The day was filled with a couple of studio visits and talks with Ohio University alumni. Is this what living in Los Angeles is all about? I think this would be a dream day in the life of a working PA or a media intern!
First stop, the Warner Brothers Studio tour! Although it was raining for half of the tour, this was great! We got to see the exterior sets of several shows that used to air and that are airing now such as Gilmore Girls, Friends, and Pretty Little Liars. I am a huge Gilmore Girls and Friends fan so all of this was very exciting for me. Realizing that the sets were built specifically for general time periods or looks that are reused for different movies and television shows was very cool. It does make me realize that now when I watch the upside down kissing scene in Spider-Man, I'm going to know exactly where they were as well as in Rent, when they all throw their rent off their terraces. I'm not going to lie, it may make me not appreciate it AS much, but that's ok. It was very interesting to see where it all really goes down. We also saw the sound stages for Pretty Little Liars and The Mentalist. Sound stages are the interior sets where dialogue is taken. As we walked from set to set and drove around the lot, I had a slight realization. I think I figured out what I may want to do in my future! I'm interested in set design. At Warner Brothers we learned that as a set designer you have to research the character/s and basically build around them and build their lives for them. It could be their bedroom, their office, or maybe their bathroom. I'm an art minor and I have a taste for interior design and I really think that set design may be my interest. Now, this could change over and over again, but for now, it sounds good and I'm going to say it when someone asked me my favorite question, "What do you want to get into?"
After Warner Brothers we moved onto the set of The Talk, which is a new live talk show on CBS. We saw the set where it is shot and then the control rooms where the video and audio is all taken care of. It was very interesting to see the differences between live television and movies and television that is shot prior to showing. They are two different worlds and I had never really thought about live television until today. We also spoke to the producer of The Talk, Kevin Hamburger, and the geffer, who is the person who controls all the lights on set. I was interested in what they were talking about because I had never really thought too much about live television but it made me realize that that is not what I want to do in my future. I hope there will be no hard feelings towards everyone, but I came onto this trip to learn and part of learning is figuring out what you like and what you don't like!
In the evening we spoke to a panel of Ohio University Alumni who are all working in different places and in different areas. They all had great advice and answered our questions perfectly. I asked a question, "What if I want to take a year off and work out in Colorado possibly still doing something at a production company, is that a smart idea?"...I got three different answers. The first one was to go for it, I like this answer the best. The second one was you'll lose out on a year of experience in Los Angeles and you'll be a year behind everyone else. The third answer was kind of irrelevant but still helpful. I did get a fourth answer from Jen Jones and Pam Griffiths who ended up speaking to us after the panel left. Jen believed that no matter your age, if you have the motivation, you will go places. This made me very confident in possibly making a decision to take a year off. I know I have time to figure this out, but I still like to have some what of an idea of where I'll be in my future. I will continue to go back and forth with my idea of coming out to Los Angeles and pursuing internships and jobs that will get me closer to becoming a set designer or my idea of taking some time off and going out to Colorado and fulfilling a dream there that I may not be able to do in my later years! I really agree with Jen and I really do believe that even if I am 25 years old, if Los Angeles is where I want to be then my motivation, passion, and willpower will push me to the top. It may be a struggle to be at the bottom at an older age, but hey, life is short and you have to follow yours dreams, even if that means taking a detour from a lifelong career.
The panel gave me this idea that Los Angeles has everything whereas Pam Griffiths elaborated more on other places such as New York city. I believe that this is because she has worked in a lot more places than the panel has and has more experience so I really enjoyed listening and learning from her. The panel was great though. They all seemed like they had passions for what they were doing and they knew what they were talking about. They also seemed willing to help us out which I know for netwroking purposes is going to be highly appreciated in my future. Pam and Jen were also extremely helpful in other ways. Pam has so much knowledge from all her experiences and Jen is such a bubbly woman who was extremely open and helpful with any question we had. I'm really glad that we were able to interact and network with this group of people.
Today was kind of a big day in my book. I may or may not have figured out the direction I want to go in. I got to see live sets, I mean what is cooler than that!? I'm really starting to learn more about my self and this industry that I just don't think I could learn in the classroom. If this is just the first day, I can only imagine how the days to come are going to turn out. I can't wait to learn more and see more and figure out myself and my future! Today has opened my eyes to a lot that I really did not think I would ever see until I maybe ended up moving out here.
The last thought on my mind was something that Jen Jones said tonight, "Let life take you where it wants to and you just follow it!" I'm along for this ride and I can't force it to turn any which way, I want it to call the shots and eventually everything will fall into place.
No comments:
Post a Comment