Wednesday, April 28, 2010

A few words on feeling inferior in the workplace...

Today is not a good day. No, it isn't. I was talking with a co-worker of mine about apprenticeships. I'd love love LOVE to be the apprentice of a wonderful, reputable editor and / or motion graphics artist but there's one problem: most of them think they're superior to the rest of us. Now I'm not saying ALL of them are like that but they can get a little patronizing.
Yes, I know what After Effects is and no, I don't use it to its full potential and neither do you.
Yes, I have worked on Avid before (granted it was only DV Xpress but Avid is still Avid) and yes, I work on Final Cut Pro now but that doesn't make me any less of an editor.
I know that the job I'm in now doesn't really let me have my full range of creativity but I make it work. I graduated college in 2001 and A LOT has changed in the post-world. But I have two things working against me that have been a major issue since the dawn of man: 1) I'm a minority and 2) I'm a woman.
So, working in a predominately male field was going to be a challenge from the start. I knew that when I had to teach myself tape-to-tape editing in my freshman year of high school (since no one would help me). But in high school, many people took video classes for the semi-easy A (or to make Quentin Tarantino-style shorts). I took it because I genuinely liked it. In fact, I liked it so much that I went to college for it.
In college, I met great friends. I rounded out a group of friends by being the "token" girl and the "token" minority all in one! And we made hilarious (Wes Anderson-style) shorts. But I noticed there was one small problem: I didn't really get to do anything technical.
I've always wanted to be an editor. Especially after I found out about Avid. Shit, even Media 100! Editing is, like, my dream job. Taking the chaos that comes with filming and putting it into a nice, pretty, entertaining order. I didn't really get a chance to do that in college. And the few projects I was able to got very weird reception.
My projects are strange, yes, but I've always loved film/video as an art form. When I had my first After Effects class, I freaked out.
After Effects is amazing! You can do so much with it! I love it! And if you've never used it before but you know Photoshop, it's easy as pie - for the basics. After you've mastered the basics, the possibilities are endless!
My knowledge with After Effects is fairly basic. When I do complicated things, I take the "long way" - I keyframe for days and days because I like that part. I enjoy the convinience of the Animation Presets but I prefer the tediousness of keyframing. It gets a little frustrating now and then but so what?! It's YOUR creation. Your own, personal creation with your own little quirks and things. That's what I enjoy.
Every once in a while, I get asked about it and I end up teaching someone the basics. Just the bare bones minimal. No problem there. But many times after that, they all think I'm some sort of idiot and they've surpassed me in After Effects knowledge - which makes them superior to me in every way. It's not just After Effects (or FCP, for that matter) - it could be anything. I took a Deko class just for the company I was working for with 4 other employees. We all learned the same material at the same time and I was given the task of maintaining the Deko machine. For some reason, one person in that group thought he was superior to me (with seniority yeah, sure) but little did he know that I would have to go back and fix his errors from Thursday night on my Friday house-keeping day. Every fucking Friday.
And sure, I was outside of "post-world" for a loooooong time and it's taken some getting used to but, dammit, I'm still fucking awesome at FCP. And I may not use the animation presets in After Effects but, dammit, I still get the mother fucking job done.
So where is this leading? When my friend and I were talking about apprenticeships, I told her that a lot of the "masters" in my field (in every other field, too, I'm sure) is kind of a dick - especially if you're a woman. The attitude always seems like, "Hey you crazy lady, what are you doing out of the kitchen?" Oh fuck no! There is no excuse for that sad, sorry attitude anymore. And what's funny is is that the company I work for now is predominately women! But since I'm the only editor on staff, they've had to out-source. No problems there - except one place where I felt inferior to all the men that do the same things I do except this time, I was telling them what to do as the "producer" of sorts. No problem there, I enjoy bossing people around in my own way, but there was an undertone that reeked of lack of respect. Like I wasn't a good enough editor so they had to pass it off to "real" editors. Fuck that! My bosses didn't realize that the amount of work they have is too much for one person to do alone (7 1 hour+ DVDs to edit and author PLUS in-house online only content and inter-office training sessions, etc). So, the bulk of it was passed off to a post house and the inter-office stuff lands on me. And there's plenty to do. But I just can't shake the lack of respect I'm getting as of late.
When we film for our DVDs, I'm in charge. The in-house folks ask me questions and they ask me my professional opinion. That part makes me feel validated and confident. But when someone comes up behind me and re-words what I say to make it sound like it was their idea, I really fucking hate that shit. Don't argue with me over something that will end up helping you in the end. It really knocks me down and makes me start to wonder if I even picked the right field. But discrimination and bullying like that is everywhere - no matter where you look, even outside the work place.
What people don't realize is that it is a form of bullying. Yeah - high school bullying. It's all petty and shit and I shouldn't let it get to me but it does because at the core, it still fucking hurts. It hurts to be undermined, it hurts when you patronize me, it hurts when you take my fucking ideas as your own, it hurts when you fucking treat me like shit, it hurts when you make me feel inferior and it hurts when you don't respect me.
I love everything about post production but I hate the attitude of the people around me. And it's not as easy as "If you can't beat them, join them" because that's not right. Post production is teamwork. If you can't respect your team, then why do you do it? I have 1000% respect for my "old" team. We have eachothers' backs. We don't pick on one another if we need help somewhere. In fact, we're not too proud to ask for help - we help each other out. But now, I feel like it's being thrown off balance because this lack of respect thing has gone on far enough. I mean, I am fucking turning 30 this year and I'm still dealing with the same kind of discrimination that I was dealing with in elementary, middle and high school. I thought that shit was over and done with but I guess some people just can't grow up.

< / rant >

Sorry for the rant, I just had to put this out somewhere.
Thank you

Love,
Katzi
S.L.Y.A.S.D.I.

PS - This was SLYASDI's 100th blog post! Wowzers meowzers!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Haters gonna hate...Ghost Hunters VS Paranormal State

Yesterday was a fun-filled day. First, I went to my Mom's house to go with her and my little bro - freshly back from Canada! - to get my Mom's staples out. She had partial knee replacement surgery and they didn't stitch her - they stapled that shit closed! WTF?! The stapling looked horrible! But as Mom says: "My doctor is a better surgeon than a tailor." Touché, Mom.
So - we went out on a bunch of errands afterward - since poor Mom hadn't been out of the house for 2 weeks! But before long, Alex and I were on our own to finish out the errands so that Mom could take a nap.
On that trip, I received a text from Oni (at around 2:56pm) that read: "Do u watch paranormal state?"
As a matter of fact, I don't. I've been a TAPS girl since who knows when! So, of course, I sent back: "Fuck that show! That guy is soooooo dramatic!"
Little did I know that I was taking part in a Ghost Hunters VS Paranormal State argument that would last until 7:30pm. 7:30PM!!!
Alex was only there for part of it. And he said "Fuck both of you, I'm all DESTINATION TRUTH, bitches!" <-Not what he actually said, but he IS a fan of Destination Truth.

Okay - I've been a fan of paranormal shows since The X Files and I've seen my fair share of weird things in this world, so I'd like to say that my interest is not with the fad of paranormal reality TV. And neither is Oni's interest because she was present in one instance of something paranormal happening to the both of us. BUT I wonder: what gives Paranormal State more validity than Ghost Hunters? The debate raged on.

Oni: Psh. Its my fave of all the ghost hunters. They have better stuff happening. And the un-haunt the haunted. And have exorcisms.
Me: It's such CRAP
Oni: Psh. It's better than 1 night and a few little things on EVP or thermal imaging.
Me: But at least the Ghost Hunters are honest bc not every place is really haunted. Paranormal State is paranoid and over the top!
Oni: They're not over the top. They include psychics, priests, demonologists and the haunted and stay there for like a week and determine 1st if its a real haunting
Me: I call bullshit. They're like the ghost bros of Ghost Adventures (just as horrible, if not more horrible than PS)

So, can you imagine that going on and on and on and on till 7:30pm? No? Neither could I. But it did go on and on and on - with me doing some side tweets in between. But it didn't get weird until Oni texted this:
"But the homeowner and the research validates what the medium says" - This was after I told her there are no mediums allowed on Ghost Hunters. So I said:
"So? If you go in expecting those things, of course you'll "see" them because you want to see them. TAPS doesn't really go in expecting anything major. If they get a few things, they're still wary of declaring a haunting - which is better.

Oni: " How can you declare a haunting on 1 nights worth of research? They're not familiar with TAPS. Why would they show up for them on cue?"
WTF??? My old man and I HAD to share a laugh at that one. "They're not familiar with TAPS". What??
After I regained composure, I sent this back:
"So Paranormal State hangs out with their "entities" and coaches them to jump out on cue when they're filming?"

And there was more arguing and comparing and the like until 7:30pm. I have to keep saying that it ended at 7:30pm because I will argue as long as I need to about the awesomeness of Ghost Hunters, dammit!

But if you don't have a preference, or if you've never seen the shows, read all about them:
  • Paranormal State's Wikipedia
  • And here's a site that challenges the validity of Paranormal State (very entertaining)
  • And what's up with the Director's Log?

Let the battle rage on!
Love,
Katzi
S.L.Y.A.S.D.I.