Best Ink

October 18, 2011

I just got home from work. That's right kids, no need to adjust the clocks on your computer. They are correct. I work 3pm - midnight each day as a Post Production Assistant for a new reality competition show called Best Ink. The show will air on Oxygen sometime this Winter. Unfortunately, I am unable to share many things with you guys, even the logo, because it is considered confidential as of right now.

BUT! I am able to share with you the information that is already online. The best (and most accurate) article I found about my show can be found here:
http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Oxygen-Orders-Up-Tattoo-Competition-Series-Best-Ink-34927.html
There you can read about how many artists are competing for the prize, the show's host and the set judges. So far I must say, the show is very interesting. I do recommend everyone to watch it, even if it is on a woman's station like Oxygen. This is their first show to actually have male characters. Crazy right?!

So, you are wondering..."But Ashley what do YOU do on the show and why the HECK do you work so late?!" Great question. I work 3 - midnight because I take the cuts from the Editors after they are finished and write a breakdown of what happens. Pretty much I type everything that happens in the cut so the Executive Producers at Bunim/Murray can read along while watching and send back their notes. It can take hours to type up a breakdown from scratch and update one after the Editors have made many revisions after each cut. It's great for me, because I want to be an Editor, to see the MANY changes an episode goes through in Post. I see the show from the string out (a very rough timeline of various shots, interview bites, etc to make the story) to the locked episode that the audience will see.

One day while watching the breakdown, I noticed the Editors were only using a font for the lower thirds for the show. What are lower thirds? I'm glad you asked. Let's use Project Runway for example. The blue box that shows Anya's information is placed in the lower third of the screen. (Get it?..."lower thirds") So, the Editors were just using a plain font to put the name of the contestants for our show as a temp lower third. I decided to create lower thirds for my show for fun. My Post Supervisor saw me working on them one day at work and liked them a lot. He wanted me to keep working on them so he could show the Co-Executive Producers. They liked them and agreed to use them as temp lower thirds for our show! This is huge!! I was so excited. Oxygen would see my lower thirds! Well, since then everyone has discovered that I am pretty good with Photoshop and have come to me with many, many Photoshop projects to create things for our show. Since then I have made all NEW lower thirds for our show. (I hope to show you my original ones after the show airs because I put so much work into them, and I know they will not be used). The Co-Executive producers call me into their offices quite often now to create things like, a new logo for our show, a mortise (a border used around the video), different lower thirds, a show screen shot (that would be shown for 3 seconds at the end of each episode), and other things I probably shouldn't mention because I'd give things away!

All in all, I'm pumped to have gone the extra mile to make myself stand out and be noticed by my bosses. It's amazing to be more involved in my show than a regular Post PA would be. I am done working on Best Ink on December 2nd. We'll see what happens next, and I'll keep you updated if anything else cool happens at work!

Thanks for reading. It means the world to me. =)

My New Pad

October 16, 2011

Wow, it is has been awhile since my last post. Sorry!

Since my last post I flew home for 10 days to visit family and friends. I crashed Btown for my 23rd birthday, and was able to surprise a few friends and professors. It was awesome! I miss my friends every day and think about them often.

I am proud to say that I am a resident of the North Hollywood Arts District! I moved into my apartment in NoHo on September 13th. Since then I have been trying to get settled in with frequent trips to IKEA and Target buying things for my new place. It's going to a slow process because of how insanely broke I am. Everyone knows when you move into a new place you get hit with multiple deposits, rent, and new accounts for bills. So I literally saw my bank account go from $3,000 to $112.50. Pretty terrifying.

I'm pretty happy with the location I chose in NoHo. My commute to work each day is only 5 miles and I don't even need to get on the highway. (Awesome).  I'm very close to Chase Bank, the Post Office, Ralphs (Cali version of Kroger) and Target. So it's pretty solid. I live about a 15 minute walk to The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation. It's a cool area with lots of little restaurants, a 24 hour fitness gym, a Cold Stone, and the Art Institute of North Hollywood. So the area is full of young artsy type students. It's fun.

A week after I moved in my IU friend, Mike Nelson made the roadtrip from Ft. Wayne, IN with his life and a few things of mine in a UHaul. While I went to work, Mike was able to settle into our new apartment before I even opened up my boxes. haha It was AMAZING to have him and his family bring out my bed, desk, and boxes of other things. It feels great to be able to sleep in my own bed for the first time in about 4 months. Way better than a twin size air mattress I'd say...

I'll tell you all about my first big girl job in my next blog...

See you!