Tip of the Iceberg

Check out my newly edited Actor Demo Reel! It was fun being on the editing side for once...made me appreciate even more the intense work and skill that goes into all the jobs on the other side of the camera. There are so many jobs like that I think - unsung workers, unobserved details, layers and layers and layers of structure beneath the tip of the iceberg.

One example: I just started a new dayjob at Trader Joe's and am getting a kick out of the "insider" perspective. You'd be surprised at the way the back room operates - though, I admit, as a shopper I never thought/cared about such things. But really, it's pretty cool. There's not that much space for the amount of traffic/supplies that come through. It's a lot of ingenuity in planning and coordination - like editors, directors, sound and light designers, PAs, casting directors, producers, assistants, location scouts, prop and set designers, fight choreographers...the list goes on, all the behind-the-scenes jobs that involve so much more work and out-of-the-box scrambling than meets the eye. It's just another reminder to me of how little I know, how much there is still to explore and observe and enjoy in this life. Not to be falsely humble, don't worry - I can get pretty cocky about what I DO know too ;)

I'm glad I got to have one of those "tip of the iceberg" days, though - it's actually a relief and a wonder to sit back and feel a little bit small - and also a little bit unfathomable. I myself, like so many things in this world, have plenty of secret backrooms and inner workings yet unobserved. My career does too, as does my neighbor and my city, my church and my craft. There's no room for boredom or failure - only discovery. As good literature is the tip of the iceberg in awakening to our human condition; as a reel is the tip of the iceberg in showcasing an actor's work; so the steps and formation of my life and career so far is just the tip of the iceberg of what's still to come.

"Art is a one-sided conversation with the unobserved." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes