SATURDAY MORNING
On Saturday, we all had most of the day to ourselves. We didn't need to report back to the hotel until 5pm that night (we had dinner plans), which left us with hours and hours of free time to fill to our heart's content.
Half of the group went to Disneyland for the day. They came back exhausted and happy, with Disneyland pins and tons of pictures of the rides and a parade.
The other half of us did some networking. We decided to call up Ken Sherman, a literary agent we'd met on Friday morning (forgot to mention that), and we asked him if he'd like to have brunch with us again. He was more than happy to meet with us. So Wes, Jen, and I made our way to West Hollywood and had brunch with Ken at a cute little French restaurant.
It was fun to hear him talk about his experiences. He had all these great stories about how, after college, he left to go to Europe for six months and came back two years later. He lived in Paris for most of the time, getting paid under the counter for doing everything from odd jobs, cooking in a restaurant, and writing travel guides of Paris in English for PanAm (when they were still around). That was an enjoyable breakfast.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
After that, we took an hour-long bus ride aaaaaaall the way over to Venice. Venice is by the coast, and the first thing we did was head to the Pacific (my first time seeing the Pacific in the states). We walked down to this huge pier, where there was a theme park and all this crazy stuff. I took lots of pictures.
Then we headed to the 3rd Street Promenade, which is an entire city street blocked off to vehicle traffic for a good three or four blocks. In the promenade were fountains, bushes trimmed to look like dinosaurs (that were sometimes also fountains), and plenty of street artists and musicians to entertain the throngs of people milling about.
We met Cory (the guy from Roserock Productions) again for coffee, and this was probably the BEST part of the entire trip. All the rest of the trip was just a ton of fun, but this part of the trip was the most helpful and informational.
Because Cory is our age, he really knows what the job market is like right now in Hollywood. He told us that anyone more than a decade or so older than us really doesn't know what it takes to get into the film industry anymore, because the industry is always changing. So while they mean well, taking two years off to travel the world (Ken's advice) isn't really practical-- at all-- when it comes to getting a job in L.A.
I'm so glad I got that advice now (even if taken with a grain of salt), before taking two years off to teach and then two years to go to graduate school before heading out to Hollywood.
It makes sense that taking time off before going to L.A. isn't practical or advisable. The interns that come fresh out of college and go to Hollywood are all going to be roughly in the same age group. All the interns make friends with the other interns, sharing stories and leaning on each other for help. And so they are going to work their way up together, helping each other along the way (with getting jobs especially).
So if you start way later than the others, you are going to be too old and you wont make friends as easily, get invited out as often, etc. And sadly enough, because the film industry is all about who you know, that might be enough to squash your hopes of working in Hollywood.
Basically, after Cory told us all this, we were stunned. This and all the other stuff we had learned that weekend was enough to almost overwhelm us. Later, Wes likened it to feeling like he's just been punched in the stomach. Personally, I was on an adrenaline rush right after that. I couldn't wait to get started and barrel straight into this hugely intimidating, extremely rewarding industry. Of course, I also felt that sinking sensation when the adrenaline wore off and the colder reality sunk in of being a slave to my work for the next decade (and the lifestyle that accompanies that choice). So many decisions to make!
... to be continued...
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