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.