ROLLING with the PUNCHES

What happens when you're hired to do a thing but the client switches the assignment once you're onsite?

You grit your teeth, smile and adapt.

In 2011 Patrick, a friend at Microsoft Games contacted me to do storyboards for the upcoming game: Star Wars Kinect.

From the beginning I should have known this was going to be a tough engagement. They'd asked me my rate and I told them $75 an hour. They freaked, said that their Art Directors don't even make that. I told them freelancers don't have insurance or social security withheld and typically across all industries make more than annual salaried employees. I was amazed how clueless they sounded, for such a large company, when it came to working with contractors.

They were flustered for the moment but came back and informed me that they'd have to make a "new roll" in their "systems" to account for the higher pay. I was like, fine, you do that and let me know the start date. 

Being that I had to work onsite, had me driving about 45minutes to an hour to get to the Building C campus. My friend greeted me and brought me up to the studio, which was basically a table we shared and a couple of laptops with a small Wacom tablet. To my right was a tester and off to one corner was a contracted developer.

Patrick informed me that the script wasn't ready yet and I was going to meet with the producer first thing that morning. I can't remember his name, so I'll call him Dave. I asked about meeting the art director as Patrick was mainly the Concept Lead at the time. He said I'd meet him later.

Dave and I grabbed a conference room and I could tell by the look on his face that he was a little out of sorts.

"You know, at your price range we can only have you for a few days to board out the entire script," said Dave.

"But there is no script, so what would you have me do?" I replied.

"For the love of god, I hope this game fails, I cannot keep doing this," he said to no one in particular, "I'll check with the AD and the writer and see what we can get by EOD. In the meantime I'll talk to Pat and maybe you can help lighten his workload with concept art."

"Uh, okay," I said, thinking what the heck is going on here.

Up until this point I hadn't really gotten to flex my concept painting chops in the past two years. I'd left Sony Interactive and focused on writing and working on BRAUN, my robot graphic novel and trying to get used to working with a Cintiq. It had taken nearly two years to get comfortable with the lack of tactile feedback. Now I was back to using a little 13" Wacom-like Cintiq.

There wasn't really a style guide to go from but there were descriptions that Patrick was able to share with some movie still reference in a few cases. Regardless, I would get to paint and increase my abilities while getting paid for the next few days, or at least until the script was done.

Two days later they still had no script but then they extended my time to a week. I continued to keep painting but in this time, with my driving back and forth and still not having met the AD, I became disillusioned. Like they were just having me fill a spot until they could "figure it all out". I grew angry for some reason. Perhaps because it felt purposeless and inconsequential.

My paintings improved some, the work was challenging and the pay was good. Five weeks had gone by and still no script. It was the last three days of my engagement when they finally had a first draft. Patrick was going to be the one to board it now. 

On the last day as I was leaving the AD showed his face. I can't remember his name either, maybe it was Matt. He didn't bother to shake my hand or introduce himself, only to say, "Great work." Again, just filling a spot where you should acknowledge someone's effort. On the way out I'd asked Patrick who that was, and he told me. I probably had an expletive or two to share before we shook hands and I parted.

Never has a job made me feel that way. It was so strange. My paintings did get better but in the end I swore I'd never work for them again.  I mean, why?

Sometimes you have to put a stake in the ground and realize what you will and won't do for money. Time is a precious commodity. Sometimes our circumstances change and we do have to suck it up. But as we age, purpose and meaning become more and more essential. I'm glad I have that luxury available to me--whether through strategic planning or just dumb luck. Keeping your values in check helps and having experiences like that can realign your values and make you remember why you're doing what you do in the first place.

As a side note, the credits for the game were 20 minutes long...I think my name showed up at the 7 minute mark...cool...I guess.

=s=