Another day...

Somedays are magic.... yesterday .... and then somedays, the guy doesn't call, scarves are forever lost and the workload is intense, and you work from 10am - 10pm..... today. But another day in London is always good just because I am here. And the day was totally enhanced by listening to HSM 3 on my ipod on the tube to and from work  - and everywhere in between. I know every word - I downloaded it 24 hours ago..... sad but proud all at the same time :). 

        Today at the office, still suffering form the credit crunch, I was busy with a lot of administrative stuff. The good thing about it not being overwhelming busy is that it gives us time to tidy up the office, get things organized and of course – finishing editing all the CV’s for continuity, which is what I did for most of the day. In addition to the editing, filing, cleaning dishes and running errands to pick up ink and lunch for Robert, I made some important phone calls.

        The first call was to Fiona Weir’s office – the casting director for Harry Potter. I spoke with Ruth who has a reputation for being very rude, and she informed me that casting was not happening until summer 2009 for children. She was quick to get off the phone, but I followed up with an email to invite her to come to the adult youth workshop. Rob said she is yet to respond to their many attempts to get her in to see the kids, but hopefully this attempt will have some impact. Persistence is key in the business – you have to keep pushing and working hard if you want to get things done.

        I also called some clients to inform them of castings and certain changes. In between the phone calls and the odd jobs, and of course editing the CV’s, I also looked for commercial scenarios and prepared the scripts for the workshop tonight. It is always a lot of preparation to get everything organized for the class, and then after a long workday, to go teach the children with patience. But it is a great challenge and they have really been progressing. We had another boy client drop out of the agency because of commitment issues, and we have been seeing that a lot.

It is a very difficult balance with the children because they are our clients and they bring in money if they book jobs. So of course, we want them to work hard and improve and it is very frustrating when they are not putting the effort in – slacking off or just being kids who are not driven or goal-oriented. But we cannot really punish them, because then they could just drop the agency, and we lose out tremendously in the case of our talented clients. It is a very delicate relationship – as most are in this business. For instance, if you are friends with people you work with, you really have to bite your tongue if there are personal issues because if they hold a position of power, they can easily and childishly keep the casting directors they work for from seeing your clients.

The workshop this evening was such a blast though, I have to admit there is something about being with kids (when they are good) that totally grounds me and makes me happy. I love the workshop because I get to be in my element with kids and we just laugh the whole time. And they love HSM and we gush about it together, which is so fun! I really love it. Robert is great at making the class laid back. Today we did accents and I helped them with their American accent and they helped me with my pathetic British accent.... ugh, I am helpLESS!!! I ended up sounding Australian or just a stuttering mess. The older class got new scripts from a playbook we ordered last week. The excerpts come from a story about two young gay boys who are in love and in hiding. It will be a great challenge for the students to work through and in two weeks they are to have it memorized, so I am excited to see how they work with a challenging situation. Some of them are ridiculously talented - I am super jealous of how good they are - and yet they look up to me as someone to advise them, which is really special.  

Other than that, it was a decent day, and I have to remind myself that simply another day here is one day closer to leaving this all behind, so right now I am trying to soak it all in, and make even the average days count. I think we should probably live every day like that, which is easier said than done. But come the end of the day - be it a good or bad one - coming home to friends and family who can jam out with you to HSM, or simply smile or give you a hug makes it all worth it, don't you think?

Love and hugs,

Jenny