Goodbye Century City, Hello Santa Monica

The company move is finally upon us - after a good (ish) year in Century City the company is off the a more creative space in Santa Monica. Reasons for the move include, but are not limited to: bad ghosts in the office, the awful corporate atmosphere, new executives and lack of funds. Thats right, Santa Monica will be cheaper than Century City. Naturally, there are pros and cons to both locations. I for one will be glad to get out of this office though - hopefully some big changes will happen in the new building.... However, there are-

Things I'll miss about Century City:

-The proximity to my house. Don't get me wrong, it still takes me 30 minutes to get there during morning rush hour - but hell, it's closer than Santa Monica.

-The Starbucks in the ground level of my building. I don't even need to go anywhere to get my morning coffee! Amazing. They know my order. More amazing (or embarrassing)!

-The way the elevator says "going down" when I return to the lobby. I can't help but laugh... EVERY time.

-The awful fashion sense of people who work in a corporate setting. I'm especially fond of the ones that dress nice, but where tennis shoes.

-The view. I'm on the 21st story and can see out to the ocean. Even in Santa Monica, I'll rarely see the ocean.

-The Century City mall. It's so close! It has awesome food! It's an escape during lunch time, and it has a movie theatre we sometimes go to instead of doing work.

Things I'm looking forward to in Santa Monica:

-Being ocean side. I won't be able to see it, but it'll be there. Maybe somedays, I'll even go down there, just because I'm so close.

- The new building. It's an old abandoned warehouse that we're converting. It's going to be cool (and hopefully) creative. And hopefully I'll finally have a new assistant to help me out!

-The Daily Grill. I've missed it and there is one around the corner from my office. This will end poorly for my wallet, but so well for my stomach.

-TruYogaLA. I'm going to start doing yoga. Mark my words. There is a studio around the corner from the office, and while they don't have early morning classes as I'd hoped- they do have one I can do after work, or at lunch. We'll see how that goes!

-The bus. I'm going to take it. So long to my driving commute, and hello to the bus. Sure it might be sketch (because come on, who rides the bus in LA?) but its going to be an hour where I'm not wanting to kill myself in my car. Its an hour where I can do something else. Its an hour that my car isn't polluting the planet. I'll take the risk.

There is some bad too though, like how I have to contact every single person in contacts to tell them that we've moved. Or have to pack the entire office in boxes. Or how I need to order new stationary, business cards, letterheads, etc. because no one in the office had the foresight to plan ahead. How about how I still don't know the new phone number so I CAN'T do any of those things? Augh! The first few weeks in Santa Monica will be a mess, but then it will hopefully calm down. I'm going to really need that yoga.

The Relevance of Twitter

Twitter, whether you like it or not, is relevant. It is also a hell of a lot of fun, but more on that later.

I didn't much understand the importance of twitter until recently. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong - where else can you berate your friends with your humor? Where else can you win free screenings (I did, by the way - win tickets to a Paramount screening of Paranormal Activity)? Where else can you @ your friends? Twitter is a lot of fun for writers and for people who like to hear themselves talk. I am both of these things.

But relevant in my business? I never would have really guessed. Sure I would have stood by twitter and said "you can follow companies" to try and make it seem like something more than Facebook - but really, what did I know?

And then the Hollywood Fringe Festival happened. Hash tags (more in a bit) popped up like mad. #HFF from everyone associated and tweeting about the festival. And it worked. Suddenly we were bound. We could find and follow each other. We helped each other with costumes. We advertised our shows. We discussed venues and shared rehearsal pictures. We whored out the reviews we wrote (well.... I did). We were, in a sense, a mini online community. The festival was spread out, but twitter brought us together. I "met" other artists and writers and reviewers on twitter and then met them in real life. And it's not weird at all.

Hell, I got my job writing for the LA Theatre Review because someone posted it on twitter. Twitter makes things happen.

Reasons you should believe in twitter:

1) Like Myspace in the end, people want followers. Where in Facebook I will only accept friend requests from people I know, twitter allows you to follow anyone (whether they follow you back is another story entirely) but once following - you can mention (@) them in your tweets. It is much easier to connect to people you don't know yet, effectively building up your network, on twitter.

2) Hash tags (#LAThtr) instantly connect groups. Sure people tag things like #fail, but it works to unite communities as well. The LA Theatre scene has started to utilize twitter because of it's successful contribution to the fringe festival.

3) Jobs get posted on twitter. There are users you can follow that post job openings. You can follow people in the industry who might tweet job openings. Believe me, it happens. Just the other day I started following a woman (@cindymariej) who shares career advice to her followers and offers a weekly mailing of entertainment job openings.

4) As I mentioned before, you can follow companies on twitter. They post about what they're up to and what they want to be up to. I'm following every studio on twitter, and while it's often shameless self promotion of their latest action film, there often are tweets about the inner workings of the company as well. People hear things on twitter. It is often quoted. Hell, half the Emmy nominee reactions were quotes pulled from the nominee's twitter account.

5) In a world of instant news, twitter is the fastest. Earthquake? You'll know about it on twitter. Prop 8 trial won't allow cameras in? How about a live tweet from the courtroom. It happened and let all of us interested in the trial capable of following it (and not when its days old news).

So there you have it: my love letter to twitter. So the next time someone tries to tell you its just a string of status updates, slap them in the face with my blog.

And follow me on twitter - @marcusbkaye.

Sometimes...

Sometimes I have to sit back and remind myself that I'm getting paid to make movies. How cool is that?

Writing is Rewriting

Many of you know about it, but the Internet has not been graced with my tales of rewriting this script for RKO. The title and premise shall at this time remain nameless but let's just say the original was something like this....

and we want to make it more like this...

It was at first an exciting endeavor. I quickly got over that. Shit, rewriting is hard. Like really hard. Luckily, I'm not personally invested in any of the previous material. My own feature, sits untouched after the first draft because of this challenge. It is a challenge all writers face. So I quickly got over my excitement to make a gem and stared at 100 daunting pages of terrible dialogue and action blocks. The only thing this script had was a premise... and even that needed work. How on Earth was I going to do this?

What works for me:

DEADLINE: If I don't have a deadline it will never get done. My boss said "as fast as possible." Those words literally meant nothing to me. It wasn't until I told myself that I needed to be done June 1 that I actually got my ass in gear and started working.

SPACE: If it's my own work, I've got to put it down and separate myself from it for a while. If my story as-is is what's running through my brain, I'll never be able to look at it in a new light.

PLACE: I will never, ever, ever be able to write something in my apartment. I have to go somewhere else, with the simple purpose of writing. Solar de Cahuenga usually serves that purpose, but every now and then I'll change it up.

MUSIC: I currently have a playlist for the project I'm working on. Things that fit thematically, or tonally to whatever it is I'm writing at the time. Things on this project's playlist-

"Before He Cheats" - Carrie Underwood

"Irreplaceable" - Beyonce (spellcheck doesn't recognize her name as a word. How dare they!)

"Love Kills" - Little Boots

COFFEE: Must have it to write. If it's late I'll drink decaf. It's a "setting" thing.

DELETE: I took the original. Read a scene. Deleted it and then rewrote it. It's much easier for me to do it that way then to try and change things in the document. It's slightly more work, but the work feels more like my own AND I'm less likely to let things slide, or just leave certain things that aren't working but I don't know how to get around sitting their on the page.

Now I just need to finish this. I'll be at Solar de Cahuenga tonight. And tomorrow night. And This weekend. And so on and so forth.

See you in the credits.

Keeping Up Appearances

So much of what we do is looking like we do something. So much of work is looking like you're doing work. So much of success is looking successful. You can never play the game if you don't look the part.

Take, for example, the idea of assistants. How many of us are necessary? And how many of us are here simply to make our bosses look for official/powerful/higher on the food chain? Sometimes quite literally, we find ourselves shopping for our bosses outward appearance. Commenting on their outfits. Making them feel good about how they look (so they in turn, don't rip our heads off).

We're here, not because they can't answer the phone themselves (although, at this point many cannot because they're so used to us) but instead to make it look like they're so busy that they cannot pick up the phone.

What about your room? Is it clean? Why do you clean it? Sure there are sanitary reasons to. Sure it makes it easier to find things. but many of us can live in our messes. We don't, because it hurts our appearance. Invite someone over and you clean. Need to look the part, after all.

Speaking of looking the part, let's think about fashion. An industry dedicated to how we appear. Make-up. Plastic Surgery. Hair Salons. Boutiques. Designer Clothes.

So why do we do it?
Because if you don't appear like you care about yourself. No one else will either.
So clean that room. Buy those jeans. Hire that assistant.

Play the game.



So with that, I'm off to see THE JONESES (a movie, quite literally about keeping up appearances, keeping up with The Joneses.)

Goodbye Ruby Tuesday

And by Ruby Tuesday I mean The Daily Grill.

V Hudge loves The Daily Grill.... and sensible shoes, it looks like.

After a year+ working at the Grill in Irvine I have officially hung up my apron. When I couldn't find a job anywhere in Orange I ventured outside my comfort zone and into the restaurant business.

Started as a host, and let me say no one in the restaurant (spell check keeps fixing how I spell restaurant. I still can't spell that word to save my life) looked as good in a suit as I did. I rocked that host stand.

Things I learned as a host:
Hosts work fucking hard. They're more than just skinny blonde bitches in tight clothes. Aside from being the face of the restaurant, we're the manager's right hand. That being said- once you are seated do NOT complain to me. Do NOT yell at the host when something goes wrong. Once your ass is in a a chair, I am not the man to see. Just because I'm wearing a suit and assist the manager does not make me a manager. I don't get paid enough to listen to you yell.

Also dabbled in Take-out:

Don't be a bumbling idiot on the phone.

Don't make the poor person working the phones read you the entire menu, they have more things to do than that.

TIP god damn it. You think they're doing this because they like it? They do everything. They take your order, input it, make sure it's right. Check you out. They're just like your waiter. TIP.

Finally worked up to server:

Things I learned as server. I shouldn't serve. I don't like it. Unfortunately the money was too good. Be nice to your waiter. They do a lot. It's not their fault if the kitchen fucks up. Tip them too. Tip them well. They deserve it.

Do NOT give them fake 100s because then they become VERY unhappy.

Recommendations:

Cobb Club Sandwich

Steak Salad

Chicken Piccata

Banana Cream Pie

But alas I digress. I just couldn't stay locked in Orange County any more. So now begins the temp. job hunt in LA. Wish me luck.

P.S. Shout out to Katie, my server counterpart who kept me sane. I owe her a drink.