From Hired to Fired in two-and-a-half hours.
I was trying to sleep in a little bit. A little bit of drinking and such lead to a late, late, late night and I was catching up on some sleep. So, I was kinda surprised that I even heard the phone ring (I tend to not to, especially since now my ringtone is the instrumental to C.R.E.A.M.) But seeing who was calling, I answered, we'd been talking about seeing Che, maybe today was the day.
Instead, he offered me up a job PA'ing on a photo shoot. Sure, I'm not doing anything. A couple of phone calls later, I'm all set up and have my instructions. I was to knock around for a couple of hours, then go to a hotel in Beverly Hills, pick up a car and drive it 5 miles downtown and then hang out for the rest of the day. For $200 (Day rate) I could certainly do that.
The waiting around part was easy, a little bit more sleep, caught up on Battlestar Gallactica, ate some food, etc. No problem. I went down to the hotel and found a neighborhood that I could park in for free (I wasn't sure if they'd reimburse me for parking, so might as well play it safe) and got to the hotel. I told them the car I wanted, and they sent somebody for it - security was pretty lax, I didn't even tell them the name that the person on the phone. Maybe if this movie business goes south I can work boosting cars using this method.
They pull the car around and things are going great. I have a full hour to get downtown. I've never seen traffic that bad, I'll probably be early for once in my life, things are great. That is, until I get down and see the car is a stick shift. I can't drive stick. I even told the person on the phone that I can't and they assured me it was a stick (turns out every other car involved was an automatic, I just got the luck of the draw). Panic sets in. I called up a friend who lived nearby to see if he could drive stick, just grasping at straws. No go. I'm out of options. So, I make the call and, yup, lose the job as quickly as I got it. (Thank God that I didn't pay for parking!)
So a pretty funny story. But that's not the only reason I'm writing this up.
Like so many, I'm an avid Twitterer. I pretty much got addicted to it as soon as I started it. So as the events unfolded I kept the twitterstream updated. Looking back, it's kind of an interesting well to tell a story:
Things kick off:
I waste some time:
It was a really good episode. Shut up.
Then things go south...
and finally...
The story told in real-time and as it happened. Its concise, to-the-point, funny, and doesn't make too much of it (unlike this blog post. Haha.) Basically put: For this story, the twitter feed is perhaps the best way to tell the story. While Twitter is useful for a lot of things, I haven't seen it being tapped for storytelling besides the fictional MadMen accounts (which was fun until they became too self-indulgent and involved the outside world too much).
We've all been told by pundits that new media would result in new ways of storytelling, but so far that's mostly proven false. YouTube was changed access, but not storytelling method. The choose-your-own-adventure-type webpages are exercises in patience, and interactive movies are still fun little gimmicks until you get five choices in and see why interactivity in storytelling isn't necessarily a good thing.
With Twitter, a story is condensed (form changes), delivered differently (accessibility changes), interactive without being interactive (Communication changes - readers can send replies that can be addressed or dismissed), it's everything that we've been promised.
So could this be something? Or am I just excited over nothing?
Instead, he offered me up a job PA'ing on a photo shoot. Sure, I'm not doing anything. A couple of phone calls later, I'm all set up and have my instructions. I was to knock around for a couple of hours, then go to a hotel in Beverly Hills, pick up a car and drive it 5 miles downtown and then hang out for the rest of the day. For $200 (Day rate) I could certainly do that.
The waiting around part was easy, a little bit more sleep, caught up on Battlestar Gallactica, ate some food, etc. No problem. I went down to the hotel and found a neighborhood that I could park in for free (I wasn't sure if they'd reimburse me for parking, so might as well play it safe) and got to the hotel. I told them the car I wanted, and they sent somebody for it - security was pretty lax, I didn't even tell them the name that the person on the phone. Maybe if this movie business goes south I can work boosting cars using this method.
They pull the car around and things are going great. I have a full hour to get downtown. I've never seen traffic that bad, I'll probably be early for once in my life, things are great. That is, until I get down and see the car is a stick shift. I can't drive stick. I even told the person on the phone that I can't and they assured me it was a stick (turns out every other car involved was an automatic, I just got the luck of the draw). Panic sets in. I called up a friend who lived nearby to see if he could drive stick, just grasping at straws. No go. I'm out of options. So, I make the call and, yup, lose the job as quickly as I got it. (Thank God that I didn't pay for parking!)
So a pretty funny story. But that's not the only reason I'm writing this up.
Like so many, I'm an avid Twitterer. I pretty much got addicted to it as soon as I started it. So as the events unfolded I kept the twitterstream updated. Looking back, it's kind of an interesting well to tell a story:
Things kick off:
Picked up a job for the day. Damn things happen out here!
2:59 PM Jan 31st from twhirl
I waste some time:
oh jesus christ gallactica
4:38 PM Jan 31st from twhirl
Going to work now, but I have to admit, I'm a little emotional after watching Battlestar Galactica.
4:51 PM Jan 31st from twhirl
It was a really good episode. Shut up.
Then things go south...
So I was supposed to just drive this car to the shoot... But it's a stick... I don't think this is gonna work out.
5:21 PM Jan 31st from TwitterFon
and finally...
Ok. Lost this job. Who drives stick these days? We invented computers for a reason.
5:32 PM Jan 31st from TwitterFon
The story told in real-time and as it happened. Its concise, to-the-point, funny, and doesn't make too much of it (unlike this blog post. Haha.) Basically put: For this story, the twitter feed is perhaps the best way to tell the story. While Twitter is useful for a lot of things, I haven't seen it being tapped for storytelling besides the fictional MadMen accounts (which was fun until they became too self-indulgent and involved the outside world too much).
We've all been told by pundits that new media would result in new ways of storytelling, but so far that's mostly proven false. YouTube was changed access, but not storytelling method. The choose-your-own-adventure-type webpages are exercises in patience, and interactive movies are still fun little gimmicks until you get five choices in and see why interactivity in storytelling isn't necessarily a good thing.
With Twitter, a story is condensed (form changes), delivered differently (accessibility changes), interactive without being interactive (Communication changes - readers can send replies that can be addressed or dismissed), it's everything that we've been promised.
So could this be something? Or am I just excited over nothing?