short and sweet this week. It's another busy one and I'm on the road in the Tulsa area for a bit with some wild call times. Thankfully I got a later call this morning and was able to sneak over to a coffeeshop in Broken Arrow, OK. Big fan of the dude behind West of Death and the work they've done for Rattlesnake Cafe and Lioness Coffee Roasters, plus their sister shop Chimera in Tulsa.

More to come later, but I'm like 20 mins from being strapped into an EasyRig and full-kitted out Sony FX9 for the next 12 hours. Trying to get some reading in beforehand. I'd finished Ernest Cline's Ready Player One last week (and was beyond disappointed by Steven Spielberg's dumpster fire film adaptation). I'm now into David Graeber's Debt: The First 5,000 Years and dang that dude has come out swinging.

Travel Week

It's a travel week and I'll be on road through this July 4th holiday. St. Anne the Wife is maintaining her role as family superhero while I'm hustling through airports and hoping my footage is exposed and framed well and somewhat in focus.

It's Saturday as I'm writing this and I'm on a three hour layover in Houston before my next flight. Both the airport shuttle driver and the ticket counter agent asked if I was getting paid extra to work over the holiday weekend. I'm assuming it was the stack equipment cases I'm traveling with that suggested I wasn't out for a summer vacation like the rest of the world. Two plus years is a long time to be putting off leisure travel and a lot's changed since I started flying again during the pandemic. Those nearly empty airports and flights back in August 2020 are long gone and it's certainly back to fighting for empty seats and armrests.

I'm flying from a different city on another airline and meeting my producer/director & field audio at our destination. Luckily my 7am flight out of OKC had no issues, but they're delayed and hoping to make their connecting flight. If you've been paying attention, they're not the only ones dealing with yet another Covid related dumpster fire.

Delays and cancellations have plagued air travel, and the Fourth of July weekend may be the biggest test yet for the airline industry, which has faced scrutiny from customers, regulators and investors. - Lauren Hirsch, nytimes.com

Still, as a freelancer who's certainly gone months without work – especially this year – I'm a happy clam to jump on an early flight to a paid gig.

In the meantime, the July-August edition of EdibleOKC just came out and includes a two page spread about my rubber stamp collection. I'd connected with EdibleOKC Editor and Co-Publisher Stuart Husdson via Sam DuRegger (Woodshed Tea & TMRW Coffee). The fine folks at EdibleOKC heard about my stamp hunting and are doing a series on food related collecting. Stuart and I connected for a couple different interviews for the print piece and they sent out a fantastic freelance photographer based in OKC named Charlie Neuenschwander. I'm an awkward person to begin with plus not used to being on the business end of a camera. Crazy thanks to both of them for putting up with me, let alone being interested in my project. I've yet to see an online version of the article, but I'll make sure and include a link if and when it's available. While I'm writing this too, make sure and check out the other work Charlie's website.

Professional Juggler and Knot Tyer

It's the first Monday of summer break for St. Anne the Wife and our boys. Try as I might, that woman will always be the better of us. Along with the rest of the year, she runs the summer circus at our house and we both know the lions and tigers are getting stronger and smarter. Surely they'll figure out they need us at some point, but I'm not holding my breath.

Somehow I've gone from gathering dust and questioning my life choices to being incredibly busy and still questioning my life choices. This past week had me busting my tail as a grip & electric on a commercial shoot here in Oklahoma City followed by a wild and memorable day of doc work behind a "camera."

If nothing else, freelancing teaches you how to do the thing while simultaneously prepping for the next thing. In between my hauling sandbags, rags, and combo stands to the next setup this week in the G&E department, I was juggling emails, texts, and Basecamp pings for the other jobs I'm in, all in various states of progress. There's the audio bid I'm submitting to a new-ish client, followed by the tech questions I'm working through with the Tennessee rental house for the shoot in Vegas, and the edits that are sorta working on that other thing. "Dang, looks like I'll need the nine inch 15mm rails instead of the six" and "Will you be needing sound effects with that audio guide too?" and "Here's my Venmo info for the first half of tomorrow's day-rate and expenses." Oh, and I also learned how to tie a clove hitch knot and that a combo stand weighs and feels just about the same as a built out Alexa Amira on my right shoulder.

This week also had me finishing out a book I'd bought about New York City while in New York City last weekend. The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead was a fun read with a crazy interesting writing style.

“You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now.” ― Colson Whitehead, The Colossus of New York

I'm already onto the next book I'd picked up at Books are Magic in Brooklyn last weekend. The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner has already taken me through her experience racing down the Baja Peninsula on a Kawasaki Ninja. Stoked to get through the rest of her book.

"Happy Xmas" - VEVO & Contrast Films

"Hey dude! Wanted to see if you’re available to cam op on a multi-cam thing this Wednesday in NYC. Should be a fun one!" - Jordy Wax, Contrast Films

Anne the Wife and I have been super quiet about our decision to move to New York City. That being said, I've been hustling behind the scenes the last year or so in reaching out to other creatives. Turns out freelancing without connections is called "unemployed."

One of those cold emails, direct messages via Instagram, and/or bat signals was to Micah Bickham at VEVO. That led to a phone call while I was in Las Vegas for NAB which led to an introduction and quick face-to-face with Jordy Wax at Contrast Films – he was in Vegas for NAB too. All that nonsense plus plenty more along the way gets us to the other day.

Jordy shot me an email late Saturday night about cam op'ing on a "multi-cam shoot in NYC" on Wednesday morning; not much detail outside that. If you've been following along for any period the obvious answer was a polite and collected "Yea man! I'm in" while FREAKING OUT ON THE INSIDE AND HOPING THEY DON'T FIND OUT YOU'RE A FAKE. A few emails, a call sheet, and a Google search later it turns out to be a shoot at Electric Lady Studios with with Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson, and a special guest.

"Good job team. Looks like our work here is done and we can pack it up. No need to try and do anything else to professionally top what I got to do a month into moving to New York." - Me

There's no need to try and explain how big a deal Electric Lady Studios is – just know we've all heard music recorded there. There's no way I was going to be late so I figured being thirty minutes early was a solid balance between "professional" and "Oh God, who is this guy?" The space was buzzing with an army of people who all seemed to know what they were doing. Then there was me, the nervous mid-semester transfer student trying hard to "play it cool" while simultaneously fighting back the urge to projectile vomit out of excitement.

There were five or six Alexa Minis with Vantage Hawk anamorphic lenses on various tripods, sliders, and one prepped for a Movi Pro. I straight up stood next to the camera with the biggest lens because it was the most out of the way when Micah Bickham – who was directing all this nonsense – walked up and assigned me to it. "So you're going to be on Camera 1. 85% of your shots will be following Miley with some slow zooms. You've shot live music performance stuff, right?"

I’ve had shoots and editing work with existing clients since I’ve been in New York, but shooting on this project was technically my first paid gig after moving to the city. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better situation and I’m incredibly thankful. It's not like I've never worked on big sets with high-profile celebrities and high-end gear. More than anything this just felt like a door opening after patiently knocking for more than a decade.

There's no shame in admitting how floored I was to be in the same room and work with creatives I've followed online for years. There were also plenty of others I got to meet and now follow. There's also no shame in admitting I had no idea who the long-haired guitar player was they were all tripping out about – my bad.

Fun bonus fact about the scheduling of this shoot: I'd already been booked for a project in Phoenix the next day and thankfully I'd booked a flight out of NYC later Wednesday afternoon. Scheduling somehow threaded the needle on this one with the morning VEVO shoot in Greenwich Village giving me enough time to get back to Brooklyn, get Clara the dog to the pet boarding place, and me to the airport with my gear in time to catch the direct flight to Phoenix. Thanks science.

Phoenix and Red-Eye Flights

This week had me booked again with Running Robot to shoot out on their home turf in Phoenix, AZ. Being used to flying out of Oklahoma City all these years, it was a bit of a hike from New York to that part of the country. Flying out Wednesday afternoon got me there in time to get to sleep that night, pick up rental gear the next morning, the actual shoot, return rental gear, and then race back to the airport for a red-eye flight back to NYC Thursday night.

Big fan of LensRentals and how easy they make shipping across the country. For this trip, it was easier to rent and ship a similar tripod to a local FedEx vs. me traveling with mine. For grip and electric, I connected with MP&E Equipment Rental out in Scottsdale. They're 30-40 minutes outside of Phoenix but the scenery was worth the drive.

Speaking of Scottsdale, Chris Fenner – a solid Instagram follow and car enthusiast – introduced me to Four Coffee and their rubber stamps. Have I mentioned I've got a mild obsession with collecting rubber stamps from coffee shops? It's a thing and filling up my notebooks...

Once again, we were rocking the two-camera interview setup: Canon 5D Mark III with a 70-200 lens for the tight; Canon 7D with a 24-70 for the wide. They also had me shoot a third camera through the interview to act as additional B-roll for the edit. The Running Robot guys booked a conference room in a downtown Phoenix co-working space. Three of the four walls were floor-to-ceiling glass so reflections were a real issue.

Slowly but surely I too am preaching the good news of working with these 4' Quasar Crossfades. The slim profile let me get the backlight in a tight spot between the talent and the glass wall. The skimpy dimmers from the rental house were unusable trash, so instead I used some gaffe tape on the fixture to make a small skirt on the light cutting back some of the output. Oh, and the baby pin mounting option and rubber bumpers on each end of the tubes – so rad. The hodgepodge of color temps flooding the glass room from everywhere was a hot mess. I still feel like the color on these fixtures is a bit more red than I'm used to, but it's an easy fix in camera or post. My iPhone Xs was having issues too in getting the color temps correct for these BTS photos. Side note: we had to rig the audio boom pole to a light stand via spring clamps because we felt like it (and didn't have the proper mount anyway).

Can we talk for a moment about red-eye flights? They're pretty awful – but still have their place. By all means it was my choice in scheduling because I wanted "the experience." Plus I knew it would help budget-wise seeing as how expensive all this is. Plus (plus) I'd already scheduled a couple meetings back in NYC knowing I'd be back in time thanks to flying through the night. The air travel part isn't that bad. Yes, it sucks trying to sleep on a plane, especially on a rough flight and next to a seatmate who isn't into "personal space", "boundaries", or "jackets without massive shoulder pads." Some solid red-eye flight tips are only a Google search away and I know what I'll be doing next time – i.e. neck pillow, window seat, glasses instead of contact lenses, etc...

For me, the rough part of flights back to NYC is actually getting from the airport back to my place in Brooklyn. There's a tipping point between the financial benefits of public transit ($15-20 and 60-90 minutes) and the time and comfort of just hiring a car from the airport ($50+ and 30-40 minutes). It was seriously a trip stumbling into my now regular coffee shop knowing only a few hours earlier I was standing on the other side of the country (Phoenix to San Francisco to Newark). I was fried for my 11am meeting in Manhattan, but it still went well. I was two coffees in before my 1:30p back in Brooklyn, but again, it went well too.

Philadelphia for a Night and Day

Just before moving to New York a client I've worked with the last few years reached out about a quick shoot in Philadelphia. No question – let's go. I knew I'd already be in Brooklyn by then, so I did the normal thing and looked for flights, this time out of New York City. Google Maps made fun of me and let me know Philadelphia is a two-hour drive from the city.

"Don't be dumb, get a rental car." - Google Maps (pretty much).

Booking a car and picking it up in my neighborhood – easy. Driving in and around NYC and trying to park – I'd rather lose a fingertip in a fight with a table saw.

Not having to fly my gear on this shoot allowed a bit of wiggle room with my grip and electric budget. All the cool kids on the internet shoot with those fancy Quasar LED tubes but it's tough getting your hands on those Jedi laser swords in Oklahoma City. This is where Lightbulb Grip & Electric comes in. By far they were more than accommodating in my small order and made sure I had what I needed and knew how to use it. They set me up with two 4' Quasar Crossfades, dimmers, clamps, and c-stands.

After more than an hour trying to drive the four or so miles from Park Slope to the other side of Brooklyn to pick up the gear at Lightbulb, I was off to Philadelphia and working up fresh 'Yo Momma' jokes for the next table saw I came across. Good lord it was weird being out of the city after not being more than six to eight miles from my apartment for nearly a month.

It was dark when I got to my hotel in downtown Philadelphia and paid the $30 for overnight parking. I bundled up and headed out with a camera instead of camping out in my room because, again, that's what the cool kids do (I'm told). Word to the wise, the National Park Service Rangers – or at least the hired overnight security guards – will yell at you if you're walking too close to the chain railing on the street next to Independence Hall. Also, make sure your headphones aren't up too loud so you can hear them yell at you the first time. Oh, and they're not up for jokes if you're trying to lighten the mood and get them to stop yelling at you.

The shoot the next morning and the reason I was in Philadelphia went very well. We were shooting another two-camera interview for a series of client videos. It's not like these things come with a built-in location scout, so I showed up with my normal Rock-N-Roller cart full of gear. Thank goodness for carts. We had to park in a garage a couple blocks away and then use a service elevator to get where we needed to be in another building. Luckily I was able to get all my nonsense from the car to where it needed to be in one trip.

So those Quasars... I'm a fan. We were shooting in a white room with plenty of daylight bouncing around. If I'd just had my trusty tungsten ARRI kit (650/300/150) I'd be freaking out knowing the gel and diffusion death march I'd be putting it through in getting the color and softness I wanted while praying it still had enough horsepower to overcome the ambient light coming through the windows. Those Quasar Crossfades were soft and bright, and I was able to quickly dial in the color temperature to what I wanted. They also weren't hot so the talent wasn't melting and I didn't have to wait for them to cool off before packing up. They felt a bit more magenta than I was used to, but that could've been how my monitor was set up. I've heard the color temp warms up a bit as they're dimmed down, but I had them at full blast. Seemingly the only butt-pain in using these lights in a travel kit would be hauling around c-stands; surely there's an easy solution to that.

Clara the dog is up here with me in NYC and needed to be boarded overnight while I was gone. That was a whole thing too, but it was a great experience with both the neighborhood vet's office and the actual boarding facility. I'm assuming you're not here to read about my dog, but I will say she had a good time riding the subway. You're not supposed to have a dog on the train without them being in some kind of carrier – which again is a whole thing – but she immediately made friends on the train and surely made it on at least one more Instagram account.