The Worst Job in the World
I’ve been in LA for little over a month now and have still not adjusted fully. The reason being that it is so different from NYC which I think is one of the most amazing cities on earth. I won’t call it the best till I have lived in Rio, Tokyo and Paris. There are so many things I miss about NYC but by far I miss my buddies I made in film school and while crewing the most.
One of the guys I knew back there moved to LA bout 6 months before me and he got a really coveted job as an assistant to a hotshot agent at one of the top talent agencies. He started from the mail room but worked his way up in a very shot amount of time.
If you think being an AD in Bombay sucks, trust me it’s nothing compared to working in an agency.My buddy comes from a well off family and is an Ivy league grad. Guess what his yearly salary is ?20 thousand dollars which is barely minimum wage. If he flipped burgers at McDonalds he would probably make more. I’ve read and heard stories about the kind of abuse these guys have to take and it gives me the chills. If you wanna know what I’m talking bout just check out Ari Emmanuel on “Entourage”. Great show.
So anyway I met him last week and was shocked at his appearance. He’s put on a lot of weight and has huge bags under his eyes. He looked miserable but vehemently opposed my suggestion that maybe he should find another job. I was about to give him a lecture on how life is too short etc etc but he told me a story which basically left me speechless and in awe of his commitment.
My friend’s boss just happens to be gay which is no big deal. He also happens to have a huge penchant to indulge in orgies with male hookers he likes to pick up from the street. So one of my friend’s major job profile is to cruise West Hollywood aka “Boys Town” at night trying to pick up men for his boss. And it gets better. He not only has to pick them up but also guess whether they are tops or bottoms coz his boss is a bottom. He also has to score some snow for the all night sessions which take place in Beverly Hills.
I was horrified when I heard this. I mean I have been asked to provide booze,drugs, women etc etc as well but my complicity if at all was limited to making a phone call or giving the number to the person who needed it. I asked him why is he doing all this and he replied whatever it takes to make his dream of becoming an agent a reality. My friend is a devout Christian and straight btw.
I left after obtaining a promise that whenever he does become a full fledged agent he was gonna sign me coz anybody with that amount of sheer bloody mindedness is someone you want on your team. I also realize that whenever he does become a hotshot, he is also gonna torture his underlings in a somewhat similar manner. It’s the old axiom that most abusers were also abused in their formative years. Some are able to break the chain of violence but most aren’t.
I met another friend of mine from NYC on Saturday and we had an absolute blast. He’s an actor who’s got a day job as an accountant. We’ve worked together on the last short I did and he’s a very cool guy. He came down here on vacation to meet his bro and we caught up first in Santa Monica before we went to this awesome bar called Birds in Hollywood. It’s bang opposite the very creepy Church of Scientology mansion.
He gave me some news which really cheered me up. He said he was gonna quit his job and move to LA to pursue acting full time. He makes a lot of money and has a fucking awesome rent control apt on the Upper East Side. The fact that he was willing to give all that up and move here impressed me no end coz it ain’t easy in this town.
I was happy coz I have a friend as well as a collaborator for my forthcoming shorts. To have a great understanding with an actor is worth it’s weight in gold and he will just be in time for the series of spec commercials and music vids I wanna shoot. We chewed the fat all night and basically over a lot of beers we agreed on the following
a) This line from Gattaca is probably the greatest movie dialog ever - “You want to know how I did it Anton ? This is how I did it. I never saved anything for the swim back.”
b) The biggest regrets in life are deeds not done, words not said and girls not chased.
c) The worst job in the world involves cubicles and seeing the years go by when you know this isn’t what you wanna do in life.
The will to succeed knows no boundaries, languages, cultures or customs. There is no genome for the human spirit. That’s why two sublime snippets of poetry say basically the same thing though they are worlds apart. One is American and the other Punjabi.
“We may lose and we may win though
We will never be here again” - Eagles
Sab ton khatarnak hunda hai
Na hona tadap da
Sabh kujh sehan kar jaana
Ghar ton niklana kamm,
te kamm to ghar aana
Sab ton khatarnak hunda hai,
Saade supniaan da mar jaana - Paash
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” a) This line from Gattaca is probably the greatest movie dialog ever -
Paaji tussi great ho
digging deep for reasons to live in LA are we today?
The biggest regrets in life are deeds not done, words not said and girls not chased
it sure is!!!
Hi Mithun,
Let me kind of give you a different scenario.
Chris Landerth did this short animation about the late Ryan Larkin:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Chris-Landreth-Ryan-Oscar-winning-animated-short
http://www.ryanbango.com/
In Ryan’s case, you could make this argument:
He did a, b and c, but still never liked his job and became a pan-handler…
OK… There might be a few other reasons as to why Ryan began hating his job.
Let me use a punjabi proverb to see if you can figure out the reason:
rall mil bhenan ikki paaeee…
Literally, it means “sisters got together and gave twenty-one (rupees)”. But of course, there is a short story that illuminates this proverb.
@Paaji
Mindblowing ki tussi ethe aate ho. Ki haal hain twaada?
@Mohan
Thanks for the link. Fucking amazing film. The NFB is just so awesome for supporting experimental shorts for so many years.
What happened to Ryan is tragic no doubt but I guess that’s the thin line we have to cross and not give into despair. I’ve seen way too many talents go waste similarly for it to shock me anymore.
Hello Mithun,
wonderful piece. Liked to see some introspection material on this site. I can totally understand your Accountant friend’s dream. People thought I was plumb crazy when I told them I love movies. A good set of my friends who have known me for years counseled that its easier to be a audience rather than a part of it. Some even gave quotes from the Gita, for heaven’s sake. I want to pursue this dream and sometimes in my black moods, I feel its too far fetched then I watch Shawshank & the world seems better
We all have fears and my number one is your point C.
c) The worst job in the world involves cubicles and seeing the years go by when you know this isn
“Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours…and could have been mine.”
nice piece mithun..
Mithun da,
Would like to see the shorts you’ve made already. If they are online, I would be very glad if you could mail me the links at kartics@gmail.com.
@Kartick
I only have my first short online. Been meaning to upload the rest but some technical issues.
This is the first MV I directed and it’s quite amateurish coz there are lots of color temps and exposure continuity issues. We shot this over 2 days on a budget of 50 dollars I think.
Tried to be cute and merge found footage of the performance with other stuff we shot.
http://www.maddogfilm.com/sh_500miles.html
I’m not particularly fond of it and just look at it as a learning process. Visually it’s decent but that’s about it.
Hi Mithun,
The worst jobs in the world and yet the most desireable too.
The entertainment industry does at the entry level offer a level playing field.Your looks,your talent,your creativity is what counts and what matters eventually is a slice of luck.
Would Patience and optimism help?
…..Varna kamyabi ki talash mien saree zindagi nikaljayegee….
@ Mithun Da,
Quite enjoyed it - thanks
While I’m not quite tuned in to noting the color temp and exposure continuity issues, I thoroughly enjoyed the visual experience, given that I already like the song.
Also, the parallel narrative (music band performing, with a simultaneous storyline) is a form that has been used quite effectively in more videos than I can afford to list down here. Overall, I thought it was rather Nicely Done!
Would like to see more - do share, as and when.
The only other thing I have online is my reel which I haven’t updated in over a year. Have to compile all the stuff I’ve shot since passing out and make a new one. Sigh.
http://www.vimeo.com/midnightnation
@Arun
I think more than all the traits you mentioned what really makes the diff is persistence.
Dunno if you follow football but at my club Arsenal there is a player called Matthieu Flamini who isn’t as talented compared to other players like Hleb and Fabregas. He was about to leave the club coz he wasn’t getting enough starts. But he decided against that and vowed to fight for his place.
This season he has been the most influential player at the club and has forced Gilberto Silva on the bench. All the top clubs in Europe want to sign him coz of his unbelievable work ethic and spirit. All Arsenal fans are just praying that he signs a contract extension with us.
It’s almost like a fairy tale but it does happen all around us.
@mithun
Ek number!
Kya sahi baat hai sirji!
aAh u got the old one up ….
Guys it gives me great pleasure to announce that Jodha Akbar has grossed an amazing 1.6 million dollars in it’s opening weekend placing it as the 19th top film in the US.
It also has the highest per screen avg in the entire US for any film at an incredible 16,023 per theater.
Thanks to each and every one for their patronage and support.
Thats great news, Mithun. Cheers! I am going again for it.
yar someone tell me how do i play subtitles on my dvd player connected to tv .. i burnt a movie and its subtitles file (in srt format) on cd on my pc .. but when i play that cd on my dvd player .. the subtitles dont show .. i even pressed the subtitles button on the remote but still it wont work -(
yar koi help kar do !
I think it only works on players like VLC. Dunno if DVD players can read srt files. Try hooking ur pc to ur tv and playing the film.
i think there is some software which can convert the subtitles file (along with video file) to readable format for dvd player hoked to tv .. problem is that the software increases the size of video file and so it can only be burnt on a dvd .. and i only got a cd burner :/
@filmbhai…
what all ulta seedha u doing…!!!
go encode the video file to a size which fits a CD.
look for software where u can hardcode the subs onto ur video file…
good resource doom9(dot)org
@dpac, thx it worked ! i got a software .
a small video i made
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qtHqw1PYKJs
[:)]
Great post sirji ….
:)>-
[...] The Worst Job in the World “The worst job in the world involves cubicles and seeing the years go by when you know this isn