Why I Love My Job
Why I Love My Job #1:
My favorite character in the movie is the antagonist. She's about 40, a financial consultant who's mother is dying of cancer and wants to go out peacefully, no extraordinary measures, but the daughter, being the controlling, stick-up-her-ass person she is, as well as sad and scared about her mother's impending death, is threatening to use her power of attorney to force her mother to undergo radiation therapy. Part of the daughter's back story is that she was a talented singer, her mother gave her 15 years of lessons, had the money saved for Juilliard, and she gave it all up for finance. Through a series of events and encounters she finally accepts the inevitable and at the bang-up birthday/farewell party at her mother's house she stands at the piano and sings a song. So here I sit late at night in Winnipeg wondering: what song? There are limits. We have no budget for this. Anything from Rogers and Hammerstein would cost us not a dime less that sixty grand. West Side Story? 100K, minimum. But the studio owns a few songs and one of them is Love Is A Many Splendored Thing. And then there's Danny Boy, in the public domain. Which should it be? A sweet, sad ballad about love and farewell (Danny Boy) or a schmaltzy rollicking showtune about the glory of love? I'm downloading version after version of both songs on iTunes--Dinah Washington, Andy Williams, Judy Collins, Barry Manilow--and seeing the scene in my head and getting tears in my eyes at the thought of how wonderful both could be, the beautiful warm house packed with guests and the mother, frail, in her last hours, ecstatically happy to see her daughter in an evening gown, with bare shoulders, standing at the piano singing her heart out...
Why I Love My Job #2:
In one scene the mother vomits and goes into a seizure. Yesterday we had a whole meeting on who would handle the vomit. Props? Set dressing? Special effects? Mark Props (in production you refer to people by their first name and their job) said to Deanna Set Dressing: If it's projectile, it's me, but if it's just on the floor, it's you. Deanna Set Dressing felt otherwise. A lively discussion ensued. In the end they decided to work on the vomit together. Would it be oatmeal? Campbell's Soup? What did we think the character had been eating in the last few hours?
What could be a more wonderful way to spend a day?
My favorite character in the movie is the antagonist. She's about 40, a financial consultant who's mother is dying of cancer and wants to go out peacefully, no extraordinary measures, but the daughter, being the controlling, stick-up-her-ass person she is, as well as sad and scared about her mother's impending death, is threatening to use her power of attorney to force her mother to undergo radiation therapy. Part of the daughter's back story is that she was a talented singer, her mother gave her 15 years of lessons, had the money saved for Juilliard, and she gave it all up for finance. Through a series of events and encounters she finally accepts the inevitable and at the bang-up birthday/farewell party at her mother's house she stands at the piano and sings a song. So here I sit late at night in Winnipeg wondering: what song? There are limits. We have no budget for this. Anything from Rogers and Hammerstein would cost us not a dime less that sixty grand. West Side Story? 100K, minimum. But the studio owns a few songs and one of them is Love Is A Many Splendored Thing. And then there's Danny Boy, in the public domain. Which should it be? A sweet, sad ballad about love and farewell (Danny Boy) or a schmaltzy rollicking showtune about the glory of love? I'm downloading version after version of both songs on iTunes--Dinah Washington, Andy Williams, Judy Collins, Barry Manilow--and seeing the scene in my head and getting tears in my eyes at the thought of how wonderful both could be, the beautiful warm house packed with guests and the mother, frail, in her last hours, ecstatically happy to see her daughter in an evening gown, with bare shoulders, standing at the piano singing her heart out...
Why I Love My Job #2:
In one scene the mother vomits and goes into a seizure. Yesterday we had a whole meeting on who would handle the vomit. Props? Set dressing? Special effects? Mark Props (in production you refer to people by their first name and their job) said to Deanna Set Dressing: If it's projectile, it's me, but if it's just on the floor, it's you. Deanna Set Dressing felt otherwise. A lively discussion ensued. In the end they decided to work on the vomit together. Would it be oatmeal? Campbell's Soup? What did we think the character had been eating in the last few hours?
What could be a more wonderful way to spend a day?
posted by Tom at 8:37 PM
3 Comments:
I think that a happy, upbeat song sung with a tear running down her face would have lots of impact, especially from a control freak. No pea soup vomit please!! rofl
So, is this lady a show tune singer? Fond of the classic oldies? (not likely if she had thought of going to Juilliard)
Or just sentimental?
I'd make EVERYBODY cry ... have her sing Sometimes by The Carpenters. Let Richard produce it and I'm sure you can get it for peanuts.
It was her mother who thought of her going to Juilliard--she had no interest. And definitely sentimental. Not to mention a bit of a ham. Turns out Danny Boy isn't public domain. How can that be? Well, it is.
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