Day 16: Behind the scenes on NCIS

1/21/2020: Today we went to the lot for NCIS. We met with Scott Williams one of the head writers on the show. He walked us around the lot showing us various sets of the show like Ducky's Lab, the main headquarters, and their street set. Then we sat and had lunch with Scott Williams and we talked with him about his writing and how he goes about writing scripts and his crazy story on how he became a writer for the show. Then we went and talked to a colorist from Encore who went to TC3.

Day 15: How to get behind the Hollywood sign? Get your stuff stolen

1/20/2020, What a crazy day today was. First we went to Creative Creature Engineering. There we saw the process that artists go through to create monsters for features. We started the tour by talking to the companies owner for almost an hour. Andrew the owner of the company was really cool to talk to because he built his company from just an idea he had into a full fledged well established monster maker. We saw the process from modeling, to casting, to painting, to finishing touches like cloth. After that we went and watched 1917 in theaters. Check my snapchat for my movie review. Finally later that night we met up with a cop that Professor X and Lucas had made friends with. He took us up to a restricted area above the Hollywood sign and we got to see the the whole city of LA from thousands of feet in the air. An amazing ending to the day.

Day 14: The Most Magical Place in the World

1/12/20: We went to Disneyland today which was just another amazing experience to add to the trip. Of course we headed straight for the new Star Wars world in the back of the park. They had really gone over the top with building the area I truly felt like I was standing on another planet. We got to drink blue milk and ride on the Millennium Falcon. After we had explored all that Star Wars had we rode The Haunted Mansion which was my personal favorite ride. We rode Thunder Ridge Mountain, Space Mountain, and the train around the park multiple times. Overall a really amazing day and just so weird to think about that somewhere that huge and creative all started because a man in the 20's was really good at running his animation company.

Day 13: We Got Robbed

1/18/20, This morning we got lunch with director Michael Kehoe. He is a producer, writer, and director of multiple movies and worked on some big movies like Black Panther and Almost Famous. Meeting him and being able to talk to him was how to break into the industry. After that we went to Paramount and got a tour of the lot. We saw where The Godfather and Citizen Kane were filmed which were just so cool since they are some of the greatest movies ever made. Later in the evening we went to the American Legion and watched a previously unseen version of Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush. This was easily one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. It was also accompanied by a live piano player which made the night even better. After that we got to go see the projectors and how they work. Of course after that great and interesting day we go out to the parking lot and find that our van's door had been busted open and Lucas's laptop was stolen. Definitely a good ending to a good day.

Day 12: Norman Bates Almost Got Us

1/17/20, Today was the trip to Universal. We were able to take a tour of the back lots of Universal Studios. This means we saw sets spanning back decades. We saw sets from Back to the Future, cowboy sets that John Wayne shot movies on, and my personal favorite the actual set of The Bates Motel from 1960. Seeing the place where some of the best movies ever were filmed really put into perspective why I'm here and why I want to make my own some day. After that we went to Sony Pictures Animation. There we got to talk to a concept artist who showed us her work on a commercial for Hotel Transylvania 3. She talked to us about the various processes that went into creating a animated movie. After that we talked to an animator who showed us how they rig up animations for movement. Seeing behind the scenes and learning about Sony's new animated projects was just an amazingly unreal experience.

Day 11: Mark Needs His Own Show

1/16/20, Today we all piled into the car and drove through the mountains to Malibu. There we went to the Creative Vision Foundation. This company promotes world changing ideas through the use of media. They essentially try to make the world a better place through art, music, film, or a combination of those and other mediums. The company was founded by Amy and Kathy Eldon who's son Dan lost in life in Somalia as a war photographer. After these events his family created this foundation to promote Dan's ideas. We had watched the documentary about him in class and written letters to his mom and sister so meeting them in real life was strange in a way. Meeting someone that you sort of share this connection with for the first time is always odd but greatly rewarding. After that we drove up along the coast line to get back to the CBS lot for our final taping. This time the show was called Carol's Second Act. Again it was a sitcom so just not my sense of humor. But it was the same comedian keeping us entertained as Mom. Mark had me dying from 90% of his lines. He really needs his own show. In terms of what I learned from the set, I definitely noticed more cameras moving around in this one. I paid more attention to what the focus puller was doing after meeting Symon Mink twice on this trip. It wasn't as smooth of a taping as Last Man Standing but it went very fast despite many rewrites.

Day 10: The Price is Right, But is the wait time?

1/15/20, Today's big trip was back to CBS to see The Price is Right. This was a new experience because it was a game show which we hadn't seen being filmed before. It also had much tighter security than the other shows. We had to stand in line for three and a half hours waiting to get into a show that didn't even last half that time. The wait might've been long but the show itself was really cool. Unlike the past shows the cameras were constantly moving. Swinging around to get different angles and getting close ups on various prizes. But similar to Dr. Phil they didn't have chances too do retakes. They had to do all their shots right or risk doing it wrong. Since the show has been on for years they knew exactly what to do which was very impressive. After that we met Symon Mink, the focus puller from a few nights ago, for lunch at the Grove. Talking to him and asking questions was again very interesting and enlightening. He really has an depth knowledge of the industry and it was great to pick his mind about it all. Finally towards the end of our time at The Grove we ran into rapper Lil Dicky which was just crazy, he gave me a high five. Just a great day.

Day 9: Dr. Phil is the Last Man Standing

1/14/20, Today was all about TV shows. 5:30 am we rolled out of bed to get to Dr. Phil. The taping started at 9:00 am so we had to get there real early. Getting on the set was just a surreal experience. We've all see the Dr. Phil set on TV and of course the man himself. But seeing it all in person just felt so odd, amazing but definitely different. He had seven different camera rigs for his show including a steady cam rig which was very interesting to watch as he moved around stage. After that we had an hour and half to kill before our next taping so we went to The Walk of Fame which was only cool because of the stars everything else was sorta dirty. Our final show for the night was Last Man Standing. This was a show being taped in front of a large studio audience like Mom was. The problem with these style of shows is they don't want the audience getting bored in between takes and scenes so they hire a comedian to keep the audience happy. Mom's comedian was actually really funny but this one was not at all. I laughed at like one joke of his. I would've liked it much more to just hear what the director and actors were talking about between sets. Tim Allen was on this one and he was being so funny in between takes it would've been way more interesting to just hear what he had to say. Overall not my favorite experience

of the trip just for the lack of info I got about that style of production.

Day 8: It's Always "Sony" in LA

1/13/20, Today was by far the most interesting day so far. First we went to Sony Pictures' Lot. First we got a tour of some of the buildings which was super interesting. It felt weird thinking, this is the end goal, this is where I wanna be. We also go to see their prop museum which got me very excited because it had the Jade Sword of Destiny from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. After all this the best part came. We got to meet the VP of Sony's Creative Center. He spoke with us about his advertisements and then introduced us to other advertisers and an editor. Talking to the editor was great because he was talking about Adobe Premier, which is the program that we use at the college so it felt like we were speaking the same language. This concept was made even more apparent when we went to tour Technicolor. There we met a Colorist, an Online Editor, and a VFX Artist. The colorist was amazing to hear. Everything he said was exactly what we've been told by others but he said it all clearly. Seeing his job made me want to work in this industry even more.

Day 7: Dinner with Symon Mink

1/12/19, Today we did two big things. First we did our second day of PA boot camp. This was an interesting time for sure. We did learn a lot about how to act on film. We learned how to work the radios, how to respond when were spoken too through them, and who to approach on set. Unfortunately one of the ladies teaching yelled at us for just so long about how awful being a PA was I started to feel like maybe this job isn't for me and I left really disappointed with the program. Thank goodness we were able to have dinner with Symon Mink. He is a professional focus puller who has worked on multiple big budget and recognizable films like Paul Blart Mall Cop and The Amazing Spider-man. Talking with him was the exact opposite with the lady at Boot camp. He was like yeah it's hard to start but this is an amazing field. Best of all he is a TC3 alum. So seeing someone who started from such a low spot where we all are and making it to the big leagues was very inspiring.

Day 6: Terminology is Key

1/11/20, PA Boot Camp has finally come. Wow, what an experience. The instructors jumped in immediately in teaching us how to be PA's. I was writing down notes left and right trying to gather all the information I could.  We learned everything from abbreviations on paper work to the nicknames for specific things. Like "Martini" is what is announced when the crew is on the last shot of the day. The boot camp was a mixture of lectures from the instructors and various games and competitions to see how well we had listened.

Day 5: Hey Look "Mom" I Made It

1/10/20, Today we went to a taping of the show Mom. The show had this guy who basically put on a show for us while the crew was setting up the scenes and equipment. While the show he put on was entertaining I was there to learn how shows are taped. He was too loud for me to hear anything that was going on on the set so I had to really try to work on what was happening. I saw a lot of interesting things. One thing that was really cool was that the director would change things on the fly. He would yell cut, talk to a an actress, and then on  the next take there would be a new line of dialogue or action from the actress. It was definitely something cool to see how well the crew worked together to have the taping go right along as planned.

Day 4: "Wow is that a seal?"

1/9/20, our final day in San Francisco. We left early, like 6:00 am. Not only did we have a 7 hour drive down to LA, but we planned on going to Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The boys car go to the castle roughly 45 minutes before the girls car so we had time to chill on the beach before our tour. There was an elephant seal on the beach. He was just vibin in the sun. The tour of Hearst Castle was amazing. Not only did it have the connection of being Xanadu from Citizen Kane, but it also housed many movie stars, writers, and directors over the years. The building was just beautiful with every room being so well decorated you could spend hours looking at all the little details in the wood carvings and the paintings. After that was a 4 and a half hour drive to get down to Los Angeles.

Day 3: I'm Twitching on a Segway

1/8/20 Today was Twitch and Segways. We started out nice and early going to Twitch headquarters. Twitch was an interesting place. It felt much more similar to PlayStation than Google. I think that slick is the word best to describe them. Something that really shocked me was that they just had beers in the fridge with all the other drinks that were totally free for the employees to use. Google seemed less about creating a creative space but Twitch was all about that. Break rooms with video games, posters with everyone's favorite childhood games everywhere. It felt more like a place a bunch of nerdy kids would create rather than an office, it was amazing. After that we decided to ride Segways. They are not my favorite mode of transportation. I would've much preferred to walk through the park enjoying the view.

Day 2: A Tale of Two Businesses

1/7/20 Our first full day in California was already super interesting. We started off strong with touring Google Cloud's campus. The way they run businesses in New York and the way they run them in California are like night in day. Google seems to care about their employees and wants them to enjoy work. They have tons of free food, access to bikes to use, access to all sorts of free features like cooking classes and massages. They make the buildings interesting to be in. Each building and floor having different themes. It felt like a college campus. The other big thing that I noticed was that no one wore a suit. In New York we have a way we picture a professional in our head. A quality cleaned suit with shined shoes. Here in Silicon Valley people wore whatever they wanted, jeans and a sweatshirt or sweat pants and a themed t-shirt.

PlayStation was different on the other hand. While they were smaller, they didn't seem to have as much control on them from cooperate. Google planned everything out for their employees but it seemed like PlayStation left the designing and themes of places in charge of the people who worked within them. The people also seemed to love the work so much that they would work their even if they didn't like the company. Google didn't seem nearly as like this. A solid day overall with many cool surprises and sites. 

Day 1: The Arrival

1/6/20 Day One was filled with a number of firsts. My first time in the Chicago airport, my first time in San Francisco, my first time eating In and Out Burger, and my first time riding in a car in California which was sorta scary. Since most of our day was traveling to California we didn't have much time to see any studios. But we did get to head to Letterman Digital Art Center. Since Industrial Art Lights and Magic doesn't allow tours we could only go into their lobby. But they did have perfect replicas of many Star Wars weapons and characters which was just fascinating to see up close.