xtcian

8/19/02 Yep, that is my

8/19/02

Yep, that is my last unemployment check stub for the foreseeable future. It's quite an accomplishment, since it means That Internet Job has been paying for me, one way or another, since June of 2000. And it's a company that doesn't even exist anymore! They moved me from Los Angeles to New York, paid me for a year, then severance for six weeks, then unemployment for 26 weeks, then with September 11 came 13 more weeks of emergency unemployment. This week is the last week I shall be feeding off that particular teat, and I just want to say one thing: Thanks, That Internet Job. You were a bleeding nightmare and I complained a lot about you, but I have the humility to accept that if it weren't for you, my life would be so much the lesser.

Speaking of gettin' on with one's life, we had the IFP orientation meeting tonight, where we learned the differing style of presenting one's movie whilst at the festival. Last year, some guy who had an ice cream-themed film rented an ice cream truck and apparently embarrassed everybody, so this year they want us to show a little more class. I'm all for that, since my Pink House Acne Scrub was having a tough time getting off the drafting table anyway.

It was fun seeing the infectiously-excited young filmmakers all checking each other out one of them, named Gabriel, tapped me on the shoulder and introduced himself, something that hasn't happened to me since frat rush. I liked him; he's got moxie. The only drag of the meeting was finding out that four of the twenty films will be selected for awards at the beginning of the festival, which I understand for press purposes, but still takes the wind out of the sails of sixteen other movies. I told the director of the Market that I'd been beat up too much in 3rd grade to feel good about that sort of pre-emptive exclusion, but I don't think I got very far.

Tonight, as Tessa went to bed early, I had to stay up and think of trailer ideas for both The Pink House and Martin & Orloff. Making these trailers exercises a muscle in me that has been dormant for a while, but it got erect fairly quickly. What a weird skill to have in one's arsenal. If it weren't so demoralizing, I'd probably make a career out of it.