From Day to Night
- Anika Yuzak
- Feb 29, 2024
- 2 min read
When I was a pre-teen, I was fascinated by spreads in Cosmopolitan magazine about office-working women. My favourite articles were about taking your outfit from day to night by adding dark lipstick and a pleather blazer.
Now that I'm working in an office, the schedule is gruelling, and the coffee is terrible. I've taken a costume contract on a horror mini-series about a strange girl who escapes a cult and goes to live with a wholesome family in Ohio. It's like a reverse Kimmy Schmit with a lot more blood. But at least my 10,000 hours of researching psychopaths are finally being put to good use.
Sometimes, I get impatient with destiny and long for what's next. There are two more months left on the contract, though, so I'm trying spiritual tricks like when in doubt, remember that where you are is where you wanted to be at one point, and if you look around, things are pretty beautiful.
Like I have my own office, which I've plastered with movie posters in the hopes that I'll be mistaken for a Netflix movie executive. And so far, it's working. People are always coming by for a visit. One of my co-workers posted a "psychiatric help 5 cents" sign on my door, so I've become the honorary onsite therapist. I feel seen.
Also, there are Zoom meetings, where we review the minutiae of all the potential logistical and creative problems. It's been demystifying filmmaking for me, seeing that it's just a group of experienced creatives figuring things out. So many of them worked on Macgyver and 21 Jump Street, the television shows I grew up on.
And there are racks of clothes everywhere, sequins and feathers, hats, boxes of shoes, actors and actresses' coming and going, and a mini-fridge filled with snacks and soda water. Girls are hanging on desks, laughing and analyzing the meaning of a handbag, the weight of a fabric. Then before I know it, it's Friday evening, so I put on my darkest lipstick and shiniest blazer and head off into the night.
