fandomhigh | Careers Fair, Fandom High Front Lawn, Friday Afternoon, 07/21/06

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!event: friday events

Careers Fair, Fandom High Front Lawn, Friday Afternoon, 07/21/06

By lunch time, the booths were set up, the guests had arrived and there was quaint music playing from somewhere undetermined. Hawkeye is walking around with one of those portable microphone/speaker set-ups, roaming from booth to booth announcing the various guests that have come to Fandom to talk about their professions.

And despite what the mainland weather forecast said, it was definitely a nice, fine day.

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Mark set up a camera on a tripod -- just to catch anything that might happen while he was talking -- and adjusted his glasses before starting to talk.

"Hi. I'm Mark. I make documentaries, mostly.

The most important thing you need is a filmmaker is passion. Second most important, is a point of view." He paused, as if weighing what he had said.

"You need a camera, too. And some film. And, unfortunately, money, so you can do anything with the film. Though the Bohemian thing? That's about making do, figuring it out instead of selling out. And passion and a point of view will get you far. Pick your subject and get out there and let your camera capture it. Film your friends. Film your family. Film the people who are both."

He swallowed. "Any questions?"

"Can you tell us of any films that you might have made that we'd be familiar with?" Jamie asked.

"I made this documentary about my friends a few years ago called Alphabet City," Mark said. "Got shown on PBS and some dork bought the rights and turned it into a musical. THAT was weird, seeing actors pretending to be people I loved, but with more singing."

"And I, uh, used to work for Buzzline."

"Well would you be considered a bohemian if you sold the rights of your documentary?" Jamie asked. "And what's buzzline? Is that a franchise of hair salons?"

Mark opened his mouth and closed it. He didn't have a good answer to the first question that wasn't an hour long.

"Buzzline's a syndicated TV news show. Not the most artistic thing in the world."

"Do you have any current projects that you are working on?" Jamie asked. "Besides living off the royalties of your documentary/musical?"

"It really wasn't that much money," Mark carefully explained. Why did people expect him to be rich? "The guy who bought it was a struggling composer, a friend of a friend."

"I'm working on a film about people kicking heroin addiction at different treatment facilities. Fascinating stories."

"You used to live in Fandom?"

"For about a month last fall," Mark confirmed. "I owned the bovie theater before the robot dudes took over."

"so what drove you off? And what do you actually do your documentaries on?"

"I found out I didn't like owning a movie theater," Mark shrugged, not really liking this kid's tone. "And mostly I make films about people in New York, art, HIV ... everything important to me."

Tone? "You live in New York? What part?" Tim asked. "And, well since you've lived here this hopefully shouldn't be too weird a question, what year."

"Alphabet City, and it's 2006," Mark said. "Grew up in Scarsdale, though. Where are you from?"

"Brooklyne, born and raised. 1991." Tim said. "Do you, yknow, have any examples of your work?"

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Careers Fair, Fandom High Front Lawn, Friday Afternoon, 07/21/06

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