This town is full of recognizable faces. We saw Mila Kunis in the American Dad office of Fox (from a distance). We saw Bob Saget at the Beverly Hills Film Festival (from the balcony). It was cool to see these people, but of course none of us said hi to them.

What’s more exciting than the celebrities are the new friends we’ve made who are writers, producers, editors, cinematographers, gaffers, actors and all sorts of creative people. In a lot of ways the cubicles and offices of studios like Fox look like any other corporate office, but unlike any office everybody we met sounded like they truly enjoy what they do.

The creative people behind the media are the ones who really run the film industry in Los Angeles, a city defined by the media it produces and sends out all over the world. The influence of this town goes far beyond the city limits, which makes it easy to forget what the landscape of this area has to offer.

When we aren’t going to film screenings, studying the history of filmmaking, meeting with incredible people or visiting studios, I spend my free time mountain biking in the hills that poke out above the smog. Within 20 minutes of the Oakwood you can be in the Verdugo Mountains or at a trailhead in the Angeles National Forest that used to be the beginning of an old railroad track that would bring tourists to the top of the mountain for a view of the city back in the 1890s. It seems that everything in this area has a deep and rich history. Many of the trails have been damaged by the fires and the mudslides, but every time I go back to these trails it seems that a community has been working on rebuilding them. The jumps are getting smoother and the banks flow better and the trails themselves are incredibly fun to ride mountain bikes on. To see some biking try this link: Biking I hope it works.

The Los Angeles sprawl is a resilient area. Geologically it is a nightmare of an area to have a town. The people seem to deal with a lot of emotional tearing down and then, like the trails, manage to rebuild their motivation.  I think if this town fell into the ocean these folks would find a way to build studios in the water.

Ah, the Hollywood Heritage Museum. Nestled behind the parking lot of the Hollywood Bowl, it looks like the little house from that depressing conservationist picture book…you know, the one that came out in 1942 as a critique of urban sprawl? The museum looks like this because it is extremely under-funded—a fact that astounds me, given the nature of The Academy and its self-masturbatory…errr self-congratulatory…tendencies (Jill?! Are you reading this?! What I meant to say is unchecked self-admiration). One can’t help but wonder: what does it mean that this organization, which loves to celebrate itself, hasn’t bothered to honor such a fundamental part of its history? What does that say about the Academy’s priorities? This wayside gem—within which resides a cache of archival photographs, movie props, historic documents, wax figures, and TWO functional kinetoscopes—is somewhat neglected, yet a must-see. 

The building that would eventually become “The Lasky-DeMille Barn” was constructed in 1895, back when Hollywood, California was populated by avocado farmers and well-dressed rancheros. In 1913, however, it was purchased by two men who began renting it as a film location. In December of that same year, Cecil B. DeMille leased the barn and studio facilities for $250.00 a month to begin filming The Squaw Man: the very first feature film EVER EVER EVER produced in Los Angeles. And everything thereafter was sunshine and rainbows and equal representation! KIDDING! The sexual-violence obstacle course known as Hollywood was born, becoming more than just the nucleus of an industry…it was a concept, a way of life—nay, AN EMPIRE.

Eventually, the barn was moved to where present-day Paramount was later built. It lived several lives as a film set, research library, conference area, and even the Paramount gym before Hollywood Heritage, Inc. acquired it and converted it into a museum in 1983. So, even if Hollywood history puts you to sleep in class, I  recommend you stop by this under-appreciated spot. Go meet the quirky ex-union tour guide who tells tales about the age of Valentino; or try a kinetoscope and remind your anxious, overstimulated brain that before Avengers there was “Boxing Cats.” It’s well worth the visit 🙂

Until next time,

-Mari

On Tuesday we visited the set of a TV show on the Warner Brother’s lot thanks to CC grad Tim Marx. The show was in its final week of filming and everyone there was excited that the show was getting good ratings. It’s a one camera show, which means that the crew lights every shot individually without a studio audience. This allows for more artistic shots than a show that is shot in front of a live audience with flat lighting.

What struck me the most was how detailed everything on the set is. They had a few temporary sets that were setup for a shoot later in the week. These sets were so realistic that they actually felt like the real thing. Not just an imitation.

It was interesting to watch the different crews at work on set, especially the electrical and grip department. During the shot the members of the team would scatter among the set so as to be out of the way of shooting. However, once the scene wrapped, they all came out of their hiding places quickly to setup for the next shot.

I learned that the beauty of Hollywood is the industry that was created here. So much of film’s history has taken place here over the last 100 years and during that time, systems have been developed to make the act of filmmaking more efficient. There’s teams of people who can create any idea that has ever been thought of. The sheer scale of the film business here allows for the creation of living dreams.

I’ve been thinking a lot about authenticity recently. In my few times visiting Los Angeles, I’ve always left feeling oddly dissatisfied. As a life-long fan of director’s cuts and round table interviews, I never understood my unfortunate demystification of the town that created them. I often attribute my disinterest to the flashiness of it all, the over-stimulation of the lights, camera, action. It’s the idea that Hollywood is selling me on something I don’t need to be sold on. A good film originates with a good story. If you lose the integrity of your story, you lose the integrity of your film. I think, subconsciously or not, I’ve always wanted to preserve the simplicity of that statement. I believe in the mimesis captured through the cathartic nature of film. And, Hollywood, at least the parts of it I’ve seen in years prior, seemed oddly disconnected from that.

Yet as we’ve visited with various professionals in the film industry, I’ve largely found the opposite to be true. Content creators and contributors are connected, not solely to their audiences but to the integrity of the projects themselves. What I ultimately lacked was this feeling of authenticity. This genuine drive shines so much brighter than the advertised glitz of stars or the packaged glam of film sets. David Litt, a former speechwriter for the Obama administration, stated of his long-term goals, “For me, all of my rituals are about trying to recapture that feeling I had back in 2008, to put you back in that mindset where you’re 21/22 years old and you’re absolutely sure you can change the world, and you’re pretty sure you can do it tomorrow.” When I’m lacking inspiration, I return to this quote. It reminds me that the my passion, no matter its ever-evolving nature, can and will be sustained, as long as I prioritize its conservation. Although I refuse to be naive to the reality of filmmaking, that realistically not all filmmakers are armed with the integrity of the artistic prospective, many do have genuine intent. My question: Is authenticity possible to sustain in an industry stigmatized for its fickleness and glorified for its monetary success?  Yes, as long as there continue to be genuine artists, there will continue to be authentic stories and, thus, authentic films.

Today, for example, we visited screenwriter Tim Sexton, from NBC’s Chicago PD. He spoke about the difficulty of writing as profession, the impossibility of achieving mastery. Although this often demands continuous practice, he also stressed the importance of pausing writing in order to improve writing. It is difficult to capture a feeling, a moment, if it’s never been experienced. He spoke about his own unorthodox introduction to screenwriting, which, in the context of his professional success, made him a better writer. He found a profession of writing through living a writer’s life. The funny thing is that a “writer’s life” is simply life. Ultimately, Tim’s authenticity led him to more authentic writing, more authentic stories, and more authentic content. Although Los Angeles is built on facades, mystics, recreations of life, all supposed inauthenticities, it requires an authentic foundation to achieve resonance. Hollywood is, therefore, authentic despite its inauthenticities. The flashiness of the industry, through the investment in genuine artistry, can be restored to truth for those who seek it.

* I’ve been behind on capturing our trip! Here’s my only picture, a quick trip to Santa Monica my sister and I made last weekend.

Our second week started on a high note yesterday as the class had the opportunity to have lunch with composer Kathryn Bostic. Kathryn’s a prolific artist who’s scored numerous films and theater productions, including Dear White People and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. As we noshed on one of the most Los Angeles meals we’ve had thus far – raw vegan nachos at Sun Cafe – Kathryn spoke to us about collaboration and representation in Hollywood.

As in every other part of the filmmaking process, film scoring is a matter of give and take. Kathryn explained that she usually begins scoring once the director and editor have reached picture lock, because every note is dialed in to certain cues – the drum hits when the main character rolls her eyes, someone stands on the flute cue, et cetera. It’s time consuming to redo the entire soundtrack just to accommodate tiny changes to the footage, so composing tends to start after picture lock. Now, when a director and editor cut a film, they typically use temporary music as a placeholder. The temp could be anything from the music from another movie or a hit rock track that’ll cost an arm and a leg to license. Kathryn and Dylan explained to us that directors often experience “temp love,” in which they become so smitten with the temporary soundtrack that any new music composed falls short in their ears. Kathryn spoke to us about the need to pick our battles in collaboration, and to be keen to understand when to fight for a creative choice and when to agree to disagree. Her insight was extremely valuable to our class, as most of us have hopes to eventually direct our own films and work with composers.

Kathryn also spoke to us about the matter of representation in the film industry, to which she emphasized one specific point: authenticity. If you are true to yourself, use your art to convey your story and experiences, it shouldn’t matter what your gender or ethnicity is, where you grew up, or why you’re making your art. If it’s authentic, that will show through. She described her own desires to break out of the box that she is often put in as a black female composer, i.e. being asked to do soul or hip hop soundtracks, which she enjoys but wants to be considered for a wide range of musical genres that she also appreciates for scoring. She recently wrote a symphony, not because other people told her she couldn’t, not because she had something to prove to the world, but because orchestral music was part of her upbringing and she wanted to challenge herself to create something new and great. At the end of the meal, Kathryn made the final point that we as young filmmakers have a huge opportunity to create art that has the ability to effect social change. “If you don’t want to rock the boat, you’ve got to realize that it already has holes in it. That boat is sinking, and you don’t have to stay in it.  You can helm your own.”

Looking forward to taking on another day out here in Los Angeles! Mads out.

I can’t believe we’re already at the end of our first week in LA!

As you guys have read from our previous blog posts, this week has been a whirlwind of events ranging from having class at the Oakwood, meeting media industry moguls, attending movie screenings, going on group tours, and having a good time while doing it all! It’s been an incredible learning experience so far and I can’t wait to see what surprises next week has to offer!

If there’s anything I’ve learned so far in our brief time here, it’s that before taking this class I had been going through periods of anxiety surrounding the daunting challenge that breaking into the industry is made out to be. I periodically felt insecure about my decision to become a film major when I could have gone the  ‘safe’ route by getting a ‘conventional’ degree in STEM in order to get a job with an easier career path in something like healthcare; but after meeting both west coast Vanity Fair editor / CC Alumna Krista Smith and IMAX CEO Greg Foster this week, their advice for media careers in Hollywood sparked both a realization and a reassurance.

I realized that despite the challenges that are clearly to come given the ever changing nature of the media landscape due to digitalization, greater democratization of video content creation, and the increasingly social business culture surrounding entry into the field, that my classmates and I are going to ‘be okay’ in our individual ventures into the media world. One key piece of advice offered by the industry giants is that being a kind, genuine, and easy-to-get-along-with person can really get you far in this industry; qualities that I feel all my amazing classmates and I could be said to embody.

As Greg Foster put it, ‘content is king,’ and each of us is capable in our own right of creating dynamic awe-inspiring works of art. What seems usually to separate those who make it far in this industry from those who don’t is quality of character and, if you don’t mind me saying, we are some of the most agreeable, motivated, and responsible individuals who all possess the skills and traits necessary to do incredible things in our lifetimes. All it’ll take is for us to put our minds to the task, trust the process, and we’ll be able to achieve anything.

The journey doesn’t seem easy when looking towards the future, but darn it that’s okay. Every struggle we may go through will only serve as a learning experience and make us all better people / creators. The sky ahead might be a little cloudy sometimes and we might not always know what we’re doing, but as I sit here writing this out on my apartment’s porch on this beautiful spring California day, I can’t help but feel positive about my and my classmates’ futures.

Signing out for now,

Angel 🙂

Hi everyone! If you’ve been following along, you know that we have had an incredible first week here in Los Angeles. If you haven’t, well, you have some reading to do… 🙂

We finished up the week heading to the stacks of the Margaret Herrick Library, which is under the administration of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. They have a huge collection of books, photographs, posters, drawings, scripts, newspaper clippings- honestly, it’s kind of overwhelming. But it’s an incredible resource for anyone involved in the film industry. We were there to work on our research papers, but it’s crazy to think that maybe the woman sitting three tables away was researching for her screenplay, which could become the next blockbuster hit, or the man reading in the back room was studying for his next television appearance. The film industry is just made up of a conglomerate of creative people and Los Angeles is the heart of it.

Learning all about the beginning of the film industry has made me realize just how far we’ve come. The earliest films were created in 1895. Here is an example of some of those films that were created by the Lumiere Brothers, French inventors among the founding fathers of filmmaking.

You must be thinking: “Oh geez, that looks terrible. Such bad quality and there’s no storyline!” And you’d be right. But at that time, this was monumental! It was magical. Moving pictures had never been seen before. It’s hard for me to imagine how groundbreaking this was, but then I think about how we have trouble processing and differentiating 3D and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality from actual reality now.  When we visited the IMAX headquarters on Wednesday, we were able to watch an advanced screening of their new documentary Pandas. It was in IMAX 3D and at one point there was a fly buzzing around the shot. It took everything I had not to swat at it, although I knew that it was simply an image. I still want to try to reach out and touch the opening titles of every 3D movie I see.

In the past two decades alone, we have seen an incredible amount of technological innovation. My generation grew up with VHS tapes and portable CD players. Landlines were still actually a thing. I remember having to borrow my dad’s Razer on a trip in 6th grade because I didn’t have a phone. But now toddlers can work the App Store, 8-year-olds are getting iPhones for Christmas and we can go see the next Avengers film in IMAX 3D. The early pioneers of technology triggered a snowball effect that is now going full speed and I don’t think it’s slowing down anytime soon. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

-Addie

Greetings from Hollywood!

Our first week in LA officially ended a couple of hours ago, and if you’ve been reading our blog, you would know that we had a pretty packed but exciting week. As much as I want to go back to some moments in this week (our meeting with Krista Smith, or the time when we were at Venice Beach and I didn’t get fish and chips for dinner), I know it’s impossible. However, we are able to go way way back in the time of cinema (we actually just went in to the talkie era of filmmaking in our class): meeting Mary Pickford, staying in an abandoned beach house with Doris Kenyon, and driving down Sunset Boulevard with William Holden.

It is quite amazing that we can view films from over a hundred years ago. I’m sure none of the “actors” from Workers Leaving Lumière Factory realized that millions of people from 122 years later would see their faces and spend time studying them. However, a lot films from the early time of Cinema were not as lucky- many of them are damaged or completely destroyed over years. That’s why film preservation and restoration are extremely important for our study.

On Thursday, we visited the Academy Film Archive (also known as the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study), and had a chance to meet with some film restorers who have been working on film preservation/restoration for a very long time, and brought many old films back to life, and to a broader audience. Because of their work, we now are able to watch a quirky trailer for the 1961 horror film Konga, a 5-minute clip from Stan Brakhage’s experimental films, or The Ocean Waif by Alice Guy (the first female director). Alice Guy directed and produced over 1,000 films (many of them single reelers) during her film career, however, not many survived. The Ocean Waif, one of her only surviving feature-length films, was rescued and brought back to life by many film restorers. Although 15-20 minutes from the film is missing, it still is a great resource for us to study the early silent film era and her aesthetic style. It also provides us with an rare opportunity to understand a female filmmaker’s perspective and approach to a somewhat repetitive romantic storyline from 1916.

I read a very angry review about The Ocean Waif the other day – the writer was very upset that he paid for an “uncompleted film” and asked what’s the point of restoring it. Well, the point is – this is an extremely valuable resource; and because of many films like The Ocean Waif, we’re able to have conversations with characters from decades ago, to study the history of film and to learn from it. And none of this would happen without the film restorers.

Today we experienced Pandas on the biggest of screens, walked down Venice Beach, attended a double feature of Philadelphia and Brokeback Mountain and listened to the writers answer questions about their films.

It was interesting to hear what Ron Nyswaner had to say about how his own personal experience shaped the characters of Philadelphia. He spoke of listening to opera and crying in his own home and going to a place called ‘the love shack’ where he would go hot tub with his ‘straight friend’ (the director, Jonathan Demme). By talking through the story they would bring their personal experiences to the characters and in a way become the two main characters of their film.

Philadelphia was released in 1993 and was one of the first major Hollywood films to delve into the topics of homosexuality and AIDS. It was cool to watch the movie and then listen to Nyswaner talk about writing and handing over the screenplay to the studio for the first time. He was hesitant to compliment the studios, but in the case of Philadelphia he said he did not experience any push back. Instead, they actually loved everything about his script and said something along the lines of ‘this movie has to get made’ after reading it for the first time. Tom Hanks even came to them, because he heard about the film and wanted to be a part of it.

Earlier we watched pandas play, cuddle, eat bamboo on their backs and be adorable in the most state of the art IMAX theater in the world. The experience of just being in a theater that state of the art was unreal. The CEO of IMAX Entertainment, Greg Foster, showed us around the place and was the first person we met with so far who was wearing a suit. He was described as ‘the best in the business’ by his colleague.

Also Venice made for some great people watching. Everybody was riding these electric scooters that you apparently rent using an app on your phone. I know, sounds made up.

-Micah