Last week the order came down that we needed to start work on “The Database.” This meant that the lowest level employee (basically a paid intern) got to bust my behind for a week straight while I scoured the servers looking for every single piece of media that had ever been worked on- including a bunch of outdated graphics that would never be used again, and a bunch of incomplete stuff the previous editor took with him when he left the company.
Needless to say, I wasn’t pleased.
Apparently the owner of the company put a rush on this, and everyone got super-freaked out because word had it that if we didn’t get this thing done quick, jobs were being lost.
I’m surprised that people freaked out about that when they really needed to realize the actual issue:
People were about to get fired one way or another.
Consider this: the database, essentially, is a giant folder with every single thing- every promo, episode, interstital that we’ve ever worked on, rolled into one place, where it could be accessed quickly, and easily by someone who hasn’t worked on these things and wouldn’t just know where they were off hand. Maybe someone like…..a replacement editor? Or maybe a new producer? Hmm…..
Also consider the timing: A week ago,we were scrambling to put together a presentation for Dish network. A good showing here, and all of a sudden, our modest little outfit now has a LOT more viewers, commercial advertising, more revenue: we pull this off, and it could be HUGE. Then we’re pulled off it to work on…..a database? We delayed going after revenue to work on…getting organized?
Granted, we really DID need to get organized, true. But there’s no way the owner of the company would’ve forced us to switch gears so rapidly unless it was super important. And the only thing I can think of is that somebody screwed up bad, or things just aren’t working out and the Owner’s getting ready to chop everybody and start over.
…That’s going to be messy I think.
If it was me I’d make sure that the database took a long time to get done. As in, a REALLY long time.