I can’t believe it’s already fourth week. Didn’t we all just fly into LAX and settle into the Oakwood screening room for the first day of class like, yesterday? That’s one thing about the block plan, if you blink you’ll probably be in fourth week in the mist of writing a final essay before you know it.

The past weekend was spent wrapping up some loose ends in the class, visiting the Griffith Park Observatory between rain showers, and eating a delicious dim sum celebratory dinner at NBC Seafood Restaurant in Monterey Park with Esther’s father, Gideon. On Friday, we were fortunate enough to visit Doug Pray, a fellow CC alum and previous CC visiting professor, at the HBO editing suites. He was nice enough to speak to the group about his experience in the industry and what it was like to make documentary features while being surrounded by the world of make believe (aka Hollywood). He and two of the people he works with explained how they found themselves in the documentary business, and all of them spoke to the idea of documentary filmmaking as a service industry, serving the people and communities they are filming. Some previous features Doug and his team have worked on include TransFatty Lives, Hype!, and Levitated Mass.

Doug and his team all spoke to the challenge in presenting nonfiction subject matter in a way that also provides entertainment for the viewer. They also spoke to the large reward they all feel when they are able to do this successfully. Documentaries are an editors’ medium. There are directors, producers, sound mixers, and researchers that work on a single doc, but the story plays out in the editing lab. It was a very interesting contrast to the handful of other people that we have met with over the past three weeks.

This visit created a nice balance to the class. Honestly, it was a bit humbling to meet with some people that are successful in Hollywood but for different reasons than the executives and businessmen we have been meeting with over the past three weeks. It really goes to show that only a small percentage of LA is people in the business of make believe. For the next few days, we’ll all be giving our best shot at creating some make believe as we finish our final creative projects to wrap up the end of the block.

Did I mention this block went by faster than any block I’ve ever been in? I know we’re all feeling a bit nostalgic, already.

Today was the start of second week of the On Location: Hollywood class and one thing that I continue to notice throughout our days is the appearance of luck: both as the tangible word and the invisible presence. Most noticeable is the fact that by the end of the day I feel so lucky to be this exhausted after running around to different corners of the city in order to meet with a CEO in the morning, a composer by noon, and a TV writer at night.

The word luck also crept up in today’s conversation with Tim Marx, the co-executive producer of Freeform’s (original ABC Family) sitcom series Baby Daddy, as well as a CC graduate. Tim gave us a tour of the Radford Studio lot, which included getting to meet the cast of Baby Daddy and watching them rehearse their newest episode on set. He also showed us the New York City “street” that they use for the series and have used for a variety of shows in the past, including Seinfeld. The New Yorker in me screeched with delight as we walked past the 2 and 3 line subway station- maybe if I waited long enough Kramer would waltz out one of the apartments in the spastic way he had for so many years.

After the tour was over, Tim began to answer some of our questions about the production side of the show. He explained how he got from being an environmental science major at CC to the co-executive producer of a major network sitcom, and one of the words he used was luck. After graduating from CC, Tim started bartending in DC to make some money before deciding if he wanted to go to law school to expand on his environmental science degree. While bartending one night, Tim overheard a woman complaining she needed someone to help her with all the work she had to do. Lo and behold, this woman worked for the public TV network in DC, and Tim offered to step in – this was the start of Tim’s career in the film and TV industry.

With most of the people we’ve met with since being in LA, there has been a success story involving some sort of luck. When I first hear the hard working people say things like, “my two psychology major friends in college ended up in the film industry,” or “someone just told me I should give the film industry a try,” and other stories along these lines, I felt a little lost and slightly discouraged. I mentioned this concern to my roommate, Kaitlyn, who told me she had also been feeling a little helpless about the conversations mentioning luck. Then she told me this quote: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

No block at CC has made me equal amounts of exhausted, amazed, and excited every day. There are few times in most college experiences that students get to go out on a trial run in whatever industry they’re looking to enter. To be in the film and TV industry does not only require luck; it is a combination of lots of preparation, some luck in what opportunities are available, and a whole lot of passion. I can confidently say that we are ten lucky students.