The Joy of Being Passionate about your Work

In the summer of 2013, I got a call to work in production for a movie with a number of young stars. The call came from a producer that I liked working with very much and I was happy to take the job.

The film in question was a high-school comedy called Senior Project with attached talent such as Ryan Potter (Big Hero 6, Supah Ninjas), Vanessa Morano (Switched at Birth, Dexter), Kyle Massey (That's So Raven, Cory in the House), Sterling Beaumon (Lost), Meaghan Martin (Mean Girls 2), YouTube celebrity Lana McKissack, and the legendary comedian Margaret Cho. It was to be directed by a young, talented Nadine Troung.

I had worked on a lot of different projects up to this point. I had worked at Fox and worked in production on films for Lifetime. I had done spec shorts for independent producers such as Mad Horse (who later sold their spec, Realm, which I had the privilege of working on, to Relativity). Between my stints in production, I worked at Sierra Affinity, the international film sales company. I loved being in an environment where I could interact with people. It should have come as no surprise that I would enjoy working on another film with a crew I loved.

To me, Senior Project was enjoyable to a degree so great that it changed my life.

I was promoted to department head just before this project and the producers were willing to let me stay in that position for the film. I learned something about myself. While I wasn't completely prepared for my new role, I knew I had to take this step if I ever wanted to master production. My ambition was greater than my fear of failure.

An unexpected thing happened when I took this role. I became humbled and much more open to information I knew I did not have. In hindsight, this was the catalyst for one of the most dramatic periods of learning I had ever experienced. I began to learn and improve at a greater speed than ever before.

On my first day, I realized we were severely undermanned and the production was going to be a challenge. One of the production managers was quite critical of my team, but I did not know them well and I did not know what the best way to communicate with my team members was. I decided that the best way to lead was by example. If I was going to keep my job, I was going to have to begin by improving myself. Not only did I quickly improve my delegation skills, but I was able to learn more about the equipment outside of my own department. Once I did that, I was much more useful to the production as a whole. While many focus on their job alone, my department had to do what we could to help other departments otherwise we would have fallen behind schedule.

I loved the learning process that helped me add value to the team. I was merely a piece of the puzzle, but I wanted to go above and beyond my job description and to stand out. Because I began to learn new tasks, I began to meet everyone who was working on the film. I began to learn something else: the people you work with matter greatly. If you like who you work with, the work becomes thoroughly enjoyable. Because it was a necessity for me to interface with every department, I naturally made more friends and enjoyed myself more as a result.

After the production, I was invited to give my opinion about the edit of the film even though my job was done. Once again, my willingess to learn introduced me to a new department and introduced me to new people. The cut was a funny, nostalgic film that reminded me of my own fond high school memories. I was happy with the product and I told the producers so.

While the film was a success, my personal success lay in the fact that I was willing to better myself and I was able to see immediate results and improvements to the quality of my own life.

I learned a lot on this project, but the most important thing it did for me was to reinforce the value of doing what you like to do with the people you like.

(LINK - I got my copy of the film here on iTunes. Enjoy!)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/senior-project/id954946087

#movies #seniorproject #disney #stars #comedy #funny