Take Me Out To The Ball Game

So... I'm not generally a baseball fan, but I was invited to a Dodger's game last night and it sounded like fun.  I was actually quite surprised at how fun it was!  We also had amazingly good seats and could see everything that was going on.  And sitting a few rows away from us was Pau Gasol from the Lakers.  Yeah, I don't usually keep up with NBA stuff either (though I do love college ball/March Madness), but the Lakers did sort of just win, and I'm in L.A.... so I've been hearing a bit about them.  And I did see the final Lakers/Magic game (though I was rooting for the Magic.  Hey, I'm from Orlando!) so I actually even recognized him!  And holy crap he is TALL!  At one point during the game, a big crowd about 20 rows back spotted him and started chanting "Lakers, Lakers!"  I felt kind of bad for the Dodgers since we were at the Dodger's Stadium, after all. 

 

Anyway, it was actually a pretty exciting game as far as baseball goes.  We had 3 or 4 home runs too!  No grand slams, but we were close a time or two!  And I had absolutely no idea about the "7th Inning Stretch" thing.  It was cool though - a girl sang, and they also did this Michael Jackson tribute thing.  Then, after the game they had a ton of fireworks accompanied by a medley of Michael Jackson songs and quotes from celebs about their thoughts on his death.  All in all, it was actually a really fun game to go to!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I Go!

I forgot to mention that I got two more calls about various gigs in the near future.  One is for this Sat-Tues (boom op), but unfortunately, is also unpaid.  Yes, I understand that I will most likely have to do a great deal of unpaid gigs for a while, but I decided that if I'm not even getting paid for it, I'm going to avoid working on Sundays as much as possible.  I contemplated whether or not to call this guy back and tell him that I was available for all four days, or see if I could finagle just a Mon-Tues thing.  I pulled up the original post from mandy.com and it specifically said "if you can work all days or just one, we'd love to have you!"  So I called the guy back and told him that I couldn't do Sat/Sun (technically already had plans this Sat anyway) but that I was free Mon/Tues if that worked at all.  He said that they would plan on that unless they found someone who could do all 4 days.  I also mentioned that I wouldn't mind coming on Mon/Tues to help in any other department as well, and so I think I will be on that set one way or another for the first two days of next week.  Hey, I could either (a) be sitting at home twiddling my thumbs making no money or (b) working actively on a set...making no money.  I'd rather at least make good use of my time and use that time to network and make some good connections!

Oh and this is totally off-topic, but one of the actresses on the short that I'm working on right now I happened to meet on Saturday at that party!  How random is that!  Small world already, and I've only been here two weeks... haha.

To Catch a Murderer...

Well, I found work!  Okay, sort of.  It isn't paid.  But still, it's getting me onto sets and giving me opportunities to network, etc.  It's a film short called "My Name is Matt" and the premise of it (as well as the twist) is pretty disturbing.  For now, I'll just leave it at the fact that multiple people are brutally murdered and can be found throughout the house the next morning, with various fatal stab wounds.  I wished so badly that I had brought my camera today!  But last time I brought my camera onto a set, it nearly got destroyed (ended up getting used as a prop near water), so I thought I'd give it a break this time around.  I sure wish I hadn't!  I have to remember to bring it tomorrow... and to find my memory cards.  These pictures are from my camera phone:

Anyway, I actually found this gig through mandy.com, so apparently websites like that do actually work.  And, the crew was actually really cool.  I remember a lot of Utah crew people telling me that they don't like L.A. crews because they're not as friendly, more competitive, etc., but this crew was great.  

And I bet you couldn't guess what 'crew role' I had today.  I was grip and electric! haha.  When the guy called me last night (yes, we are always about very last minute in this business) to see if I could work today, he explained to me that they already had sound covered but that they were lacking in grip and electric.  I told him that I would be happy to do it, but warned him that I had never done it before.  That didn't seem to bother him in the least.  They must have been hurting real bad for an extra hand.  I actually didn't mind doing it though.  In fact, it was kind of fun to do something different (though sound is still my #1). 

The funny thing though was that the other grip guy (there were only two: the gaffer/key grip/pretty much everything, and some random guy I'm not sure had ever even worked on a film before) kept asking me questions about what we should do!  I found it rather amusing that I come halfway into the production (they started a few days ago) and the other grip guy is asking me what to do.  But, I suppose this is a good thing, because it means I portray an "I know what I'm doing" attitude no matter what department I happen to be working in! haha.  I did know generally what to do though, because I've been around enough grip and electric stuff in the last two years to know all the lingo and what equipment the gaffer was asking for.

The biggest difference between grip & electric and sound is when you work.  Doing sound is pretty dang easy until we're actually ready to start shooting; that's when sound's job becomes vital to the production.  But grip & electric works in between takes and rests when filming.  It is kind of backwards to what I'm used to, so that part took some readjusting but other than that, it was great!  Tomorrow we shoot from 3pm-3am and Wednesday is 7pm-7am... ouch.  But hey, it will be fun.  The crew is good and therefore will be a decent few days.

Can I Get Your Number?

So... I was at this party last night in Beverly Hills (cool, huh?) and overall, it was a blast.  Saw a few people I had met the night before at a different party, ran into some old friends from a film I worked on two years ago, and met quite a few new people who were really awesome.  However, amidst that, I also met this one guy who simply would *not* leave me alone!  To use my mother's term to describe certain people from past films I've worked on, he was a puppy dog.  He would literally follow me around this place no matter where I went, and every time I thought I had successfully managed to relocate to a new circle, he would appear out of nowhere again!  And... he was a touchy-feely guy.  I'm sorry, but when you have only met said person 5 minute prior, you do NOT have the ability to move as you please.  You are limited to a handshake...*maybe* a hug.  Upon getting to know the person (and assuming both parties are on the same level), you may be granted a hand on the shoulder or arm, etc.  ...Then again, I suppose this all has to do with if there is a mutual attraction from the beginning or not.  But in any event, this attraction was NOT mutual, and therefore limits the person in question to a mere handshake.  

At one point while we were talking, I was looking for any way to get out of the conversation, because I felt as if I had already used every excuse in the book for reasons why I was going to go "over there" now.  So I pretended like I had gotten a text and started answering a fake text.  He, however, took that as his 'golden opportunity' to joke about getting my number.  I was going to leave it as a joke and pray we moved away from it because I really didn't want to give him my number.  But then he actually said, "but seriously - *can* I get your number?"  ...really?  Are you kidding me?  Dude, you must be the most daft guy in the history of the planet to not realize that I am *clearly* not interested.  

Then at one point while a friend of mine and I were talking, this kid magically reappears again.  My friend is a nice guy and so he began to include him in the conversation, but seriously this kid was just awkward on so many levels!  He found out that my friend was an extra in one of his favorite movies (from 1992!) and asked for his autograph!!!  (Um, hello... we live in L.A.  Most people here have at least been an extra in something.  Heck, I've even been an extra in a couple films!)  This friend of mine thought he was kidding and thus laughed as if it were a joke until he realized he wasn't joking and said "oh, you're serious..."  This was about the time my friend Russ walked up.  So when the other two were talking, I whispered to Russ "this kid will NOT leave me alone!!"  Russ said "Don't worry, I got ya covered" and successfully helped me escape from the puppy another 3-4 times throughout the night.  By the way Russ, thank you!!

So... minus that little mishap, the party was a blast!  The majority of people I've met here (in CA) are great and I finally feel like I'm living in a REAL world (as opposed to the illustrious Provo "bubble" I wished daily to escape from).  More to come in the near future.  

Oh and sorry Mom, but I already love California. :)

Thoughts and Updates...ish

I think I've discovered why I have such a terrible time writing in here.  It's because whenever anything exciting or 'newsworthy' happens, I write in my real journal first.  By the time I have finished writing about it, I'm tired and don't feel like (1) rewriting a 'public' version or it or (2) editing the already-written version.  It takes too much time, and I have it written elsewhere and that seems to be good enough for me.  Also, I don't know how much - or how little - to include in here.  I want to include enough so those who want to keep up with me will get the basic gist of what's going on, but I also don't want to include *too* much because I made that mistake in the past (high school) with one of those stupid "livejournals" and would prefer not to repeat any version of that.

But, I have recently discovered that people actually read this and want me to update them with what is currently going on in my life - especially now that I have moved to Los Angeles...

That being said, I will try to (a) be more frequent in writing these and (b) sum up what has happened each time I write.  Really, not that much has happened since I moved here.  I officially got here on June 9th around 9pm and pretty much hit the sack the second I got all of my stuff in.  The next few days I spent catching up with some old friends from Utah and Virginia.  I went on this massively long hike on Saturday morning in the ... Punch Bowls?  I really don't know if that's what it was actually called, but that's what everyone kept calling it.  Maybe it's "Punch Bowl Canyon" or "the punch bowl hike."  I have no idea, but in any event, I went on a 9-10 mile hike.  And I don't mean just some measly little trail-marked path either.  We had to climb up a ton of rocks, shimmy around bigger rocks in some places, cross streams/rivers multiple times, etc.  We finally got to what I'm assuming is the reason this place is called the 'punch bowl' because it was a small little "bowl" of water at the top that was deep enough for one to swim in.  However, it was absolutely FREEZING, so I didn't get in.  They also had 'cliff jumping' where you could jump from super high up until water that was about 16 or 17 feet deep.  No thanks.  Only one person from our group actually did that.  

On Wednesday, I met up with a friend I met when working on "Frozen" and we had a real good time just chatting and whatnot.  It's always fun when you have a friend you can talk with for almost 3 hours and not even realize that much time has gone by.  And I now have the utmost respect for him as well, because for the first time in my life, a 'swearing' friend of mine picked up on the fact that I don't swear and - get this - he himself stopped swearing!  I didn't even say anything to him!  He just did it on his own.  Sure, I don't like swearing and would prefer if others would try to keep it to a minimum when around me, but I don't exactly go publicizing that to the world; and I will only say something to a friend or acquaintance if s/he is dropping the f bomb multiple times in a short span of time.  Otherwise, I just try to keep my "filter" on and deal with it, because I have discovered that most people don't seem to care.  So I'm just floored that not only did he pick up on it, but he stopped without me even saying anything!  First-class is all I have to say... first-class.

Today, I found the perfect 'starter-job' out here, but the only problem is that I haven't gotten it yet.  The description is as follows: 

"You will do runs, transcribe tapes and mix audio on shoots plus whatever else comes up." Sweet, sounds good.  

Requirements:

Film / Broadcasting School major 
4-year degree 
Field mixing and booming experience 
Bright, Creative, Energetic, Passionate and Hard working 

Perfect!  And for those of you wondering, yes my degree is technically a Bachelor of *Music*, however, all 'training' I got was catered more towards film.  And all jobs I had while in school were all film and/or broadcasting related.  If they want the broadcast side, I did work for KBYU Broadcasting for four years... so see, I'm set!  Now the only problem is actually getting the job!  Oh, and it doesn't pay a whole lot, but it does pay and that's good enough! ($450 a week, regular M-F thing, but prob 10-hr days).  

Tonight I went to this dinner group thing some people in the ward do once a month.  Well, in the LA 1st ward.  I'm technically not in that ward seeing as I live a half hour away, but that is the area I plan to move into once I come back from filming HSM4 in Sept/Oct.  Plus, I really wanted to live closer to the actual city because I knew that the wards there would be more legit.  I have met a few people in the YSA ward here and well, most of them have lived in this area their whole lives and are still living with their parents.  And if you're still in college and home for the summer, fine... but at this point in my life, I am post-college and want to meet people who are more my age and who have real careers already, etc.  And tonight was awesome!  Pretty much everyone I met was originally from another place, and currently done with school and working in production, music, law, accounting, etc.  It was a breath of fresh air.  I definitely felt more comfortable in that atmosphere than around the YSAs I have met so far in the Agoura area.  

And by the way, I think I am 100% 'back to normal'!  Remember that massive change I had back in November?  Well I was real good at keeping it up for quite some time, but apparently got lazy at it when I dated Martin, or somehow unknowingly re-learned the 'back-off' vibe (probably because I was already dating someone), and it took a while to re-train myself into November's mindset.  But let's just say, I am definitely back!

That is all for now.  Consider yourself officially updated.  I'll be sure to post again once I get a real paying gig (or full-time job).