mind change-movie career stuff

So, yes I did the "Amber" thing. I changed my mind on extending.

Marek, by current Senior told me to think about it and get back to him. i thought about it for about three days. I talked to my roommate, other photogs, and crew, my mom and sister.

My first thought was well... 3 and half months means I'll have to get a job, or go on unemployment or something. i need a job basically, some kind of financial backing for those three months. so I was thinking well extending will help the finances.

Than I'm thinking about ship life....oy! I dont really care for it. I'm thinking about home, and just how being on land is awesome. I'm thinking about how I need some other experience other than videography on a cruise ship. I wont be doing this for the rest of my life. so I'm thinking... ok use the three months at home wisely. Dont extend and waste a month on the ship. its not worth it.

I am planning on applying to this Assistant Director's program LA or NY. i had planned on that since this October. I know i told craig about it. That was my plan from the start. 2012 would be when I start that program. 2011 is when i apply and go through this uber long process.

I think what I let happen is let ship life/this job change my course a bit. Yes, I want to travel. yes I want to live in other countries, but I need to be prepared before I start jumping all over the world. If I successfully get through this program I'll be in the director's guild. ( i mena if i dont get into the program I still have stuff to fall back on) which I can use it to my advantage and it'll get me a heads up on getting jobs almost anywhere. So I can use that to get a start in the UK, or in South Africa, or where ever, if i wanted. I wanna move to these places, I'm like well Amber you need a job and all that while there. right now I feel like I don't fair well among others in my profession just yet.

But for the time being I am going home May 29th finishing my short film FINALLY! and than doing another short with my friend jeff. He wrote this cool marriage one. not one you would think it is either.lol. but than I am helping on this documentary.

As long as I am doing something in film I am happy. I feel like it will help me in the long run. :-)

Yes, the Videography on board will help with my demo, but I want to learn and be more efficient in behind the scenes... producing/AD basically the admin stuff not the creative end. I do like being creative, but I do very much like the putting the film together. Making it happen, not just making the creative calls. Videography doesnt give me that. it gives me the creative outlet for sure..depending on what I shoot.

I tell you for sure My editing got way faster. my camera work is better. although i do have my lazy days. but who doesn't ya know.


My plan is still to work in film, this cruise ship era wont last forever, but it will help me to be where I want. :-)


hopefully.




Jen, I promise I will use a whole 60 minutes calling you next time.

**bitches and ho's**

:-p

My next contract

I finally found out my next ship. ☺

I am joining the Diamond Princess Sept 11th. This ship goes to Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. ☺

I am super excited to go back to Australia, and to finally see some of New Zealand. Asia is seriously going to blow my mind I know it. I can’t believe I got this ship.

If I get promoted to Senior, than this wont be the ship I’m on. It’s a grand class ship, which means it has a senior and junior. This is the ship that my senior now came from, and my last senior is going to. So, I get to work with Stephen again. We know how each of us works so it will be good. Jo put in a request to go to the diamond. It’s gonna be a great contract. ☺ Two of my casino friends are going to the diamond as well!! Not Alan, but Robert and Jo. It’ll be great to see familiar faces.

Joining on that date gives me a three and a half month break!! Crazy. So my options are to extend a few more weeks while we are in Alaska. I was talking to the fam and my mom would think it’s a good idea, since I would like to see more or just two weeks of Alaska. I have the option to extend because there isn’t anymore in rotation after me yet. This is a hard decision for me simply because yes, I wanna go home and chill out, but I don’t get paid vaca. Lol. So I have to find a job while home, or go on unemployment. I can go on unemployment…but I wont get much money, and I might get bored. Flip side…I may just wanna chill, but not for three and half months. Lol so I think extending a few weeks will help financially.

I’m gonna tell my senior tomorrow. I’ve been thinking about it hard core.

I mean there are so many things I’d like to get away from ya know.

Oy! Oh well I’m excited about my next contract. ☺

But …if I make senior which my senir tells me is a big possibility I will be trans-shipped and than who know where I’ll be going. Or what else could happen is they can call me when I am on my holiday and say hey we need you here on this day. Which I guess happens often. So who knows. I mean as long as I get to go home for a bit and spend time with friends and fam, and do regular land stuff, and get to go to my friends wedding in July I’ll be happy. ☺

Maui Snorkel Cruise

Since my last senior left, and this senior couldn’t off the ship until he does immigration (a very lame process if you read that post) I was stuck doing the snorkeling this cruise. ☹

I know what people are thinking…Why is she frowning, snorkeling is cool? Yeah I agree it is. I do enjoy it.

Its just …lame. Lol so much camera equipment is needed. And that isn’t what bothers me.

With this specific tour it involves this really long ride to this crater. I don’t do well on small boats whatsoever. I get really bad sea sickness. The sea was really rough as well on the day I went.

Plus I’m just not as skilled at underwater shooting like Stephen was when he was here. So I don’t like how I know people will compare our work. Stephen did it every two weeks. It’s his passion for sure. Me, I like the hiking, adventure, and historic tours. Snorkeling… it’s okay but it’s not at the top of my list.

This tour started off great. Nice day!! As you can see in the pics. There was a long ride to the crater where we stop to snorkel. Saw some whales on the way there. I took this opportunity to take pics of whales this time around, cause as much whale watching I’ve had to do while taking video I never took stills. I only took a few. Not so good, but what can ya do. Lol

The snorkel spot, was okay. I liked snorkeling in Kaua’I better though. Stephen said Maui snorkeling was way better. Needless to say I didn’t think it was.

I guess this affects my opinion…the sea was so rough people only went snorkeling for about a half hour. All time was spent on the boat. We were supposed to stop at another place to see turtles. Well we didn’t. ☹ boo. I bet had I saw them turtles I would be like holy shit this was the best tour ever. But… that’s not what happened. Lol

So we head back, and I swear I was seriously in body shut down mode. When I get sea sick, my body just shuts down, and wants to pass out. But I put my ipod on and just used my camera as a head prop and my sea sickness went away. ☺ so, than I enjoyed the rest of the boat ride back to the harbor.

We got back into Lahaina at 2pm, and I got my haircut. Which always makes me happy. ☺ But than I had to get the tender back to the ship and on the tender I saw this massive rainbow. There is always one over Maui, there are very few cruises where there isn’t somewhat of a rainbow over Maui. This one though was like really thick! It was huge. Amazing.

Kilauea Volcano Hiking

For this cruise I visited the Kilauea Volcano National Park once again.

Mind you I didn’t have this tour down for one of my choices, simply because I already visited this place last cruise. It was a bit different, don’t get me wrong I like how I get to do all this stuff, but the shore-ex manager likes to give me whatever tour she wants-repeats or not. Sooooo…..boo.

I visited the caldera again. I mean I do enjoy seeing it. We than went to the lava lake, hiked to the Lava tube I went to last cruise. Hiked down into the lava lake bed/crater and back out to hike on the outer rim of the crater.

This hike was intense. I am fairly fit, I like to think I can take some strenuous activity. This hike was about 5 miles long.

I experienced all weather besides snow on this hike.

It went from really cold, to rainy, to extremely windy, to extremely hot, humid, then to extremely, hot, humid, and sunny. Lol Yes, I did get some color. Lol

This tour was pretty cool. Small group of people. I do enjoy hiking, but this one was a bit tough. I had all the regular camera equipment. I was fine 3 miles in. by mile 4 I was like…. Okay we are really far from where started….I started to doubt my strength for sure. I was still doing my job. I got some pretty cool shots. By the last mile I was approaching my limit. I started to fidget with the camera more and more often.

Than there were these dam stairs….I HATE stairs, but we were pretty much done by this point.

I got back to the ship and was sooooo tired! I totally napped it off, and was totally fine. Woke up and exercised later that night. The only reason I worked out after was because I wanted to work out some of the soreness I started to get, and to up my fitness a bit, cause I don’t want to be caught at my limit on tour again!!

Some of the stuff I got to see was surreal to be honest. I was hiking on a lava lake. Seriously? Lol. All the different rocks were really cool to see. Also the hot steam that was coming up from these holes in the ground was crazy.

It sucks I couldn’t see any Lava. But as far as I was told, the lava is flowing, it’s actually in tubes and stuff which are taking it to private land. There isn’t any lava flow within the park. They said its not flowing into the ocean currently. I may not be able to see lava while I am here. We were trying to get me on a helicopter tour, but again the shore ex manager….lameness.

This tour was my hardest one. Very cool though.


My edit of the tour was pretty freaking awesome too. Better than I thought I would have done. ☺

A fresh start?

I got a new senior Videographer. All is well so far. I feel like I can talk to him comfortably about our profession, and our work. I guess that sounds weird, cause he’s my boss…it should be a given. I guess what I mean by that is at first I think he didn’t know how to talk to me, but we connected on the fact that 1. He is from Slovakia, and I’m from buffalo. The connection being hockey. Slovakian players for the sabers. Our first chat was about hockey. ☺

He asked me how I liked it, cause I guess keeping American Videographers is becoming fairly difficult. They hire them, but they don’t stay, they usually quit after their contract. It’s usually the ship-life that makes them quit, not the job itself. He looked relieved to see that I do Love this job, I tolerate ship-life as stated in previous postings.

He gives a more serous vibe to my job, which I do like. I’m not going to lie. He lets me know about head office stuff, quotas, and all of that stuff. Stuff I never got to know when Stephen was my senior. (No senior was better than the other- they just have different methods, and ways of working.) He gave me some insight to what is actually expected. I feel like I have more expectations for the work I am to produce. Which I like as well. I really feel like my work matters now. He also looks at my work, which I would prefer. Knowing someone is checking my footage keeps me on my toes while I am on tour.

He’s been a senior for about 7 years. I really think I will learn a lot from him.

This leads me to My old Senior leaving. I give him a bunch of thanks. He showed me the ropes. He became my friend. We had some weird and heated moments. He made a point to get to know me personally. I’m gonna miss him for sure. We connected on a creative level. We shared a passion for movies and the art we work in. ☺

He’s going to the Diamond - it has an awesome itinerary! I am jealous. I can only hope for something so cool.

The night before he left we talked about the rest of my contract. I guess he was giving me a warning about what to expect. I was advised to step up my game….pretty much to the max, to make sure I get promoted. Marek, my new senior thinks that there is a pretty good chance I’ll be a senior by my next contract. Stephan doesn’t think so. I’ll get promoted to Video two. Which is okay with me.

How do I feel ….or where do I stand on the promotion issue? Well, I am not good with any type of authority…unless I respect you and how you work. I’m all for being my own boss…I mean still have higher up bosses, but I wont’ be the smallest on the chain. I actually would have some type of managerial say in things. As far as being a senior, well I feel like I have more to learn to be honest. I don’t feel like I am ready just yet for senior. Maybe one more contract than I’ll be ready. But I was told I progressed really fast. ☺

Wish me a good rest of my contract. ☺

You will be missed Stephan. My first 2 thirds of my contract were....EPIC with this dude. :-)

Unexpected Sea day

.

I woke early today, went to work out….actually before my tour started. I for sure needed to after such an indulged day in Honolulu. I worked out, showered, and while all this was happening, I’m thinking, don’t we port at 8am, or something like that. So, I thought I was just tripping out and maybe it was 9am, cause my tour started at 10am.

Than I’m pretty much ready, I was talking to Jo, and was like “I don’t think we’re docked yet, I wonder whats going on.” So than I hear over the tv that we have an unexpected day at sea.

What!

So I guess the Port master in Nawiliwili wouldn’t let us dock for some reason or another. So no work again for me. I guess I am okay with this not much work this cruise. Usually the lack of work bothers me, but I’m just chilling out. ☺ I mean I would like to be on land for sure, but I’m just chilling out and okay with it.

This cruise has been way off my routine cruise…started with Alan leaving, a bad turn around visit, Stephan leaving, and a few other friends as well in Honolulu, and than a new boss to adjust too, and even less work to do… all seem to be negative things, but I’m okay. Better than normal. Its quite … weird.

Hmmmm?


☺

Secret Valley

When I was in Lahaina I got to go on a tour that takes us to the northern point of the Maui Island to this valley that pretty much is isolated… trying to find a better word for that. Its hard to get to, and its self sustained. What I mean by that is if imports couldn’t gt to the island this valley village would be able to survive. They grow a lot of their own stuff. It’s a very tight community. The ride up was awesome. Again… I am a broken record. I just love all this shit that I do. Lol. For the first 3 ports in Maui I went whale watching…lame!! Only because I can see more on the ship while we sail away from Maui than going on a whale watching tour…and not to mention I wont get sea sickness either. I think when passengers go on whale watching tours in Maui they are wasting their money. Yeah you get to see whales…I will stress this… if the sea conditions are just right. When they are jumping they are all jumping and going crazy. If you don’t see them from the ship when we anchor in the early morning you probably wont all day. But anyway I finally am getting to see the rest of the island and limiting myself to whale watching. I mean I love the whales like the best of them, but I wanna see more of the island.

On the road to the valley just watching the coast is such a view. Than you see the walls on your right side, and you get to see this bright red, and purple soil! I love seeing that. For a person that wears black all the time I do love seeing colors in nature (although I am wearing more colors lately).

After the highway we get to the road that takes us down into the valley. One lane road. About 12 feet wide maybe. A lot of turns. Very narrow, and scary cause you are on a cliff. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how there is two way traffic on this road as well. There are certain points were there is an extra 4 feet of space where a car has to pull aside, for the on coming traffic. It gets interesting. Lol.

The drive for me was a bigger deal than this plantation we went to. Its getting a little repetitive, cause when you are one plantation they talk about Taro (kinda like a potato), Kukui nuts (used pretty much the same as kerosene oil, and a good moisturizer for the skin, and it helps take away the itch for bug bites and stuff), Noni fruit (gross tasting, but great medicinal purposes), the state tree (kukui nut tree), the state fish (humuhumunukunukuapua’a …Hawai’I tiger fish), the state flower (yellow Hibiscus…used to be the red one, but it was changed to yellow cause red was seen to be too bold, and intense and they thought it didn’t represent the nature of Hawai’I, it being mellow and all that), and they also talk about the use of tea leaves, and the hula.

That was loads of information. Lol. It just know it so well now being told it over and over.
Overall the tour was good. I got to see some great things. ☺
Oh! -and we got to drive through creeks! Lol