I figure that I've been a part of the Entertainment Practice ("EP") for so long now – my 3-year NMS-iversary is coming up in April – that the best way to introduce our group and the work we do is just to talk about myself. Which is my natural fight or flight response to being nervous (this is my official blogging debut after all!), so that really works out well for me. Here’s hoping I don’t completely humiliate myself. Anyway. In my long and occasionally illustrious time here, I’ve been an Online Analyst, a Senior OA, a Project Manager and now a Senior PM. WHEW. And in all that time, I’m pretty sure I’ve worked on every type of campaign we do, and certainly most of the big ones. I must have picked up something like wisdom from all of that, right? At the very least, I can talk about it a lot!
Everything I Need to Know I Learned by Watching Soaps – I’ve worked on the Daytime team for nearly my entire time at this company, so I’m more than a little bit partial to it. (It’s my total favorite, but don’t tell. I don’t like to be openly biased about my “children,” so to speak. But…it is.) It’s also the one I get asked about the most – everyone apparently secretly wants to watch soap operas at work. Who knew? Stop judging – It’s harder than it looks! Keeping up with who’s cheating or married or lying or dating or plotting to kill someone often requires instructional diagrams. And I’ll just put it out there – I get to write the most entertaining reports in this whole practice. I’ll go toe to toe with anyone for that. You’ve got shipper fanfiction. Okay. I’ve got…oh, let’s see – baby swapping, amnesia, multiple personalities, murder, face transplants, ghosts, gang wars, murder, kidnapping, crazy children trying to kill their step parents, fake death, actual death, heaven, hell and billions of love stories – including, but in no way limited to, people in love with their friends, their enemies, people too young for them, people too old for them, people who are already married, people who are amnesiac, people who are imaginary, people who have tried to kill them, people who are crazy, and people who are manifestations of brain tumors. (See, Grey’s, soaps did it first!). And that’s not even counting the spoiler discussion, casting gossip or other….miscellaneous gems. Best part of my day, hands down.
Arrrgh!, Or, I Underestimate the Internets – When I first started working at NMS, I thought I was an internet expert. I mean, I was on it all the time, I’d seen forums and blogs and had a length of favorite bookmarks a mile long. Man I was SO DUMB. I knew NOTHING. I had not even SEEN the real internet. The part that’s crazy. Or, to put it more kindly, the part that’s “more dedicated to their fannish interest of choice than I am.” Not that I don’t get into my shows (see above). But I have nothing on this stuff. NO-THING. One of the first long-term campaigns I was staffed on was for a movie called Pirates of the Carribean 3. You may have heard of it – think it did fairly well at the box office. J It took over my life. Serious style. I dreamed about it. Everyday, I spent literally HOURS - not only reading the latest news and box office predictions... I found spoilers (I probably could have quoted you half the script by the time it came out). I learned a lot about fanfiction and fanart and fanwars – Sparrabethers and Willabethers and Norribethers, oh my! (I was a Willabether, by the end, if you were curious.) And I can’t even talk about all the really insane yet oddly awesome fan music videos. I wish I could find the one about Jack Sparrow that’s set to “Drop It Like Its Hot.” After that, when the whole Twilight phenomenon took off, with its myriad of um….extreme levels of fannishness, it was like…same thing, different day. Come hard or go home.
And They Say Television Doesn't Teach Us Anything – I actually blame the EP for my addiction to TV. I mean, I have to watch so much of it for work, right? It’s part of my job. I have no choice! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. But, because of that, I’ve had the chance to work on projects for some of my most favorite shows and gotten pretty (a lot) obsessed with some great new ones at the same time. As you may imagine, my DVR is….somewhat overstuffed. I wonder if they make one now that holds more than forty hours? (Probably? I can’t be the only one with this problem.) This is all not even counting the truckload of shows that I’ve ended up watching thanks to….let’s just say, strong enouragement, from my fellow EP-ers. Some of that coercion I am grateful for – I never would have watched The Wire otherwise – and some of it…..less so. (Quite frankly, I still blame Moira for losing entire summers to the addiction that is Big Brother.) I’ve made TV my own little personal NMS niche, and I think I’ve worked on stuff for nearly every network and in nearly every kind of genre. Do what you love, right? I’m watching it anyway.