Disneyland

As a surprise we were told that we were going to go to Disneyland today. When we got there a group of us were hungry, so we went to a cafe and were shocked by the some of the prices for food! Despite this we ate and went to our first ride, the Haunted Mansion which was themed after the Nightmare before Christmas which is one of my favorite animated movies. After we rode that the group thought that it would be a great idea if we went on a water ride. Once we were at the front of the line they changed plans and made me sit in the front of the log. As a result I was completely soaked and walked around wet most of the day. However, my day wasn't ruined and we went on to ride Space Mountain which was extremely fun. Once it was dark out we went to main street and saw a firework show in which music was played alongside graphics on the walls of the buildings. This was my first time going to Disneyland and I'm thankful that we were able to go during this trip!

A Very Eventful Day

Our day today started with brunch with Michael Kehoe. Michael has directed, acted, produced, and was crew for several different films. Two of his most known would be Hush, and The Hatred. He was kind enough to give us advice on working in the industry, and answered our questions. What I found interesting about Michael is that he started out doing theatre in highschool and developed skills of a writer and producer in doing so. He wrote a play, would build set in his free time, got athletes to be in the play to sell tickets, and even performed the play for a second weekend. Our next stop was Paramount for a tour. At paramount we saw a ton of different lots and stages. My personal favorite was the New York City set. The buildings and road looked completely identical to the city! They shot scenes from one of my favorite childhood TV shows there; Everybody Hates Chris. Funny enough, we also went onto the Dr. Phil set again. We also went into a room with movie props and I took a picture inside the USS Enterprise Turbolift from Star Trek Beyond. Later tonight we went to the American Legion in Hollywood to watch a version of Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush, that was nearly twice in length to the original and the movie was hysterical! Afterwards when we were waiting for a tour of the projection room we saw the bar from the scene in The Shining, when Jack talks to the bartender that's not really there. Following this we toured the the projection room. In our era of digital media its often thought that using film is archaic and outdated, however this isn't further from the truth. When talking to the men running the projectors we talked about how film is always taken into account when making films due to aspect ratio especially when making IMAX films. As the day was coming to an end and we were walking towards the van others ahead of me were gasping. I didn't anything of it at first, but once I saw the door to van my heart dropped... the window was broken and my backpack was missing! After a while of panicking we went back the hotel and Dr. Xaver and I went to the police department and filed out reports. We made friends with one of the officers and they were extremely friendly and took care of us. We ended up talking for nearly 3 hours! So although I unfortunately lost my laptop, it didn't take away from an amazing day and a great experience.

Sony and Universal

This morning we headed out early for Universal Studios. When we first crossed the gate we immediately see the iconic turning Universal Globe. We started taking pictures but started to notice that a man was using a Steady-cam, and behind him we realized that there was a hot set going on right in front of us.  Afterwords we went on the backlot tour and were able to see sets from a bunch of different movies and television shows like Psycho, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Good Place, and much more! Afterwards we were able to fit in a couple of additional rides like the Mummy and Jurassic Park. We didn't do too many rides however, because we were on a mission to get to Sony Animation! With Sony Animation they showed us some amazing story boards done for Hotel Transylvania and Spiderman Into the Spiderverse. Watching the storyboard artist visualize a scene that translates to the final product is something really special. Not only this but we were also able to see the animators at work and watch a scene from Hotel Transylvania 3 completed from first concept to final product.

The Journey is the Destination

This morning we left and arrived in Malibu beach to Creative Visions, the company run by Kathy and Amy Eldon. Kathy and Amy are also producers, in addition to running Creative Visions. They helped produce The Journey is the destination and Dying to Tell The Story, two films centered around the late Dan Eldon. Dan was not only a great photography, but a remarkable individual who stopped at nothing to help those in need, particularly those in Africa. We toured their building and had lunch with Kathy who was generous enough to let us walk around her house as well. After we had lunch we drove over to watch Carol's Second Act. Roughly half way through Jack and I were asked if we wanted to sit in the front, so of course we said yes. It was great to be able to see up close what the Director, AD, and writer were doing while the show was being shot. Overall, today was pretty great!

Price is Right

Today we went on the Price is Right. At the end of the line we were interviewed by the producer in order for him to decide who will be picked to go compete on the show. Although non of us ended up getting picked, it was still exciting to meet a producer of such a successful show. Once we were seated we immediately noticed that the energy level was insane, with everyone dancing and clapping in the audience. Towards the end of the show they announced that there would be one more winner, but they wouldn't be competing but just receive money. And believe it or not Mackenzie from our group won! After the show we met Symon again for lunch and were able to pick his brain once again and for some reason he was delighted to do so!

Dr. Phil and Last Man Standing

It was always on my bucket list to watch Dr. Phil live, and I finally was able to cross that off this morning. We sat through two episodes back to back and it was great being around 20 feet away from center stage. For the first episode I sat right behind their crane. Although it came close to my head a few times, I'm glad I was able to watch which angles the operator was getting. This was also the case for the Steadicam operator. After we watched Dr. Phil we went to Last Man Standing. This show was remarkable different from "Mom." We were told that the show was, "The fastest in Hollywood," and they might have been right! They said that they do each scene in two takes which wasn't exactly true but they did complete each scene and rewrite significantly faster than Mom did.

Sony pt.2 and Technicolor

Today we went to Sony Pictures studios and went on a tour. The first tour was just a tour of the different stages they had on site and walked on the set of Goldbergs. Afterwards, we had a private presentation of the different television shows that they work on packages for. Meaning that they would make marketing campaigns and videos for these shows despite them playing on different networks. We then left Sony and went to technicolor where we were shown some of their editing process. We also talked to the lead colorist at technicolor and I was amazed at how fast he was able to color correct!