Well, in case any of you wanted to know the 411 on how American Idol works, I now know. :P I'm not so sure they try to keep it so dang "hush hush" but it's not like it's a national secret or anything. I ended up working in the "Winner's Room" and it was actually pretty cool. The weird thing though was that we weren't allowed to say how many more rounds there were after today, though plenty of people already know. Just in case anyone's wondering, there are three rounds before Randy, Paula, and Simon...I think. haha. The initial audition is one month, and the second and third rounds are another month later on down the road (example: the SLC auditions were the 29th of July, and the 2nd round is in September). I actually still don't know if the next two rounds are at the same time, and whether or not the three main judges are there then, or not until a third visit to the city. BUT, it makes sense now, how they have all that time to get their cover stories on certain people auditioning.
So, the break down of it. I woke up at a sleepy 3am on Sunday morning in order to get to Salt Lake by 4:30am. We were there until 6:30pm the first day. Long story, but we didn't work on Monday, and on Tuesday we had to be back at 4am, and we finished around 7:30 or 8pm. The wonderful part of it though was that I got to stay at Roger and Teresa's (my great uncle and aunt), so I at least didn't have to drive the 45 minutes there and back every day... it saved a ton on gas too. It was really fun to catch up with them too.
So... there were about 12,000 people there Tuesday morning (you actually go 1-2 days prior in order to register, and then everyone comes on the third day), but only 6 or 7,000 people actually auditioned (each person auditioning is allowed ONE guest). And one of my favorite comments of one of the producer's was "I don't know what it is about Utah and PREGNANT women..." haha it was hilarious - and he only said that because probably 50+ of the people auditioning were pregnant. I'm guessing they don't usually see that very often. Another thing I think is dumb that I'm not allowed to say is how many people made it through to the next round. I'll just say this - it's not a whole lot. Out of the thousands that audition, only a few hundred continue. As for the audition process... they have 10-12 "booths" set up, one next to another - with only a black curtain separating each of them. They line everyone up in sets of four, and each of them steps forward and sings 15-30 seconds, and steps back in their place. After all four have done that, they have all four come up to the judges' table. Aaand... they usually send all four home. Every now and then there would be one they would want to hear once more, so they'd send the other three away, and have the fourth one sing again. Those ones usually ended up with their first "golden ticket." They were all quite upset though when they get to the Winner's Room and find out that not only can they not keep their wristband, they can't even keep their golden ticket. Many people were quite distraught about that.
I had to miss two days of school for it, but it was so worth it. The only problem though: it just gave me senioritis all the more. I had THE hardest time getting up and going to classes afterwards. All I'm focused on right now is passing and getting out. Oh, and I think my sister Rachel might explode in the next year if I keep working with all these sorts of people (SW2, HSM3, AI). haha. Ryan Seacrest was there too. I forgot to mention that. Oh, and they were really impressed with my 'work' for the three days, and asked if I would work again when they came back in September. So that's a good sign! Although, I don't think I'd want to work on it for a full season. --ESPECIALLY if I'd have to be a PA. PAs are at the very bottom of the food chain with the worst pay... I passed that phase a while back, and I'd like to keep it that way. haha. (By the way, I find it weird that the only 'big' stuff I've ever worked on has not been an original. Singles Ward TWO, High School Musical THREE, and American Idol EIGHT...)
OH, and one thing that has nothing to do with American Idol but is just a promising thing that happened... a few weeks ago I got this random call from some guy in Oregon who got my name from someone in Utah who got my name from someone else who said I would be interested in working in this film. The rate was $250 a day and was going to be filmed somewhere in Price. The only problem was that he was trying to fill an AC position (AC=Assistant to the Camera)... a position I've never had or done before. So they ended up going with someone else (which ended up to be a good thing, because I would have missed a full week of summer classes... after missing almost that much for HSM3 and AI), but he asked if he could call me the next time they needed someone. So hey! My name is getting all the way out to Oregon already!! I must be doing something right! Okay this thing is long enough...
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