Back at Home/The End

It's sad to say it, however summer is quickly coming to a close and LA is gone. It's hard to describe my emotions as I was heading to the airport. I laughed because I didn't have to deal with LA traffic anymore because I'd be at home, because I'd see my friends again, however I was sad in so many ways. I was sad to leave the mountains, the beach, the city, the crazy situations... Hollywood (believe it or not). It's become quite clear to me that I'm clearly a Hollywood man (despite how much I wish that wasn't true). It'll be damn hard to somehow mold myself into a Doc, when every other moment I can't stop thinking about it. It's really the only thing that gives me butterflies in my stomach, the thing that makes me so excited, and even while this summer was a bit disillusioning (i think if anyone goes to Hollywood and actually works there they will find it disillusioning). So I am going to miss it, even though I'll only be gone nine months. This really was one of the most exciting summers I have had, crazy and spontaneous since its very inception however I wouldn't take it back for the world. Sure there were the bad times, the embarassing moments, the food poisoning, the loneliness, but all in all it was definitaly worth it. I go back to college with new perspective on my future, more courage (once you live all alone, work a real job, and meet real people things in college seem so much more petty), and just a change in how I live. I'm proud of myself for just going with things and ending up in Hollywood.

So here I am back at home, 8 days till I head back to school, back to my fraternity drama, back to the meaningless alcoholism, back to the middle of nowhere, and all the work. But also back to the friends for life, my brothers, the people really care about. So these last few days, as I say goodbye to my hometown for a little while, I watched the sunset and smiled, thinking of how ridiculous this summer really was.

Fade In: Semi-Charmed Life
Roll Credits

Winding down

First I'd like to say it's a little disappointing that Matthew Perry has been reduced for "Made-for-TV" Johnson and Johnson movies. I mean come on man, after The Whole 9 Yards, Fools Rush In? Oh how the great have fallen.

Yesterday was my birthday. It was fun! I went hiking in the beautiful mountains of Malibu (something I hope to make a tradition). I haven't made it to work since monday, even though my class, History of American Cinema, was officially finished on Tuesday. I really enjoyed the class, it was far more interesting than the corresponding piece of shit I would have taken at my own university. In fact, I enjoyed the class so much that I decided to go to the optional class today. We watched Annie Hall and Get Shorty. Two really great movies. I've never actually seen a Woody Allen movie till Annie Hall, and I do enjoy his humor immensely. There's just something about that frantic insecurity and the culturally deep wit that I loved. It really was an intelligent comedy that definitaly appealed to the more educated to truly be enjoyed. The story is simple enough, it's about a man who is deeply in love with a woman, however all his insecurities drive her away from him. It comes highly recommend from this film major.

Allen's style in this movie (and what i'm assuming throughout the rest of his movies) is visually very mundane. There's nothing awe inspiring, visually, about any scene at all, granted there are the basic aspects of including depth, however unlike movies like Memoir's of a Geisha or Brokeback Mountain, with awe inspiring cinematography, these shots let you focus on the humor of every situation (which there is no shortage of). Anyway enough of that.

I've been trying to figure out how to weasel myself into the UCLA film school as an undergrad. I've realized by watching Entourage and my experiences at UCLA that I won't be able to become a director with the knowledge I have. Yes, I know directing is highly intuitive, yes as a director there are an immense amount of technical people behind me ready to figure out anything I need them to, and yes people become directors without schooling, but I still feeling having this technical background will help me immensely if directing is something I intend to continue with.

So the last days of the sweet California are winding down, today is my last night sleeping in the bed at UCLA, within 5 days I will be sleeping in my own bed back home. It's a little depressing, I'm not excited to return to college. Unlike most people, I am surrounded by fake "friends" almost constantly (most in my fraternity). There are few people I would call good friends, and fewer that I would regard in high esteem. It's a damn shame, that out of all the fraternities on campus this was my first choice. It's upsetting that I wouldn't choose one with more genuine people. Don't get me wrong, I have great friends, however, it's just these people that... I can't stand. I'm ready to leave, I'm ready to graduate, I'm ready to move to California. And even though this isn't possible, I can still dream.

Girlfriends, Tennis, and life in general.

I broke up with my girlfriend the other day... It wasn't sad, it was going to happen. She was in another country, there are too many attractive LA girls, and she was probably cheating on me anyway. We weren't serious, so we'll still be friends. The thing is, she's a bacardi girl and one of those girls that dances on bars at clubs. I mean this girl could get laid every night and this summer, she probably was. So it's over, and that's fine, in fact, I hadn't even talked to her in 3 weeks. Enough about that.

More exciting today I went to the Countrywide Classic. I'd have to say it was pretty damn exciting. Today, you could bring in a children's book and they'd give you a free ticket. "That's awesome!" I said to myself. So I went to the UCLA bookstore and bought a Curious George book. Within minutes I was inside. I walked in halfway through the first match which was Gonzalez vs. Safin. It was entertaining, Gonzalez won... However at that point, it was insanely hot, and my thirst was insatiable. So I decided to go back to my apartment and chill for a little bit. I literally passed out as soon as I got there and was quite rudely awakened by my tool of a roomate turning on the television (more about him later). Anyway I ended up making it back for the main match of the afternoon. Andy Roddick vs. Rik de Voest. This was the match I had been waiting for, and frankly it was awesome. Roddick won (of course) but the poor South Africian bastard really put up a fight. He was even winning in the beginning, but I could tell he was tiring out (As it was like 150 degrees in LA today). Roddick, of course, looked like he didn't even feel the heat, honestly that man has so much endurance he could run a marathon without breaking a sweat. Anyway, I returned to my room and this is what started to piss me off.
I returned to my room and once again was auditoraly affronted by the TV. My roomate was watching some obscene movie of which I wanted to take no part of. I was furious, I talked to my parents and they asked the same question you must be asking right now, "Why are you so mad?" Well let me tell you .
My roomate watches TV for 12 hours a day. No joke, no fucking joke. The first few days I moved in, he seemed cool, I thought the TV watching thing was a phase, however it wasn't, it really wasn't. He would get home from class at 1 ish (at the latest) and the TV would be on from 1pm to 1am. EVERY FUCKING DAY. It's so infuriating because I have to listen to this bullshit CONSTANTLY. I just want to hit him, point out that it's the middle of a California summer, he should get off his FAT ASS and go outside and live his own fucking life. I mean what kind of pitiful person has to sit in front of the television for so many hours. I really can't handle it. I just keep telling myself, "10 more days, 10 more days." On the other hand, I really don't want to leave California, I mean I love this state, I love the beaches, I love the mountains, I love the industry, I guess I really am as "Bright eyed and Bushy tailed" as I was made out to be.

So here's to 13 more fucking awesome days in Cali, here's to partying it up and having a damn good time.

PS: I'll get pictures up, however I foolishly forgot the USB cord at home to transfer pictures from the camera.

Well I have to take something back...

Earlier I said that once you start working in Hollywood you tend to not get excited about stars, well I now officially have to take that back. Last Wednesday, 6 days ago, I decided to go in for work because I would be skipping on Friday. Now keep in mind that when I made my earlier statement I hadn't actually seen anyone famous, I'd just called a lot of famous people. On that same day, as I was walking into the lot, Nip/Tuck happened to be shooting and they were taking a lunch break. Coming out of the stage I saw ESCOBAR. Hmm... I thought that's pretty cool, but he was a minor character so it didnt' really faze me in the slightest. Then I turn the corner and right in front of me is SEAN MACNAMARA. Damn, I thought to myself, he's kind of a big deal. But the day held so much more.... I went to work and everything was as normal, I took over the phones and my boss' new temporary assistant and you'll never guess who called. It just so happened to be MICHAEL BAY. He was waiting to talk to my boss about one of the movies they were shooting together. That's pretty exciting I thought to myself, however I didn't really get to talk to him, it was more like his assistant, but it was close. I was like... this day is the BOMB, I've talked a lot of famous people, I'm pretty damn cool. Anyway, I ended up going to lunch, just the cafeteria on the lot, and as I was walking back, I saw the king of film. STEVEN SPIELBERG. This was my expression as I passed Mr. Spielberg,
"hmm... he looks familiar."
"OH MY GOD THATS STEVEN SPIELBERG"
"OH MY GOD MY PANTS ARE FALLING DOWN" (i forgot my belt that day)
at that point with my lunch in one hand the other hand on my shorts which were falling down and my head down, I somehow navigated myself in between STEVEN spielberg and the woman he was walking with. I look up at the last moment and see a confused and not happy look on his face directed at me... "Fuck" I thought to myself...

Fuck.

So I guess, I get excited about famous people just like every other person.

P.S. I'm bringing Sexyback

Things I learned living in LA/ Working in Hollywood

There's not much that I need to do to set up this post, I really should be writing more about my background so I can start talking about all the cool things I've done and more importantly my musings, however that will have to wait for another date, I've been waiting to write these for a while:
LA Traffic:
1. You don't know crowds till you come to Los Angeles

2. You don't know traffic till you come to LA

3. People are nice until they step into a car, then they're not really people anymore, they're more animals

4. Everyone and their mother drives a Mercedes (at least). I hardly even notice anything less than a Mercedes.

LA People:
1. Men/ Women you once thought were hot, aren't.

2. Everyone here is looking for a break, but most don't really know what they're doing

3. Every other person you meet will be Mexican (not meant to be offensive... just true).

4. LAers are pretty f-ing liberal, however their talk shows on the radio are incredibly conservative (Marty Savage).

5. If you make eye contact with a Hobo they will ask you for money

6. People are mean to Hobos

7. Hobos are mean to people

8. Every Hobo I've talked to is crazy

9. You won't be homeless unless you're crazy.

10. Everyone loves the beach, but the water is so f-ing cold.

11. The constant sun makes people in LA dumber, but happier.

Scenery in LA

1. The Santa Monica Beach is so crowded you just don't want to go there

2. For quality beaches head to Malibu, but don't expect much

3. A quiet beach on the west coast away from all the people is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful experiences I have ever experieneced.

4. The fact that it's always gorgeous outside makes you want to be outside a lot more.

5. There is no winter in Los Angeles

6. Hiking in Malibu is possibly one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced.

7. Some of the places I went hiking looked like they were from Lord of The Rings.

8. They could have filmed Brokeback Mountain in Malibu

Hollywood/ Celebrity

1. Working in Hollywood behind the scenes kind of takes away some of the glamour and mystery of Hollywood

2. Beverly Hills/ Bel Air/ Malibu are all about the celebrities

3. Every celeb has atleast one place in Los Angeles area

4. Theres somethign called star maps which tells you all the locations of the stars.

5. If you take star maps, all you will see is a bunch of gates because celebrities are rich and they can afford protection from intruders

6. I don't know for sure, but I think Entourage is a pretty good representation of Celebrity life

7. As Celebrities become more rich and famous they degenerate into children who can't do anything for themselves

8. Assistants have the hardest jobs ever and I admire them

9. I believe the horror stories you hear in Hollywood.

10. Hollywood is supposedly gay friendly, but all the execs (aka the people who make the movies) I've interacted with have made atleast one homophobic comment un provoked.

11. It is not professional to act like a screaming school girl on set when you see a celebrity "on the lot" instead you are to calmly pull out your cellphone (all while acting cool) and call anyone in your phone book and calmly tell them that you are currenly X feet from So and so and that you're freaking out on the inside

12. Steven Spielberg is a rather diminutive man.

13. Becoming famous takes a lot of hard work

14. Becoming famous is NOT all chance, through hard work you can make your living in the entertainment industry, but you have to be something special

15 . Trying to get in the industry you will be writing a lot of coverage

16. The lot is cool for the first 2 days you work there, then it's nothing special

17. People in LA don't get excited when you mention you work at a studio, in fact they're thinking "Yea, so does everyone else"

18. People in the midwest think it's a big deal if you work in a studio

19. You really get to learn a lot of stuff working at Studio, you get the bittersweet name of "Hollywood Insider"

20. IMDB is NOT always right (I know i was dissapointed too), in fact most of the times it's probably not right, and it is always late in the posting

21. There are much more reliable methods for getting information that IMDB (studiosystem).

22. Getting into Acting i shard because agencies don't have open auditions

23. Most of the people trying to sell you a way into Hollywood are probably lying.

24. Everyone is trying to break in the industry.

That's all for now, there are many more that I can't think of right now, but I will be sure to update as soon as I can.

Oh PS for more information on the inner workings of Hollywood you should really check out:
http://assistantatlas.blogspot.com this guy has been working here far longer than me, and he has some horror storiest to boot. Plus once I leave for the summer, he'll still be here working his ass off.

So what does an intern do?

That's a question many people ask, but they precede it by asking an even more difficult question, what the hell does a producer do? I understand where they are coming from, even as a film student I didn't understand what my company did till i was actually working here (for some reason Hollywood likes to keep everything cryptic). I mean I always saw Production companies at the top of the billing but my impression was that they just hired everyone and went golfing. Well to some extent that's true they do hire everyone, they're the ones who have the money, but they do so much more. The big boss (who is never in town) stays close with his movies and works extensively with the directors throughout the process. So let's have a quick breakdown of what happens in a Hollywood company. The first step is receiving scripts, every day our company receives many many scripts, they range from romances to horrors to fantasy, anything you can imagine. These scripts are given to us by Literary Agents, here at the production company we're not exactly a big fan of literary agents because they're always peddling their work (sometimes shamelessly). At that point all scripts have to be read and "coverage" is done. What is Coverage? Because the company/story editor/ execs receive so many scripts every day they obviously don't have enough time to read them. So instead they give it to their assistants, or to the interns and we read them. Once we read them we write up a short summary and a set of comments about what we thought of the script. We then give a final say in one of two words: "Recommend" or "Pass". These are pretty self explanatory, if we say "pass" the script will likely never be seen again ( a lot of power eh?) however if we recommend it it will go to the next level of exec (the story editor). At that point he will read it and if he thinks it's worth a shot for a quality movie, he will start setting up a presentation or a "pitch" to his boss who is the one that will finance the movie. If all goes well and the "pitch" gets approved by the producer the next step is to take it to the Studio Level. The Studios, everyone is familiar with, they're the ones that own the lots where we shoot, and they also help with movie finances, publicity, etc. They include: Paramount, Sony, Fox, etc. The ones who started the film business back in the days of Edison (I'm also taking History of American Cinema so i have great historical perspective). The company whose lot you work on (most major production companies reside on a lot) has a first-look deal. They get to see the script and consider it before anyone else. If they don't like it the production company has the option to take it to other studios. If no one likes it it will likely (and probably should be) canned. However if a company is particuarly adamant there are of course smaller studios (B movie studios) that will take any movie they can get. Note that in all these processes even scripts that production companies love will probably change dramitcally to be more fitted for the screen. So that's the process of a script, and that's probably the most interesting thing I do every day.
What are my other tasks?
Well usually copying some mystery project, some idea, some names that I don't know, copies of ranodm scripts are often asked for, etc. We sit in the office answering any call that comes our way. I'll have to write more later, because I have company that just arrived.

We've got some catching up to do...

First, I'd like to introduce you all to myself, there aren't going to be names here, just a little look into my life as an intern in one very special city:
Currently: I'm a junior at a prestigious university in the midwest. I'm going to keep you guessing and say we're top 20. The entertainment industry, is something I've always wanted to break into (like everyone and their mother) and while it is the most superficial, callous, hateable, foolish, irritating, sanity-losing, mind-destroying, industry of all time, it is something that I have a desire to get into more than anything else. As to what aspect of the industry I want to get into, as of yet I am not certain (whether that be acting, directing, or producing) but I was always an arts man. This would be fine and dandy, yet here I throw another problem at you, you wonderful readers that I do not yet have. My ethnicity is not a common one that gets into the industry, in fact it is a very very distinct minority that is just starting up in America (though we have a booming one in our home country) (yes, I know I narrowed it down for you to about... one race, but for those oblivious to the world it will still be a mystery). That would also be fine and dandy, however this is coupled with the fact that my parents basically expect me to become a doctor,
Example 1: everytime i talk to mother dearest it's "Well if you like California so much maybe you can get into UCLA Med School"
Example 2: My dad is going to buy me a Lamborghini once I get out of med school (sounds appealing eh?)

Yet despite all these pressures and incentives it's just not what I want to do, (sad panda). I understand that they want a stable life for me, and that is one thing most people WILL NOT get in this industry, and a stable life is something I want to, however even as I say these words, here I am sitting at an assistant's desk as an intern in the center of Paramount Studios, Hollywood, California. So what do I do? Well I'm going to start by sitting here every day from now on and explaining my life in this blog. I can't guarantee anyone that I'll stay in the industry, follow my dream and not become a doctor, I can't guarantee that even if I do fight my parents and get into the industry I'll go anywhere beyond intern (I feel like my bosses hate me right now), hell I don't even think anyone is going to read this, how's that for a positive attitude? Anyway this is my first summer in Los Angeles, I really want to come back next year to continue an internship, and after I graduate, well we'll see what happens.
More later, for now let's answer some more phones!

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