Arggggghhhhhhh! Just when I had started to recover from the horrors of working for FOG, it all comes flooding back.....
(Snif) the sadistic supervisors, the Ivy-League biases against everyone else, egos bigger then waffles at roscoe's, the crappy pay, repeating the same concept over and over and over- how many ways can you crumple a piece of paper and call that a building????? or the fish motif!
This was my first and last architecture job (1994) in Los Angeles for over 10 years- I suffered so much in the model shop that I sold out to Hollywood for 6 years, before finally returning to my true calling.
I'm guessing you want more of my back story? After washing out of FOG's lair (I was held captive for 5 weeks, no more, no less) in the midst of the early 90's recession- I sold my soul to the movie industry for the paycheck (or starve)...
The best part of those 5 weeks living in a FOG is the group of friends that I made there- still talking after 12 years even when scattered around the globe.
Those 6 years in hollywood are just a blur now - graduate school induced amnesia. If you email me, I'll cue you into my IMDB listing.
Set design proved to be vacuous and glamorized drafting. You want the set to look like a what???? Ok I'll add a few mouldings and details that are ______ (fill in the blank with any style, genre, famous architect, historic precedent, or futuristic shit). Details are drawn in full size - the best part - I once worked with a well respected gent, who on a particular film, took 5 pages with two lines each to draw a 10' tall column.
I needed more challenge in my life then designing a stage for kidrock to be an asshole for MTV on - so I fled back to the east coast and jumped back into architecture.
I think it all depends on your level of experience going into FOG's office. I've had friends that worked there - some right out of school that were model shop slaves (didn't last very long) and others that started working at FOG's after becoming newly licensed with 5+ years experience.
The more experienced friends are team members and get to do a lot of detailing, have a lot of involvement with the client and consultants, and have even moved into a CA role on a large project. They work long hours, but the pay is good and there are perks (First class flights to job meetings, nice hotels & meals, etc.)
treekiller, i had a similar experience but mine lasted a lot shorter. i also have some imdb credentials and with few times i was there i understand everything you say. my music video exp. was more underground and a lot of good times were involved. then i walked away from it to become small contractor's assistant where i learned a lot about type v and how to built real homes, before going back to architecture.
i even had a gig for two weeks or so in franks office when they were temporarily on venice beach as a disposable model maker in 85 +.-. next door where the formica color core fish lamps were made.
FOGs office is a rite of passage for young archs in LA - their hiring and firing practice seems to make this inevitable.
Dipping a toe into hollywood is another Los Angeles rite - it seems so glamorous and cool from the outside- then you run into the union rules (I got my cards too easily). So after 'art directing' or 'production designing' a student/underground/porno direct-to-video piece of crap, most disappear back to slaving away detailing toilet partitions. Hollywood's reality of not building anything substantial, or rigorously developing a project is in direct opposition to the typical motivations of architects/architecture students.
Telling a story is different from making a place/space. Go to theatre school (NYU, Yale, UCLA, UC Irvine are the great schools for theatre) not architecture if you wish to design for movies.
Half the set designers (IATSE 847) and art directors (ADG/IATSE 876) are theatre folk and the rest are architects. The best storytellers and film designers tend to have theatre in their blood- we architects think to literally about space, not about personality/story.
Even in the late 80's/early 90's when cinematic architecture was the rage (tschumi was a god then), the narrative content was weakly defined and typically resulted in huge projection screens instead of walls - oh, that's what we're doing now.
The highlight of my tenure at FOG was being sent to his house to rearrange the dinning room table for an event - the gehry of cheap materials was a much better architect then the gehry of expressive catia forms.
The good, bad, and/or the ugly...........
Anyone out there who works or has worked for Gehry want to share their experience?
g- you are working
b- you are working for gehry
u- you are working for gehry, the genius
Arggggghhhhhhh! Just when I had started to recover from the horrors of working for FOG, it all comes flooding back.....
(Snif) the sadistic supervisors, the Ivy-League biases against everyone else, egos bigger then waffles at roscoe's, the crappy pay, repeating the same concept over and over and over- how many ways can you crumple a piece of paper and call that a building????? or the fish motif!
This was my first and last architecture job (1994) in Los Angeles for over 10 years- I suffered so much in the model shop that I sold out to Hollywood for 6 years, before finally returning to my true calling.
DON'T GO THERE IF YOU WANT TO REMAIN HUMAN!
You were warned!
following orhan's evaluation
ubr (ugly beyond redemption) - you are gehry
http://www.slate.com/id/2143634#b
treekiller ... thanks for the preview .. :)
run, don't walk, run away!
why, oh why would you do this to yourself???????
May I ask what make you survive there for ten years?? Sounds amazing!
morfo-
I'm guessing you want more of my back story? After washing out of FOG's lair (I was held captive for 5 weeks, no more, no less) in the midst of the early 90's recession- I sold my soul to the movie industry for the paycheck (or starve)...
The best part of those 5 weeks living in a FOG is the group of friends that I made there- still talking after 12 years even when scattered around the globe.
Those 6 years in hollywood are just a blur now - graduate school induced amnesia. If you email me, I'll cue you into my IMDB listing.
Set design proved to be vacuous and glamorized drafting. You want the set to look like a what???? Ok I'll add a few mouldings and details that are ______ (fill in the blank with any style, genre, famous architect, historic precedent, or futuristic shit). Details are drawn in full size - the best part - I once worked with a well respected gent, who on a particular film, took 5 pages with two lines each to draw a 10' tall column.
I needed more challenge in my life then designing a stage for kidrock to be an asshole for MTV on - so I fled back to the east coast and jumped back into architecture.
I think it all depends on your level of experience going into FOG's office. I've had friends that worked there - some right out of school that were model shop slaves (didn't last very long) and others that started working at FOG's after becoming newly licensed with 5+ years experience.
The more experienced friends are team members and get to do a lot of detailing, have a lot of involvement with the client and consultants, and have even moved into a CA role on a large project. They work long hours, but the pay is good and there are perks (First class flights to job meetings, nice hotels & meals, etc.)
treekiller, i had a similar experience but mine lasted a lot shorter. i also have some imdb credentials and with few times i was there i understand everything you say. my music video exp. was more underground and a lot of good times were involved. then i walked away from it to become small contractor's assistant where i learned a lot about type v and how to built real homes, before going back to architecture.
i even had a gig for two weeks or so in franks office when they were temporarily on venice beach as a disposable model maker in 85 +.-. next door where the formica color core fish lamps were made.
Abra - I'll check out your credits!
FOGs office is a rite of passage for young archs in LA - their hiring and firing practice seems to make this inevitable.
Dipping a toe into hollywood is another Los Angeles rite - it seems so glamorous and cool from the outside- then you run into the union rules (I got my cards too easily). So after 'art directing' or 'production designing' a student/underground/porno direct-to-video piece of crap, most disappear back to slaving away detailing toilet partitions. Hollywood's reality of not building anything substantial, or rigorously developing a project is in direct opposition to the typical motivations of architects/architecture students.
Telling a story is different from making a place/space. Go to theatre school (NYU, Yale, UCLA, UC Irvine are the great schools for theatre) not architecture if you wish to design for movies.
Half the set designers (IATSE 847) and art directors (ADG/IATSE 876) are theatre folk and the rest are architects. The best storytellers and film designers tend to have theatre in their blood- we architects think to literally about space, not about personality/story.
Even in the late 80's/early 90's when cinematic architecture was the rage (tschumi was a god then), the narrative content was weakly defined and typically resulted in huge projection screens instead of walls - oh, that's what we're doing now.
The highlight of my tenure at FOG was being sent to his house to rearrange the dinning room table for an event - the gehry of cheap materials was a much better architect then the gehry of expressive catia forms.
nice insights...thanks for sharing
a pictographic history
my last film... spent two months in nashville working in a trailer in the prison yard. My guard tower/catwalk is mirrored by the poster designer
the final straw- never did another show after this....
some earlier projects - need a say anything more?
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