Monday was my first day at work. Starting wasn’t too stressful because we had got the chance to meet with the staff, but we didn’t quite know what we would have to do for nine months.
The first interesting introduction was the FileMaker Pro software. When the person who was supposed to welcome us opened this program, I was first VERY scared: there were spaces dedicated to almost every single thing you can find about a film (director and cast of course, but also editor, music, running time, year, print source, distributor, production company or festivals!). And a database already filled with… 24 000 movies.
Then, she opened the Google Calendar, where everyone was sharing their agenda with us. It seemed like an entire page full of different colours for each hour of the day. I understood that it would take me a few days to feel comfortable with it… or a few weeks?
However, the job description got me very enthusiastic. We would get the chance to see films, grade them and make some detailed research about specific countries.
The funny part would also consists in attending meetings about the organization of events and to listen to the “green corner” speech made by a manager: how to recycle and how important turning the lights off was. I realized that almost no one in France could ever consider talking about such things in an official weekly meeting, and how great Seattle was concerning ecology. The coordinator even asked us what was our means of transportation because the city taxed companies on that (better to take the bus or to walk!).
At the end of the day, I had watched a short film about mushroom hunting, a documentary about Tanzanian kids and updated almost 60 films in the database. At least there is something I know for sure: working there will not be a waste of time and even if the sun is still shining out there (day 10 with no rain!), there is no time for me to tan.
MJ.
