Work Ethic
posted by Jen at 2:37 PM
After I watched the ROTK Easter Egg last night, I watched some of the bonus material. There was a sequence about the post-production work on the movie. They didn’t finish the movie until about 2 days before the world premier. Everybody was working 24-7 (almost literally) to finish the movie on time. The DVD did a really good job of conveying how insane and stressful it was.
This caused me to reflect a bit on my own work. I work for the US Manned Space program, which I hope most people would agree is more important in the grand scheme of things than the movie industry. I’ve worked over 60 hours in one week twice. I put in 50 hours a couple more times. That’s about it. I don’t think I like my job any less than what the people in the DVD do, but I have no desire to emulate them in this. It kind of scares me a bit - what if I go into private industry some day. Am I going to have to turn into a workaholic to be able to have a desirable job? What would I do if such a thing was requested of me? Honestly, if it’s a few weeks or a month to try to figure out how to bring a stranded shuttle crew back home alive, I’ll pull out all the stops. But, I’m not sure I would sacrifice my health, family, and sanity for a movie. Even one I love as much as ROTK.
And I just kept thinking the whole time: why don’t they hire more people? It’s not like the movie was in danger of ending up in the red.
1 Comments:
I think our job is the exception, rather than the rule, for young professionals. Yes, they probably should hire more people, but with an average of 6 - 12 months to get someone trained to a "functional" level, they probably didn't have time at the end of their production.
My ideal job would be something very intese, where you work lots of crazy weeks and then have lots of downtime where you can just go on vacation. As long as during that crazy time I was doing something productive and contributing. I would be happy to trade a month of 60-80 hour works for a month more of vacation. (I know this is not the way it usually works, but I bet the ROTK people are kind of like gypsies and can take several months before signing on with another movie). If I had a family, I might feel differently, and want a more "level" work schedule.
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