"We Don't Need No Stinking Resumes"...

Short thumbnail storyboard for Lincoln Aviator...

I'm an artist. It what I've done most of my life to earn my keep. It is pretty good money, but it is usually quite hectic with unrealistic deadlines and stressful situations. It usually is an adrenalin rush and not for the faint of heart.

Above, is one of the many on-site thumbnails I sent to the potential client. These little pieces of art are usually drawn in front of a pacing art director who wants his or her idea quickly visualized for approval before going to a final. Last week, I was asked to present along with a bevy of thumbnail sketches, a resume including a detailed story of my career. In all my life, I have only successfully used a resume to get a job, once. It was for a full time job at an aerospace plant where I work for just under four years.

I, then, went freelance and never again was asked for a resume. I have one, but I only occasionally revise it... once every five years or so!

Since when do we need to pdf a resume for a storyboard job. I'd much prefer googling an address, driving to the place, paying to park, walk into a lobby, present myself to the client and open up my "effin portfolio" and wait for a response or a conversation!

Proof's in the puddin'... not a resume!

And, besides, behind one's portfolio is a real, live, engaging and fun person who is looking to share his or her talents with another, supposedly, talented person. Why not a meeting face to face? It ain't like we will show up with explosives strapped across our waists to push the button if we, as artists, are not validated with love and candy kisses!

It is not like artists have never heard the word, "NO!"

In afterthought, I guess I'm rather put off that I am here in Louisiana, where no one really knows me like they do in Los Angeles. This is the ninth or tenth time I've been asked to present a resume. As I said, in LA, I've only once written and presented myself to a client in that manner. 

I must not be good at writing them anymore because I haven't been hired yet from any resume or pdf sent here in Louisiana. I once hired a company to formulate in words what I do for a living. It cost me a good penny or two. Made me feel like what was being said about me was totally fabricated. They embellished way too far and kinda went "Brian Williams" on me.

Said I was with the "special forces" when I actually was a mess hall cook!

Well, anyway, I now have a cleanup job to perform in my studio. And each sample has to be placed back where I found it, or it will never ever been seen again. I pretty much wrecked my flat files, my dvd's, and my slide trays to come up with some usable samples to "pdf"...

 ... along with a "resume!"

Copyright 2015? Ben Bensen III