Barbie Breakdown

With the holidays behind us, it's time to get back to work. For me, this means I'm back working on Barbie. You see, since moving here in November of last year, I've been employed at a studio in the East Village that's taken it upon themselves to create a 3-D animated, direct-to-video, feature length Barbie Movie. Yup, a Barbie movie. I can't tell you the title of it, or what it's about, or how it's made, or assembled, or who it's for, but you can guess millions of little girls (and maybe boys) will be clamoring for it upon release.

It's been a great first job since moving here, because it's totally allowed me to hit the ground running, so to speak. It's taken care of the rent and other numerous expenses after my move. Plus, it's a good, well-known studio to be working for. I'm hoping it will lead to many other projects.

As you can see, I've posted a few glimpses into my state of mind while on the job, recorded on various bits of paper and, of course, post-its! Even though it's been great experience to work on a project like this, there have been those days that I want to jump up from my computer and run around the office screaming and ripping my hair out. Barbie can be a BITCH folks. She's very demanding...and high maintenance...and insufferably PINK! Trust me, as a reasonably well-adjusted gay man, I have no problem with the color pink, but boy, try staring at it for ten hour days, six days a week, and see if you don't go a little nuts.

After awhile, post-its with drawings like this started appearing at my desk...
(click on it to make it larger, if you must)

Luckily for me, said project is actually reasonably cute and well-written, so it hasn't rotted away my core, but the compositing work has been grueling. Looong hours, lots of coffee, sitting at a desk, staring at a computer, in a room full of others doing the same, like drones...can test your endurance, and it can test your breaking point. Since we were all freelancers, none of us could really claim a permanent spot or desk as our own. What ensued was reams of unorganized paper, and randomly disappearing office supplies. Where's my highlighter? Where did I put that pen? As you can see from the post-it below, I started to crack.

But don't worry. The movie wraps next week, so I'll be breaking up with Barbie, and off looking for a new love to spend my days with. Hopefully, whatever it is, won't be centered around the color pink.