By Chloe Bohne · April 26, 2010
After successfully figuring out how the hell I was contributing to the whole commercial making process, I began to wonder what the heck does Doug do? On an average day he is either taking orders from directors or producers or he is sitting in front of the computer with this stressed out look on his face that says, “I fuckin’ hate my life!” This day was no different.
Time was of the essence, so I submitted my photos of Cocker Spaniels and asked him if he needed any help before I left. With a look of desperation he says, “That would be great. Can you proof-read this for me?”
Proof-read? Oh, you’re writing something! It all makes sense now; I have seen that look of anxiety before. It’s the look that is pasted on my face during tenth week—for those of you unfamiliar with the quarter system, this is the week before finals when all of your papers are due, and you have to catch up on all the reading you didn’t do during the quarter—thus, a look of inescapable distress. This is why Doug is always ignoring me when I am asking a question, or cursing under his breath: writing on a tyrant’s schedule has gotta be fuckin’ torture. Jesus! I had no idea. Well, honestly, I never really gave it much thought.
I proofread a TREATMENT: a power-point presentation equipped with Doug’s words and on occasion, one of the hundreds of pictures that I find. It’s basically a short synopsis of where the director wants to go with the commercial accompanied by several pictures; it like a storyboard, but prettier and well-written. After learning this, I can’t believe that Doug manages to write in this atmosphere. I can’t stand writing in a loud environment, let alone writing with Missy breathing over my shoulder the whole time! I thought I had it bad.
Now that I figure out what he does, I want to ask a million questions, how much do you get paid for this…can I do this one day…can you teach me how to do it? But time is too precious; I’ll have to investigate this at another time. For now, I am helping Doug perfectly place a picture of a Cocker Spaniel in the treatment.
