These days it feels as if every day is hard. Some are just harder than others. Yesterday was one of those days.
I
woke up in the morning to a flurry of emails. Knock on wood, we've been
busy. The problem with booking jobs is you have to actually produce
them. It seems as if every job we are bidding or is in production has
some major issue that needs to be addressed.
At 6:30 am I
furiously responded to emails. Finished them by 7am. I then proofread
my morning blog post. Thought for a moment whether to publish it. I
did. Tweeted about it. Jumped in the shower. It was now 7:30am. My
youngest daughter, Ruby, waited patiently outside my bedroom door. Last
night I promised I would take her to breakfast before I drove her and
her sister Eliza to camp.
We went to breakfast at the local
diner. Ruby insisted upon sitting at the counter. Halfway through the
meal a creepy looking homeless guy sat right next to her. After one
pancake she had enough. We went home to pick up Eliza and Augie, our dog. It was
my day to bring him to work. On the drive to camp my phone kept
ringing. I'll spare you the sordid details. Let's say one call was
about adding a shoot day at Epoch's expense.
9:10am. Walked the
kids into camp with the dog in tow. Signed them in confident I'd make my 9:30 meeting. As I began to leave Ruby showed me her gum was
bleeding. Her bottom tooth was hanging by a thread.
"Will you pull it out now" she asked.
"Can't
I do it tonight? I'm sure it will last the day". She looked sadly up at
me with her big brown eyes. "Fine. Let's go to the bathroom".
I
speed walked her across the camp to the public facilities. I dragged
the dog along. He wanted to stay on the playground with the kids. We walked into the ladies room. Luckily it was empty. I
dropped the dog's leash. He sniffed around while Ruby played with her
tooth. As I grabbed a paper towel, I got a text. It was from a producer
on a job we were recommended on 3 days ago. Since then none of my
phones calls or emails have been returned. The text read: "Can you
call me ASAP! Need your help!".
It had to wait. I had an
extraction to perform. I began to manipulate Ruby's tooth. As I began
to twist it she closed her eyes and began screaming at the top of her
lungs. The dog freaked and began running around the bathroom furiously.
Just as the tooth came out, the dog jumped on top of me and it fell out
of my hand. Have you ever tried to find a baby tooth on a white tiled
floor?
"Where did it go, Dad?"
I went down to the floor
searching desperately for the tooth. The dog continued to run
feverishly around the bathroom. Ruby is on the verge of tears. I get
another text. "Are you going to call me?!". I looked at my watch. 9:25.
From my knees I see a 7 year old on the edge. Fighting back the
tears "I need the tooth, Dad. The tooth fairy won't give me any money
without it".
I scour the floor. The tooth was nowhere to be
found. Exasperated and desperate I reverted to some good parenting.
"The tooth fairy will feel so bad that you lost your tooth, she will
give you double"
Ruby perked up. "For real?"
"I can guarantee
it". A smile came across her face. FulI disclosure. She knows I'm the
tooth fairy. The kid can sense when she's in a position to make a great
deal. I grabbed the leash and we exited the bathroom.
I dropped Ruby off with her counselor and called back the text crazed producer while rushing off to my 9:30 meeting.
"Hello."
"Hi. It's Jerry. Got your text. What's up?"
"Sorry
I didn't get back to you sooner...the celeb is in. Now, I need to know
if you can produce not only the four spots we sent but they added a new
fifteen, three web films and a some performance stuff of her against
green. We are going to use this for banner ads."
"Did you send me all the new creative?"
"Still working on it. Also, there is a film I'd like to see if Dandelion could do. Was hoping you could kind throw that in."
"How many days again do you have the celeb?"
"Three ten hour days"
"That's not much. I can't really commit to anything without seeing the all the scripts"
"I'm sure WE can find a creative way to shoot everything?"
"It's
not a creative problem. Or a production problem. It's a math
problem. We only have the celebrity for so many hours and she is in
every frame of every film"
"Totally get it...Make sense...I don't
mean to rush you but the client meeting is in half an hour. I need
assurances you can do all of this."
I was running late, overpaying
for a lost tooth and was being to asked to commit to multiple
deliverables without the benefit of seeing approved creative. I had to
think fast.
"What did you say the budget was?"
It was
9:35 am. The day had just begun. I was late for my meeting. I hate being late. I had a sinking feeling these incidents were going to be the days high points. And I was right.
Thank goodness I'm going away this
weekend with my wife sans kids. On Sunday night I head to Detroit for
three meetings in 24 hours. The fun never stops.
Jerry Solomon is the managing partner of 
