Sophomore
year of NYU filmschool, students used to have a pair of classes called Sight
and Sound Film, and Sight and Sound Video.
There's probably a similar, yet altered version of it today.
These
classes were the true immersion part of film school. In the film part, students broke into teams
of 4 and each made 5 films while assisting the other 3 members on theirs. That led to 20 films in 1 semester. In the video course, you did this, plus you
worked on 3 live events while working on every other student's live
events. Needless to say, it was an
exhausting year; but it was the year you learned the most, and the basis of the
whole education.
As
my final live video project, I had decided to gather the most funny people I
knew to perform an improv session.
Seeing the show No Activity today, I realize that was sort of the
concept I was going for. I had
approached a few already who were interested, but when I got to Kerry Kenny,
who lived down the hall from me, she told me that the members of her comedy
group The New Group, were looking to
do an audition tape for MTV's upcoming show You
Wrote it, You Watch it. She asked if
we could just tape one of their sketches for that. I said sure, and adjusted the plans
accordingly.
The
video at the bottom was the result. They
sent the tape in and got the job. That
later led to their own show The State.
I contacted them as I was graduating and
asked to be a part. David Wayne, who was
in charge, at first responded, but when he found I was searching for work, he
suddenly started blowing me off. I later
learned that they didn't really have the budget for someone else; but rather
than doing the mature thing and simply telling me this, he played the childish
game of hiding from me; using the front desk as a screen, and saying he just
didn't have time.
I've
always believed in the talents of that group, all the way through Reno 911. But it was very unfortunate that neither
David nor Kerry could simply talk to me.
To be clear, I don't believe they owe me anything per se. They were accepted onto MTV due to their own
merits, not because of anything I did directing that video. But in most aspects of society there is a
certain amount of gratitude people have; to pay back to someone who helped them
get where they are in the form of at least a recommendation or something. I've always been disappointed that they
couldn't spare that basic courtesy, and to this day continue to blow me off.
What
I really should have done was make it a stipulation as part of the video, that
if they got the job, I go with them.
