Another Week Gone

This past week flew by, and I only have about 3 more left!  Sunday was Easter, so I met up with a girl in the UTLA program to get a ride to the Saddleback Church campus in L.A.  We left nice and early so we could beat the rush!  It was a pretty nice service - the worship was great, and Rick Warren related his sermon to Easter in a neat way!  (We watched a video of his sermon.)  After it was over, we went outside and had some fun with the Easter festivities.  They had a bunch of Easter eggs for the kids, and there was popcorn, snow cones, and cotton candy!  I got a bag of popcorn, and the girl I came with got a group picture with the Easter Bunny!  Once we had done what we wanted to do, we headed back home.  I had some lunch and procrastinated for a short time.  However, I got back to work on my Development paper pretty soon.  It went okay - I had some periods of writer's block, but I made a lot of progress.  I took a break for dinner, and then I did a few other things.  A little later, I finished my paper and made a few revisions.  I'll be interested to see what the professor thinks of it!  I got an A on my last paper, and I'm happy about that!  After that, I didn't do much else.  On Monday, I started with Development class.  I was hoping we were going to discuss the script we wrote about for our paper, but we didn't talk about it at all!  We started by discussing movies we had seen over the weekend, and then we talked about making a good pitch.  If you recall my earlier posts, we also spent some considerable time talking about pitches in How Hollywood Works.  My Development professor had some other tips and different advice for us.  After we talked about it, she made a pitch for a movie she's been interested in producing.  Then we split up into groups and attempted pitches for the movie adaptations we've been working on.  The second paper we wrote was coverage for the material (I chose "Dad is Fat" by Jim Gaffigan), and our final paper will be a more in-depth treatment of our imagined film.  I wasn't really ready to pitch it because I hadn't totally envisioned the movie, but I did my best in discussing my ideas.  The people in my group liked what I said!  We're going to pitch our movies this coming Monday and the week after.  It's going to be a random drawing, so we all have to be ready this Monday!  After that class was out, I walked over to the Dog Haus for lunch.  It had been too long since I had eaten at the Dog Haus!  How Hollywood Works was a special class.  Instead of opening with our usual discussions on movies, our internships, the box office, and the entertainment industry, we spent the whole time listening to a seminar on "No Budget Filmmaking".  It was basically just a talk encouraging us to make the most of our limitations and spend as little money as possible.  Although the speaker calls it "No Budget Filmmaking", you obviously need some money to make a movie.  He told us about a bunch of different techniques and rules, and he showed us clips from many "No Budget" movies.  It was definitely interesting, but I'm not venturing into film.  UT is a big film school, and most of the UTLA students are looking for careers in movies.  After that guy's talk was over, I went back to my apartment.  A short time later, my roommates and I went to the grocery store for another shopping trip.  I didn't have to buy too much, but I got myself a few things.  I saved about 25% on my total order because I have a club card!  It's pretty nice!  After I got back from that, I got a couple loads of laundry in the washing machines.  I made some dinner, and I sat down to watch the NCAA Men's Basketball championship game with my roommates.  We were all pretty annoyed that Duke won!  I was all for Wisconsin, and I would rather have seen Kentucky go undefeated than Duke win again!  Anyway, I did some other stuff after that.  I may have started on my pitch for Development class, but I can't remember.  On Tuesday, I went over to Glassman Media.  It was another day of scanning stuff, shredding stuff, and doing other random tasks.  However, I left a little early so I could go to a taping of "Clipped"!  It's an upcoming TBS sitcom set in a hair salon.  I've never been to a sitcom taping, but the main reason I went was that the show features George Wendt, who played Norm on "Cheers"!  He plays Buzzy, who used to own Buzzy's (the hair salon where it's set).  In fact, the show used to be called "Buzzy's"!  He's a main character, but the star of the show is Ashley Tisdale.  The whole experience was really neat!  I got there just early enough so that I could be seated.  At the beginning, we met the audience warm-up guy named Roger.  We later learned that he does stand-up comedy, and it makes sense - he's really funny and good with audiences!  We started it off by watching the pilot of the show.  It was good!  After that was over, we stood up and gave the cast a nice ovation!  It was cool seeing George Wendt in person!  They got ready to shoot the first scene, and it was interesting to see how they prepared for it.  We watched them do several takes of the scene, and then they moved on.  During all the breaks between takes and scenes, Roger interacted with us.  He told us to ask him questions, so I put up my hand and asked him one.  We had a funny exchange, and he referenced back to me a few times later in the night.  They had pre-taped a few scenes, so we watched them as they would appear in the episode.  Sitcoms without studio audiences film out of order so they can do all the scenes in a certain location together, but they go in chronological order for the studio audiences.  As time went on, we continued to see several takes for every scene.  Sometimes they'll change a line between takes, so I'll be interested to see which funny lines they use in certain moments!  We saw the taping for the show's third episode, and I think that's cool!  The show apparently premieres in the third week of June, so I'll look out for it!  Near the end, some pages came out to give us pizza and water bottles.  It was nice that they fed us!  We also got candy afterwards!  When they were filming the last couple scenes, the two sides of the audience had a competition to see who could cheer more loudly.  Roger told us he would give out some backstage passes for the louder side, so I went wild!  I seriously wanted a backstage pass!  My side won the contest, but I didn't get one.  However, he did hand out some other random goodies, and I got a DVD!  It had 4 Ice Cube movies, and I'm not much a fan of Ice Cube, so I probably won't watch them.  It was still a nice souvenir!  He gave a few people cover pages from the script for this episode - that's a cool thing to get an autograph on!  Once the episode was all done, we cheered for the cast again.  Some of them walked around and signed autographs, but George Wendt sadly didn't.  I brought a piece of paper, too!  I was prepared!  I would have loved autographs from him and Ashley Tisdale, but the taping was still fun!  Also, I think it's cool that "Clipped" is set in Boston - it's the second George Wendt sitcom with that setting!  All in all, it took around 4 hours.  When I got home, it was fairly late.  I went back out to the UTLA center so I could grab some things I stored in there, and then I went back to the apartment.  Wednesday was a more normal day.  I went back to Glassman, and they had me sort a bunch of posters and signs that were in the back room.  Then I did some more scanning and shredding.  For a while in the afternoon, my supervisor had me sit at her desk and answer the door if anyone showed up.  I spent most of that time coming up with a possible class schedule for next semester.  I had some difficulties because a lot of classes I want to take meet at the same times.  I eventually got something worked out.  After I was done there, I went back to my apartment for a short time.  For the New Media & Emerging Entertainment class, we took a field trip to a place called 3ality.  It's a place that develops 3D technology and records movies in stereo (another name for 3D).  A lady came out to talk to us, and she showed us some of the stuff they've developed.  It included trailers for various 3D movies and other 3D clips.  After she showed us the videos, she took us to the workshop where we looked at 3D cameras and saw how they use them.  It was interesting stuff, but it was a little over my head.  Some of the UT students understood a lot more because they've taken classes on 3D technology.  After that, we went home.  I made some dinner, and then I just relaxed for a while.  On Thursday, I had another post office adventure.  On my way to Karga Seven, I stopped at the post office near Hollywood Blvd. so I could claim a package my mom sent a while ago.  The whole situation was annoying - the first time they tried to deliver it, they took it all the way back to the post office rather than leaving it at the south clubhouse!  Because my mom didn't require a signature, they could have left it at the south clubhouse!  We tried to schedule a redelivery a couple different times, but it never happened!  When I got to the post office, I gave the lady a slip they had left in my mailbox.  It took a very long time, but I finally got my package!  After I got it, I continued on my way to Karga Seven.  They had me continue working on character bios for the tornado show.  Near the end of the day, they also had me transcribe a video clip from a new show.  I got most of the way through it.  During my lunch hour, I Skyped with my academic advisor so I could discuss my classes for next semester.  She gave me some good advice!  I register on Monday, so I have some more time to decide.  After I was done there, I headed home.  In the evening, I went to the Line Producing class that I usually audit.  It's just cool listening to the professor and all the experiences he's had!  I came back to the apartment after the class ended.  After I ate dinner, I went out to the hot tub with my roommates and some friends.  We had a nice little hot tub party!  Some of us went to the pool to cool off a bit.  After I got back from that, I chilled with my roommates for a while.  On Friday, I had a normal day at Karga Seven.  As far as I know, I'll never have to go to a post office again (this semester, anyway)!  I began the day by transcribing the rest of the video clip, and then I finished up the character bios for the season.  I wrote the majority of the character bios for Season 2 of the tornado show!  After I completed both of those tasks, I watched some video clips from another show and took some still shots.  Once I was all done, I decided to get dinner at the Qdoba next to the subway station.  It had been a very long time since I had eaten Qdoba, and it was delicious!  I love their Queso Diablo!  After I ate there, I went the rest of the way home.  Soon after I got home, my roommates (and most of the other UTLA students, apparently) went out on the town.  One of the UTLA students had his 21st birthday this past week, and the celebration was huge!  He wasn't the only guy to turn 21 this semester, but his birthday became a big event!  I stayed back at the apartment and did my own thing.  I watched some TV, relaxed, and eventually got around to working on the pitch again.  I had some really good ideas!  On Saturday, I slept in as usual.  After I got up, I made myself some lunch.  In the afternoon, I took a bus and got my hair cut.  I love how they cut my hair at the Burbank Barber Shop!  I had a long time to wait before the next bus came around, so I stopped at Porto's, which is an insanely popular bakery in Burbank.  It's actually the bakery that provides the goods they serve at the continental breakfast on Sundays!  I had heard it was very popular, but I got a true picture of that when I went - it was around 2:40 in the afternoon, and there was a line out the door!  There were so many people in there!  Eventually, I got to the front of the line and ordered a piña colada smoothie and a chocolate croissant.  The chocolate croissant was so tasty!  The smoothie was good, too.  I got a bus back home, and then I chilled for a while.  Later in the afternoon, my roommates and I went to the pool.  A while after that, I went out to Bob's Big Boy.  I was in the mood for a Super Big Boy and their heavenly Cherry Coke!  Then I came back and relaxed.  On Sunday, I'm going to attend church and then do some homework.  I need to finish and practice my pitch, and starting on my final paper wouldn't hurt!