L.A. Trip (Part One)

I just got back from an amazing trip. A long one, too. I was gone so long, I feel like I'm getting back from a second Spring Break.

THURSDAY

I flew out of OKC on Thursday morning and finally arrived in L.A. at 5pm (after a roundabout trip that had me connecting in Memphis). We all got to the hotel by 8pm, and exhausted, we went across the street for sushi and to meet with Leslie Langs, a woman who has been the music editor for movies like Titanic and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She was a really nice woman, and it was interesting to talk to her. Even though she isn't exactly doing what I want to do, she had a lot of good advice. In fact, every person we met with had great advice. I feel overfilled with information and recommendations.

FRIDAY

Friday morning we went to Warner Brothers studios to visit with producer Hunt Lowry's assistant. Hunt is from Oklahoma, and his production company (located on the WB lot) is called Roserock Productions (for those who don't know, rose rocks are a rock unique to Oklahoma).

We met with his assistant Patty and his creative executive Cory. Cory was the most helpful person I met the entire weekend. A friend of mine from here at OU, Kelley, interned with him last summer, so she'd called him before the trip and told him to keep a lookout for me and Jen (another one of Kelley's friends).

We got a tour of the entire WB lot, including the backlot. Backlots on major studios are basically mini cities. You'll have an entire street where all the building fronts looks like they come from New York City or Chicago or Italy. There's a suburban neighborhood, a town square, and a courthouse from the fifties.

Part of the back lot...^

We also went into their little museum, where they displayed costumes and props used in the actual filming of some of their major productions. They had costumes from some of their old classics, like Casablanca, as well as from Miss Congeniality, 300, and The Dark Knight.

The entire second floor was dedicated to the Harry Potter franchise. Elizabeth, one of the girls in our group, almost had a heart attack. She's a die-hard HP fan. Oh, and judging from the suit that Humphrey Bogart wore in Casablanca, he is one tiny man.

I sneakily this picture on my phone,

against the rules. No cameras were allowed.

After Warner Brothers, we went to Paramount, the only studio still located in Hollywood proper. All the other studios moved out to Burbank when they wanted to expand, since real estate in Hollywood is rather expensive. So Paramount was older and smaller. It had a more classic feel. It was also a lot quieter. Warner Brothers was bustling with activity (which means that the studio has a lot of projects going on), while Paramount had a much calmer feel to it.

That being said, we did get to sneak partially onto the set of The Last Godfather, a feature being filmed at Paramount. I snapped a few pictures before we were caught and asked to leave.

... to be continued...