has anyone here worked like really really hard?

I don't know about taxes in Oregon but isn't that about the same, 100k before and 60K after taxes. I live in Cali, make a little over 100, and only take home about 5500/mo.

 

does everyone really memorize all their lines or do they just study right before the scene, then say it and then forget it?

 

Back when I was a blue collar worker, I had a shift from 6am to 5pm, then I came back for the night shift, and the machinery broke down, so we were there all night doing things by hand, and that was from 11:00pm to 8:00am, so it was basically an 18 hour day.

But now I'm white collar, and they won't even let us get overtime. I get paid almost 4x as much as I did at my blue collar job and it's a helluva lot more satisfying. Most manual labor jobs are very repetitive and mind numbing.

 

Oh, did he say before taxes? I didn't realize he did. I guess its close, not the same but much closer yeah. That changes a lot.

 

Hmm...what do you do? And define awesome pay ;-)

To put the Nike thing in perspective, during college I was a summer intern there once and made $18/hr, which for an internship is pretty darn good.

But putting it up against my $65 + overtime I get straight out of college, and I can say that Nike doesn't pay that well relative to what it would have to pay for the talent without the appeal of working for Nike.

 

I earned two graduate degrees simultaneously from two completely separate universities. I suppose that would qualify. Scheduling was a bear.

 

I just did today!

 

beats working on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for 10 hours in a row!

 

Any shoot is very tedious. I can agree with that. Some of my filming sessions have run just as long and there is so much to consider that it becomes a massive strain.

For me, working in a creative field is often deadline oriented so all day/all night work sessions aren't uncommon when you have to meet expectations and deadlines. I've done similarly long jobs digging ditches and while that is physically taxing, being relied on for creative ideas on top of the time it takes to create something is very emotionally taxing, especially when the idea just isn't there. It's very difficult being creative on demand and then explaining those ideas to uncreative people.

In my field, I work at least 50 hours every week (on a slow week) but i've never totally disconnected from my work even when I'm at home "relaxing."

Of course, the biggest frustration comes from the fact that creative is the only field where EVERYONE feels just as qualified as you to make decisions and produce work. I don't tell my electrician how to wire my house or my doctor hwo to perform surgery... really tiring having to constantly defend your professional existence to people who don't understand it.