I don't think I've had to put together a resume in the last seven years. The last time was when I first arrived in Los Angeles and was looking for work, any kind of work. About once a year I'm asked for a camera resume and I give them a list of credits without embellishment and that's that. But the act of trying to sell yourself by documenting your achievements in one or two pages--it's been a while since I've had to do this.
Over the last few weeks I've been building a website for my documentary. This is the first time I've tried to build webpages and it's been kind of annoying. There is a learning curve and for some reason I'm feeling a little slow in the head and it's taking me longer to figure out technical stuff than the average human.
But the act of resume building is proving to be even more daunting. It's simultanously demoralizing and invigorating.
Here are the Nine Stages of Resume Building
1. Feeling like total shit. I mean, an absolute loser. If there was ever any doubt about your total lack of credentials, put them down on paper. Yikes. Boy are you unqualified.
2. Procrastination. Procrasto-bowling. Procrasto-blogging. Procrasto-lounging.
3. Knowing at the last minute that you have to crank out something after all and realizing that no one is going to take your self-deprecating sense of humor as an asset.
4. Framing your work and life experience in a positive way instead of a negative way, which makes you feel like an Absolute Fraud. You are not stretching the truth here, but you are stretching the essence of the truth, which is even worse. The details of the resume are accurate but it feels like white lies and half-truths and it suggests that you are Much More Than The Loser That You Really Are.
5. Realizing that you actually have accomplished quite a bit in your life and that your resume is, in fact, impressive. You are impressive. You are an unstoppable force in the universe. Your posture gets better and your teeth get whiter and you answer all of your phone calls, even the ones that say "restricted" and "unknown."
6. Submitting the resume (you) to the ideal people.
7. Submitting the resume (you) to second-tier entities.
8. Submitting the resume (you) scattershot...to anyone who'll listen.
9. Experience the hubris-puncturing realization that you are unhirable. Breathe. Go directly back to number one.
Forunately I'm at Stage 5 in the process so things are still looking up. There is still the illusion of a bright future, hey! Tally-ho!
Anyway, I encourage everyone to visit the site and check it out. I don't really know what I'm doing in html land so if anyone has any advice or pointers please send them my way.
In the end the whole thing is an ad for myself...probably more than it is an ad for my movie even. Me me me. If you get tired of it you can always go somewhere else for a while. But please tell me. I don't want to be the guy at the party who goes on and on and on while the girl is thinking about organic shampoo and those cool black Diesel pumps she saw at the Grove.
I wanted to accomplish two things with the website:
1. Sell the idea of FUN
2. Sell the idea of PROFESSIONAL
That is all.
Here is the link to a test version of wayofthepuck.com
When you go to the site there'll be a puck and a mallet against a white background. Fish around in the top left corner of the page for a secret button. When your pointer turns into a hand, click and you'll go to the homepage.
I'm interested in how things work for you PC users. If stuff looks janky in your browser or if the movie files don't work or if you notice busted links or typos please let me know. I'm trying to figure out how to compress the movie files better so that they are a lot smaller but don't look awful and pixelated.
Thanks for listening and thanks, as always, for the help.
The Management
6 comments:
Of course, I also want to see the resume. BUT the website looks great. And this is from a PC user. The high point is the tricky way to get into the website. The trailers look great. The only thing I didn't check was the Press Kit because, well, pdf files drive me crazy.
Hope that helps. I hope to sneak in again at a later date.
The site looks good on my PowerBook, but of course that doesn't answer the PC question. You've done a fine job of creating a non-Flash site that looks Flash. The PDF looks quite good too.
Excellent site. You can add "Webmaster" to your resume. I like the splash page, but also find it annoying. What if I didn't know where the secret button was? I'd say "Damn the puck!" But once I was in, ho baby! It's so good. Will you design my site? Don't tell Middlebrow!
I should note that the splash page (puck and mallet) is there just as a placeholder image while the site is under construction. Once I'm finished it'll open where it should.
I was thinking about movie site design as a genre. I find it fascinating how a common media can so influence the "design" (or I believe the genre) of a web site.
What I find interesting is that the content of the site can actually affect the moviegoing experience in a positive way...like Blair Witch did. It probably won't work out this way, but there is more info about the characters on the website than there is in the actual movie. So it feels like cheating a little. People might walk into the movie with a little backstory on these characters, which might actually increase their ability to symphathize them watching the film.
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