This semester, I am taking a class called Writing for Broadcast and New Media, with Professor Tom Nelson. Ironically, we don’t actually do “writing” in the traditional sense. Instead, Tom makes us shoot and edit a video a week, based off prompts he gives us. Our first prompt was to do a video based off of the novel White Fang. I had a rather liberal interpretation and created this video-”Dog Food.” Let me know what you think!
I am grateful for the fact that even though me and my classmates are stuck in Phoenix and we would all rather be back at Elon, we are at least making the most out of our time here in the desert country. Yesterday, we went to a botanical garden and then went climbing up huge rocks afterward.
Here’s a picture of the rock face we climbed, and me once I got to the top.
The Arizonian palm tree outside the window is trying to kill us… this is not real life
We left Burbank, CA today and headed for North Carolina. As we packed our bags for Elon, many of us were imagining where we would be this weekend; sleeping in our dorm beds, hanging out with boyfriends/girlfriends, catching up on our insane amounts of work, going to interviews. Little did we know we were in the middle of the worst storm in the West coast for 50 years and that this would affect our flying schedule.
We got on a plane from Burbank to Phoenix, Arizona. From Phoenix we were to take a flight to Raleigh, NC. I guess God had other plans. Our flight to NC was cancelled because of the high winds weather conditions. Later flights heading to NC only had a few available seats and since our professors did not want us to be sent over in groups or pairs, those flights were not feasible options for the 15 of us. The earliest flight we could get leaves at 4:30 on Sunday afternoon. We were disappointed and frustrated to realise it would be longer than anticipated before we were able to get back.
So we ended up renting another van and booking another hotel here in Phoenix for 3 days. The room I am sharing with my friends Alex Johnston and Rebecca Smith is very nice. BUT there is a palm tree right outside my window that is swaying violently in the stormy winds. I think it’s going to crash into the room and kill me in the middle of the night. Also, there is a streetlamp that is giving off lots of bright gold sparks. This concerns me greatly.
Today, me and my classmates went to the ABC building in LA and talked to journalist Brian Rooney. He was really cool and he’s done lots of amazing news pieces for Nightline that I enjoyed watching. Then we DreamWorks Animation SKG, and talked to some people there about animation in movies (obviously).
After that, we went to NBC Universal, where we sat in on the Jay Leno show. Luckily, our professors know the head of the page program at NBC, so we were able to sit in the front row of the audience. We even got a group picture taken with Leno before the show began. (I will update this post as soon as I have said picture.) We told Leno that we were communications majors from Elon University, so after the show, he came and talked to us for about thirty minutes, answering all of our questions. He basically told us the same thing everyone else in LA has been telling us: you need to show strong initiative, have good attitudes and incredible work ethics. He explained how he used these traits to move up in his career from a low-key comedian that no one knew about, to having his own late night show. It was very cool getting to talk to him, he was really nice and friendly!
We started off by going to the Griffith Observatory and walking around.
Then, we drove down winding roads (which made me feel very queasy!) and stopped to take pictures of the Hollywood sign.
Next up was the Hollywood Heritage Museum. There was a lot of props from old movies, like the Ten Commandments, in there. We took a group picture before leaving.
After taking pictures there, we headed on to Santa Monica and the famous pier. It was almost dark outside by the time we got there.
We stayed in the hotel for most of today. We were in a conference room where we got to talk to:
Bill Kelly, the writer of Enchanted and Blast from the Past
Donald Petrie, the director of Ritchie Rich, Miss Congeniality, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Mystic Pizza
Brad Ricker, the art director of Poseidon, Casper, and MI3,
Aaron Ryder, who produced Donnie Darko,
and Maureen, the music supervisor responsible for Whitney’s biggest hit, “I Will Always Love You,” for The Bodyguard.
Out of everyone, I think Donald Petrie was my favourite person to talk to. He had so much energy and humour and had great things to say. He talked about how to make the best movies, by making sure to listen to the creative input of everyone on his team because they might have better ideas on improving the quality of the film. Also, he added that it was important that his crew feel like they all are a part of the production, because that way, they will give their best with everything they do.
We spent most of the day at Warner Bros. today. We went to set of a TV show that I’ve never seen, called Chuck. Then we talked to the head executive of post-production and got to see examples of different steps of the editing process: ADR, Foley artists at work and colour coding specialists for visual stylizing. We also talked to a couple of women about marketing for video games and international movies.
Also, we went to the Warner Bros. museum, and that was a lot of fun. I stood about a foot away from the clothes Alan Rickman wore for Sweeney Todd. I also saw the clothes Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Boggart wore in Casablanca, as well as the piano that played the theme song for the movie. There was paraphernalia from other movies too, like The Dark Knight and Miss Congeniality. On the second floor of the museum was the Harry Potter floor, which was AMAZING! unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, so I can’t post them on the blog.
Today, me and my classmates went to Paramount Studios and spent most of the day there. We talked to a music supervisor, a executive communications coordinator and a programming development coordinator. Oh and we just happened to walk by the Black Eyed Peas who were shooting their new music video on Paramount’s back lot.
At 5:30, we finally left Paramount and got to see the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and walk along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It’s the first time so far that we’ve actually had free time before 9 pm to see the sights of Los Angeles. I had a lot of fun taking pictures with a few of my favourite stars, like Matt Damon. Putting my hand inside Hugh Jackman’s hand print was also pretty amazing!
We’ve had two busy days in LA so far, and I can already feel my body starting to wear down a bit. But it’s okay because we’re doing a lot, and I’m learning a lot.
So far, we’ve spent a day at CBS, where we talked with Ron Weaver, the senior producer of the very successful daytime soap opera, the Bold and the Beautiful. We also talked to the director and got to see the set where the actors were currently filming. Then we went to the Price is Right and met with one of its producers, Adam Sandler (NOT the actor, haha), went to a production meeting, sat in on the rehearsal (and the models walking around wrapped in bathrobes because it was so cold), and were part of the audience during the taping. After that, the executive producer Mike Richards, who was also the host of the Beauty and the Geek, talked to us about how you move up faster in LA.
Here are some pictures I took from the Price is Right:
After leaving the Price is Right, we went to the set of a TV sitcom called Gary Unmarried and sat (for SIX HOURS!!) at the filming of it, as part of the live studio audience. They kept telling us to laugh as we saw take after take and heard each joke again and again. By the end of the day, I had a huge headache because I never watch that much TV in one sitting.
The next day, (yesterday), we went to the Hollywood Reporter, one of the top dailies in LA, followed by a trip to the WildFire Studios where we got to see some cool visual effects. We also went to SMS Talent, where we talked to a talent agency about their relationship with actors. Lastly, we went to the TV Guide Magazine and the guy there talked to us about his several experiences working not only with the magazine but at VH1’s Behind the Music, etc.
We had a beautiful view of the mountains as we were landing into Burbank, California. I was excited because I’ve never been as far west as here. (The furthest I’ve ever gone before was Texas).
After arriving at the hotel and checking in, we went to eat lunch and go food shopping. Then we spent a few hours talking to two Elon alumni, Katherine and Ben, who talked about their experiences working with the NBC page program. Hearing from them made me realise two things: 1) It takes A LOT, perhaps more than I thought it would, to succeed in LA. 2) I feel like I need to rearrange the activities I am involved in at school to line up more closely to my major. I’m always worried I’m not doing the right things, and talking to Catherine and Ben reaffirmed those fears. Time to do some thinking.
Also, I’m going to try and take some pictures tomorrow.
