HI. I'll do a little fill-in of last nights events before I jump into today. At dinner, we met with not seven but NINE OU alum who are all working in different fields in the industry today. Two of the guys literally just graduated 10 months ago and moved out here about a week after graduation. Just shoved everything they owned in their cars and drove 3,000 miles with nothing but a few dollars in their wallets. The more stories I heard about how everyone got their starts, the more common that scenario became. Everyone uprooted! Well, most everyone. They talked to us a lot about internships and what makes you stand out from the crowd. I'm glad I was an over-achiever in 8th grade Spanish. That is now my minor and all these people couldn't say enough good things about being bilingual in Los Angeles. Phew.
After that session, we were able to network with all of these alum (meaning get their e-mails and bombard them more questions). Soon thereafter they were hip-bumped out by Roger so that we could have our second session with Pam Griffiths, another OU alum who is the Production Manager at MTV. She's jumped around a lot in her career, working on Law and Order, VH1, Court TV, and some others. This woman was awesome. She's the first person in the business I've ever met who you can tell genuinely cares about the interns who work for her and she wants nothing but the best for all of them.
12 hours later, we are all refreshed and in the hotel lobby ready to take on another day in Southern California. It was nice out today! The sun was shining. I was outside maybe 30 minutes total and got a sunburn. Whoopie. We left the hotel and headed out to the set of Cougar Town. We met with Randall Winston, an OU alum and also the producer of Cougar Town and used to produce Scrubs when it was still running. He was in Scrubs too, actually!
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| Randall acting on the set of Scrubs |
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| Randall today, showing us around the set of Cougar Town |
We walked around the set for a while...it looked a little like Warner Bros. roads with pretty buildings that were just exteriors. Some, like Jules' real estate office and the (fake) Subway, you could go into, because filming would actually take place inside those buildings/rooms. It was all so real looking. We walked into a lobby-like area and Randall caught a glimpse of someone he knew outside so he went to go say hello to her. Turns out we all knew her. Miss Busy Philips, aka Laurie Keller in the show, was outside with her toddler talking to some other producers. I looked around and, not to my surprise, had to go around and pick everyone's jaws up off the floor. Okay okay, mine had to be picked up too. I felt like such a paparazzi clunker snapping her picture from inside the building...turns out I could have waited because she came in and took pictures with anyone who wanted one with her. Whatta girl.
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| Unnecessary paparazzi photo of Busy |
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| Us bombarding her. |
After we met Busy, we went outside and saw Dan Byrd, who plays Travis in the show (and has also been in movies like Easy A and A Cinderella Story) boppin' around set. Naturally, I went into paparazzi mode.
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| Daniel Byrd lookin' fly. |
Last night Roger gave us all a copy of the script for Cougar Town's 16th episode in their 2nd season. We were to read it for homework and be knowledgeable about the show today because we would be watching the rough cut of it. And that we did. We all piled in their writing room, where writers go to work on the scripts for each show. The walls are covered jokes written in sharpie marker so they can refer back to them for later episodes, or to make sure they never have the same joke twice throughout a season.
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| Walls covered in jokes |
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| Us sitting around the writers table for lunch |
After we finished eating, we spun our attention to the never-before-seen episode which should be airing in a few weeks. It was a bit of a rough cut. In some scenes, voice dubs don't exactly match up with actors' mouths. In another scene, the actor and actress had a green glow around each of them, indicating a green screen problem that needs to be worked over with the chroma key. It was really. Flippin. Cool.
We left the set and headed over to DreamWorks studios an hour later. We were told there were many celebrities walking around the campus, and no pictures of them would be allowed. Celebs my butt. I did not see a one. But it's okay. Peter Campbell, head of HR and Recruiting for DreamWorks internships (and also an OU alum, surprise surprise) gave us a tour of their facility. I would love to work there. Actually, I think you'd have to be crazy to not want to work at DreamWorks. Besides the game room and outdoor seating with a mini bistro, the place looks like a resort. There are people walking around everywhere. It looked more than a college campus than a workplace, except I didn't really see anyone working....
After touring and getting the scoop on some of their new movies (Kung Foo Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Madagascar 3), we met with 5 OU alum who currently work in different fields in DreamWorks studios. The things you here from people are sort of repetitive, but that's how it gets pounded into your head, I guess.
We left DreamWorks and headed over to Chiodo Bros. Productions. They specialize in stop-motion, animation, and puppetry. These guys are the creators of Team America, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the real live one, not the cartoon, as I'm sure you could've figured out), Critters, and soooo many other productions. If anyone has seen Dinner for Schmucks, then you must remember all the mice sets. If not, go look them up, because they were just incredible. Those sets were created by these guys. Not widely known by their name, but their artwork and animations are classics that almost everyone recognizes.
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| Leonardo |
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| Michelangelo |
And just like that, our day was over. I still can't get over some of the stuff I am seeing every day. I must look like a real schmuck going completely gaga over some of this stuff, especially when I'm around people who see it every single day.
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