Life's little (and big) ironies...

A list of real life ironies...

• I have a horrible, passionate hatred of mouth-eating sounds. Just ask my family. It was a nightmare at the dinner table in my youth.
  
  Yet, Naomi's little smacks and lip licking when she eats is absolutely adorable and endearing to me.
  
  
• I also have this irrational sensory problem with fidgeting. Mindless playing with the remote control or a phone during a movie. Twiddling keys or pocket change in an elevator. I'd rather scrape paint off walls with my fingernails than see it.
  
  Yet, I have a daughter who is the fidgetiest baby I have ever met. She fidgets with everything. She can't just suck on a bottle; she searches for the nearest thread or piece of jewelry to pick at. She can't just sleep; she pulls at the hairs of her stuffed bear or caresses the texture of her blanket in her sleep too. I can't decide whether it bugs me or not.
  
  
• On the husband's birthday three years ago, we hung out at The Grove shopping center. (It's a really cool place at Christmastime.) We were wandering around and caught a glimpse of none other than Larry King and his stunning wife shopping at Marc Jacobs. We walked in, smiled and left. Then we debated back and forth whether we should say something. We didn't. But... 
  
  Exactly three years later, plus one day we spent the evening at the Kings' home in Beverly Hills. Oh and Shawn King is an absolute sweetheart. I'm honored to call that stunning woman a friend.
  
  
• Never in a million years did I ever want to be a working mom. Especially not full time. Yet, it's a necessity right now, and I have the skills and experience to do so.
  
  Who would have thought I would actually like it.
  
  
• I have a secret desire to move. My friend wanted to stay in L.A. passionately. She now lives where I want to live, and I'm in L.A.
  
  
• I was the first in my circle of friends to adopt and promote the Twilight Series books. Then I got tired of them and got annoyed when everyone else loved them. Then I was embarrassed when the first movie came out because it was so bad.
  
  Then, many years later, I found myself in the middle of the hubbub of the world premiere of the Hollywood film Breaking Dawn. Red... uh... black carpet and everything.
  
  
• The husband looked for work for a year and a half after he graduated. He finally got hired at an entertainment company and began the path to attaining his career goals.
  
  Then he got let go. At the worst time of year in the entertainment industry. I won't go into details, but trust me, it's ridiculous. Now we're back to square one. Bleh.
  
  
• The double irony here is that it just so happens to be at the same time my company is going through a sale transition. Really, no one's job is secure. Especially not mine.
  

Neal A. Maxwell, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once said, "Irony is the crust on the bread of life's adversities." While there are some delicious parts, our lives are pretty crusty right now.

Finally.

I have been looking forward to this post for about three years. But it's here: an announcement of where the husband will begin his career in entertainment.

I have avoided speaking about it and the whole process because 1) he's extremely private, 2) it sorta depressed me talking about it, and 3) I'm a little superstitious. Seriously. From the time I was about 12 years I wouldn't write anything in my journal that was "going to happen," because I thought if I wrote about it, it wouldn't. In fact, I have pangs of worry that I'll jinx something just writing about it here.

But I am so happy I had to share.

The husband has accepted and signed the paperwork to begin working at Summit Entertainment on Monday.

Sound familiar? You may recognize this logo at the beginning of the following movies:
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse

The Beaver (2011)
Red (2010)
Letters to Juliet (2010)
Furry Vengeance (2010)
Remember Me (2010)
Knowing (2009)
Push (2009)
Penelope (2006)
Step Up (2006) (the entire Step Up series 2, 3D, and 4)
The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Evita (1996)
Twelfth Night (1996)


And then these movies are coming out soon:

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012)

Stainless Steel (2012) 

The Cold Light of Day (2012)

Man on a Ledge (2012) 

Step Up 4 (2012)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

Warm Bodies (2012)

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 

He will be working in business and legal, and if you know my husband, you'll know what a great fit this is for him. He will be assisting two attorneys -- two very classy and very different women. The HR woman he's been working with calls them, "The Ladies." She has said, "Oh, the Ladies will be very happy you accepted," and "The Ladies have been under a deadline," etc. Steve has absolutely no problem with that. It's right down his alley.

And what does "business & legal" have to do with "producing"? Most people don't know what producers do, and to their credit, the title "producer" can have dozens of meanings. It is the only title in the industry that is negotiable, the husband says. Well, there are many roads to the role of a producer. This is one of them.

LA is a lot like high school with cliques, inner circles and reliance on the brand on your bum. So with the Summit brand on his bum and more solid individuals in his network, he will be able to carve out a path to an studio executive role or someday make the jump into create producing.

I'll talk more about this later.

It's been a rough year. The roughest in both our lives. The challenges are just shifting to something else, but regardless, its a huge weight off just knowing where we can move and knowing our journey has finally started!

...to be continued.


Oh and to preempt your questions:

• No, it's not likely he'll meet Robert Pattinson. But he'll know how much he'll get paid and whether he has demanded an unending supply of red M&Ms in his trailer.
  
  
• It's not likely he'll get invited to any premieres (yet), but I have a feeling he'll be coming home with some Twilight schwag.
  
  
• No, the husband does not like Twilight. But he might just become one real quick.
  

Producer Boy's Film Shoot

So the hubs produced a short for the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation on education. He used a story of a man named Pearl Fryer who has an incredible topiary garden he started with throw-away plants from a local nursery. It was a great experience for Producer Boy. Here are a few stills from the film shoot.

Pearl creates all of these in his head. Never draws them out.

But he sees what they're going to be at the beginning.

Amazing.

Pearl also creates sculptures with scrap metal. You can't really tell here,

but they're detailed and as unique as each topiary creation.

The production team with Pearl (second from left)

A Picture-Perfect "Pitch"

Heard of a sales pitch? How about a baseball pitch? A movie pitch has aspects of both, but it's a unique animal of getting your "great movie idea" funded to the silver screen.

Pitch: Artfully telling the concept, story, characters and target demographic to 1) get funding or 2) bring someone on your team who then can enable funding. It's not just "telling the plot," it's actually a skill to pitch a story well.

It's so much a skill that the husband has spent a series of three classes (part of the program's core requirements) for a whole academic year doing nothing but studying and practicing pitching.

Last night was the final class of the series, and he pitched his script (that he'll be taking into development for his thesis project and beyond) to a panel of movie execs, including a film financier and an exec. from New Line Cinema. The stress level preparing for that pitch was about a 8.5 on a scale of 10 (10 being weeping-wailing-teeth-nashing). He pained and toiled as he carefully crafted his words on paper and then studied them to present them verbally. It had to be well-written and well delivered.

I can't tell you about the script or even what he said, but I can tell you that he used poetic alliteration, clever double-entendres, humor, and an impressive pace to deliver this pitch.

And the result? He nailed it. His classmates, who have been with him in this class series since day one, were impressed, the execs said it's a great story and well-delivered, and his instructors just sat back and smiled. One of his classmates came up to him and said, "You know, there have been moments where you struggled throughout this process, but you really know how to come through in a pinch. You really deliver..."

Industry Terms: In the Beginning

After more than a century of movie-making, it's understandable that the Industry people have developed their own language. There have even been entire books published filled with industry terms! To assist as I describe my adventures to my reader friends who are not familiar with the movie business, I thought I'd leave a few fun Industry definitions to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Producer: The CEO of the movie production. Most people think that the director is the big wig, but the director actually answers to the producer. There are many different types of producers, but they are the primary driving force behind the production. And the producer is the only one who gets the "Best Picture" Academy Award.

Development: At the beginning, "development" is the process that a producer takes a story/script, goes through edits, creates a proposed budget, attaches directors (or even actors) and does the beginning business stuff behind what you see on screen.

Screenplay/Script: Technically, it's the same piece of material at different stages in the production process; i.e. the writer writes a screenplay; an actor holds the script. However, they're used interchangeably.

Coverage: Movie execs don't have a lot of time, and if something doesn't catch them immediately, they won't have a second look at it. So they hire the lowest level of "entertainment professionals" to read the hundreds of scripts submitted to them, and then write a short summary. The summary is called "coverage."

Option Agreement: When a movie is adapted from a book, for example, the producer obtains the rights to the story in an "option agreement." It's basically the contract saying the producer can develop the book into a script and get it ready for production. The agreement is set for a certain amount of time (usually 12-18 months), and when it expires there may be an option to renew it if they need more time.

Come back often! Next set of industry terms: Studio vs. Independent

Never Thought I'd Be a Movie Person

But here I am in the film entertainment capital of the world, continually learning "The Industry" nuances, quirks, and cutthroat business ethics. OK, so I'm only experiencing it second hand, but it counts, right?

When I was in high school, a young man took me to see Mission Impossible on my birthday. It was a few days after the film had been released to general theaters, and I remember making a mental note that it was the first time I've ever been to a movie on opening weekend.

Now, if we don't see a movie the night it opens, opening weekend or even before (when possible), we don't see it in the theater at all. Now we require reserved seating, digital projection, and leather memory foam seats we'll find a showing that does offer those essential amenities. Well, we're almost that snobby.

While my critical eye is being honed with each book I read or each morsel of Industry knowledge the husband throws my way, I just love movies. Period. I love them for what they're worth, and what they can do to a human soul. The combination of a brilliant score, exceptional acting and out-of-this-world special effects, and a solid storyline/screenplay makes one of the most powerful tools of influence in the world today.

So, in my wish-I-were-ever-humble opinion, I will drop my two cents on each flick I take in. I've created a "Category List" on the right panel and a search function for your convenience.