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You people should consider yourselves lucky that I'm granting you an audience tomorrow instead of 20 years from now.

Saturday, May 24 Today we had an AMAZING line up of guest speakers. There were TC3 alums: Caroline Gilmore and Kyle Carr, who even though we basically have open access to them on this trip, I learned a lot about their stories and experience that I didn't know. Then we had Jackie Ariel, Aubrey Bendix, Rich Newey, Rick Tuber, Amanda Setton, and Keri Kulikowsky. They all have different backgrounds and specialties so it was a great insight to hear various points of views. Caroline Gilmore: Caroline has been living in LA for three years. Her previous experience was this course I am currently on and the LA program at Ithaca College. She told us that we need to push ourselves past our comfort level. She shared a story with us about how her and her friend went to go get ice cream one day and she saw them locking up for a film set and she went up to them and asked if they needed help and it turned out they did! She was an extra and then it led to a PA job the next day. You have to take chances, especially with socializing and networking. The worst someone can say is “Get the **** outta my face,” which isn’t so awful in hindsight. Another thing is you need to have a thick skin. Seeing and hearing about Caroline’s success helps give me confidence in making the decision that are right for my future. I can’t be afraid to help myself. Kyle Carr: Kyle Carr is one of our instructors and even though I have had open access to him and his story, I had never heard most of it until today. I am so glad he decided to speak for us because he is also a very accomplished person. He became an adjunct professor immediately after graduating from TC3 himself. He taught After Effects at the school. One day he went to a Channel 9 forum on After Effects where he met his current business partner. Kyle is a well renowned wedding photographer and videographer. Kyle is freelance and does commercials, worked on short films and has been shooting at monster truck rallies (one of his favorite things to shoot) Kyle’s advice to us was to create and uphold relationships with everyone because you don’t know how you can help each other and never say no because you don’t know what opportunity it can turn into. Recurring theme among guest speakers: never say no, always say yes. Message received. Jackie Ariel: Jackie is an IC graduate (we’ve come across quite a few of them out here) who has experience in all three stages of production. She was a part of casting for The Real World: Australia, she worked on The Office with scheduling actors and budgets, and she interned for post for Scrubs. After The Office closed, Jackie got her job at DirecTV as Project Lead. Jackie described that DirecTV is creating more original content and growing in this aspect of the industry. They are hoping to become something like HBO. Jackie’s advice consisted of some great interview skills like maintaining eye contact and have questions for the interviewer. She also told us that working ata talent agency is a great way to get your foot in the door because they are always looking for help. She worked for a smaller boutique agency and gained a lot of experience and had more responsibilities to learn from. Aubrey Bendix: Aubrey is the executive assistant to the President of Universal studios. She graduated IC also and she had a type of Liberal Arts major..which is very comforting to me, being a lib arts major myself. She drove down to NYC to PA for a weekend for Tower Heist and wound up getting called back to be a paid intern for a month and then promoted to 2nd assistant for about 6 months. The message of her story was that we need to be willing to do whatever we can and to say yes when an opportunity presents itself. If she didn't feel like driving 5 hours to the city, she would never have had that opportunity AND paying job. People remember what you do if your work ethic is good. She received a phone call 3 months after Tower Heist ended and got a PA job at Imagine. Another opportunity that wouldn't have happened if she didn't say yes. She told us we need to have a tough skin and it's important to roll with the punches. Some advice that stuck out to me was, "Work like its the job you've always wanted because people will remember you." Rich Newey: Rich is a director. He worked for a few years on music videos and commercials, always keeping his goal of directing TV/Film in mind. He recently directed an episode of Beauty and The Beast and impressed everyone because he finished filming early. Rich's biggest advice to us was that we need to be active in looking for opportunities because no one is going to come up to us and give it. He went to shadow on The Vampire Diaries, even though it was in another state. He bought a plane ticket and left. We have to want it more than the next person. We have to be willing to do anything and everything to get work and impress people and to grab attention. I didn't know that shadowing was something that people did in this industry. Rich says that you are a fly on the wall and you get to attend all meetings to learn the show in order to prep. Each show has a special characteristic that you need to learn. For example, CSI uses long lenses and particular camera moves. Rick Tuber: Rick is an editor who currently works on the show Salem. Rick loves what he does and encourages people to move in this direction, especially if they aren't sure where they want to be in the field. Editing is a great place to be because you have contact with everyone. He was at Aaron Spelling Production as an apprentice for 3 years then assistant for 5 years and then became an editor. Being an assistant editor holds a lot of responsibility. He assistant runs the room, is in charge of organization and is constant contact with the script supervisor. He explained that there are several versions of a show in this order: editor's cut, director's cut, producer's cut, studio cut and network cut. Rick showed us an example of a scene from Salem which was a comparison of an editor's cut, a producer's cut and the network cut. It was really interesting to see how he creative edit (first) is cut down to the bare essentials. The first one was definitely the best. I could imagine it being frustrating as an editor having to cut down something you worked so hard on to the skeleton. Amanda Setton: Amanda Setton is an actress who was in shows like Gossip Girl, The Mindy Project and most recently, The Crazy Ones. She has always known she wanted to be an actress and went to Ithaca College for their theatre department. She also attended the Actors Workshop in Ithaca, which she spoke very highly of. We have a couple of aspiring actors in this class and I hope they take that into consideration and seek out more information on their program. Amanda interned at a casting agency, which she said was a great way to get to know people and familiarize yourself with the industry. She also insists that we cannot wait for jobs to fall into our laps and that we need to be proactive in finding opportunities. ALWAYS SAY YES. She made is point very clear because you never know where something is going to lead. Something you might deem to be small could open up so many doors so we shouldn't think we're too good for something. Just. Say. Yes. Got it. She told us that we cannot be discouraged by hearing "no" or by fear. Keri Kulikowsky: Keri is a talent coordinator, which is an interesting and important job that I didn't know existed. We keep discovering on this trio that there's more options in this field than director, writer or producer. The biggest lesson that Keri taught us was DO YOUR RESEARCH. She asked us questions about where she worked and what other shows she has done (all things on her IMDB page) that we should have known. She gave prizes to those who answered correctly but it took awhile. Her point was that you have to take that extra step and learn about who you will be talking with. You need research a company you're going on an interview for and who will be interviewing you. This little lesson has definitely saved me from potential future embarrassment. I'm thankful I learned it now though. Keri also reinforced something other speakers have told us and that's to be nice to everyone. If people like you, they're more likely to go the extra mile for you in the future. Always be prepared and answer questions right away. It's important to be 3 steps ahead so that your supervisors don't have to think about certain things at all and you are reliable and valuable. Something else that I thought was interesting and never would have thought of was she urged us to be inquisitive. If someone asks you to make photocopies of a form and you don't know what the form is, ask them to explain it to you. It shows you're interested and actually care. And if it was private, they wouldn't be asking you to copy it. Makes sense but I'm not sure I would have seen it like that. Everyone we spoke with today had great insight and I loved hearing it from all different aspects and job roles. A common theme was clear though: don't give up, always say yes and be nice. It was so wonderful to meet everyone today and hopefully if I meet them again, it will be as coworkers.

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Friday, May 23 Our Friday started off at the Writers Guild library with Karen Pederson. The library preserves TV/film history and the memory of writers for screen storytelling. They have been collecting since the 1920s but the foundation didn't become an official entity until 2011. They had some historical pieces on display for us, including: the 1933 screenplay of "Alice", a live action film, with story boards. 1 of 2 handwritten drafts of "The Empire Strikes Back," and the typewriter that the novel Psycho was written on. I looked at a script of an episode of The Simpsons.The most interesting thing I learned was that a cartoon script is the same format as a live action..maybe more details. I don't know what I imagined cartoon scripts to look like, but that certainly was not it. They have shelves filled scripts from movies and television shows, from which we were allowed to pick to look at. The very first thing on my list was Everybody Loves Raymond because that is the show that is responsible for my interest in television. The feeling to be holding that in my hand is indescribable. After hearing over and over how hard it will be to make it in this industry, it was a reminder of why I'm doing this. I love that show and to see how the translation worked from script to screen was awesome. I was watching the show in my head as I read. The script had its own personality, as some do, and I smiled as I read the language and directions. THEN... See Dad Run. Another sitcom, another rock show. Except, I got VIP access from Mrs. Baio herself!!! That's a real thing that happened to me! Oh my gosh, soooo cool. And yes, the extra three o's were necessary! She noticed me because the DJ (yes, a DJ..no joke, sitcom tapings are giant parties) put on "Yeah" by Usher and the Ludacris rap came up and I was going crazy and the host came over and gave me the mic! I was running all around the audience and rapping, just so full of energy. So after my class left, it was just me and I had to build up the courage to talk to someone. I got a picture with Scott Baio..but I don't have it because I wasn't allowed to take my phone into the taping haha. So Mrs. Baio told their personal photographer to take it and email it to me. She was so sweet and considerate. I wound up talking to some of the crew about what they do and how it is working on a sitcom. I spoke with the second audio assistant, the camera coordinator, and the script supervisor. I didn't have time to get to everyone because they cleared out to have an after party. So then naturally, I try to leave the lot and get lost. I wandered around the lot for a bit before coming across a lovely gentleman named Nelson, who is 2nd team for "Hit the Floor." He showed me how to escape and we exchanged information because I'm a networking ninja. ...I love California.

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I may not come out alive, but I'm going in there!

Thursday, May 22 So today we started off the day at Technicolor Sound on the Paramount studios lot. Our guide and mentor was Mike Ruzzuto who was such a wonderful person. His attitude was inspiring and you could tell he was so excited to teach us. He started out as a shipping receiver at Sony just to get his foot in the door and now he oversees business development at Technicolor Sound. A motivation to show that if you want it bad enough, you will succeed. Mike brought us into 1 of the 5 broadcast stages at Technicolor Sound and did a Q and A with us there. It was awesome to see where a project goes in it's final steps before distribution. It goes to a broadcast stage to handle the levels of sound. Speaking of sound, we got to go to a foley stage and meet foley artists, which was SO cool. They were actually working on a current project and showed us what they used for one of the sound effects. It was interesting to learn that foley is not a popular job because you have to enter through an apprenticeship. Most studios only have 1 foley stage and a couple of artists. They had so many items in their room that they can grab and experiment with to perfect a sound. Foley seems like a fun but very tedious job. Mike also gave us a tour of the Paramount lot. And unlike other tours who had to be in those little carts, we got to walk around on foot. That was so cool. It's amazing..the opportunities we get to have out here are simply unbelievable. If you would have told me a year ago half the things I'd be doing on this trip, I wouldn't believe it. So while we were walking we saw basecamps for a couple of shows, which is interesting because I didn't know they had basecamps in the backlots of studios. We also saw a place called "The Mill" where they make the sets for shows. Mike gave us some great advice, including: be as nice as you can be and help everybody. I think the biggest piece of advice he told us that really stood out to me was "Don't underestimate what someone can teach you." The story he shared to go along with this was how he learned Spanish from a custodian he worked with. This helped him in his future to communicate with clients. It really makes you think. Final words of Mike's wisdom: You have to be passionate and think positively in this industry..so if you think you can't, then you won't. We ended the day by going to a show taping of Instant Mom. SO much fun. They have a comedian to entertain the audience in between takes. A sitcom taping is basically a rock concert. I loved seeing the flow of the taping and how fast it was going. I thought that an episode would take much longer but everyone was in sync and got their jobs done.

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5/20/2014 Part 2 of 2

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What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! 

So today we met with Ann Fortune who is a fabulous woman. She is a Producer/Editor/Writer for NBC International (E! Studios). She is in the promos department and has been since 2006. Her story is interesting and rare because she was offered a job straight out of college from E! because she interned with them in college. She told us that she had never pictured herself creating promos but she loves what she does. She is in charge of making promos for places such as, Australia, London, Italy, Russia and South America. She made it clear that it is important to not be closed-minded when coming into this industry. You might wind up doing something you thought you hated or didn't even know existed.

She also highly suggested moving out to LA. This is something that I have been thinking about a lot recently and the only thing that is holding me back is the fear of the unknown. What I am realizing is that I need courage to make the decisions that will benefit my future.

Ann was a student of Chrissy's from Ithaca College, so since she was our connection to E!, we got to sit in on The Soup and watch the taping. Joel McHale is the host and he let us take pictures with him after the show. It was cool to see The Soup, not only for the entertainment value but to see the behind the scenes. There was only one camera that stayed stationary the whole show. The writers were also on set for this show and there were a couple of times where a joke wasn't as funny as they wanted it to be so they called Joel over and changed it on the spot. Every time they did that, the joke was so much better and fit the show. The show is done on a green screen so we had to watch the monitors to see what was going on. The Soup seems like a fun, relaxed environment. The writers and crew were on camera at several points to play a part in the show. 

After the taping, we had lunch with Ann and then we headed to the @ midnight show taping. It's a game show for comedians and one of the players was Whitney Cummings who wound up winning the show.

The floor manager had a walkie that could communicate to the crew and go across the speakers so he could talk to the audience as well. They had several cameras set up and they had one on a crane which zipped around the room. The audience was not allowed to stand up so that we wouldn't accidentally hit into camera. One time the host, Chris Hardwick, stumbled and he started the segment over. I've seen this happen a couple of times where something happens and the host just starts over so that when they edit, it just looks like they did a camera change, not a different take. I have been to several different show taping environments and I have to say, I liked them all. Though sitcom is where I'm leaning to go with my life, I would be happy to wind up on any of these shows or similar ones. I just need to build up the courage to move to Cali.

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I can't post the second video for my Tuesday blog, I have to wait 24 hours. So I will put it up as soon as I can but things will be a little out of order. #lame #technicaldifficulties

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5/20/2014 Part 1 of 2

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Forgot to mention my favorite thing that I saw at Disney Studios! The multi-plane camera. Oh. My. Gosh. Amazing. Despite how old this technology technically is, it's amazing and impressive to me today. The slides were so beautiful and the details were unbelievable. I could not stop staring at it. If only there was a way to time travel and watch it in action.

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Some pictures from today

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Hollywood Reality Day 4 of 20

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Some pictures from today

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Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.

PA Bootcamp. What a way to start off in Cali and remind us we are most definitely not in Dryden, NY anymore! We met Chuck, Leigh and Jody, the instructors for the program. Their individual experiences alone are impressive so when you put them all together BAM. You learn. It’s a fun environment but if you do something wrong or stupid, they call you out right away. Which is great because you won’t make THAT mistake again. Day 1 consisted of mostly paperwork, a must for any production. Day 2 will consist of the more active side of being a PA. The biggest thing I learned yesterday is that when you’re a PA, you give the Assistant Directors what you want, not what you think they need. I’m excited to see what I’ll learn on Day 2.

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Pay no attention to the man behind the green curtain!

So everyone has finally arrived! Yay! After terrible luck and chaos with the flights, it's amazing that my professors got everyone here in time for our day...shout out to Chrissy Guest and Kyle Carr because I think they might be magicians.

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Day one in California. 

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Do you suppose we'll meet any wild animals?

California, here we come! I could not sleep at all because I am so excited for this journey. It’s been a crazy week but man, am I ready for this. I’m really excited about PA Bootcamp tomorrow and Sunday. They’re going to teach us things that we would learn just from being on set, so I’m thankful for this opportunity to impress my future employers. Educational reasons aside, I’m looking forward to meeting other PAs. Previous class trips have made friends and connections through this program. I wonder who I will meet!

Speaking of impressive! My wonderful friend made my business cards and I love them. Pictures will be posted shortly.