The last few months of 2014 have been completely insane. The company I worked for would do a large, week-long outdoor on-location broadcast of a talk show. I basically live at the studio during this time getting things ready to go. At the end of September, on the last day of our biggest remote TV shoot of the year, half of the company gets laid off. A week later we're told that the company is being sold and the new company is not retaining any of the employees from our company. Last day of operation is near the end of November - on my birthday, specifically. Happy birthday, right? I interview at a few places and am told I don't have enough experience (even though I've been doing their job for the past three years in addition to plumbing, landscaping, set construction, camera operation, audio mixing and just about anything else that the boss could think of). So, I figure, why not start my own production company? I already have quite the audio stash (supported the week-long talk show and game show on location for the TV station, including house sound, separate broadcast mix, 15 wireless mic channels, etc), had a decent start on lighting and was well on my way to having a decent video kit. I've been doing a few little commercials here and there and have a background in live production prior to getting in to TV so it seems like a halfway decent idea to take a stab at while I keep poking around at other openings. I pull the trigger and start building an HD live multicamera system with three cameras, graphics, multiple recording decks, the works. Basically a TV studio in a box. Not two days after I get started I get a call from the new company - they want me to contract with them for a week to help move equipment to their studio. Things go really well; they offer me a job starting just before Christmas. So now I'm back doing what I do for a TV station AND putting the finishing touches on gear for my production company. Landed contract to provide equipment for a weekly talk show going into production in a few months so the gear can start trying to pay for itself. I just realized I haven't touched any of my game consoles since the end of August. I should probably fire up the PS3 and 360 and let them update. Will probably take them a few days. Hopefully things will calm down a bit once I get settled in at the new job so I can take a breather and relax a little.
