Job Done

I finished a job yesterday, working on the film "Australia". The film is huge, with 6 post houses doing effects. It has to make its delivery date, and be in the theatres next month. Needless to say, we all worked very hard. But we got it done. I think the film will be good.

I worked with a nice crew - it may be the nicest group yet. And our client - holy cow, you never met a nicer, or better, vfx supervisor. So personable and calm and practical. He would fly up every Friday from Sydney and spend the day with us, supervising. He remembered all of our names and was friendly and funny. We all loved him.

I ate Kangaroo for the first time on this project. One of the artists bought some to cook on the barbecue at work for lunch. He let me try some. It is good. It doesn't taste like any other animal, so I can't really describe it beyond it tastes good. I feel funny adding another animal to the list of what I eat, so if I start to eat it from now on, I will give up eating beef.

I also got my first speeding ticket. I was listening to Alice Cooper, it was late, and I was driving home on the highway, not paying attention. I got caught by a speed camera. I am still waiting to receive the ticket. I hope I don't get deported.

I voted, so don't worry all you people who were concerned that I wasn't going to vote. OF COURSE I was going to vote! I can't wait for the election to be over. A year and a half is a bit long to run for a 4 year position. I never noticed until I left the country.

That's all for now. I had plans to do lots of fun things today, but I ended up hanging out and drinking Pernod. I also went for a nice walk. It is HOT now.

Alice In Underland

Jobs always feel like they start a new phase in life. Like somehow with the new job you will be changed, maybe start new habits, get rid of old ones, make new friends. The weather feels like that too. A few weekends ago when I was in Sydney, I was hanging out with my friend Susse, looking in shops, walking around the city, and it was the first day that really felt like Spring, like something burst through. It was warm and balmy and it brought everyone outside. Susse and I were having fun, walking around and talking. The weather seemed to open us up and shift our thinking. It was a day that made you think, "everything is going to be different from now on."

Well, I am in Brisbane, it is hot. I am working at another job and it is different from the last one in some ways. My thinking has shifted, but I have yet to decide if I am in a new phase. In some ways I am just going around and around.

Another FX job, another movie, a company I have worked for before. A tight deadline, less than optimum conditions, a sense of panic lurking around, jumping up from behind when you get too relaxed.

It is a little different though. This is the first company I ever worked for in Australia. I worked here when I first met my husband. At the time I was working with about 40-50 people. The equipment was all new, the job was organized, and long. Now the equipment is slow. I am working with about 12 people, and it is a little less organized. I have arrived after the hey day of this company, and they are always hard up to find good people when they do have projects because the facility is located in the middle of nowhere. It is off the highway in a place that could be described the same way that so many other places you don't notice on the highway as you pass them by can be described.

I will always like this place though. It has a homey feeling that no other place has, and the people that work here are exceptionally nice. There is no pretension here, and there are a couple of people here that I worked with from the very first job I did in Australia, so it may not be the best place, but it is still a special place.

I don't think everyone shares that feeling with me on this current project. But to be fair I have only been back from Sydney for a week whereas these people have all flown over from Europe and spent the last 2-3 months here, a place that must feel like the last fx outpost at the end of the world.

I am always fascinated by what brings people to where they end up. Especially here. What brings a Spaniard who lives in London and works at the best FX houses in the world over to work in a small dark building at the back of a movie lot that is quiet and far away from anything you need?

"I was working on Prince Caspian and was burned out. I went to India for 4 months and came back to London and got the call. I thought it would be good, I have never been to Australia, and it was a short contract." This particular person from London/Barcelona had only arrived the day before and when I asked him how he was feeling, he said in his Spanish accent, "I feel funny, like I am floating." Another person came from London via Romania where she had finished a project, and thought it would be good to see a part of Oz she hadn't seen yet (she is not enjoying her time on the side of the highway, sadly). They and others I have met in the film world seem to travel all the time and enjoy it; this job enables them to see the world (well, see some of it). After awhile they cease to be lonely in this lifestyle because they end up working with people they worked with in a different city and/or country, and they will socialize and travel with these people after the job finishes.

I know I am focused on this work thing, but I do find it very interesting. I find myself admiring a lot of the people I meet through this work - so independent. And you would have to be fairly social and easy with different kinds of people to travel so much, and work such long hours. And to not get freaked out by traveling on a plane for 12 hours, then arriving jet-lagged and starting work in a strange company on the other side of the world. In some ways it sounds romantic, and other ways I find it just strange and alienating.

I am commuting to this place down the highway in a rented car, 40 minutes one way. It is a boring drive. But now I have discovered a radio show on the drive home: Late Nights With Alice Cooper. Yeah! Rocktober lives on! Two for Tuesdays! Three for Thursdays!

When I was 3-4 years old, I remember my father watching Alice Cooper on TV, he was in some TV movies or something. My brother would watch as well, and he was only a year older than I. I was scared, but I didn't want to be left out, so I would watch the shows too. They scared me to bits!!! Alice Cooper would wear a skeleton bodysuit and swing a tomahawk around, singing his creepy songs. My mother had a friend that I always thought looked like Alice Cooper, because he had long black hair and big eyes. I was afraid that he was Alice Cooper in disguise and had come over to scare me because he knew I was scared of him. Poor Vito! Coming to visit his friends only to have their little girl scream and run and hide until he had left. I would even gear myself up for his visits, telling myself, "don't be scared, it's not Alice Cooper, he's mom's friend, it's Vito, make mom happy, be nice and stay." But as soon as Vito said hello, I would fall apart, convinced it was Alice Cooper.

I saw Vito about 10 years ago when I was an adult. I went to see him and his girlfriend perform in NYC -he, like Alice Cooper, is a musician. But they have very different styles, and Vito is not scary at all. He is a warm and lovely man.

Anyway, Alice Cooper rocks!!! His show is great. He has such good taste in rock, and has good themes. One night he explored songs that came out the same year with the same name, like "Hey You" by Pink Floyd and Bachman Turner Overdrive. He also knows things like The Animals are from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He has a good sense of humor and isn't scary at all. If you like your rock you will like his show. I didn't think I would appreciate Slade until I heard their version of Janis Joplin's "Move Over" courtesy of Alice Cooper. I would not have even known about his radio show if I wasn't driving everyday back and forth from this FX out post at the end of the world, off the side of the highway.