What. A. Day.

Seriously.  What a day!  There were so many points throughout today where I just took a step back and said, "wow." 

We left the hotel this morning and made our way over to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  You know during the Emmy's when celebs say, "I'd like to thank the academy.".....?  Yeah, that's actually a real place!  We walked around the front outside for a little bit while we waited for Nancy Robinson, the executive director of the ATAS Education Foundation.  This is the woman who gets you the scholarships.  We wanted to be very nice to her.

Sittin' with Desi and Lucy

Giant Emmy

The Academy!

Nancy finally came out (after we had all taken pictures of every single thing possible outside) and greeted us, and then brought us in to a room with 3 other women who all have different fields in the Academy.  All of these ladies were either representing internship or scholarship information for us.  So either free work or free money.  Sounded pretty good to all of us, I think.  We just spent a quick hour there; no tour or anything.  Just a lot of really good information.

Since we had a little down time before our next scheduled event, Roger decided to take us to the Hollywood Walk of Fame for some sight seeing.  Sight seeing we did.  We climbed the steps of the Kodak Theatre so that we could get a better look at the Hollywood sign.  It's so funny how 9 white letters stuck into the ground a few miles away could make anyone so giddy.  But it's so iconic that it's hard not to get really excited!  

THE SIGN

On Hollywood Blvd, there were people setting up for the premier of Sucker Punch, which was totally cool to watch.  They even rolled out the red carpet!  It was a bummer we couldn't stay longer to actually see celebs walk out of there limos and such.  Oh well.

The Walk of Fame was so cool.  So many famous people I've forgotten about.  And I am glad to announce that I saw neither Katy Perry nor Justin Bieber's name on any star.  Phew.

Tinker Bell, my idol

Another idol, great music

Biggest idol of all? Looks like it.

I play his music! And she was pretty cute too.

This one's for you, mom!

Downtown Hollywood was pretty cool, and maybe a little creepy too.  I saw about 4 Michael Jacksons, two which collaborated for quite some time, probably about who had the skinnier nose.

We all kind of went our separate ways for a while (using the buddy system, mom, don't worry) and met back up on the corner of Hollywood and Orange at 1:45pm, 15 minutes before our Panavision tour.  I was just looking around, waiting for the last of our kids to show up, when someone caught my eye.  I could have sworn he was someone I had gone to high school with, but I quickly disregarded that hunch; I mean come on, what would the freaking odds be.  Well, the freaking odds were probably like a billion to one, but in this case, it was the one.  I said his name just for the heck of it.  "Bobby?"  He immediately turned around and both of us went ballistic, running to each other in slow motion to the Chariots of Fire theme.  Well, not really, but I feel like if this scenario was in a movie, that's what probably would have happened.  "Angela?"  I then turned out of his hug to see Alyssa, another old friend from high school, practically in tears because she couldn't believe what was happening.  After the three of us had stopped acting like little school girls and calmed down a bit, I asked them what they were doing here, of all places!  Their reply: "VACATION!"  Nice.  L.A. during spring break: apparently the trend is catching on quickly.

Alyssa, me, and Bobby.  Crazy!  :)

We made our way over to Panavision.  This facility houses almost every camera in the world.  Big time movie producers and little time television directors go to these guys to rent out cameras, film reels, lenses, 3D cameras, and a whole lot more.  They've supplied cameras to television shows such as Joan of Arcadia, CSI, Malcom in the Middle, Glee, and a lot more.  Movies like Knight Rider, The Roomate, Iron Man, etc.  Very cool.  They explained to us how a 3D camera works and showed us a bunch of different cameras as well.  They are basically all film-based, which won't be good for them in about 10 years because pretty much everything (movies, television, music videos, animation) will be shot in digital and not actual film anymore.  It's a little sad, I suppose, but that's the world of technology!  Always, ALWAYS evolving.  I'm sure these guys will find some way to keep up.

At 5:00, we headed back over to Warner Bros studios for the live taping of one of their newer show, Mike and Molly.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to bring our cameras and cell phones into the lot, which was expected.  We went into the studio and sat down just as the show's MC was coming out.  He told us we were going to watch one of their most recent episodes first, and then the "show" would begin.  

After the episode was over, the MC brought out each actor for an applause and also announced the executive producers and directors for an applause of their own.  It was amazing to see the amount of people behind the cameras.  Makeup artists and wardrobe people, prop people and camera men.  Everyone had their own job and did it so efficiently.  Watching the actors live on the set, and then also watching on the television's up above us, simultaneously, was also so incredible.  They tape it as a multi-camera show, meaning there were 4 cameras all together so the continuity of the scene was never faulty.  Each time an actor would screw up a line, he or she would let out a blow of exhaust or a swear word and get right back on track according to the directors cues.  It was absolutely fantastic to watch.  So fast paced and so professional.  The time in between scenes was long, so the MC would bring people down to the front or do a little entertaining of his own while actors and actresses would change outfits or get their makeup reapplied.  Out of the 4 hours we were there in the studio, we probably saw about 45 minutes to an hour of actual acting, tops.  That's it!  All of our laughing was not cued; they told us to just laugh as it felt natural.  It was actually a pretty easy thing to do.  Hopefully one of my snorts made it into the sound reel on the real show.  Probably not though.  It's slightly obnoxious.

After the show was over, the actors and guest actors came out for one last bow and applause from the audience.  We all left the studio and filed outside into the cold!  8 of us students and Roger were outside waiting, waiting, waiting, for the rest of our group.  5 minutes...10 minutes passed, and the last of the audience members came outside and walked back to the parking garage.  "Could they have gotten past us?"  says Roger.  He asked one of the security guards if he could go back inside to try and find his lost little ducklings, and she reluctantly agreed.  He came back about 5 minutes later with no little ducklings trailing behind him, but he was smiling.  "So," he says, "the cast of the show are signing autographs for them right now, they'll just be a few minutes."  "Very funny, Cooper," I said.  He just looked at me very confused.  "No.  Really."  After the 8 of us had a mini freak-out, we asked the security guard, who had heard this whole thing, if we could go back inside.  "No," was her very straightforward answer.  Lame.  Papa Duck went back inside to get them a few minutes later, since he could see we were all in agony between standing out in the cold and thinking about our fellow classmates meeting famous people.  Grrr.  I mean, Quackkk. 

Finally, out they come, with signed mugs, bags, and programs.  We booed them to make ourselves feel better.  All in all though, it was truly a great night.  What an experience.

I'm slightly worried because I feel myself being less tired throughout the day, meaning I am starting to adjust to this west coast time zone.  NOT GOOD.  Especially because the Monday I go back to school, I have an 8am class.  Eeek.  This was a long post, and for those of you still reading these words, thank you and I am glad I have not bored you.  Tune in tomorrow!

A Day in the Life of an OU Alum

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!

Randall acting on the set of Scrubs

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.

Unnecessary paparazzi photo of Busy

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.

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.

Walls covered in jokes

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.

Leonardo

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.  

Tomorrow we'll be to the live taping of Mike and Molly, a newer show on CBS.  I've only seen a couple of episodes, and although the show is no Modern Family, it's still pretty funny.  My guess is cameras will not be allowed in the studio, so I'll be sure to colorfully explain what goes on at a live taping to make up for it.  Tomorrow is hump day!

I Wish I Was Rachel Green

I woke up this morning to my roommate, Lauren, on the phone with her mom.  She was talking about being charged $100 from the hotel.  She got off the phone and I asked what was going on.  

Side note:  Last night as we checked in, we all had to give our debit/credit card information for incidentals throughout the week.  Nothing would be charged; it was on file just in case.  This was standard procedure so well all went ahead and did it without question.  End side note.  

She explained to me that the hotel had charged $100 to her debit card and she was confused as to why because she hadn't spent a cent since we had checked in.  "That sucks for her," I thought.  Cue text message from Chase mobile, telling me that I had recently gone below my $10 limit on my account.  Wonderful.  I felt my ears get really hot and my heart started to pound faster as I felt the wrath of Judy seep into my system.  Oh no they didn't.  That was my money.  Do you know the amount of hours I've had to work in the dishroom at Jeff dining hall to accumulate that money?  I called mom to get me psyched up enough to go down to the lobby and rip the manager apart.  And rip I did, in a gentle and calm fashion, so I guess I kinda teared instead.  Technically our cards weren't charged, they were authorized, which means that money is frozen and we can't touch it anyway.  I called over Superman, aka Roger Cooper, who gave the hotel permission to take all of our cards off file.  What a way to start the morning.

The day got so much better.  We left for Warner Brothers' Studios around 9:30 and hung around in their gift shop for a while as we waited for our VIP Tour to start.  We were taken into a mini auditorium and watched a 10 minute video about the history of Warner Bros.  It gave me chills through the entire thing.  I realize that sounds cheesy, but there's nothing like a clip reel of hundreds of different actors and movies and cartoons all put to music to inspire you.  Inspire it did.  We were then taken on the trams around Hennesey Street, Midwest Avenue, and many more.  Basically these "roads" contain lots of exterior sets (houses, courthouses, churches, apartment buildings, etc.) where hundreds of movies have done their filming.

Remember this Spiderman scene?

This is where it was filmed!

Also....

       Remember this clip from Friends?

This is where it was filmed!

We went into "The Lot" which is just a bunch of huge buildings housing sets for different television shows and also storage for other huge props.  An example:

The real live Mystery Machine!

We then went through another building with a massive amount of props from different movies.  Set designers and prop people come to this building and rent out props for their movies.  Some cost up to a quarter of a million dollars just to rent out for a couple of days!

We then went to maybe my favorite place out of the whole day.

 

<--- Central Perk, Friends set

     

       Central Perk, AAHHH --->

After we left Central Perk, our cameras had to be put away as we walked around the set of Pretty Little Liars and The Mentalist.  Everything looks so big on TV!  Sets are actually so tiny!  After touring the sets, we walked outside and were brought past a building with a flashing red light.  "Blinking lights mean there's production going on inside right now.  I would take you in there, but we don't want to disrupt The Big Bang Theory," says our tour guide.  WHY NOT?!  Just kidding, I knew why we couldn't go in but DANG wouldn't that have been sweet?

We then walked into the Warner Bros museum, a place that houses lots of costumes that actors and actresses have worn in pretty recent movies.  Again, we didn't have our cameras, but the first floor had a costume of Gracie Hart from Miss Congeniality, along with her real badge and ID.  Matrix suits.  Kate Hudson's bathing suit, green tank top, and jean shorts, topped off with her palm tree necklace from Fool's Gold.  And tons of others.  Upstairs was Harry Potter sanctuary, with dementor costumes, the Weasley brothers outfits, the real life petrified Hermione Granger from the second movie, mirror in hand, and so many more.  All actual stuff from the movies!  It was so cool.

After that, we went to CBS studios and toured the set and control rooms of their fairly new talk show, The Talk (this was recently made fun of on SNL; it was pretty funny).  The producer and gaffer of the show talked to us about the ins and outs of LA, and how to be a good little production assistant.  It was insightful!

Set

Whatta switch board.

After that, we got on the bus to come back to the hotel.  Lauren and I are sitting on our beds watching Raising Helen and waiting for dinner in a few minutes.  At dinner, we'll be meeting with 7 different OU alum who all work in different studios, on different sets.  Modern Family is one of them!  We'll get the chance to talk with them and ask them questions about their jobs and how they went from a college graduate to a successful producer/writer/director in LA.  Should be great.

Well, We WERE Bound for L.A.....

I was standing in line for my final flight when I saw a familiar face and had to do a double take.  Arielle, one of the girls partaking on this trip with me, was standing 4 people in front of me in line!  She lives in Long Island, so I suppose this encounter wasn't completely unexpected at the JFK airport, but it was for us at least.

Bye NYC!

Next stop: Burbank, California.  Such a peaceful take off as I looked over the city of New York.  I spotted Lady Liberty, the Empire State building, and Central Park as we flew overhead.  The pilot informed us it was overcast and a little rainy with a temperature of around 55 in Burbank.  I had done my weather research for the week, so this didn't shock me at all.  No, what shocked me was what the pilot informed us about an hour before our designated landing time.  "Pardon the interruption, folks, but it's a bit too crazy in Burbank with the wind and the rain...we're going to have to make an emergency landing in LAX.  Please fasten your seat-belts as we're about to experience some turbulence.  Flight crew, take your seats please."  LAX?  Noooooo.  It's a good hour drive from Burbank.  How bad could it possibly be in "sunny CALIFORNIA" that we couldn't even land in the airport?  Well, pretty bad, as it turns out.  The last hour of the plane ride was maybe one of the most scariest hours of my life.  All I could think about was the whole back end of the plane just ripping off into the air just like it did in the first episode of Lost.  I was cursing my OU friends who had gotten me addicted to the show in those moments.  But, thankfully, Pilot Dave landed us safely onto the LAX runway.  Cue applause from airplane travelers.

So.  Now what.  I turned my phone off of airplane mode and received several text messages from family members saying, "welcome to Burbank!  Have fun!"  They had been tracking my flight on the Internet but it had failed to give the update on where we actually were.  I texted mom, dad, and boyfriend to let them know what exactly was going on and to tell them we were in fact NOT where we were supposed to be.  Which then triggered "oh no, did you let Roger know yet?  Will you get a rebate on the airlines?  Have you heard from anybody else who was supposed to land in Burbank?  Call when you can."  I did just that to avoid sending a 7 page text message.  

Our pilot came over the speakers and told us they would be bussing us into Burbank.  Burbank had closed its airport and had not approved for any flights to land there in the past 2 hours.  Well, of course, this started the cabin in an uproar.  I looked out the window and drowned out all the chatter.  The rain didn't look that bad.  I was sorely mistaken.  As we got off of the plane and walked to where the buses were waiting, I was almost blown over by a gust of wind and then had a miniature tsunami hit my face.  I was outside for no longer than maybe 60 seconds, and I was completely drenched.  When it rains, it pours?  Yeah, they weren't kidding.

The bus ride to Burbank airport was slightly less than fun.  As we drove, I was texting other people from my group to find out where they all got redirected to.  Ontario, CA seemed to be a popular spot for pilots to e-land (CA does in fact stand for California here, not Canada.  It's okay, that's what I first thought too).  San Fran was also where a few girls were headed.  

We finally arrived at the Burbank airport.  Arielle called Cooper to let him know we were in and were ready to be picked up.  He pulled up lookin' fly in his silver rental Buick.  What a guy.  On the short car ride to the hotel, Roger told us that the three girls who had been redirected to land in San Francisco were stuck there and would not be able to join us tonight.  Huge bummer.  Prayers their way would be so great.  We ate dinn - no, we inhaled dinner in our group dining room, and got to have a lecture and Q and A session with John Swartz, an OU grad and first assistant to producer Kathleen Kennedy (who's produced movies such as E.T., Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and tons more).  Pretty insane.  This guy is like 30 or something and he freaking deals with Steven Spielberg on a regular basis.  You can tell he is good at what he does.  The fact that he came from OU is pretty motivating too.

Coop handed out our "official" itinerary for the week.  I say official with the quotes because he keeps stressing that in LA, people usually tend to not want to commit to anything until the last possible minute.  Regardless, I know we for sure get to see Warner Brothers and DreamWorks studios this week.  I'm a happy girl.  If the rain holds I'll be even happier.  There's nothing worse than wet, cold feet in soaking wet TOMS.  Rain boots would've been a good idea.

L.A. Bound!!

I'm sitting in the JFK Airport in NYC.  This is the first time I've flown alone.  Ever.  I had to fight back the tears as I walked away from mom and dad at the Buffalo airport.  At least til I found my gate.

That was a couple of hours ago, and I'm feeling much better.  It still hasn't truly hit me that I'm going to Los Angeles.  How many college freshmen get to do this?  Not many, I can assure you.  The reason I decided to start blogging was actually for this reason alone.  My parents and friends (and anyone else who wants to I guess) can check out what cool opportunities I'll be getting all week.  I'm getting 4 credit hours for this week.  You should see college kids faces when I tell them that.  "You get to spend a week in LA and get credit for it?!"  Yep.  Thanks Coop.  

Roger Cooper, my professor, is a puzzling person.  He knows an immense amount of people in LA who work in the largest film studios and media corporations.  He's been on multiple television shows, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Scrubs simply because he's buddies with a producer here and director there.  He could probably very easily have a job at any big-time-money-maker movie studio he wanted.  Yet he continues to teach college students at OU about the importance of networking, cover letters, and thank you notes.  I guess that's what happens when you love your job that much.  No amount of money or fame or good weather could pull you away from it.  I want that someday.  

For now, I'm gonna enjoy the week.  I'm looking forward to every second of it.  Prayers for my safety and health are much appreciated.  Hopefully my next update will have some awesome details concerning whatever the heck we're doing this week!