December 08, 2003 - 12:02 AM

They Call Me....paulkim!

I spent Sunday working for free as an assistant sound man at a shoot for a short film called "The Kirkie". This was my first experience on a live set, and it was quite revealing. It left me wondering how tv shows get filmed so quickly.

I had been hooked up with the gig via a friend who is a fellow Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. She's a producer/writer for kids tv and worked on the Star Wars/Cops spoof Troops, where she met the director for this film. He was short-handed, and she knew that I'm sorta interested in moving into sound for film/tv, so she recommended me. Strange coincidence: the sound guy I was assisting graduated from Berklee the year that I started. It's odd how I run into fellow grads around town...we are legion, I guess.

There were probably 30-40 other people working as cast and crew, and I've forgotten all but 3 of their names (the director, the sound guy, and the director of photography). I am so terrible with names...but at least I got the impression that everyone else is, too, especially when confronted with dozens of new faces. I think that might be part of the reason why so many different people I know refer to me not just as "Paul", but as "paulkim." It's a little more distinctive, and thus memorable, than just my first name, plus it's still short and easy to say.

Susan Werner and her roadie Jane Paul primarily refer to me as "paulkim." My friend Kellie (who became my best friend at college as the result of an acquaintance of hers, who was a Susan fan, telling her to look out for a "purple-haired, cello-playing asian who likes Susan Werner" at Berklee, and me just happening at one point to play cello during a recording session for one of her songs) only calls me "paulkim." Four other friends of mine in Boston address me as "paulkim" whenever they see me. My best friends from home, Mark and Nick, call me "paulkim" the majority of the time that I talk with them. Nick has even spread the practice to all of the people he knows here in L.A. by introducing me only as "paulkim." In fact, it's become a bit of a running joke that whenever I see his co-workers or his roommate and his roomie's girlfriend, they refuse to call me "Paul."

I wonder if i can legally change my name to paulkim?

Now Listening To : Bjork-Debut
Random Thought : Oh Boy! Sleep! That's where I'm a Viking!

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