ALP Hires Passion

Last week two American film students that recently graduated from a Vancouver film school walked into the Absolute Live Productions building. They said they were looking for film industry-based warehouse jobs. I asked them the usual interview type questions on the spot, I immediately noticed the passion in their eyes.

I’ve hired many people over the years. I have hired people with extremely technical skills, years in the business, and trained in every position. The thing I have learned the most in all my many years. I can train a person to use a camera. I can train a person about TriCaster switchers, but I cannot train a person to have passion.

Passion comes from inside each individual person. I would trade a passionless highly qualified employee for someone just graduating film school who loves the fact they get the opportunity to work in this industry on any day of the week.

PASSION IS: Showing up 1 hour before call time just to ensure never being late.

PASSION IS: Working on a job until 3:00am and being excited about the next job starting at 9:00am that same day

PASSION IS: Realizing that the client is supplying craft services and they have ordered Pizza for the third time that day and not complaining.

PASSION IS: Over Under cable rolling on a arena concert and loving it.

PASSION IS: Spending every minute on Google in the down time to learn everything about everything.

PASSION IS: Volunteering for the Live Stream of Charity gigs not just because it feels great helping out a non-profit but they might learn something new.

PASSION IS: The most important part of hiring a great employee.

When I hired these two gentlemen who without a phone call just walked through the door at the right time, one stated he is a creative writer. I said great, give me 500 words on what it was like just to walk through the door and be hired on the spot in Hollywood production company. So without further ado here it is:

ABSOLUTE LIVE PRODUCTIONS
Wednesday, February 5th, 2014.
The big move to Los Angeles on May 23rd, 2011 now a distant memory.

Today feels different. There’s something in the air. Whether it be the weather or the now accustomed tune to getting an earlier start to my mornings, I can feel something.
This is the day I make a change. Why today? Why even at all? Is it just for the sake of it or is there a true reason? Don’t we all want change in our lives?

What needs changing of course depends on the individual, but for some reason I seek answers. I look for something I need personally that also correlates with the stories I want to tell. I need these stories to feel real and personal. Simultaneously, I need them to have universal truth so they can resonate on a deeper level. What is the reason for this? I don’t know, I’m still discovering that myself. But at the end of the day, what is it I need that everyone needs?

Tired of the way things are, I decide to make a change, or at least give it the old college try.

You can’t walk into a production company or equipment rental house and expect to find work. It doesn’t happen like that, right? Doesn’t matter. Because that’s what the old college try entails. Trying. Doing. All of this with the hope of achieving.
With the help of a motivated film school graduate and a half pack of Marlboro’s, I travel door to door, resume in hand, with a hope and prayer that someone might not glare at me like I’m wasting their time. That I won’t exit that door with one less resume feeling like I should really be applying to McDonald’s.

But some blind hope, a tremendous amount of luck, and a willing CEO pave the way not just for a job, but a miraculous new insight. Feeling spectacular and with one less resume in hand, I travel south down the San Fernando road. Something hits me. Hits me like a bowling bowl smashes through pins.
I’ve been living a passive life. Content and complacent with the everyday reality of Josh Minyard. Though it’s only been four days, in retrospect it seems simple. A basic idea that’s been crammed down my throat in screenwriting classes and How-to books.

But I rarely look at my life objectively. Who does? All I knew, life was stressful. And I would always find myself asking, was this good stress or bad stress?

It’s difficult to find the positive when you’re three thousand miles away from family. When they feel more distant each passing day. When your nieces and nephew grow from babies to toddlers and you’re not there to witness it. When you miss Thanksgiving and Christmas. Birthdays and births. When your dad gets diagnosed with cancer and you can’t hug him. When you finally make it home for the first time in eight months and notice your parents have aged.

What am I here for if I’m not pursuing my dream? Wasting days, hoping and praying my shot will eventually come?
Not anymore. I will no longer live a passive life. Active is at the titanium top of my vocabulary. And passive shall only be used as a reference to a previous existence. Because in the City of Angels, passive gets you absolutely nowhere. Getting hired at Absolute Live Productions not only serves as a strong momentous starting path to the remainder of 2014, it represents my change and growth that I deeply need as a human being.

Wednesday, February 5th, 2014 – Thank you. Because like my move to Los Angeles, it’s a date I won’t forget.