Day #16

Our last full day in California started off by heading to the set of NCIS with our host being one of the producers of the show, Scott Williams.

Then after that we went over to the studio of Encore, which handles post production services and where we got to meet a previous TC3 student, Asa Fox.

Both Scott and the team over at Encore were very kind to let us in and give us a tour as well as plenty of earfulls of information. Not saying it was bad, quite the opposite really. Instead of asking question after question after question, this time we were giving the opportunity to listen to it all in big chunks and learn from their experience that way. We not only learned about them, but how they found their footing and where they truly came from and I think that was the most impactful take away for today.

See ya back in New York!

Day #15

We started off today's journey going to Creative Character Engineering, a practical effects studio that holds the creation for props, 3D modeling, concept art, and robotics and were wonderful hosts.

After that we got a good look at the sum of all the parts put together on what we were learning out here by stopping at a theater to watch 1917!

Then we finally got a chance to see the Hollywood sign nice and close...and in reverse! We got to get a look at the Hollywood sign from the top of the mountain looking down at it due to the theft from before allowing us to meet Sargent Bob who invited us up there. However, we also were were allowed to walk around and see nearly 360 degrees around us at the top, substituting the niche view of the sign for a beautiful cityscape.

Today the takeaway was enjoying the culmination of what we learned and what happened over the trip. The theft of my peers bag led to us getting this amazing view. 1917 was an outstanding movie that we all say through the credits in respect, knowing what it might have taken to make such a film. Finally, having CCE be so kind as to let us have a tour of their studio and pick their brains for a while, as well as letting us gaze at some of the concept art for past and current projects. For that, we are very thankful!

Day #14

The one "Hey everybody just relax and have a good time" day on this trip. We headed off to Disneyland, a place I'd obviously never been to seeing how I've never been to California before this trip.

It was a nice relaxing day filled with all sorts of interesting sights and experiences. Trying out blue and green milk at Galaxy's Edge along with seeing all the rest of the Star Wars stuff we could, a super tasty cherry and green apple lemonade, some rollercoasters (favorite of which was Space Mountain), and tied it all up with the show at night with tons of fireworks, lazer lights, and music.

There really wasn't much to learn from this experience, but it felt so good to finally have some freedom. So if anything, that's my takeaway. Even when you're working hard on projects or needed at five different places in a day, it's still necessary to have that break now and again.

Day #13

A rather eventful day. Through mostly good means, though there was a rough patch at the very end.

To start today we had a brunch with Michael Kehoe, a writer and director for movies like The Hatred. Much like the others we've spoken to, we asked questions and listened intently.

Then we zipped on over to Paramount Studios, though instead of just seeing Dr. Phil, we got the studio tour. We got to learn the history of sections of the studio as well as see their rather extensive New York streets set that included many tall buildings that were facades, most of which that we looked at were hollowed out for the most part.

After we sat down and had a nice meal at the Hometown Buffet, it was off to go see Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush in it's current closest to original form in 35mm film. It was accompanied ba a live piano performance and then we had a projector room tour/rundown after. All of which was done by Retroformat at the Hollywood Legion Theater and was very fun to experience thanks to my found appreciation of black&white films through my film analysis class.

In a nutshell here's today's takeaways:

-From Michael, learn to let go of some stuff that is preventing you from working on what you want to do. (His example was choosing to continue working as a waiter, or hope on a film job that would get in the way of that) Also to push yourself out and make connections.

-From Paramount, you can make massive sets that are literally blocks wide and multi purpose them with some relative ease.

-From Retrofirmat, there's still such an incredible love and drive of people for the silent film genre and that there's a lot to learn from Chaplin films for their extremely entertaining value as well as their staying power.

Now normally that would be all but there was one big rattle in our night. Our van we've been traveling in was broken into and one of my peers was robbed and likely only a glance away from more of us having the same. So another lesson learned, or at least a reminder that the world is a tricky place. So we have to be smart about how we handle ourselves and our possessions.

Day #12

Another nice and packed day. This time it was a tour in Universal Studios and Sony Pictures Animation and then dinner with another person who works in the field!

Universal was actually a bit of a surprise, I wasn't really expecting the tour to have had so many original large sets like the Bates Motel and two of the buildings from Jim Carrey's The Grinch. There was also a set for something being filmed by an Access Hollywood crew, which was assume by their logo being very present all over the set. It seemed to be for a commercial spot due to how their actors were talking.

Sony Pictures Animation I fully expected to like and thanks to Caleb Bomysoad for hooking us up, we got a great little tour with some insightful talks to staff members about the world of animation. Including storyboarding, concept art, start to end development, and the levels of animation.

To close out the day, we got to sit down with Andrew Inglin, a cinematographer and animator. He was a great time to have around and allowed us to pick his brain for a while.

From this day, I felt very tired all day but yet I was still able to keep myself up and interested in what was going on. My eyes looked over Universal, and my ears honed in on information from those at Sony and Andrew. For that, I'm grateful for the opportunity to listen to them.

Day #11

Today was a big day for me. We had the wonderful opportunity to meet the lovely people working at Creative Visions. We also came to CBS again for an episode of Carol's Second Act afterwords.

Dan, Amy, and Kathy Eldon's story is one that I didn't think would wind up having a hook on me as I grew older. It surely did though, and I found myself very excited to head over to their studio in Malibu to finally meet them after the past few years after first discovering them. Kathy and Amy were both incredibly kind people who welcomed us warmly. Kathy said that she was honored to have us, but really it was the other way around. It was an huge honor to be welcomed into not just her studio, but her home for a meal as well.

The recording of Carol's Second Act was oddly enough the smoothest feeling one to sit in on for some reason. Maybe it was just because we've done it a few times now and have gotten used to it. I was able to pay very close attention to the boom mic cranes and camera operators this time though. I was able to watch the operators for the boom's flick the mic around like crazy to keep lined up with whoever was talking and also the fact that they used the mics to search for as buzzing lightbulb which was really neat.

In all today I think I grew a stronger appreciation for people working in the field. The skill and wit of the mic operators in CBS, and the hospitality, extreme care and passion that the members of Creative Visions put into their creative activism.

Day #10

Today the group headed out to CBS again to take part in something else this time, The Price is Right!

While the line and wait was a lot longer than expected, when we got in there the crowd had a surprisingly high amount of energy and turned out to be a good time once settled in. We also had a meal with Symon again later in the day where people were able to ask questions yet again.

Today was hard for me to focus on as I think about it more and more. Though I think that was more of a fault of my own due to a family matter back in New York that had me worried all day. However, I can say that it was interesting to see a more energetic crew member, who I believe was named Dianna, to carry and guide the audience during the show, as well as Drew Carey and George Gray helping intermissions feel fairly fluent. Yet again, Symon was also an extremely pleasant person to be around.

Day #9

Double audience show day!

We got right on over to Paramount Studios to view a recording in the audience for Dr. Phil! A really surreal experience knowing that I'd watched the show off and on for most of my life and now sitting in to not only see the episode unfold in front of me, but to look at everything going on around it.

They had multiple cameras, four being your "standard" set up, then one crane can, and a body stabilized one. Tying that all together was watching how the production assistants handled the show as well as the busy bee that was the floor manager darting around.

After that we found ourselves at CBS to sit in for another sitcom, this one being "Last Man Standing" which had a much clearer view of what was going on in between takes, as well as a much more laid back feeling overall due to just how goofy everyone down on the show floor was.

The big learning takeaway from these two events were that I was starting to really click in the knowledge I had previously learned from my Television Production class as well as what I'd learned from P.A. Bootcamp. I was enjoying myself watching the shows while also finding plenty of time to glance and observe the behind the scenes, that funnily enough, was right in front of us.

Day #8

After the days of P.A. Bootcamp, finally we all got the chance to sleep in while still also being on the clock to get up and go in the afternoon.

Today's travels took us over to Sony at first so we could have a tour of the studios with a small private meeting at the end, then heading over to Technicolor for a stop by three different workstations that people performed their magic at.

With both instances, I was able to pull out one defined learned experience. Those who we talked to today all worked not only hard, but worked outside of their normal times to reach where they got today. It wasn't handed to them, and they didn't just get a job and got promoted. They took their time to hone their craft outside of their normal working hours. I have tons of respect for this and can already apply it to how I work on things in projects, as I've taken distinct notice of the times I work at things when I don't necessarily have to, so it helped things click in my head.

Day #7

Day two, and final day of P.A. Bootcamp wrapped up today! Today felt a little more intense than yesterday, now giving a drill of searching for information in the cracks of a call sheet when asked by an A.D.

Then after we were up against a wall working on our call outs by yelling them out into the open, we got more in depth learning about types of Production Assistants, like radio and office. With a few activities later to train our skills and understand what the positions required, we passed P.A. Bootcamp!

In all I take from this experience a lot of respect for those who have worked as a P.A. and that some point in the future, I may join them yet inside a studio.

As an additional fun experience today, we got to sit down and have dinner with a focus puller, Symon Mink. He helped give some much needed and appreciated insight to the field we were pushing into by sharing his time with us and answering our questions. My main question was-

"Does your experience working on a film change when working on a lesser known set compared to the big guns like Marvel?"

He told me that it was relatively the same experience, but with Marvel sized studios you can feel some ego and with the smaller films, you feel great for helping make it into something good.

That's a Wrap!

Day #6

Nice and early yet again for our first day of plenty to learn in P.A. (production assistant) Bootcamp. I was truly nervous at first, but thankfully the entire experience was rather manageable for me. 

We learned about many different terms, most of which being abbreviations like XX being the label point for an actors double on a schedule. We also heard stories from a guest P.A. who had told us some stories from his experience on what not to do, like to pay attention as to not stroll onto a set after they called lockdown.

In all, it certainly is an interesting experience and I'm hoping to do well tommorow and be a confident P.A. by the end of it.

Day #5

Day five was all about my fellow classmates and I settling in and getting a plan put in motion to take care of ourselves before heading out to be part of the audience in a live recording of a new episode of MOM.

The guys and I have been rolling along nicely, making shopping trips and constantly keeping up with if someone needed something. Almost like a bit of practice for being a P.A.

The experience of going in as a live studio audience for a sitcom felt very similarly to going to a stage play. You have the stages in front of you, and actors playing roles for your entertainment. However, I was keeping an eye out in the small stuff in-between takes.

So what I learned came from that. Seeing the speed of which things were ready to go again for the next take, the director staying very involved along with on the spot rewrites to the script. It helped me understand just how efficient everything moved along and showed me the lack of weak links.

Day #4

Day four started off with a long car ride out of San Francisco and on our way to Burbank. We had a stop at Hurst Castle in San Simeon. This wasn't just a stop for some pretty sights, but also a used location in Citizen Kane, a film we had watched in a previous class in college.

We learned about the history of Hurst castle and saw some incredible views.

Afterwords, we headed on to the hotel for our stay for the next thirteen days.

Day #3

Day three started off the same, as the last up until the location. We headed off to Twitch's facility. A streaming service that as primarily featured creators live streaming playing games, as well as branching out into cooking, music, and talk shows. Personally, much like PlayStation, this was an important visit to take in. Twitch was a rather big part of growing up and has slowly turned into a personal interest of investment once becoming an affiliate in my free time.

It was just as fun to experience as PlayStation and the tour guide we had was full of a friendly energy that really worked for me and kept me interested even if my eyes did want to keep wandering around to look at more stuff.

Afterwords we went off to have a blast on a line of Segways. Honestly a really fun experience where we got to see some great views off the shore and out looking towards the distant Golden Gate Bridge.

The learning experience here was taking proper advantage out of these tour opportunities given to me. This was something important to me, and I feel as if I didn't ask enough or show enough proper thanks. I need to put in the extra effort, otherwise I might be winding up wasting this opportunity.

Day #2

Got up bright and early for the first full twenty-four hours in California to head on over to the Google Cloud facilities to take a tour. After the first building we went through, it became very apparent that it had huge focus on treating workers kindly, having free activities and food for them all over the campus.

After that we headed on over to PlayStation which was a big treat for me. I've grown up with the PlayStation family of consoles, so seeing where the magic happens in the audio department was a surreal experience. Unfortunately I can't talk about much, but I can say that the vibe of the place was that of love. They clearly loved what they were doing and wore it on their faces and in their displays around the offices.

Overall, a really good set of tours that both had good guides that I extend my thanks to. Biggest thing I learned from them is the severe difference of feeling in workplace while still remaning comforting to those working there.

Day #1

I've never, ever been on a plane. This trip has allowed me to face the taxing fear I had of flights. Sure, I'm not thinking I'm ready to establish flying as something I like, but there certainly are things about it I really don't like. Like flying in economy due to cramped seating and turbulence.

Once arriving in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to try In-N-Out Burger (A fast food restaurant) for the first time as well, having a rather tasty burger before getting the general mood of the trip set by heading to a small Industrial Light & Magic exhibit to get our first small bite of how the trip will be roughly from here on out.