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.