Being a Journalist Occasionally Sucks Ass

There's a lot about journalism classes that I love. 99% of the people in it are AWESOME, and also I get to go places for free (such as the Royal Winter Fair) and I get to meet people I never would otherwise (such as Ryan North, writer of Dinosaur Comics).

But then you get the douchenozzles.

We got this assignment where we had to contact someone and job shadow them, doing a sort of "day in the life" profile. I thought it would be easy. But it wasn't. Oh, how it wasn't.

It took me forever to think of someone interesting, but finally decided on a director on the set of Flashpoint. I'm pretty persistent when it comes to getting hold of someone (I had to use some creative means to get Ryan North) so I thought it would be a snap.

No.

I called Flashpoint production, who told me to call the Director's Guild of Canada and set it up through them. So I called the DGC and had to wait 24 hours while they decided what to tell me. They finally got back to me and said there was no problem on their end and they didn't know why production told me to call them. So I called production back, who told me to call the DGC. YES, DOUCHEBAGS, I CALLED THEM ALREADY. They told me to talk to someone named Victoria, but she wasn't in that day. I called back the next day and she was still gone. The next day I got a call from the publicist, who I'm pretty sure told me to call the DGC again. She told me to send her an email and she would forward it to someone. Okay, so I did that and sent it at about nine at night. 12 hours later I get a reply saying:

Dear Robin,

I hope this note finds you well.

Thank you very much for your interest in shadowing a Director on the set of Flashpoint. It is with regret I must inform you that we are not able to accommodate such a request at this time.

I wish you success with your project.

Best regards,

Beverly

Yeah, thanks Beverly. I can't help but notice this email is from you and not someone else, so I have no choice but to conclude that you didn't even forward my email. If you really wished me success, you would be more helpful. I reeeeeally appreciate the autoreply, and the fact that you made me email you specifically so you could reject me over email and not over the phone. Real classy. Even if it makes you uncomfortable, I would much appreciate being rejected outright instead of sent on a wild goose chase. That way I get more time to schedule someone else! What a strange concept, I know.

So whatever. I still had about two weeks. I shook it off and zeroed in on my next target: the Toronto Zoo to shadow a zookeeper.

I called and was forwarded to Animal Care. I told the guy there my request, and the only problem with that was that they had a program in place for job shadowing, and you had to pay to do it. He told me to email him and CC it to his boss and they would get back to me. I was a little unsure about that, as emailing didn't turn out so well with Flashpoint, but they already had a program in place so I didn't think it would be too hard to figure something out. I was totally willing to pay if it wasn't too much. So I waited two days, and then called the zoo. The guy didn't pick up his phone. I went to bed and phoned the next day (Thursday). Apparently he was out of the office until Monday. That was no good - if this was a no, I needed to schedule something before then. I decided to give up on the zoo, who apparently brushed me off just like Flashpoint. BITCHES. I mean, is it that hard to give me an answer? You talk it over with your boss and decide whether or not you're going to ask me to pay for the job shadowing. THERE IS ALREADY A PROGRAM IN PLACE, so it's not that hard to schedule something!

At this point I had a mild freakout and then sent out an email blitz. I emailed CityTV, MuchMusic, Omni, CBC, three different police departments, and I think three more places that I can't remember. No replies the next day so I asked if my friend Genevieve if I could shadow her at work. She said yes and we scheduled that. So I had a backup if nothing else worked. Friday I got an email from the forensics department saying "phone this number and if an officer is there maybe we can schedule something". That sounded like a no and I was sick of calling people so I wasn't going to call. Then I got another email from the forensics guy saying "call me on Monday to confirm a date/time." YESSSSSS I LOVE YOU TORONTO POLICE! I called Monday and while I don't get to shadow an actual forensic scientist who goes to crime scenes and stuff, I get to shadow someone in the forensics department and I think I'll get to see stuff in the lab, so that's cool.

The hilarious thing about the Toronto Police is that they are SO UP for being interviewed. I had to call a little while ago to try to get an interview with Chief Bill Blair and it didn't work out even though everyone I talked to was so nice about it. I was talking to the publicist/media liaison and he asked me what exactly I needed so he could try to help me and I told him I just wanted to interview someone in law enforcement and he's like, "you can interview me." He sounded so modest about it but I'm sure he was excited about being interviewed. Same with this forensics guy, he was like, "You can follow me around." They've actually come through for me very well both times I've tried to talk to them. I really like them. The only thing I'm not a fan of is that I have to travel very far to get there (about fifteen subway stops, then a forty minute bus ride) but hey, that's all part of the adventure.