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.

Callie, the Human Popsicle

It is shorts season which is fabulous but the air conditioning in the studio is infinitely better than in my school, meaning that I turn into a Callie Popsicle after an hour. Next time I will bring a sweater. Slash I will only need to bring a sweater twice because oh my god, next week is my last week at Smiley Guy. That’s insanity, I cant believe it. On Tuesday of this week Joel was busy so I couldn’t go downstairs to work on special effects with him and instead I worked on prop builds again for Vampire Steve. That was pretty cool because it was like a memory test on all the stuff I learned earlier in the year about Flash. Turns out I actually remember how to use it. Yay!! So I built a cellphone, a clip board and a pen.

Today, Thursday, Joel was busy again (some looming deadline), so I sat at my desk and drew a lot. That was a nice treat actually. I am just not sure if I will end up adding special effects because I do not have Joel to help and also the computer I was working on was removed because it was needed for a new project. If I don’t get to add special effects, I will be a little disappointed because I saw how cool they could make something, but I will also be okay. See you next week! :)

Free Candy from Pippa

May 16*

This week, I did some work on the deal memos for Todd and the Book of Pure Evil and Vampire Steve. Turns out there are different deal memo templates for employees and contractors.

I’ve also been updating the Vampire Steve database now that the scripts for episodes 4 and 5 have been finalized. I updated the breakdowns for those episodes, and assigned them in the database. I’ve also been working on keeping the weekly meeting notes for Vampire Steve up to date.

Tuesday to Saturday, I was back on set. I did a lot of lock down this week, which means it was my job to make sure nobody walks through the doors and onto set while filming is going on. A lot of crew has to keep working to prep the next scene while the current scene is being shot, so it’s important to make sure they know when they have to hold the work and be quiet so nobody ruins the shots with polluted audio.

I’m no longer in the on-set production office as much. I’ve become more of an on-set PA, which usually gives me the job of distributing substantial snacks ‘subs’ on set in the morning and candy and treats after lunch - so everyone is usually pretty happy to see me!