Work..... WERK

This past week I was very productive in the office. Since some of our interns started to leave last week, my boss put me in charge of writing the intern recommendation letters. The letters were a bit tedious to write, but my boss seemed to be impressed with writing. Along with writing two recommendation letters on Monday, I formatted the company stationary and created a digital copy of my boss’ signature. Once Sherry arrived to the office on Wednesday it was fairly similar to Monday. I wrote a few more recommendation letters and printed a couple cover letters on company stationary to be given to Eva Longoria’s production company and another famous actor’s production company. Wednesday was two of the interns last days so we had a small pizza party to send them off. After the pizza party, I sorted through a client’s new head shots to use for submissions. I worked on more intern recommendation letters on Thursday night, since I was not going into work on Friday due to some family coming into Los Angeles to visit me.

WERK IT

Monday night I met up with a couple friends, who are LA natives, downtown to attend an event at the Ace Hotel. The event was on the roof of the Ace and it was pretty cool to see the skyline. After a little while, they wanted to show me a rooftop bar called Perch since it has one of the best views of downtown Los Angeles. Without a doubt Perch has some of the coolest views.

Watching Tad, the Lost Explorer was almost two hours of my life that I will never get back. I do not understand how Tad, the Lost Explorer actually made money. I understand that it is suppose to be a children’s movie, but I truly do not understand how it was number one in the box office for 6 weeks in Spain. (I have watched some wonderful Spanish movies before so that’s why I’m baffled). I am a huge fan of animation, it is a wonderful medium and one must be truly talented to become an animator. The animation itself was not the true issue in the film (the emotions of the voice actors did not parallel the characters’ emotions), but the characters and script was at fault. I understand that there is a difference between America’s and Europe’s culture towards women and sexuality, but the female character in the movie was super sexually idealized for a kids film. The bird made absolutely no sense to have as a comedic relief or even as a character. Even if One Direction hadn’t blown up yet at the time, how did “What Makes You Beautiful” work for the theme of the movie? And how was the production company able to be ‘okayed’ to make references to Coca-Cola, Indiana Jones, and the Star Wars theme?

Wednesday night was a ton of fun! I went to Hamburger Mary’s for Drag Queen Bingo. What’s cool about the event is that all the money is given to an organization in need. The prizes were really nice. One of my friends from work came with my group and she ended up winning a personal spa basket.

The Grammy museum was super awesome on Thursday afternoon! Before starting the tour, I was able to speak with the curator for a little while. She had been hired directly out of college to work for the museum. In college, after changing her major a couple times, she majored in sociology and started working as a substitute teacher her junior year and worked at a theater. She said she had never taken any museum studies classes until now. Growing up with her mother as a florist and working at a theater helped give her the eye for design and space. She really enjoys being a curator for the Grammy museum because it isn't like the nose in the air curators at fine art museums. Just like the music industry is fast pace the exhibits change every couple months compared to most fine art museums’ exhibits lasting up towards a year or longer.

Friday I woke up bright and early at 5AM to drive to Anaheim. Some of my family had drove down from the Sierras to go to Disneyland for about five days and invited me to join them. With it being my last weekend in California, I could not think of a better way to spend my time. People think I am crazy with my Disney obsession, but it truly is a place of imagination. Walter Elias Disney has been a huge influence to me and a huge reason I wanted to get into film. A year ago (this past weekend) was my last couple days on my Disney College Program at Walt Disney World. I had been living at “The Most Magical Place on Earth” for seven months! Those were the best seven months of my life and I cannot wait until I can call myself a cast member again. Leaving Disneyland on Sunday hit me hard because I felt like I was being ripped away from my home again. Every interaction I have with cast members is so meaningful to me because they create smiles and some people do not realize how hard they work. Until next time, "See Ya Real Soon!"

My aunt's favorite character is Daisy so I designed these ears for her and commissioned my best friend to make them.
I gave them to her right before we took this picture and she almost started crying.
Check out http://www.macandmouse.us/ for awesome custom ears.

I cannot believe this is my last week. It is so crazy to think I flew to San Francisco on May 31^st and now it is already August.

"Is that the Sherman tree?"

On Monday night, one of Andres’ friends from Warner Brothers spoke to the class about how movies are marketed. I was not able to stay for very long, but the process was very interesting. A few people and I left the talk early to attend a “Escape Development Hell” panel at WGA. The panel was sponsored by Cornell University so all four panelists were Cornell graduates. This was probably the best WGA panel that I attended this summer. Originally I thought this was going to strictly be about how you climb the ranks to get a movie made, but this was not the case. The four people, who were all friends in college and still are, showed how valuable it is to stay in contact with your classmates when in the entertainment industry. One of the panelists, Dan Cohen, has new found success in his career as he was an executive producer for the new Netflix series Stranger Things and upcoming films such as Arrival, Table 19, and Fist Fight. I highly recommend Stranger Things! I'm not very far into it, but everything has been great so far!

Tuesday was probably one of my favorite in class lectures/guest speakers. Andres’ friend Maria Aceves spoke to the class. Maria came to America from Spain to pursue an acting career, but in turn became a producer. Maria is the founder of La Panda and Blue Hats Creative. Maria mainly works in short form with a bunch of different companies including Live Nation and Insomniac. As a fellow raver and festival attendee I have always been interested in shooting their events.

I was not super thrilled to attend West Side Story at the Hollywood Bowl since I am not the biggest fan of musicals nor had I seen the film. I do not think the Hollywood Bowl was the best venue for such a performance since it was so hard to see the actors/singers from so far away.

Thursday’s class was pretty neat since we learned about the history of music videos. Of course we focused a fair amount of that class time on Michael Jackson as we rightfully should have. It is crazy to think that there will most likely never be anyone in history to make such a huge impact on our culture again as The King of Pop did.

Thursday night was a whole whirlwind of oddity. Attending the play, The Day Shall Declare It, was no where near what I was expecting. Studying experimental art prepared me for something different, but I had never been a part of something so interactive. The fluidity of the actors was absolutely beautiful, almost as if they were doing a dance. The jillion different plots colliding confused me the most though. And don’t even get me started on how hot it was. I was not feeling well when I walked into the venue and lets just say I did everything that I could to not throw up from heat exhaustion. (And not being able to sit for such a long time didn’t help either since I have had two knee surgeries.)

Friday was pretty low key. I did not go to work so a friend and I went to breakfast at Bea Bea’s in Burbank. I highly recommend going! It was super good! Afterwards we went to Fry’s Electronics. Apparently all of the Fry’s in California are each themed differently. The one we went to was themed alien attack and tons of different props through the giant warehouse. Then I went to a store I've always wanted to go for about a year and half. Then I had a chill night with a couple friends while watching Dude Bro Party 3.

Saturday was absolutely awesome! A group of us traveled four hours each way to Sequoia National Park. If you know me pretty well, you know I live to go to National Parks. One of my top things on my bucket list is to travel to every National Park, Forest, Monument, etc. There are over 300 locations that fall under the National Park Service. Growing up my parents made my brother and I go on camping and hiking trips all the time. I am so thankful that they gave me those experiences growing up because it has given me such a huge appreciation for nature. I have been lucky enough to travel to some of the most gorgeous landscapes in the US such as Denali NP, Yellowstone NP, Grand Tetons NP, Mount Rushmore NM, Badlands NP, Devils Tower NM, Rocky Mountain NP, Dry Tortugas NP, Everglades NP, Muir Wood NM, and many many more. Each trip to a National Parks Service location I put a stamp and official cancellation in my National Park Service Passport. Traveling to these amazing places and learning about John Muir while growing up truly had a big impact on me so much so that I became a member of the Sierra Club. Founded by legendary conservationist John Muir in 1892, the Sierra Club is now the nation's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. 

On Sunday I drove to Long Beach to meet up with a couple friends. From Long Beach we drove to Laguna Beach to have some fun in the sun and surf for the afternoon. Laguna is a super gorgeous and rich area. It would be a dream to be able to afford a house in such a beautiful location.

Not Much Changing

With nothing much changing in the office it is difficult to expand upon very simple aspects of my role in the office. On Monday the office was holding callback auditions for the casting of a show we are having a part in. Besides that, going on I pretty much only organized emails for the day. Wednesday was a bit annoying as I forgot my laptop at the apartment. BIG MISTAKE! The office luckily has two desktop PCs, which I started working on in the morning. Not much longer after sitting down, another employee came into the office who only uses that computer I was currently sitting at. I switched to my boss’ laptop while she was out for lunch and then proceeded to move another three times in the office. I will never forget my computer again! Friday did not have much to hold as my boss did not come into the office until after 12:30. After that I organized my boss’ emails for the rest of the day.

Sunset Blvd

This past week was pretty hectic; I was trying to keep my eyes open the best I could as I began to write this. Writing about my weekly adventures has become difficult as I feel like I do not have enough to say.

Monday night was filled with fun and loud music. The Athens band New Madrid was playing a set at Bardot for their weekly event called School Night! LA. The second to last band to play, Tigertown, was absolutely amazing! The Sydney, Australian band has a really fun and eccentric indie vibe. Towards the end of the show, I was able to talk to the lead singer of New Madrid about the band, Athens, UGA, and some other stuff. It is really cool to see an Athens band moving up in the industry.

Tuesday was a super long day from the get go. Christine Swanson, the director of The Miki Howard Story, was a guest speaker. For the first part of the class, we watched the movie The Miki Howard Story. Then during the second half of class, Mrs. Swanson brought in the costume designer and editor for the film. The costume designer, Darryle Johnson, was Miki Howard’s friend and personal costume designer during her high reign on the music charts. Darryle has also dressed the cast of One Eight Seven, Scary Movie, and Everybody Hates Christ. Darryle was even nominated for a Primetime Emmy for outstanding costumes for a series in 2006. The editor, Grisha Alasadi, spoke about his experience editing the film and also being the director of photography on Christine’s other features such as All About Us. The long day continued as everyone dolled up to attend the Grady College Alumni Networking Event. The event brought together many University of Georgia Grady alums to socialize. The event was fun and very insightful.

After work on Wednesday, the group attended a screening of Sunset Boulevard at the Rooftop Cinema Club. The atmosphere was joyful and slightly reminded me of when my neighborhood pool while growing up would have movie night with a giant blow up screen at the shallow end. I have a list of over 300 movies that are featured in The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios. An instant classic, Sunset Boulevard, is featured in The Great Movie Ride and I was so excited to cross it off my list

Thursday was another long day with Christine Swanson being a guest speaker again. Christine brought her husband, an actor, and director of photography to the class. Michael Swanson, Christine’s husband, is a producer and TV studio executive who has worked on shows like The Community, Parks and Recreation, and Master of None. Michael gave us insight to working for a TV studio and balancing a TV budget. The actor, Darius McCrary, talked about his experience on set and what it was like to be a child star on Family Matters. The director of photography, Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, was great to listen to and talk to after class. He gave me some tips about grad school. After class we went to Sony Studios. Thinking we were going to be given a tour of the studios, we were taken by surprise when led into a small theater with large reclining chairs. As a future director of photography, I found the 4K camera crash course very knowledgeable. The crash course was interesting, but dry, and I would have liked to worked with the cameras a little bit to learn more about how they work.

Friday night was by far the best night of the week. A couple of my co-workers and I went to a show called “Marry, F*ck, Kill” at the Upright Citizens Brigade at Franklin. The show was really funny and the warm up group had a few well known actors in it. After the show, we went to Davey Wayne’s (or more like we went to go wait in line for 1 hour 40 minutes). About halfway through the line to get in my friend, Rosie, and I had to go to the restroom. We asked the guys we were with to keep us updated on the line while we went to find a restroom. The keep things short, Rosie and I ended up on the roof of the W hotel at a private pool party. After spending a little bit of time at the party, we met up with our group and finally got into Davey Wayne’s.