Well it was a day I was worried about, but it turns out my concerns were for naught. I love making movies. I was intimidated about the language situation. I knew I would have to make an all-Arabic speaking video one of these days. The day was today. So I conducted my first all Arabic interview. Fortunately the interview subject was fluent in English, so I could ask the questions in English. He responded in Arabic. This is where my actor training really paid off. I could tell it was a great interview even though I have no idea what he said. His body language, posture, smile, inflection all exuded confidence. That really is more important than the words. This guy’s name was Hani Mandal, so I remembered it by Howie Mandell. He ran this woodworking crafting company. He invented these machines that would carve these really artistic designs in woodwork. Some of the pieces he made were stunning. I went into the wood workshop. The smell of the woodworking took me back to the smells of my grandfather when I was with him in his shop. Even from a small boy to when I was a grown man, the smells and the reaction was the same. One thing about my grandfather is that when he was alive he never really aged. He always looked old and bald, even when he was in his 40’s. At least that is my recollection of him. Its amazing how sensory memories and trigger emotional responses. The smell of the cut wood took me back to Pop. OK…my mother is probably tearing up now so I’ll move on. So here I am in his workshop chatting with Hani. Hani went to college at the University of Houston then did his Master’s of finance at DePaul in Chicago. He was more comfortable speaking in English than he was in Arabic. The people that worked for him were Indians. They all got a kick out of us taping them while they worked. I have to remember that being on video is a big deal to some people, especially these laborers. I’ve been around it for so long I’ve forgotten how enamored I used to be when I saw myself on the screen. I need to remember that magic. Its important to some people. Im quite blessed that I get to experience all these neat things and meet some people I would have never had the opportunity to meet if I worked a regular 9-5 job.
I got back to the office and was busy doing subtitles for the short film on the Seaports. Subtitles are soooooo tedious. I wanted to do them myself. Since I wrote the script, there is a certain rhythm that you get into with subtitles. It doesn’t look like it…but it’s a little bit of an art how you break it up and tell the story. Im fortunate in that I’ve been able to come up with a system in place to efficiently produce projects in Arabic almost as easily as English. Again, I was very concerned about that before I came over.
I had some disheartening news today. I caught my sales manager in a lie. He denied, denied, denied, until I showed him the proof. Then he got quiet. But that wasn’t the main issue. I told him earlier…I don’t care how much time you spend in the office just as long as you produce. So if you are out on sales calls all day, that’s fine with me. Well he has been out of the office..but no production as of yet. He’s been here three months. Then Reji, my trusted friend, informed me that he had a friend that let him know that the Sales manager was moonlighting. Ah…everything became crystal clear then. The two days he was sick earlier in the week without a doctor’s note. Not being around any afternoon. How did I miss this? I guess I feel somewhat blessed that I found out as early as I did. Why is it that salesmen fall into this trap? I’ve known a couple to do this moonlighting cover up thing. I think it comes down to greed and a lack of honesty. They say whatever they need to say to get the sale. Im really not that upset. Something inside my spirit told me when we hired him not to trust him. I ignored that small voice. I guess I should have listened. So you see even when God speaks clearly to me…sometimes I miss it. So this will be the fourth sales manager come and gone since I’ve been at KSDi in 10 months. No wonder we are having cash flow issues. We just can’t seem to get anyone to produce in that position. We are doing great work, so its not a question of quality at all. It was interesting, last week I ran into a competitor who just so happened to be shooting at the same place (the first oil well in Bahrain) at the same time as I was there. The sales manager had previously worked for this guy. I asked him what he thought of him. He answered succinctly…”Waste of Time.” That was last week. How prophetic he was. Now I have to go try to hire my fifth sales manger. These guys are dropping faster than the drummers for Spinal Tap.
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