I arrive at work to find our voice mail box jammed to capacity with messages from a fire-breathing, freaked-out producer. One of the things I was in charge of having on set today --a specific PC video game--was not there. Well it was, but it was the wrong one (I had purchased the “extreme” version which made all legal permissions go flying out the fucking window). In the world of film coordination this is a BIG mistake; job-ending stuff. The scene they needed it for was being pre-lit and I had about an hour and a half to get the right game to the set. In Jersey.
The Problem? The game is out of circulation. No longer distributed on this or any other planet according to the manufacturer. It took three days of phone calls and internet research to find the ‘extreme’ version in the first place. So with about an hour to go I had no other recourse than to creep around video-geek newsgroups and gaming clubs, and hope that a peer out there in cyber land owns an old version they would be willing to let me ‘borrow’ from their hard drive.
So yeah, I found it, downloaded it from a guy at a gaming site. Sure, I had to chat him up and promise I’d be back later to play a little D&D-style role-playing. (Newsflash Dungeon Master Dave… I’m not showing up. But I do feel bad about it though. You did save my ass after all, not to mention give me that groovy fantasy chick name and all those tricky super-powers; one of which, I might add, was the ability to sense the raging hard-on you were sporting you freak monkey).
But saving the day doesn’t get you any props when it was you who might have ruined the day. No one is going to comment on how I was given an impossible task at the eleventh hour and pulled a solution out of my ass after no one else could. No one is going to give me my due for being the Can-Do Queen of All Time. When the discs show up no one is going to gaze down on them and nearly faint with disbelief; or stand dumbfounded in awe of my mad, mad skills.
I guess what I’m saying here is although I realize I didn’t solve world hunger or anything I made the impossible happen, and I feel pretty good about myself right now. Is it too much to ask to want a simple freakin atta-girl?
Atta-girl’s can be sent to:
Antigeist[at]earthlink[dot]com