So I got let go from Sony Imageworks a month ago, which is why I haven't been online much lately. They just didn't have much going on there at all, no projects in house, and none that would be getting into production until June or July of next year. It went about as nice as it could have though, I knew about a month ahead of time, and they gave me a complete list of pretty much all of the contact info for just about every HR person in the business, so that was nice. They also told me that they'd be ramping up again come June/July, and to check back with them then. I had initially been looking at a few companies really close to me, over in Santa Monica and Venice, which were all close to home. I also went ahead and dropped off a portfolio with Walt Disney Feature Animation, but I wasn't very serious about it, as I grumbled to myself, "It's such a commute, and it's even EAST of the 405, pshawwww!" However, as soon as I walked in the building to drop it all off, I saw all of the classic and GORGEOUS drawings from Snow White and the 7 Dwarves, Cinderella and other films, I couldn't help but get incredibly giddy about it all, and by the time I was walking out, I was saying to myself, "What a cool place to work, and it's such a happy environment!" Heh, just visiting the place had me pretty much changing my mind.

Sure enough, less than 3 hours after dropping off my material, I got an email and a call about setting up an interview as soon as the next day. I had spent the entire previous week getting my demo reel updated and all of that stuff. It actually came out really nicely, and it's work I'm quite proud of. I liked it a lot. :) I spent a good amount of time editting my Chronicles of Narnia and Spider-man 3 footage together and setting it to some mellow music, which I like the most. Anyways, I went in for my interview two days later, and I don't think that they could have asked for someone with a better background for the task at hand. I had the exact experience they would've wanted, and we talked a bit about what I did and how it was done on some of my previous movies, then they showed me all of the concept art, character designs and all of that neat stuff. They've had a lot of cooperation with Pixar since their partnership, and John Lassetter comes down once a week on Tuesdays to attend dailies even. So I'm stoked about the project and what I'll get to do on it. I should get some good demo reel material out of it too, which is nice since my last job on Beowulf, and on Monster House also, were more technical fixes and small crap like that, which aren't really reel material. Also, the job would last until July of 2008, with a possibility of being kept on for longer, depending on how they like me and how many projects and such that they have going on. The July 2008 end date lines up with the time that Sony would be hiring again anyways though, so that also would work out good, I was thinking.

It was funny too, when I showed up for my interview, it turned out that an old classmate of mine from college that I graduated with, was the person to come down and meet me and take me up to my interview. Hahaha, I was really shocked, and had one of those moments where I had all of this generic "Hi, how ya doin, nice to meet you" small talk that I had planned out and whatever, but then it turns out to be an old friend of mine, and so all that planning is kinda shot, lol. I just commented on what a small world it was and we went on our way. When I looked up at him when he first came in to meet me, the first thing I noticed were his shoes. The same black and white zoot suit/ska kind of ones that he had had back in college. I wanted to say, "Jesus Christ, you're working for Disney now, get some new shoes, hahaha!" They had an uber cool game room, with a pool table, ping pong, pin ball, video games and more that I was dorkin out on too! I wanted so badly to just say screw the interview, let's play pool instead!

So any how, the interview went great. I got a call the next morning from the HR person I had been talking to. She said the guys loved me, and when she asked one of them for feedback, he just wrote her, "He's great, hire him!" Hahaha, she's all, that's nice and all, Mark, but I need a bit more info than that. So anyways, they liked me, and she made me an offer that happens to be a $9.25 raise/hr over what I was making at Imageworks, so it took all the reservation I had not to shout out, "Fuck yeah I'll take it!" Lol. So anyways, Monday is my first day and I'm getting pretty excited about it all. Oh, and it even turns out that the commute won't be as bad as I thought. Ah! And I get free park passes, woo hooo!