Los Angeles is a bit...different

Hey everyone,

Two blogs in a row! WOAH! Yeah, I spent my Friday night making this video blog. It's bit longer than the first but I hope you enjoy it. Since moving to Los Angeles I have a learned so much, and noticed some MAJOR differences between Indiana and Los Angeles. My blog just talks about a few. I could seriously dedicate an entire blog with a list of so many things I have learned, good things to know about LA, etc.

Just want to remind you, that any of you can leave a comment! Do it! Especially if you have any questions I can answer or talk about in my video blogs. Feel free to ask =)

I love you for watching.

Real World Rant

Hey People!

I thought I'd mix it up a bit and add a short video to my blog. This is just a short rant about what I have noticed recently being in the 'real world' now. Please excuse my blah appearance. I just hopped on the computer after a long day at work whilst doing my 305840 loads of laundry. 

Enjoy! 

What is a Digitizer?

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

This is my first time ever being away from home during the holidays. It's tough, but makes me look forward to flying home for Christmas! In the meantime...I wanted to keep myself busy today.

Most people heard about my promotion, yes? When I tell them I'm a "Digitizer" they don't really know what that is. So! Let me explain.

I'm pretty sure that most shows/features have their own Digitizer that works specifically on THAT show. This is where I'm different...I work on ALLLLLL the shows (that are in production right now). Keeps me busy.
Now, say hello to my little friend. These XDCam discs have become my best friends since starting my new job. I work with these A LOT. This is the disc the Camera Operators film onto. (They don't have to be Sony, some are Maxwell and Fujifilm).

Okay, so I'm pretty much STEP ONE of Post Production. I have people from Production bring me these discs (sometimes as few as 4 to duffel bags full of them). First I have to label all those disc covers you see above. I have to write the date, the disc number consisting of Camera A, B, C, etc and the number, and the specific show. So, in the end the disc will have a name like 0910B03RW26. Which means, Real World Season 26, filmed on Sep. 10th camera B disc 3. Get it?

Now I have to keep all these in order or everything goes wrong. I have to label the disc correctly, and type in that disc name multiple times into the system when I digitize or proxy. Little mistakes mess up the entire process like accidentally typing an O instead of a 0. I know, you're like, "Huh?" Lets back up.

Next, I digitize, which means I ingest allllllll those tapes into a XDCAM deck. These decks are about $3,700 a piece and I have 13 of them to work with. It makes digitizing the tapes much faster. These decks just read exactly what is filmed onto the discs and puts it onto the computer. They film in HD 1920 x 1080 (which is what you guys watch at home on your TV). Since HD is great quality it is a HUGE file and takes up a lot of space on our servers. So, I have to then, transfer all the High Rez footage onto the render server computer (which can take awhile). Then use Compressor to make them into Lo Rez quality which is 384 x 216. MUCH SMALLER FILE SIZE! We do this because it takes up a lot less space. The Offline Editors edit in low rez quality until the show is Locked and it moves to the Online Editors. Then they (sometimes the digizters) have to digitize JUST the necessary clips from each disc in the locked cut to do all the technical fixes like color correcting, blurring, beeping out stuff, etc. Once it is all compressed I put all the low rez footage onto the appropriate server for that particular show.

Some shows film a TON of footage like The Real World, Bad Girls Club and The Challenge. Those shows have Loggers (see previous blog for explanation of a "Logger") and they watch an EVEN SMALLER file size of the same footage. So I have to make a proxy file of all those same discs, except I can only do it 1 disc at a time. Luckily, since the file size is so tiny that the process goes by pretty fast!

So, pretty much a Digitizer is a Professional Multitaker and Organizer. It can get very confusing (especially at 2am) when I'm digitizing, proxying, and compressing, multiple different shows at the same time. It is a huge responsibility because I'm in charge of organizing and handing over all the footage to the Assistant Editors to begin Post Production.

Hope all that made sense!

I love you for reading this.
Until my next blog....

Things to do...

What up kids?! My lovely co-worker, Cassandra Gaffney, and I got to talking today about all the things we want to do in the future. I thought this would be a good topic for a blog. Writing down all the things I want to do will help me make them happen!

1. LEARN TO SURF! Okay, this one is #1 because it has been my NUMBER ONE goal since the 8th grade. Seriously. I've been that Indiana girl randomly obsessed with surfing for pretty much half my life. I will make this happen. I'm determined. I've found a website that gives me surfer lessons on sale and my friend Natalie Silverman has told me she would go with me. Naturally, I need a friend to share this with and be my photographer to document THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!
2. Go to the Sequoia National Park. I've seen pictures of the amazing trees from when my grandpa visited California years ago. I've always been fascinated by how incredibly HUGE they are. I must see them in person. MUST! 
3. Visit every beach in SoCal from Malibu to San Diego at least ONCE. So far I can only cross off only 4. (Malibu, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, and Torrance)
4. Visit San Francisco. Do I even need a reason why? I'm totally having a picnic in front of the Full House house!
5. Go to Mood. What is Mood? Only the biggest most amazing fabric store ever! The contestants on Project Runway always go there to get their fabrics. One season was filmed in L.A! So I will be able to say that I have been somewhere Tim Gunn has!
6. Learn to long board (skateboard). Why not?
7. Go to Whimsic Alley. This is an incredible store that sells all kinda of neat Harry Potter items!
8. Be in the audience of an Ellen show. Cause Ellen is awesome, duh.
9. Go camping. I've never been camping. I feel like I should try it at least once! I would prefer camping somewhere in California where I can actually see the stars. I miss seeing stars at night.
10. Visit Lake Tahoe. Maybe I could camp there? I seen nothing but beautiful pictures of it!
11. Go on studio tours to pretty much every studio in L.A. I become a total production nerd when I see these things. It's incredibly fascinating to see!
12. Buy a bike and cycle down The Strand. The Strand is a 22 mile long bicycle path along the beach that goes from Santa Monica Beach to Torrance beach.  People are always cycling, roller blading, running, walking, or using any sort of riding instrument to glide along the path.
13. And of course, to become Taylor Swift and Emma Stone's BFF. Since moving to LA I feel like my chances of making this happen have increased drastically.

Best Ink

October 18, 2011

I just got home from work. That's right kids, no need to adjust the clocks on your computer. They are correct. I work 3pm - midnight each day as a Post Production Assistant for a new reality competition show called Best Ink. The show will air on Oxygen sometime this Winter. Unfortunately, I am unable to share many things with you guys, even the logo, because it is considered confidential as of right now.

BUT! I am able to share with you the information that is already online. The best (and most accurate) article I found about my show can be found here:
http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Oxygen-Orders-Up-Tattoo-Competition-Series-Best-Ink-34927.html
There you can read about how many artists are competing for the prize, the show's host and the set judges. So far I must say, the show is very interesting. I do recommend everyone to watch it, even if it is on a woman's station like Oxygen. This is their first show to actually have male characters. Crazy right?!

So, you are wondering..."But Ashley what do YOU do on the show and why the HECK do you work so late?!" Great question. I work 3 - midnight because I take the cuts from the Editors after they are finished and write a breakdown of what happens. Pretty much I type everything that happens in the cut so the Executive Producers at Bunim/Murray can read along while watching and send back their notes. It can take hours to type up a breakdown from scratch and update one after the Editors have made many revisions after each cut. It's great for me, because I want to be an Editor, to see the MANY changes an episode goes through in Post. I see the show from the string out (a very rough timeline of various shots, interview bites, etc to make the story) to the locked episode that the audience will see.

One day while watching the breakdown, I noticed the Editors were only using a font for the lower thirds for the show. What are lower thirds? I'm glad you asked. Let's use Project Runway for example. The blue box that shows Anya's information is placed in the lower third of the screen. (Get it?..."lower thirds") So, the Editors were just using a plain font to put the name of the contestants for our show as a temp lower third. I decided to create lower thirds for my show for fun. My Post Supervisor saw me working on them one day at work and liked them a lot. He wanted me to keep working on them so he could show the Co-Executive Producers. They liked them and agreed to use them as temp lower thirds for our show! This is huge!! I was so excited. Oxygen would see my lower thirds! Well, since then everyone has discovered that I am pretty good with Photoshop and have come to me with many, many Photoshop projects to create things for our show. Since then I have made all NEW lower thirds for our show. (I hope to show you my original ones after the show airs because I put so much work into them, and I know they will not be used). The Co-Executive producers call me into their offices quite often now to create things like, a new logo for our show, a mortise (a border used around the video), different lower thirds, a show screen shot (that would be shown for 3 seconds at the end of each episode), and other things I probably shouldn't mention because I'd give things away!

All in all, I'm pumped to have gone the extra mile to make myself stand out and be noticed by my bosses. It's amazing to be more involved in my show than a regular Post PA would be. I am done working on Best Ink on December 2nd. We'll see what happens next, and I'll keep you updated if anything else cool happens at work!

Thanks for reading. It means the world to me. =)

My New Pad

October 16, 2011

Wow, it is has been awhile since my last post. Sorry!

Since my last post I flew home for 10 days to visit family and friends. I crashed Btown for my 23rd birthday, and was able to surprise a few friends and professors. It was awesome! I miss my friends every day and think about them often.

I am proud to say that I am a resident of the North Hollywood Arts District! I moved into my apartment in NoHo on September 13th. Since then I have been trying to get settled in with frequent trips to IKEA and Target buying things for my new place. It's going to a slow process because of how insanely broke I am. Everyone knows when you move into a new place you get hit with multiple deposits, rent, and new accounts for bills. So I literally saw my bank account go from $3,000 to $112.50. Pretty terrifying.

I'm pretty happy with the location I chose in NoHo. My commute to work each day is only 5 miles and I don't even need to get on the highway. (Awesome).  I'm very close to Chase Bank, the Post Office, Ralphs (Cali version of Kroger) and Target. So it's pretty solid. I live about a 15 minute walk to The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation. It's a cool area with lots of little restaurants, a 24 hour fitness gym, a Cold Stone, and the Art Institute of North Hollywood. So the area is full of young artsy type students. It's fun.

A week after I moved in my IU friend, Mike Nelson made the roadtrip from Ft. Wayne, IN with his life and a few things of mine in a UHaul. While I went to work, Mike was able to settle into our new apartment before I even opened up my boxes. haha It was AMAZING to have him and his family bring out my bed, desk, and boxes of other things. It feels great to be able to sleep in my own bed for the first time in about 4 months. Way better than a twin size air mattress I'd say...

I'll tell you all about my first big girl job in my next blog...

See you!

"B-e-a-utiful."

August 29, 2011

It has been awhile. Sorry about that. I'm going through many more changes in the past few weeks. On Aug 22nd I finished my internship with The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation. I'm so blessed to have gotten such a prestigious internship. I'm even more thankful to have gotten a job at my host company Bunim/Murray Productions as a Post Production Assistant for a new show called Best Ink. I will start my new job on September 19th. This link talks about the new series that will air on Oxygen and will be produced by BMP. So far it is the only information I am able to find that is released to the public.
http://tv.broadwayworld.com/article/Oxygen_Picks_Up_BEST_INK_20101216_page1

Before my internship ended all the Academy interns attended a Mixer at the JW Marriott/Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. It was an incredible experience networking with all the other intern's and their host company mentors. It was great that my mentor, Mark Raudonis, was able to attend. Here is a picture a photographer snapped of us at the mixer. Mark has been an amazing mentor to me all summer. He took a lot of his time to teach me and push me to succeed. One thing I really respected about him is that he did not hand me a job once my internship was over. He made me go out into the company and find it myself. It gave me such a great feeling of accomplishment when I was able to land my first real job within the entertainment industry on my own.

I was able to go to Universal Studios Hollywood with a group of ATAS interns before the returned to college. My favorite part by far was the Studio Tour ride. I was amazed by all the incredible sets they have on their lot. They have everything you can imagine from, old Western sets, to New York City streets, to the original Psycho (1960 Alfred Hitchcock horror film) hotel set [with a psycho killer included].

For those of you that don't know, I have been a huge Jim Carrey fan since I was young. I grew up watching movies like, Ace Ventura, The Mask, Liar Liar, and continuously quote lines from The Grinch and Bruce Almighty. To my excitement, I was able to see the sets used in Bruce Almighty and The Grinch! This is the city hall set that the ending scene of Bruce Almighty was filmed. You may also recognize it from the iconic film, Back to the Future. (IT'S THE SAME CITY HALL USED FOR BOTH FILMS!!! Blew my mind). Ironically, the houses from the set of The Grinch were located right behind the Psycho hotel set.

Currently I am trying to finalize paper work for a new apartment I hope to move into soon in North Hollywood. I will be living with my friend from Indiana University, Mike Nelson. I'm so excited that many more of my friends from school are making their way out to Los Angeles now. About 8 other students from IU have recently moved to L.A. in the past 2 weeks. Let the Indiana Invasion begin!

Internship to Full Time Job

Sorry people for not writing a new blog post recently! I was busy hanging out with my cousin Kara Fischer last weekend in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. It was great meeting her boyfriend John and his family. They were kind enough to let me stay at their house for the weekend so I could spend time with Kara. We went hiking along the ocean on Saturday, and I was able to go to my first Surf Shop ever on Sunday. Of course, as soon as I walked in I wanted everything. I walked out with some new Toms shoes, a Billabong shirt and hoodie.

I recently moved into Alyssa's apartment on the Burbank/Glendale line. While she is filming in Alaska she agreed to let me stay in her 1 bedroom apartment while she is gone. It's fantastic! I love The Valley area. It is much more laid back with more of a small town feel. Also, the view driving home is pretty amazing. There are mountains on one side and hills on the other. I plan on going hiking on both sides while I am staying here. This road is close to mine, and sometimes I drive down it just to take in the incredible view of the palm trees and mountains in the background.

Alyssa's apartment is so cute. She is a cinematographer and has a very cute aesthetic. I love how she decorated such a small space and made it incredibly home-y.
The commute to the Bunim/Murray office is about the same from when I was staying in Westwood.  It actually  easier getting to work by taking the I-405. Now, I take the 134, the 170 and then drive down a road for 5 miles to get to work so I can bypass the insanely busy I-101.  LA  Traffic! (...yay) Actually, I have been very lucky with my commutes because I am always going the opposite direction than the rush hour traffic, so I can't complain.

My internship is done Monday, August 22. My mentor Mark has talked to me about hiring me after my internship is over. (Awesome, yes). As of now, I haven't told many people because I do not know what my position will be or when I will start. I had a meeting with Lisa from HR who emphasized how things work very last minute. People move around, get promoted and they call people to fill in their position. I'm currently talking to a Post Supervisor I've worked with already about being a Post (PA) Production Assistant for a show, if it is in the budget. We'll see. So, I'll jump up and down once I find out my start date and position. Don't worry...I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, my "Things To Do" list is very long and filled with life changing events, like finding my OWN apartment here in Los Angeles. I will begin looking by using a website MANY people have told me to use called Westsiderentals.com. You have to pay to use the website, which means it has the most postings and reliable sources. Many people that live in Los Angeles have told me they found all of their apartments by this website. Hope it works for me too!

The Television Academy Internship

This week has been different at my internship because my mentor, Mark Raudonis has been on vacation. So! I've been on my own at work finding things to do and people to talk to awhile he is away. Also, he gave me a homework assignment while he is gone. He wants to emphasis how critical networking is in the industry. He told me that while he is gone he wants me to network with other people from different companies that work in this industry and bring him back 2 business cards. I was curious how I would achieve this knowing I am at work from 9:30-6:30pm each day, but he said I am allowed to skip my internship for a few hours while networking. I first aimed high and wanted to bring back Mark a really impressive business card. I emailed Sue Neagle, President of HBO (a fellow Indiana University alumni). Surprisingly she emailed me back right away and said she was out of town for the 2 weeks. Bummer. Oh well, I tried. So, I went to Andrea's internship with her one morning at Radical Media. They are a global transmedia company that develops, produces, and distributes award winning documentaries, television, features, commercials, etc. I got to sit down and talk to Tita Poe, Producer of their post house. Surprisingly, I got to also sit down with a freelance producer that Andrea was currently with on a Verizon commercial, Tyler Boylan. Both of them were incredibly nice and took their time to talk to me and answer my questions.

On Thursday, we had our second workshop at The Academy about networking and the industry in general. One of the speakers was a previous intern in the Editing category. He has done amazing things since being an intern through the Academy. He got me motivated to network more and talk to everyone I can at Bunim/Murray. After the workshop I had arranged a network meeting with some employees at Funny or Die. I emailed another IU Alumni, Mike Farrah to arrange some employees to talk to me for a few minutes. This office is very chill and all the people are funny and cool. I was in a small room with 5 people. Michelle Fox gave me her business card with her Executive Assistant title on it. She was Mike Farrah's personal assistant, but recently changed to a Coordinator. I also met the 4 other guys working in the room with Michelle. All of them were great, they were interested in me as much as I were in them. So! I have 3 business cards to give Mark when he returns to work on Tuesday.

While at the workshop this week I was presented with the news at my internship through The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation has been ranked one of the top 10 internships in the country. I had no idea! So I did a little digging and DUDE! Look what I found:
 http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/topteninternship
http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/blogs/entry-detail?blog_id=1461&entry_id=11540
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/27/pf/internships.fortune/index.htm

After talking to the Post Producer of Project Runway, Glenn Morgan for the past 2 weeks I finally discovered what amazing work he has done! DUDE!!!! He is the music video editor of Madonna's music videos "Material Girl," "Borderline," AND "Like a Virgin." Since MTV was still very new at this time, people were still figuring out the new medium of music videos. No editor had established himself/herself as a music video editor. Glenn Morgan worked with director Mary Lambert on "Borderline" which launched Madonna's career. Teens around the country began dressing like her. Next, Glenn edited her music video for "Like a Virgin" and the INCREDIBLY famous music video for "Material Girl." Glenn was explaining how he had gotten the job for Borderline and eventually onto "Like a Virgin." Both of these music videos came out before I was even born, so I was not familiar with them. So I chimmed in the one earlier music video I had seen. I said, "I do know Madonna's music video for "Material Girl." Glenn responded so nonchalant, "Oh I did that one too." DUDE!!! WHAT?!?! I was so amazed. I had watched this video in my Music Video class at IU, and discussed the production and story elements. How cool is that to have your work studied in a classroom!? For those of you have not seen it here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CQHIP-38jA Keep in mind, this is MTV in 1985.

90210

July 17, 2011

IT'S OFFICIAL! Check out this link to see my name on the list for The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Summer Internship Program website! It lists all of us lucky interns by category, our university, and our host company!  http://www.emmysfoundation.org/current-interns.

The past week at my internship was good. I still can't talk about much of what I do there. It's all "Top Secret," sorry! Once Project Runway airs on July 28th and The Real World: San Diego airs around late September I'll be able to tell you all more!

I try to take advantage of every weekend by doing something new and fun. Although, like most of you around the country have heard about it was "Carmageddon" this weekend. Meaning, one of the most used interstates, 405 N and S is CLOSED for construction. This highway is used heavily because it connects The Valley to the lower part of Los Angeles by driving through the hills. I use it to get to my internship in Van Nuys every day. Seriously, everyone was making a huge deal about it. People heard about it all the way in New York. Many LA citizens did not go into work on Friday or the weekend to avoid the horrific traffic that would be caused from the closure. Many people stocked up on food and stayed in for the weekend. I heard doctors and nurses slept at the hospitals to avoid driving to work. Over the radio people were offering helicopter rides for people to get to work. It was insane how the news was covering "Carmageddon." I live in Westwood currently, which is RIGHT by the 405 interstate, so I have been hearing news helicopters all weekend. Luckily! The construction to blow up a bridge to widen the highway was completed ahead of schedule and was already re-opened by 3pm on Sunday. (It was suppose to open by 5am Monday morning, and for every 10 minutes it was postponed the contractors would be fined $6,000). No wonder it got done quickly.

So to avoid crazy traffic, Andrea and I stayed in and had a fantastic quesadilla dinner that I made Friday night. Saturday we hung out in The Village by UCLA. Andrea later surprised me with tickets to Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 3D! We saw the movie at the Fox Westwood Village Theater. It is so beautiful inside and much bigger than I thought it would be, by seating 1,400 people.  This is a picture I took of the ceiling of the historic theater that was built in 1931. The movie was incredible, BTW. EVERYONE MUST SEE IT! (But please read the 7th book first).

Sunday I decided to take Andrea to Beverly Hills. We walked down Rodeo Dr. and Via Rodeo, along with many other connecting roads. This is the entrance to Via Rodeo. There were so many high end stores, including many I had never even heard of. Luckily, it was blue skies and incredibly sunny day. The last week it has been very gloomy and cool outside. We only let ourselves walk into 2 stores: Juicy Couture and Guess. The inside of the stores are beautiful. We stared at all the amazing clothes that we cannot afford. There are many foreign people, recognizably as Europeans taking pictures and acting very touristy on Rodeo Drive. Luckily we found a friendly Dad with his teenage daughter to take Andrea and my picture on the steps of Via Rodeo in exchange for me to take a picture of him and his daughter on the stairs, too.

Welcome to Fro-Yo Land!

 July 11, 2011

Sorry people, its been awhile since my last post. I've been trying to
think about what to blog about...Sadly, I cannot talk about most of what I do at my internship because of the confidentiality contract I signed. But! I will suggest that you watch The Real World: San Diego Season 26 (yes, 26 freakin seasons) and Project Runway Season 9 because I have worked on both shows so far this summer!!! (I'm not sure the release date for The Real World just yet...I'm predicting it will be sometime late September. I'll keep you updated when I find out).

So, the second day I was in Los Angeles my good friend Adam Raque explained how Frozen Yogurt is kinda big here. That was an understatement...
People are OBSESSED.

There are so many frozen yogurt places here, it is insane. So far I have seen all of these ^^^^
These are just the big name frozen yogurt places around Los Angeles, so I'm not even counting the smaller Mom & Pop joints. So far I have only tried Yogurtland. Instead of frozen yogurt I have discovered an awesome ice cream place in The Village. For those of you IU students, The Village is pretty much UCLA's Kirkwood. Since I am staying in Westwood, which is right in front of the UCLA campus I walk around The Village quite often. My roommate Andrea told me about this ice cream placed called Diddy Riese. Apparently, I am not the only one that loves Diddy Riese because the entire Westwood neighborhood is there every night. Seriously, the line to this ice cream place stretches so far you wait a solid 30 minutes or more. The main reason everyone loves this place is because it is SO CHEAP. They are known for their cookie ice cream sandwich. You choose your 2 cookies and ice cream to create your delicious ice cream delight for only $1.50. (Those prices are rare in L.A.)
You can check out their website here: http://www.diddyriese.com/home.php

Side note: If I officially move and work in Los Angeles I plan on buying a new, shorter car asap. Parking my long Nissan Maxima is not easy. I wish I had a Smart Car or Mini Cooper every time I am searching for a parking spot for over 10 minutes in my own apartment neighborhood. Frustrating. L.A. and Bloomington have 2 things in common: Horrible parking and traffic. Los Angeles is just amplified 20x.

June Gloom

Few days ago I thought, "I've been in Los Angeles for almost 2 weeks now, and I have YET to go to the beach." I had to fix that problem.

I wanted to plan a morning to go to the beach with group of The Academy interns whom I have made friends with. My current roomie, Andrea Saavedra and I woke up at 8:30am to leave around 9am for Santa Monica Beach! Sadly, "June Gloom" is still with us (even though it is officially July). What is "June Gloom" you ask? Well, let me tell you. As soon as I arrived in Los Angeles, the people here were explaining this weather forecast to me. Unfortunately, L.A. is not as warm and sunny all the time as you may think, especially in June. Every morning you wake up to cloudy skies. Usually, the sun will come out each day around noon, making it pretty warm outside. Once the sun starts to set around dinner time, it gets pretty chilly outside again. I've learned to always to make a cardigan part of my outfit each day. So, "June Gloom" was with us for most of the day. The beach was pretty foggy looking. When I went to Santa Monica Beach in January you could see everything very clearly, but not during June!

Although, even with the cloudyness we still got some sun on our faces. A bunch of Academy Interns found us on the beach. I got Zac Kinman and Sullivan Fitzgerald (Sully) to play nerf vortex whistle football with me on the beach. It was awesome! Around noon we were all getting hungry and went to this new mall nearby to eat. From there we went to Santa Monica strip that is home to many popular stores like Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Ed Hardy, Michael Kors, American Eagle, Zara, and tons more! What is neat about this outdoor road is that it is the home to many types of street performers. Crowds of shoppers gather around to watch them perform their music, dancing, or other talents. After I came out of Forever 21 I saw one of the interns, Minh Vu had been pulled from the crowd to be part of his man's acrobatic act. It was fantastic.

Next, I took Andrea to Hollywood Blvd to see the Walk of Fame stars, the Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater right next door. She tooks dozens of pictures with the stars and hand printed slabs at the Chinese Theater. I took Andrea, Minh, Melanie Lubin (fellow IU student!), Jason Ikeler, and Brian Pacek to the Kodak Theater balcony to get a good view of the Hollywood Sign in the hills. By this time we were all draggin from a long day of walking and being in the sun. We all said our goodbyes around 8:00 pm. I got home around 9:00pm and ate the best bowl of fruit loops I've ever had and crashed. So yes, Andrea and I were in bed by 9:30pm on a Saturday night in Los Angeles. ha.

Now we have to figure out what to do next during this long 4th of July long weekend! I'll let you know what happens.

Starting out as an Intern

June 30, 2011

I started my internship on Monday, June 27th at Bunim/Murray Productions. It was a very long day. I met so many people, and took in so much information. My brain was about to explode. I was so exhausted that night I went to bed at 10:00pm. Tuesday and Wednesday I learned how to be a logger for The Real World: San Diego Season 26. Honestly, I had never even heard of a logger or knew what they do. I thought the room full of kids around my age were others interns. My mentor, Mark Raudonis told me they were loggers and are paid employees.

My definition: log·ger [law-ger, log-er] - noun 1. a person who sits at a computer for long periods of time watching thousands of hours of raw footage while typing what happens in 1 minute increments.
Mark wanted me to understand and learn everything that goes into post production for a show from the bottom up. Loggers are at the very bottom of the ladder, but are EXTREMELY important. They are the only people that watch all the raw footage that no one else every sees. (There is about 5,500 hours of footage shot for one season of The Real World). They have to identify, organize, and keep track of each and every new person/character the Roommates interact with in the show. They also much keep track of every single location the Roommates go to. This makes it very difficult to log a tape of the Roommates at a bar or club. They interact with so many people who never give their names and many of them do not sign releases.  This makes it tricky for the loggers to keep track of the hundreds of extra persons in the show. After 2 days of logging tapes from The Real World: San Diego I have a great respect for loggers. They are such an important step in the process of editing reality television. From there, the Dailies editor takes the loggers notes, producer and director's notes to roughly cut the footage of important scenes that happened in ONE day of shooting, hence the word "dailies." Next, the story coordinator, director, producers, and editor can find the story from the footage that is gathered. Eventually the show goes into Offline Editing where all the creative and story lines are edited together. Once all the final cuts are made to the story, the show goes into Online Editing. This is where all the footage goes through all the technical changes. It is changed back to high resolution that it was shot in, color corrected, audio sweetening, the graphics are created, etc. In only 3 days I have realized how much time, steps, and people are involved into making one season of The Real World. It blows my mind. Next week I should be hanging out with the Editors from my favorite show of all time, PROJECT RUNWAY!!!! I'm so excited, I will keep you all posted about it.Remember to leave me comments if you want to! =)

Finally settling in

June 26, 2011

After a really rough week of figuring out my living situation I have finally settled down. I am currently staying with another Academy intern, Andrea, in Westwood near UCLA. The area is really nice and full of UCLA students. I will be staying here for the next 3-4 weeks before I move into Alyssa's apartment in Glendale. I want to give a huge thanks to Brittany Margaritis for putting me in touch with her friend Alyssa. She has agreed to let me stay in her 1 bedroom apartment while she is gone filming in Alaska for a few months. I just met with her today and saw her cute little apartment. I can't wait to stay there and get a new feel of L.A. by living in a whole new area.

But, lets rewind a few days. 
Before I moved out of the boy's apartment in West Hollywood, Kevin took me on a hike at Runyon Canyon Park. There are three routes to hike Runyon Canyon from the Fuller Gate - Runyon Canyon Road (easy), the Star Trail (medium), and the Hero Trail (difficult).
First we decided to go up the steep incline dirt path with railroad-tie steps on the Star Trail. We made it up to the mid-level Inspiration Point and descended down the east ride of the Clouds Rest paved road.
Each point has an incredible view of the entire city, very similar to the views from the Griffith Observatory. (They are both located in the Santa Monica Mountains). There were SO many people there hiking, walking, running, and many, many dogs. It is a great place to take your dog. There are so many hills and mountains in L.A. I wanted to go hiking, and was able to knock that off my list in just a few days. I want to adventure on new trails in all different areas now.

The Academy interns and I found out that we are part of film group screenings in the The Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre. It's pretty big and is equipped to project 16, 35 and 70mm film as well as video, delivering high-end audio through an advanced JBL sound system. The theater has great seating, and lots of room for your legs. It has a huge red curtain in front of the screen with 2 huge Emmy statues on both sides. Each week, 2 to 3 films are shown in the theater. They are movies that have been out in the public theaters for 1-2 weeks. Last night Andrea and I went to see The Hangover Part II with 2 other interns, Zac and Jason. (It was hilarious). After the movie all of us went to Denny's and met up with another intern Minh Vu. We had a great time getting to know each other and hearing about each of our internships.

WELL! I start my internship tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. It is going to give me something to do each day, which I love. I will keep you posted on how my first day goes and all the things I will be doing each day. =)

Lunch with Keira

June 22, 2011

Yesterday was my first day out and about in Los Angeles. Right after I dropped my Dad off at LAX airport I went straight to my high school friend Adam Raque's place in Toluca Lake. We had a blast. First he took me to the Griffith Observatory. Most of you may recognize this from the movie Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

You can look out over the entire city of L.A. It really puts it into perspective. You can tell where each town is by the groupings of sky scrapers. I was told I need to go back at night time because it looks even cooler.
 Next, Adam took me to one of his fav restaurants The Alcove. It is a really cute building with tables covered by umbrellas so you can eat outside. They had an impressive breakfast menu as well as lunch and goodies like cookies and cake. While sitting outside with Adam I looked over and saw Keira Knightley walk down the stairs to her table. My jaw dropped I was shocked to see her.

 For those of you who might not know her, she is a British actress from the first 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, and Love Actually. I had to look at her a few times to make sure it was indeed her. At one point she looked back at me, we definitely had a moment. So, technically Adam and I have lunch with Keira Knightley. =)

After lunch we were driving back to Adam's I saw Celebrity Chef Curtis Stone talking to a guy on the side walk. I recognized him, but had to google his name later. I had seen him on tv and remembered he was a Blonde Australian Chef.



At the end of the day, Adam took me to downtown Burbank to show me some cool shops. Frozen Yogurt is pretty big here. Then he found out how I have always wanted to go to IKEA, but there are NONE in Indiana. So he took me to this HUGE IKEA a few blocks away. I realized this wasn't just any IKEA, this is THE (500) Days of Summer IKEA! A scene in the movie starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel was filmed in the Burbank IKEA store. Here is the clip for you guys to know what I'm talking about.
http://www.traileraddict.com/clip/500-days-of-summer/ikea
**SIDE NOTE: IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE YOU MUST! It is so good. I love the writing and the format in which they edited the film. 

Moving to LA

June 20, 2011

After driving through 9 states, dozens of pit stops, and over $300 in gas fill ups I have finally made it to Los Angeles. Unlike the roadtrip I want to keep this post as short as possible (cause I'm cranky from sleep deprivation).
Oklahoma was by far my least favorite state to drive through because it is unbarely hot (seriously hotter than Arizona and New Mexico), and every single highway is a toll road. LAME!
Texas was super flat. I was amazed at how vast it was. I could see as far as the horizon. I ran over a tumbleweed.
New Mexico started getting pretty cool looking. Land formations reminded me of the Pixar film Cars.  I took pictures along the way. It was pretty cool to see Route 66 beside the interstate, mountains, deserts, and rock formations for the first time. I may upload a few pictures later.
DAY 1: We drove from 7am til 10pm to get to Amarillo, Texas.  It was about 900 miles (very long drive).
DAY 2: We drove from Amarillo, Texas to Las Vegas, Nevada. We started at 7:30am and got there around 8:30 there time. My experience in Vegas was not the best. I'll have to go back there sometime to get the full experience.
DAY 3: We left around 8:00am Vegas time this morning to get to Los Angeles around 12 noon. I'm so tired and sick of being in a car that I am currently resting in my hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Hopefully I can get a real night's sleep tonight so I can start fresh and new in the morning. I will have to take my dad to the LAX airport tomorrow morning and experience LA traffic on my own for the first time as I make my way towards West Hollywood.
Can't wait to settle in and start new.

BTW! I made the settings to allow ANYONE to comment on my blog posts, so feel free! =)

Less than 3 days!

June 15 2011

Ugh, I've tried waiting to post another entry until I'm actually on the road to LA, but I can't wait anymore! I'm so excited. I've been buying and stocking up on things I need. I've been getting some pretty cool new gadgets lately. I just entered in my friends address in LA into my BRAND NEW GPS. =) I will definitely be using it a lot in Los Angeles I'm sure. I got a new cell phone. My old one was starting not to work so I needed a reliable phone before I moved. It will be the main form of communication to everyone back at home!! I got AT&T's HTC Inspire. I highly recommend this phone to everyone, especially you people that are fed up with your iPhones. It's bigger and must easier to type/text on. Read the ratings and reviews! Everyone loves this phone!!
Also, I got a new iPod touch for graduation from my grandpa. What is awesome about the iPod touch is that I can face time or Skype with people! How cool is that?! So I definitely see myself skyping with people, giving them a tour as I walk along Sunset Blvd or the beach. haha It will be like you are right there with me. Interested? My skype name is: iheart0re0s (naturally) haha
This week I have been having lunches and dinners with friends and family to say my good-byes. It's really happening now. It hit me a few days ago, that I'm actually doing this. I'm finally making my dreams come true. (corny, I know. sorry).
This is my good-bye to everyone back at home and at Indiana University. You all are truly amazing and I will miss you very much. I will never be able to forget you.  
So here is where I start a new chapter. 

The Road Ahead

May 25, 2011

It is exactly 2,086 miles from my dad's house in Georgetown, IN to my first couch I'll be crashing on in West Hollywood. Huge thanks goes out to Austin Hart, Joey Mattucci and their roommate KevinI have yet to meet for letting me crash on their couch! I'm pumped.

My dad will be making the road trip with me to L.A. We plan on leaving Saturday, June 18th so I can get there by Monday afternoon (hopefully). He will fly back home later that day so he won't miss an entire week of work. Big Thanks goes out to my Father for taking time off from his very busy work schedule to road trip with me! I have an orientation scheduled at The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation with Nancy Robinson on Friday, June 24th at 3:00pm. So I must be there!

The following Monday, June 27th I will start my internship at Bunim/Murray Productions! I'm beyond excited. I'll definitely keep you updated about the trek getting to L.A. and all my adventures once I get settled in and internin'!

27 Days!

May 24, 2011

Only 27 days until I pack up my Nissan Maxima and have my first hardcore road trip out west to Los Angeles! But, before I get ahead of myself lets rewind a few weeks back so I can explain why the hell I'm moving my life 2,089 miles away. Yes, I did look it up.

It all started when I was sitting in the Telecom building (as usual) between classes. Professor Krahnke came up to me and shoved this poster in my face and told me to apply. The poster heading said, "Get your start in Hollywood." I said, "Alright I will!" What I didn't realize is how much work applying for The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Summer Internship Program took. For those of you who don't know what The Academy is, I will explain! They are a non-for-profit charitable arm of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences...you know, the people who do The Emmys. The Academy has a summer internship program for college students and recently graduated seniors. There are 30 categories to chose from Directing, Programming, Costume Design, to Animation. I applied for the Editing category. The application involved a packet of sorts. I included my resume, school transcripts, an editing reel, a 300-400 word Professional Statement Essay, and 2 letters of recommendation. I heard how competitive this internship was, and started to plan my summer as if I had never applied. Of course, I day dreamed of what it would be like working in Los Angeles this summer...
On April 23 at 4:51 I received an email from Nancy Robinson titled: TV Academy Foundation Internship Finalist Notification I took the time to read the first line that said: "You have been selected as a finalist for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Internship Program in the Editing category." I instantly started shaking with excitement and started freaking out via Facebook chat to my best friend Kathryn Begle. I had 7 days to film myself answering their interview questions they had sent me and overnight the DVD to them. I'd like to thank Dark Hound Productions for letting me use the equipment for my interview, Professor Krahnke, Kathryn Begle, Matt Dirksen, and my cousin Chelsea Cotner for helping me with the interview process. Couldn't have done it without you!! =)
The few weeks leading up to graduation I had lots of people asking, "Ashley, what are your plans for the summer?" "What are you doing after graduation?" I honestly couldn't answer because I had no idea. I said, "I'll let you know in 2 weeks."
Less than 2 weeks later...
Kathryn Begle and I were hanging out Monday, May 9th(2 days after graduation). Two minutes after Kathryn leaves my apartment I hear my cell phone ring. I sprint up stairs to answer it in time and my heart stops after I see the number is an (818) area code aka: Los Angeles. I had been informed by Nancy Robinson that if I had gotten the internship they would call me, if I did not get it they would just email me.  (Lets just say I was terrified at checking email for weeks). I answered the phone trying to remember to breath when Nancy Robinson introduced herself to me and told me she had good news. I probably was very unprofessional as she told me I was chosen for the reality editing internship, as I held back my excitement as much as possible. A week later I was given the name and number of my new hero/mentor, Mark Raudonis. He is VP of Post Production for my host company Bunim/Murray Productions. They pretty much invented reality TV by creating The Real World in 1992. Before calling Mr. Raudonis I researched Bunim/Murray and Mark himself. Yes, he is googleable, which makes him a badass. I saw the company logo and instantly recognized it. I had seen it hundreds of times on TV. After talking to Mr. Raudonis on the phone for 15 minutes, I was relieved that he seemed very cool, rather than a psycho scary LA bosses you hear about. He explained how he wanted me to learn how each of their shows in production this summer are edited. He told me I get to work on my favorite show of ALL TIME: Project Runway. I also will get to work on The Real World and Keeping up with the Kardashians!

Since then, I have been walking on Cloud 9. I can not wait until I move to Los Angeles and start my life.

That's all Folks!