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December 21, 2002 -
I�m a 23-year-old film junkie who aspires to be a filmmaker. What have I done to achieve this goal? Sadly, not much... so far... I attended a technical school called Full Sail: Real World Education in Winter Park, Florida, and graduated from their Film & Video Production course in March of 2002. While there, I worked on two short films (one shot on 16mm, the other on 35mm) and spent a lot of time writing music for those projects and a few others. Since then, I have interned with a couple of places and worked several odd jobs. |
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My first internship was with a small charity organization called The Dreamcatchers. I was slated to direct (freebie) a public service announcement for them, but then the producer decided to change careers and those that were left didn�t seem to want to mess with it at the time. My second internship was with a local Orlando TV show called Guerilla TV, which ended its run in June of 2002. The host of that show, Melissa Foxx, also hosts a radio show on Real Radio 104.1 called The News Thang, which she allowed her TV interns to gain experience from as well. So from the third week of March to the same in December 2002, I learned quite a bit more than I ever would have dreamed about radio. Melissa also gave me the opportunity to review several films (rentals at first, then theatrical releases too) and voice a few public service announcements. It was a great experience that I will never forget!
As for paying gigs, things are always slow going! From the end of May to the middle of October 2002, I worked for a contracted company called Freeze Frame in conjunction with the Anheuser-Busch �adventure park� Discovery Cove, where I videotaped guests interacting with dolphins. This was a decent little job that allowed me to get a tan while I waded waist-deep in cool (okay, cold!) water and watched people act like morons with caged animals that are probably a lot smarter than they are... whoops... Let�s stop there! Then I finished out the month of October as a seasonal employee for Universal Orlando during their Halloween Horror Nights. This was a lot of fun (if a bit repetitive) as I was able to jump out and scare hundreds (or was it thousands? who knows�) of people. Also, right around the same time of Dreamcatchers and GTV and what not, I met with a producer about writing a script based on her idea. I completed roughly 40 pages of the script before the carpet was pulled from beneath us both. It was hard putting it aside and finding �real� work (begin Discovery Cove), but after several months of hiatus we are now picking it back up, and I will hopefully have a completed script by mid to late 2003. Fingers crossed! I now return to Alabama. My home. How long will I stay? [shrugs] Hopefully I�ll soon be able to get this whole damned career �thing� in gear and get the hell out there so I can start making films! Who knows what the future will hold... August 18, 2003 - Well, it�s been a few months since I updated this thing, eh? I guess that�s life for you. I suppose I�ll give the shortest summary of what�s been going on in my life over the past eight months (or maybe the longest, since no one will actually read this anyway). I moved back home to Birmingham, Alabama from Orlando, Florida on December 24, 2002. I turned 24 (yea). I lived with my mom, step-dad, and younger step-brother for a little less than three months, during which time I worked at two crappy little retail jobs and constantly looked for something better. In early March, 2003, I began to do freelance grip work on a few different commercial shoots for a little production house called Diamond Film & Video Productions. They then decided to hire me on full time, with a better salary than I had ever made in my life, and five days later I packed up all my stuff and moved into an apartment with my step-brother (from my dad�s side). During the first week of May, I was offered a very minor part-time position as a weekend board operator with the local Clear Channel affiliate. Two weeks later, I got a call from them asking if I could possibly produce one of their top-rated morning shows. Taking the position would mean I would have to come in an hour and a half late every morning to Diamond. This just didn�t seem like a plausible idea, but I said I�d see what I could do. About an hour later, Diamond laid me off. On the way home, I called Clear Channel and said it looked like I could do it after all. So, since May 27, I�ve been producing the Patti & Dollar Bill Show. The position pays very little, but it�s a lot of fun and comes with a couple of perks (the occasional free CD, DVD, pair of tickets to this or that, etc.), and when Patti and Bill were out on vacation last week, one of our guest hosts was country singer Marty Stuart. Not being the least bit familiar with country music (outside of what we play in the mornings), I didn�t know his work, so you can imagine my shock and amazement to find out that he has scored four films (All the Pretty Horses is probably the most well known). He was an incredibly nice and talented person with a great sense of humor. What a treat! Oh, and by the way, I went out and bought All the Pretty Horses later that morning and highly recommend it! I also decided to be a little industrious recently by recording a new air check (of sorts), so I could let the station�s program director hear what I could do. He seemed impressed, and gave me a shot at DJ-ing from 7 to midnight on the Sunday before last. I suppose I did well enough, because I�ve now been given the shift indefinitely. The only drawback is that nobody liked my name, so they came up with Rick Daniels for me... I don�t really feel like a �Rick� (or a �Daniels�, for that matter), but if it gets me on the air, I�m fine with it! During the post-Diamond money slump, I�ve been forced to work for an awful retail chain called McRae�s to keep myself afloat. Thankfully, I just found out today that I landed a part-time job at the local WB/UPN affiliate and will be able to leave McRae�s behind forever (hopefully). Oh, yeah... That whole script thing didn't amount to any more than a fart in the wind. Now that we�re all caught up... October 24, 2003 - Quick update: I guess I'm doing well enough with my DJ shift, because a few weeks ago the program director gave me the same one (7p-midnight) on Saturdays. I'm having fun, but working 70-80 hours a week is getting really tiring... November 29, 2003 - Quick update 2: Well, the Saturday shift has shifted elsewhere... which is okay with me since I'm getting rather tired of doing voicetrac shifts anyway. I still have to do Sunday nights, but that's not so bad. I totaled my old car on the 7th of this month when I was run off the freeway by an 18 wheeler. That was fun... What's even more fun is that even though I had full coverage on it, I still owed about $2,400 over and above the amount the car was actually valued. So now I have a new car, and two car payments... But, I also just found out on the 26th that I got a full time job I was trying to get at the TV station. I start Monday, but I'll be working even weirder hours for a while until we can get someone to take my place in the news department. After that, I'll be out there, making cheap little commercials, hopefully having fun and definitely able to pay all of my bills! What a wonderfully nice thing that will be! April 16, 2004 - Quick update 3: Things are still just chugging along. I'm still producing the morning radio show, and the hosts (Patti and Bill) are still wonderful people, and I'm still "Rick Daniels" on Sunday nights. For the most part, being full time at the TV station has been fun. I've voiced several spots and written music for a few others. Oddly enough, the first spot I produced won a local Addy Award. I have no idea what that means. Jack, one of the three cats I've been privileged enough to live with, died suddenly two weeks ago. I miss that crazy, sweet cat. At the same time of my job change at the TV station, I also got a new roommate, and thankfully things have been going far more smoothly with him than with the last one. In fact, he accompanied me on an impromptu drive down to Orlando last weekend. It was great seeing some friends from Full Sail and ye olde Real Radio gang (too bad Melissa wasn't able to make it). I MUST get out of Birmingham! Home || CD Collection || DVD Collection || Links || Sign Guestbook || View Guestbook |