From: Denny Graver <den_den_den@t...>
Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 15:46:52 +0100
Subject: Re: [OT] Gaming at work ...(Long rant with a happy ending )
> Going back to a thread of a couple of weeks ago, There were quite a few jealous rumbings about this original thread, and I don't want to annoy too many list members, but be prepared to go a very deep shade of green:) Me, I'm 41, got my first real job working for GW in the late 70's and the honour/privelege/shame to have been their first full time employee ;-). I answered the ad in the back of White Dwarf 2 or 3 and started packing their mail orders. For a teenager with imagination it was a dream job, and like it or not after 5 years of orcs, elves and goblins I parted company with GW just before they entered their M&S phase, having fallen foul of the politics which were developing at that time. I'd just started a family and took any job I could get to keep food on the table etc, and, not being that ambitious and a 'serious' gamer I pootled from job to job none of which satisfied me financially or had the sparkle that I got from GW, until I got a job at the BBC... I was an office bod at the beeb for their Drama department for a few years and I asked how I could get into TV production. They looked at each other and muttered, said I was too old.. I ignored them at got work experience on productions that were short handed and eventually I reached earned my spurs and got paid to be a runner, and progressed to a 3rd Assistant Director working on Films and Television for the BBC. I was happy as a lark:) It is a wonderful business: hard work but exciting and fulfilling if you have a creative streak. There are few jobs around where you get an adrenaline rush - Unforgiving if you cock up in any way at the wrong moment - not that there is ever a right moment to make a mistake :-) Anyhoo a series of cock-ups at one of the busiest times EastEnders had ever had produced a situation where a work-mate felt it necessary to score points off me via a series of machievellian plots and schemes which ended up in me being the target of a phone hate campaign (designed to disrupt my home life), and lets screw him over campaign which led to a very stressful last few weeks before I was ousted. I suppose you could say I was gutted - I'd worked 5 years to get the EE and was given a real working over by some seriously ambition women who I call 'The bitches of Elstree'. I pieced the actual events of my demise together over the two years since I finished there and despite my experience and my connections at the beeb, I came up against a stone wall, seemingly unemployable. After two years of treading water in their transport department waiting for my next production job, I gave up and left the BBC totally demoralised - On a day to day basis I was booking transport for Drama, yet when I rang looking for work I was told variations on a theme as to why they were no jobs available for me. I sunk into a fug, but my treatment and situation fired a spark which wouldn't go out, and began to make my own plans... I'd always wanted to work for myself, and have always wanted to work in the games industry again, having been forever changed by the years of rolling dice at GW. So, I'm setting up my own business after all this time (Roar from the throng...). I won't reveal too much about it at the moment, but it is all geared towards setting up my own production company where I can Direct and Produce SciFi/Fantasy the way I think it should be done :) I've helped to train most of the directors who you see on the credits at EE, and I know I could do the job - the plots and twists I used to throw at my player characters when I used to run Traveller (Yep, Criminals WD19 was me!) or when I was a Champions guru are still talked about with fondness and glimmer that nostalgia gives to a memory. Directing is not too far removed from being a GM:) Back to the point. One of the benefits of being your own boss is that you can have a gaming table in the conference room ready for use at any moment, should the strain of producing the next Babylon 5 prove too much... This I will have, along with the capability to produce magic. As you read this FTtheMovie _is_ in production. I'm working on a short script and working out my shots list - more as an experiment to prove myself and the people I'll employ to do the job, than to make a mint though I wouldn't mind :-] With any venture, you keep it simple, keep it cheap and keep it going. I've set wheels in motion, and providing I can back up what I say, it will happen. I've spoken to Obi-Wan Tuffley, and he is happy enough that I use his universe as a backdrop for my project on the understanding that we need to agree the fine detail when he can see evidence. In the meantime, if there is anyone who like to work in Film/TV Land in whatever capacity, and is willing to work for kudos alone initially,let me know (off list) as you may provide a missing skill from a long list of wanteds - I'll need crew, costumes, extras, props, locations, equipment etc. all of which must be bought, hired, borrowed or built. Even if you have no actual experience, but would like to get in at ground level I can probably use your help - you'll get a credit on whatever I produce and you will have experience which you can put on a CV and impress your friends with down the pub. So far I've recruited a small cadre of individual who are willing and able and motivated - and a small force applied in the right place can move mountains. Thanks for listening, Mr Zorg P.s. I also ran the MKW fleet games which have been reminisced on list recently and as I say, if I'm working for myself I'll use time management to fit in the things I enjoy like Full Thrust, and this time I'll finish what I start ;-] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VMW_FAT