Well, I'm done with my internship, and it... well, it wasn't always a whirlwind, but when it was crazy, it was CRAZY.

I feel like that's actually a fair summary of the film industry in general.

When I first got to Stillking, there was nothing to do. But everyone had just gotten back from holiday, there were jobs on the table -- it was fine. Until the second week. And the third. And soon, I began to realize that just because you SHOULD be getting jobs, for all intents and purposes, doesn't mean you WILL. A worldwide tightening of belts hit at just the wrong time, and without a loyal clientele, my young company was struggling to find work. Flukes keep coming through, as I explained earlier, that cancelled jobs like the commercial for biscuits that I was so excited for. The industry, I learned, is ridiculously unpredictable.

So after a month and a half of doing little more than making myself tea, scouting locations, and occasionally touring swanky hotels "for the clients", my coworkers realized that it might not look up. They got in contact with some friends at a rival company, one that got a Pepsi job we'd been budgeting for, and asked if I could come and work there for awhile.

It was hard to leave the people I'd become so fond of, but I immediately realized upon arriving at The Farm that there actually WAS work somewhere for me to be doing. I was quickly set to work filling out invoices and organizing folders and answering phones and doing actual productive things -- I couldn't complain. And the cherry on top was the Pepsi Max job that I got to work on.

The job was a two-day night shoot around CPT. I've never been one of all nighters, and this was my first. The first day was ridiculous. The clients wanted us to shoot an outdoor scene around the wind, not understanding how strong the Cape winds are, and the result was a very destructive, dangerous, unproductive shoot that was finally called off at 4 am after a solid amount of the set (and at least one expensive light) was destroyed. I later found out that the entire night's work was scrapped and reshot, which was too bad -- you always hope your own personal misery has a reason.

The second day was much better. It was hot and relatively windless, and we shot at the convention center. I ran for coffee/water, herded extras around, did errands for the director and ADs, and generally tried to do what I could as a production assistant to nullify problems. I learned a lot about filmmaking and, really, what's considered "fast shooting". Plus, I got a walkie-talkie. Which was nice. The second night ended for me at 6:30 am, after a 15-hour workday.

The rest of my time at The Farm was spent in post-production, which, on the production (not editing, etc) end, is actually really boring, although I know that it was necessary. Wrapping up petty cash issues, writing orders for invoices... All tedious stuff that lets you get on to the next job. And that's really what it's about, right?

My internship didn't go as planned. But it was a great experience, and it taught me an important lesson about what goes into getting that next big job.