What do a Hollywood film set, a Wall Street cold-call desk and a Manhattan dining room have to do with getting your promotion out the door?

More than you'd think. I'm not looking for a copywriting job. I want to be your team's coordinator: the person who keeps copy, video, reviews and handoffs moving from first draft to launch.

Here's why I'd be good at it...

Fresh out of NYU film school, I was working overnights in the production office on Martin Scorsese's After Hours. Word got around that dailies were open to the crew. So I went, and I sat in Scorsese's screening room watching the day's footage. I was in heaven.

I was also asked not to come back. Marty didn't know who I was.

Fair point. On a production, everyone needs to know who you are and what you're there to do. I spent the next few years learning that lesson: 600+ documented production days on 42 commercials, 31 features and 18 TV projects, enough to earn DGA eligibility.

And to be clear, my job wasn't making the movie. I made sure the people who did got what they needed, when they needed it.

Right now, that's the job I'm aiming at, but this time in your world. Not writing the promotion. Making sure it gets made.

I already speak your language

I spent several years in CopyChief, including its World of Financial Copy program, where working copy chiefs took apart my advertorials and emails. I also completed CopyHour.

I know what it's like to send a draft in and get it back dismantled and bleeding. Red ink doesn't rattle me.

But somewhere along the way, I realized I may not be the best person to write the copy. I have great respect for those who do, and I want to help them get it out the door, in shape and on time. That's why I'm pitching myself as a coordinator.

Three scenes from the record

Ext. New York location - day

A shoot is dozens of specialists and a plan that changes by the hour. I was the conduit for the AD's information between departments: getting call sheets and sides to the right hands, getting lead actors through hair, makeup and wardrobe and onto set, and checking background actors' paperwork.

A launch needs the same conduit between copy, compliance, design and video.

Int. Café Fiorello - the pre-theater rush

As a manager, I processed front-of-house payroll for 80 to 100 people and built the weekly schedule for 40 to 45 servers. Then I worked the door through the pre-theater crush, when every table had a curtain to make.

Payroll and schedules don't forgive a missed deadline. Neither does a launch date.

Int. 67 Wall Street brokerage - day

I held Series 7 and Series 63 licenses and spent four years on the phone, hearing "no" all day and keeping every call inside the securities rules on what could and couldn't be said.

I understand why financial and health copy has a compliance step, and I won't be the one who lets an unapproved claim slip through.

What I'd take off your plate

Keeping the timeline for each promotion and knowing who owns which piece today.
Routing drafts from copy to the copy chief, compliance, design and video, and following up when a review stalls.
Tracking versions, so what goes live is the version that was approved.
Turning a pile of notes into clear asks the writer, designer or editor can act on. I've been on the receiving end of rounds of notes, so I know what helps.
Making sure launch day is boring.

Two ways you can help

Forward this page to anyone you know who runs a DR team, publisher or agency that could use someone to keep promotions moving.
If that team is yours, call or email me. Fifteen minutes is plenty to find out if there's a fit.

Phone

Email

Based in Middletown, NJ. Remote, or hybrid around New York.

Thanks for reading this far. In DR, that's a good sign.

Jon DeCamp

P.S. Scorsese never did learn my name. I'm fine with that. The best coordinator is the one nobody has to think about.