Call and interview with a new trailer house!

The Golden Trailer Awards were televised for the first time Memorial Day evening and I had my first look at what the Academy Awards of movie trailers looked like. Even more than going to the Kodak Theatre for the Oscars, I've felt a bit closer to actually attending this annual event and hopefully one day being nominated.

This was their ninth year and I'd always checked their website for updates on each year's nominees. During the course of the show I discovered the names of a few trailer houses I was unaware of. A follow-up visit to the official site (where I found my initial list of all trailer post houses) revealed four places I had not seen before. Matched with three DVD houses I discovered while watching the supplemental disc's for "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story", I put together seven reels and resumes to mail out to each post house.

One of these is a place called Happy Hour Creative and they've been in business now for about eight months. They produce theatrical trailers as well as movie promos and home entertainment content. The head of the company just recently splintered away from Trailer Park, of course a major trailer house I've been trying to get into for five years now. I immediately recognized his name on their official site and hoped my timing would be right to connect finally.

The day after I sent my reel and resume I received a call from this guy saying he'd seen my reel and thought it was really good. He asked if I could come by for an interview and a tour of their facility. He also wanted to talk about an upcoming project I might be interested in. My interview was this afternoon.

All I have to say is WOW! Even though this place is new, they've brought a couple of editors from Trailer Park along for the ride and will certainly be bringing some top clients as well. There's a lot of potential here and contacting them with my reel and resume couldn't have been timed better. When arrived he introduced me around to some of the editors, etc. and then we went into a lounge to talk about experience, availability, my rate, and what I love to work on most (trailers, baby!). He also had some additional great things to say about my reel. One of the editors he showed it to from Trailer Park was impressed with my cutting style and ability to make independent films look like top studio projects. All of this was fantastic to hear and let me know I was definitely one of the better editors out there from their perspective.

I'm into my third week at New Wave Entertainment working on the DVD for "Wanted". Nights for the last two and a half weeks, 6pm - 2am. Not sure yet what's going to happen as we approach next week and the guy at Happy Hour wants to be kept informed as to when I'll be finished with that. He may very well be looking to book me the week after next. YES!!!

Getting in on the ground floor with Happy Hour as they begin will be a major boost in my career heading toward more trailer-oriented projects. They've only been in business a short while and already had three Golden Trailer Award nominations (they won for "Mad Men").

For the first time in a while I felt rejuvenated with this interview. Made me feel like I did when I first came out here and met with the heads of 10 trailer houses. It's so important to me to keep that sense of 'wow' and sometimes it’s so easy to just fall into the day to day and not keep your eye on the bigger picture. This redirected my view once more to what's truly important for my career; moving forward and achieving everything I set out to do. With Happy Hour I've made it! I'm in the door!