Pippa Wraps Up Her Internship!

My last week on internship with Smiley Guy Studios is just flying by. I’ve had the chance to help Karen with an expenses tracking document for one of the previous productions, The Nations, which I worked on throughout the week. I also got to lead the Vampire Steve / Beethoven’s Wig meeting this week - it was my first time actually getting to use the meeting notes I’ve prepared.

Vampire Steve is on hold until the end of June, because we’ve got a short deadline to meet for Beethoven’s Wig. I also got to work on some invoice approvals for a few projects.

I also spent a lot of time this week organizing hard drives with Joel G, and filing them in a google spreadsheet. I love google drive. It’s the best organizational tool I’ve ever tried. I’ve made so many spreadsheet checklists. They’re amazing.

I spent a portion of my day on the phone to hotel companies to chase up receipts that weren’t in the file for the expenses report, as well as the city of Toronto regarding parking permits for moving trucks and trailers. I also started going over the DOOD to confirm the dates on the DOOD match those on actors’ contracts.

Yesterday, I got a Toronto Public Library card. Today was my last day as a Smiley Guy intern. Tomorrow is Graduation. And next week, I’ll be back at Smiley Guy as an actual production coordinator and staying until at least the end of June.

I’ve learned so much in my time here; I’m pretty sure Smiley Guy Studios is the best possible place to intern.

And as the college chapter of my life draws to a close (accidental pun, I assure you) - I can’t wait to find out what’s next for me!

                                                             *Real Pippa is on the left, cartoon Pippa is on the right ;)

You're a Wizard Pippa...

And that’s a wrap on Epic Studios! Or at least it will be. On my part of it. As far as I know.

Monday, I worked on the deal memos for both Todd and Vampire Steve some more, as well as caught up on my long overdue blog posts. I also worked on the Vampire Steve meeting notes, but the meeting ended up being postponed to another day. I ended up spending Monday afternoon sorting and organizing the boxes of cables outside of the lunch room for Karen. It took me a few hours, and my hands were filthy from all the dust on the cords by the end of it, but I managed to get everything organized before the day was done.

Tuesday took me back to the set, where we were at our final location for Epic Studios. I was on lock-up most of the time. I learned a lot on set, and I think I can safely say I’m a great deal more partial to the animation pipeline. I like to be busy, to be moving and working, and there’s a little too much hurry up and wait on set. It was a positive experience though, and the lessons I learned on the set will carry over into other aspects of my career.

Maybe the next time I’m on the set can be for something I wrote or developed. That’s one of my goals for the future, anyway.

Today, I revised and updated the notes for Vampire Steve, but the meeting was postponed once again. Hopefully we’ll be able to have that on Monday. I also got to work on some contract stuff for Karen, dealing with both ACTRA contracts and bank agreements. It’s amazing to see how much legal paperwork is actually needed for something even as short as a web series.

I’m really excited for next week, because I’ll actually be around for the weekly development meeting. And sometime during the week, I’m finally going to get a library card. Also my internship is done on Thursday and I have no idea where life is going to take me next.

Hopefully the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. At some point in the future, anyway.

Pippa on Set!

May 9*

So Epic Studios begins shooting this week, so for the next three weeks, Mondays will be my only day at Smiley Guy Studios. Today was hectic. Script revisions were the highest of high priority, because the assistant directors needed them for finalizing the schedules. I also got to help Karen with setting up ACTRA contracts for the cast of Epic Studios.

Tuesday to Saturday, I was on the set of Epic Studios. It was a huge learning curve for me. I’ve been on the set of student productions before, but in comparison to how things work on an actual set, we were just play-acting. Throughout my time at Loyalist, I always focused on the pre-production side of things: writer, casting director, producer. I haven’t really done as much crew work as most of my classmates - aside from directing, I’ve hardly been on set for anything other than a production manager, so I felt fairly lost.

I do the daily sides on-set, which is kind of a hassle to do without a laptop. A new laptop is pretty close to the top of my list of things to buy that would make my life infinitely easier. I also work on keeping the craft table stocked up, and making sure that people on set are fed and watered. I really like the set food - it’s my favourite part of the day. I also took care of the ACTRA sign-in sheet and contracts for actors.