THE FREAKING ZOO

Los Angeles. 

time has almost come to an end here in LA!! And there is still so much to do and see before I leave. Keeping it consistent, here is the list of things done: 

- music industry class

- Tad, the lost explorer (pretty funny, but not that great for me)

- started packing to go home (sad day)

- class pitches (s/o to Gareth for maybe the best one there)

- grammy museum (mini sidebar #1)

- CREAM (mini sidebar #2)

- The Devil's Backbone @ LACMA (pretty good, super cool museum!!)

- San Diego Zoo (holy cow, sidebar #1)

- Cincinnati Reds vs San Diego Padres game (sidebar #2)

- The Griddle (sidebar #3)

mini sidebar #1: Grammy Museum was so so amazing with my interest in music being wayy up there. Definitely was happy we went there. 

mini sidebar #2: holy cow this ice-cream place called CREAM was so delicious and definitely worth the waiting in traffic to get my ice cream taco

sidebar #1: i've been wanting to go to the zoo for a longgg time now.. and lucky me Ryan took me to the biggest one in the US and holy cow was it big. we didn't even see the whole park!! but what we did see was so much fun and i even got a lil baby panda, some wine, and a shot glass for my dad for the mems (and plenty of pictures, of course)

sidebar #2: after the zoo, we went to the Cincinnati Reds (his favorite baseball team) game against the San Diego Padres. I got to rock a Reds jersey and a lot of people give me weird looks, but also got some Reds fans saying "go reds!!" at me haha very fun game to end a very fun day (even though the Reds lost in an extra inning)

sidebar #3: this place is top brunch. if you haven't been, i would. but a tiny suggestion would be, if you order the pancakes... maybe share them with someone else because the portions are huge and there are three of them. impossible to not take home leftovers! and is also worth the wait in line to get inside. 

baseball finds

Internship.

i'm writing this as I"m waiting to get the ok to leave work and pick up some dosh for our producer from Beverly Hills. Apparently the check has not been signed yet. 

So i'll write about last week: Our guest speaker, and the last one for the week, Rob Lorenz. He was the producer on a majority of Clint Eastwood's movies and was the second unit director on American Sniper - a movie my company produced. He also was the director on Trouble With The Curve - a movie that was partly filmed at my high school!! I talked to him about that, and it was funny because he said that he found my high school on a GPS just looking for anything that resembled a diamond. He said he loved the field because it had all the trees in the back and was NOT surrounded by fencing like most fields are. 

Overall, it was really great hearing from Rob and he had a lot of advice to offer. At the end, he even said that if we ever wanted to volunteer, that we could reach out to him and he would gladly help us out in getting some experience. Which is always nice to hear from a speaker. 

Keeping Busy

Los Angeles. 

getting straight to the point bc I am v late with my post this week (-: 

- Warner Brothers Marketing Rep (v cool to see what goes into marketing for a movie)

- Bachelorette (so close to the end)

- Blue Hats Creative (sidebar #1)

- Jared Leto screening (sidebar #2)

- Office Depot (i spent 70$ on new stuff LOL)

- LabCorp (sidebar #3, insight to my next internship)

- Jimmy Kimmel Live! (sidebar #4)

- The Day Shall Declare It (interesting play but hot as heck!!)

- Star Trek Beyond (mini side bar #1)

- The Giant Forest (sidebar #5)

- Bootie LA pt 2 (mini side bar #2)

- Sunday fails (mini side bar #3)

- Amoeba (sidebar #6)

mini side bar #1: definitely wasn't as good as the other two! Even my boss at work said she thought it was made more for hardcore star trek series fans. 

mini side bar #2: after two and a half months of being here, finally Ryan and I both made it to the club and it was one night for the books

mini side bar #3: we tried to go to the WGA library - closed. we went to the Grove Farmer's Market - we weren't hungry (but we got ice cream!). we never made it to the comic book store. 

sidebar #1: i LOVED hearing about commercials and what goes into being a producer. I've always considered going into being a News EP and then doing commercials in addition. So when Maria pretty much offered a job to anyone who was interested, made me pretty excited. She was even more sincere in her email back to me, and I definitely plan to stay in touch with her. 

sidebar #2: Lucky me, my boy invited me to go to one of Jared Leto's screenings for a mini-series that he did. The event was very classy, but laid back at the same time. I loved both my glasses of wine and my cheeseburger slider :) The mini-series itself was very cool, about rock climbing in Yosemite. A beautiful place. Jared Leto himself seems very laid back also and was pretty funny, keeping the screening light and fun. 

sidebar #3: my internship in the fall for 13WMAZ in Macon, GA requires me to go through a background check and also a drug screening. So i had to run to LabCorp after class and i even had to wait a whole extra hour because i didn't have to use the bathroom when i arrived :) oops

sidebar #4: Jimmy Kimmel Live was so fun! I'd been to a Family Feud taping before so I knew a bit about what I was getting into. What was amazing though was one of the guest speakers... George Lopez. I have loved that guy since I was little. My mom and I would always cuddle in her bed and watch George Lopez late at night on TV, a childhood memory I'll always love. Another guest speaker was Viggo Mortenson from Lord of the Rings. But if I'm being honest, I was never a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings, so I thought George Lopez  was much more entertaining... plus he's a comedian so of course he makes great jokes. 

sidebar #5: absolutely beautiful! the unfortunate situation that became is once we arrived, I got a headache. Which later turned into a migraine. So hiking for 3 miles in the sun was not the best place to be at the time. I tried to keep quiet and not complain about my migraine so I wouldn't ruin the experience for the other people who came with us! But luckily, once we got back to the car, I had some Advil and the migraine became a headache and I slept it off in the car and when we got back. 

sidebar #6: Amoeba music store! This is the second time I've gone, and holy cow I was still overwhelmed. I of course bought more vinyl records and more CD's and I am happy with every cent i spent. Plus, I even got a sticker for my guitar case back home. I wish I had brought my record player so I could listen to the records now, but that just gives me something to look forward to when I get back to Athens. A night with a glass of wine and wonderful music. 

Needless to say, a lot of memories were made this week as well as a lot of money well spent. 

homesick

Los Angeles.

it was a long week that felt like two weeks or maybe I'm just getting tired//homesick lol here we go: 

- Bachelorette (duh)

- Christine Swanson, MasterClass pt 1 (I think this may have been my favorite MasterClass). 

- Grady Alumni Mixer (sidebar #1)

- Christine Swanson, MasterClass pt 2 (met Darius McCrary and, he's a pretty cool dude)

- SONY studios (doesn't deserve a sidebar, but was still pretty interesting to learn about 4K and SONY cameras)

- Laugh Factory (sidebar #2)

- Friday night wine night Star Trek 2 night lol (sidebar #3)

- Hike to the Hollywood Sign (sidebar #4)

- McDonald's (i'd been craving this for months, so it made the list)

- Hot Tub 

- OutFest (sidebar #5)

- some Deli near the DGA (A++, a BLT never tasted so good)

sidebar #1: this event was well put together and meeting people and making connections was really cool. I think my favorite part was talking to the editor of The Miki Howard Story, Gresh. He had a lot of good things to say and was very eye-opening. He gave me his contact information and said he'd be open to me shadowing him if he is editing anything before we go back home. and that would be amazing. 

sidebar #2: I didn't go the first time around with the rest of the program, so this was my first time. and I'm not gonna lie it was pretty eventful. Howie Mandel made a last minute decision to come up on the stage and we even saw one of the pussycat dolls, Ashley Roberts do her first ever (and probably only) stand-up comedy bit. She said her producers made her do it... which explains the cameras filming that disappeared after her piece. 

sidebar #3: friday night, Ryan cooked me dinner and bought wine for us: we finished the bottle and I think, had a great talk & time on the patio. We tried to watch Star Trek 2 with Kayla, her friend, Gareth and Jordan... but both of us got way too sleepy from the wine and fell asleep half way through. Definitely need to watch the third one before the third one comes out. 

sidebar#4: hiking is hard. hiking 5 miles doesn't sound like a lot but the hills were steep at points and it smelled like horse poop and pee :-) because there were horse tours too lol. the sign itself was pretty cool to see and the pictures we took when we got there and on the way were pretty great!! Ryan took videos of Kayla and I, and those were pretty funny looking back on them haha i was struggling a lot in the beginning. oops

sidebar #5: the first movie we saw, I thought was pretty good. despite the abrupt ending to the volleyball dilemma. the second movie we saw, I thought had a good story to tell, but it wasn't really told that well at all. documentaries can be interesting, and I really enjoy them. But this one, was not done well and didn't do Miss Major's story justice, in my opinion. 

Overall, it was a good week. Everyone in bold were famous people that I saw. So that list is growing and growing. I still hope I see Ellen Degeneres before I leave since her stage and office is next to where I work. 

Recommend.

Internship. 

This Friday at work was nothing ordinary. We started out in the morning going to both of the Warner Brothers Museums on the lot. It was me, and three other interns along with both of the PA's. I think after time spent outside the office, we all are a little bit closer. I wasn't able to go to the WB Studio Tour with the rest of the program a few weeks back since I was sick, so I was really happy to still get the experience while I am out here. My favorite things from the tour would have to be: HP costumes and props, the set of FRIENDS, all the super heroes costumes, and learning more about how certain movies were filmed using green screen. Like in Lord of the Rings, they made Gandalf taller by having him film everything separately in a green screen and manipulate the scene via camera tricks and angles. 

We didn't get to finish the museum though, because we had to make it back in time for our 11AM speaker: Charlie McSpadden. He is the creative exec at Material - a film and TV production company. The interest part about Charlie is that he used to do on set PA work - and it sounded amazing. He's worked on Shame, Damsels in Distress, The Great Gatsby, and lots more. The stories he had to share about being on set were funny and made the job seem exciting. Although he did say sometimes, it's a lot of waiting around on set, at all hours of the day. 

After lunch, I was given a script to read and as I began reading it, I realized early that it was one of the good ones. BUT, I was cut short when our PA's asked us if we wanted to go back to the WB Museum to finish it up, and this time the creative exec came with us. Again, I think we all got closer. Especially when we had to explain to him how Pokemon Go works since he never played Pokemon as a kid. 

By the time we finished at the Museum, it was time to go home. I spent the weekend finishing up coverage for the script I got. I thought it was definitely something that should be seriously considered, so I wanted to spend my time on the coverage and make it the best it could be. Maybe it'll turn into something one day. 

And that was Friday.

i love food

Los Angeles. 

last week i wrote out my entire blog and then i hit publish and all that got posted was my meme........... so here's to hoping that doesn't happen again. 

i'm gonna keep it pretty simple this week cause it's been a pretty simple week? 

here's the list of activities: 

- saw Andres' short film (it was pretty darn good)

- saw Star Trek at the Hollywood Bowl (sidebar #1)

- went to a place called the virgil (sidebar #2)

- went to Venice Beach (sidebar #3)

- Dog Haus (pt.2 it was still yummy even tho i only got tots)

- Tomato Pie Pizza Join (freaking A+++++, im going back)

- Melrose Avenue (sidebar #4)

- Comic book store i forgot the name of (also sidebar #4)

**all week i've also been watching the latest grey's anatomy season that is now on Netflix and holy cow i just can't stop watching**

sidebar #1: I've never seen Star Trek before but Gareth kinda hyped it up all night so i went in with high expectations and thankfully it held. The movie was soo amazing and on top of that, to have the orchestra be there was even more incredible - especially for me bc i absolutely love music. the whole experience was something new and i loved it. and i really hope we have that movie night to watch the second one and then go see the new one when it comes out soon

sidebar #2: do not recommend. 

sidebar #3: venice is really pretty - and also very tourist oriented. all the shops are alongside the beach for shoppers, for example. parking was a $30 for 3 hours NIGHTMARE. but it was fun! And i got myself some new $10 sunglasses from one of those shops so im not mad :-) i think one of the highlights was when ryan's friend ben came up to me and kayla and said "can i see your phone? ... and your hat?" so i gave it to him and then ryan comes out of no where and dunks me into the ocean. lol i should've seen that coming 

sidebar #4: melrose is a pretty cool street. we got there kind of late so the market was closed already but we still went into a few shops. I bought myself a new frank vinyl (even tho i can't listen to it until im back home) and we even found probably what's been the best comic store we've seen in LA so far! the people were very kind too. we even enjoyed happy hour at Redo Restaurant. and i secretly only did that so i could use their bathroom :-) 

Errands and Agents

Internship.

This Friday was FULL of errands. But I'm not complaining, cause that's better than sitting around all day. First, I drove to The Grove movie theater and picked up tickets for Andrew's family to go see Secret Life of Pets (although let's be real, I could have done this online). BUT, the cool thing I learned for that movie theater is that their refund policy is amazing. You can refund your ticket up to 30 minutes after the show starts so does this mean i can watch the first 30 minutes and then refund the ticket if i don't like it? probably not, somehow but i might try it one day. Next, I drove to the FedEx store on Cahuenga - luckily found a street parking spot) and spent 30 minutes there to send a fax and sort out a letter that needed to be sent in priority mail but then there were some problems so i tried to figure it out - but my boss ended up saying to just forget it! bless the asian man who was trying to help me out at the desk. After that, i drove to Andrew's house in west hollywood to make a delivery and then i got to go home early for the day!!

The other interesting thing that I'm leaving out is our... you guessed it... friday speaker! His name was James Robins Early and he is an Agent at ICM Partners. Of course he said the same thing as everyone else about making connections (he is still very close with our Director, Wynn) and the interesting part about his career path is that he originally wanted to be a producer. But after being an Agent, he says he enjoys being an Agent more than a producer's job because he gets to pull the whole movie together. For example, if a producer comes to him with an idea, he pulls the writer and the director. or if a writer pitches a script, he will pull the producer and director and vice versa. He likes to be able to pull all the puzzle pieces and put them together. He says he enjoys that more than being a producer and dealing with just one aspect. Which is pretty interesting, because it just goes to show you that no matter what you set out to be, you may not get there but that doesn't mean you won't be happy with where you end up. 

Overall, another solid week at work and I think everyone is starting to really see me/want that connection with me so yayayy!

Not-so sick Claud.

Sick Claud.

Internship. 

sadly, i ended up not going to my internship this week because me being sick + long weekend for July 4th = no internship. 

BUT, i still worked on my novel coverage and turned that in. The producer was the one who wanted it to be covered... but i gave it a hard pass. so I hope he still likes me. i also spent my time reading more of the scripts that are being developed right now. so not all a waste. And this upcoming week, I'll have my one on one with Wynn - something to look forward to. plus another speaker. 

Overwhelmed, Pt. 2

Beverly Hills, that's where I want to be. 

And the adventures continue! I went exploring around Beverly Hills where I soon realized that the traffic is bad, there is a lot of construction right now and the houses are where I'd like to live. 

I think I'm going to stick to keeping a list of everything I manage to accomplish each week, so for this week:

- Bachelorette (had to keep up, even in LA)

- Taco Villa Corona (tacos are small but filling)

- Dog Haus (hotdogs are huge and still filling)

- Writers of Jessica Jones Panel at WGA (the guy that wrote Now You See Me is a humble dude)

- Beverly Hills (see above)

- Makers Studio (side bar #1)

- Comic Book store #2 (Archie Comic Books are soo expensive, I should have never thrown away my collection)

- Food Truck Thursdays @ South Clubhouse (yasss, Oakwood.)

- WGA Library (side bar #2)

- The Farmers Market (quesadi-yes)

- The Grove (i spent $80 on jeans when 90% of the stores had sales going on lol why)

- Bootie LA (side bar #3)

- being sick 

side bar #1: Makers Studio. so everyone knows new media is a thing, but seeing how little it took for this studio to do what they do, was a bit crazy. It's funny how seeing their corporation office was a LOT bigger and more modern compared to the building where the actual product was made. 

side bar #2: WGA Library. Going into this, I wasn't really too excited. But I was so wrong about that.. seeing all the scripts they had first hand was an experience I'm definitely going to do again while I'm here. I spent my time going through Friends pilot and it was so different from seeing the actual episode. There were some things in the pitch that was in the script that are different from how the episode played out so it was interesting seeing how it started from the script and made its way to the final product. 

side bar #3: Bootie LA. great DJ. great friends. see pics. 

going back soon, next time hopefully with my main man. 

The second week has gone by and so many more memories have been created and there's still 6 weeks left. This weekend is Fourth of July though so it should be a good time; I can't wait to see all the people in red white & blue. HAHA jk, I'm British. jk again, i'll still celebrate

Always Learning

The Internship.

What's new that I've learned this week at work? Friday's are s l o w. And, going home 11 minutes early is considered "taking an early day". LOL. But, I did get a novel to cover. So instead of the typical script coverage, it's an entirely different mindset going into it. 

Can an adaptation be made from the novel?

Can it be a movie? 

A TV series? 

My boss told me it's not so much about the way that it's written/the writer, but more of the plot and what happens. The other thing about novels is that it takes double, maybe triple as long as scripts, to cover. For one, they're obviously a lot longer. But the other part is that this novel is based on a true story.. about something I don't know much about.. using a lot of language I don't understand (hint: it's about boxing/martial arts/UFC) so I'm constantly looking up words and moves so that I can know exactly what the writer is talking about and know what happened. So it's time consuming. But it's not a bad thing, I've got 20 pages left to read and I'd say I've learned a lot about the subject, and history too. 

A new guy started working for Mad Chance Productions this past week. We got to meet him: Ben. He says that if any of the interns have ever read a comic book, that he automatically will like you better than any of the other interns. Luckily, I've been to three comic stores in the past month (S/O TO RYAN, thanks bud) so i guess that means I've got the one up with the new guy. :) 

Remember how I didn't get to meet Steven Spielberg's assistant last week? Well, this week I did get to go to our intern seminar and I met Jamie Conejo - he works for STX Entertainment. A NEW studio in Hollywood, that's not doing too bad. They haven't been around for long and the most interesting thing I learned from Jamie, was about the animation pipeline. He worked in an outreach department at one point, and learned all the different people needed to make an animation happen: map-painters, animators, sketch artists, etc. I had always wondered about the exact process for animated movies, how it's done, how long it takes, and now I know - Thanks Jamie!

Sadly, I didn't go into work today because I've been sick the past few days. Sore throats. Migraines. Stomach aches. But now I have strawberry lozenges and ice cream and I feel better. :) I still read all day long, that novel, but reading at work is still different than reading in bed. My next day at work can't come faster. 

100 Degrees and Counting

Los Angeles.

8 days. 192 hours. 11,520 minutes. 691,200 seconds. I've been here for that long (or short) of a time and already I feel overwhelmed, excited, and exhausted. Here's what I have to show for it, in order: 

- Lala's Grill (sharing 3 steaks and two sides with Tyrus, is do-able and delicious)

- Q&A with Grady Alum living in L.A. (two of them were homeless at a point, so that's reassuring)

- MasterClass with Mike O'Malley (a good writer has to be able to have an argument, and a good one at that)

- Child Actor living at Oakwood (there are a lot of wanna-be actor-kids here at Oakwood Apartments.. but hey, some of them make it)

- Hollywood Boulevard (casually running into sex shops, smoke shops and food shops, and saw Tracy Morgan and Ed Helms filming something)

- Some mall I don't know the name of (Shoe Palace, is not a palace after-all. only tennis shoes and sneakers... )

- In-N-Out Burger (YUM)

- Downtown Los Angeles (expensive, far, over $50 Ubers, packed with people, oh and expensive)

- Finding Dory (funny, but not nearly as funny/good as Finding Nemo)

- Griffith Observatory (beautiful and packed with tourists)

- Universal Studios (disappointing rides, a LOT of sun, not enough water and good times)

- Salsa Bar (also, YUM)

it doesn't seem like a lot written down in front of me, but the energy it took to do all of that was a lot. being at Universal yesterday completely drained the energy out of me - 105 degrees? definitely not used to that back in Georgia. and today the high is 108. let's all agree to go back to the cool and breezy mid-70 degree LA weather. 

side bar: driving across the United States is a long and hard trip. (haha) luckily on the way back, we'll be driving through more interesting stopping points. aka hellooo Grand Canyon. 

the only thing i can say moving forward is that it feels like there is SO much still to do. but that's a good thing, because we've got 7 more weeks in this place. we can't lose momentum now or we'll miss out on everything that's around us. And not only in Los Angeles.. but Santa Monica, Burbank, Malibu, Anaheim, and more. 

so let's keep it up in the next week. 

Friday Speakers

Internship.

pretty much i got caught in an annoying situation on Friday. All of the interns come in on Friday (even if they aren't working) and get to see a speaker, just for us. Well this Friday it was Tommy Sobel, Steven Spielberg's assistant. But i got into the office a little early, and Erica (PA) needed someone to drive out to Andrew's (the producer) new house in Malibu. Malibu is an hour away and Andrew was having furniture delivered. all. day. long. So with it being my first week, i didn't want to ask someone else to go so i could meet Tommy Sobel... so i went and stayed there. all. day. long. to be honest, the house wasn't even that impressive.. but the drive there was beautiful so it made up for everything. kind of. I also got to meet Andrew as he showed me where everything was supposed to be placed in his new house. He seems like a nice guy and told me i could drink the OJ in his fridge, so that also made up for it. kind of. 

on the bright side of things, I already have my informational interview set up with Wynn (the other producer).