After my evening at Tony Lacy's, I was eager to start taking meetings at places of business, which is why my meeting ON THE SONY LOT was super exciting. There's a thing you may not know about me: I have a super crush on movie lots. The Warner Brothers logo thingy that precedes their movie where you see a movie lot and "As Time Goes By" plays a little in the background and it's gold because the logo is gold and also to suggest a certain time of day always gets me seriously excited. I'm sorry, but it's true. That is the best way to introduce a movie to me. Just watch:
Now tell me that doesn't stir feelings in you. Anyway, driving up to the studio with Natalie was very scary, because I had a "drive on." This meant I had permission to drive my car (Natalie's car) onto the lot, which meant I had no idea what I was doing as I drove us into the parking lot. Maybe I was doing it wrong? Did I need a pass? As it turned out, security was pretty chill overall, and mostly helped to direct me to where I'd be meeting a couple of Tufts alumni who worked on the lot -- one in film, one in television. Natalie grabbed some Starbucks during this time (I haven't mentioned it, but the amount of Starbucks consumed by Natalie while waiting for me during meetings could power a human being for about a month), and I stood in the incredibly warm weather until I was met by two gentlemen in their late twenties. The area of the studio where we sat and drank smoothies (okay, that's a lie; I had a smoothie and they drank coffee) was sort of reminiscent of this:
This was pretty cool, but not super romantic. I may have idolized it all out of proportion - er, no, make that: I - I romanticized it all out of proportion. But how could I not? This was Columbia Pictures, the studio that Harry Cohn built, bringing us some of the greatest movies of the century, especially its output in the 40's and 50's, and featuring something of a resurgence today, especially in action and comedy films. I'm totally serious here. It was exciting.
The meeting was a very fruitful one. They were extremely friendly and I think we got on well. I told them what I'd been up to lately (this and this, mostly), and they encouraged me to continue working, and suggested that there was work to be had should I head out west, which was amazing to hear.
They both had to return to work, but one of them (the movie one) took me aside and told me "Take some time to wander around the lot. You've got a visitor's pass. Just say you got lost if security stops you."
I began wandering, and spent the better part of an hour just walking between huge soundstages. "'Til Death" was filming in one, and a bunch of them had construction work going on inside. Every building was named for a star, like "The Judy Garland Building," or "The Gene Autry Building." I also passed a parking space "Reserved for CCH Pounder," three times, hoping she'd pull up while I was around. No such luck.
It was during this time that I began to think, "I could totally work here." Walking past these soundstages, actually doing things in and around them: that would be fantastic, completely. Could I retain this Kenneth Parcell feeling for years? Almost definitely. This was not the end of my day but guess who wrote a way long blog post, so more later okay.
Now tell me that doesn't stir feelings in you. Anyway, driving up to the studio with Natalie was very scary, because I had a "drive on." This meant I had permission to drive my car (Natalie's car) onto the lot, which meant I had no idea what I was doing as I drove us into the parking lot. Maybe I was doing it wrong? Did I need a pass? As it turned out, security was pretty chill overall, and mostly helped to direct me to where I'd be meeting a couple of Tufts alumni who worked on the lot -- one in film, one in television. Natalie grabbed some Starbucks during this time (I haven't mentioned it, but the amount of Starbucks consumed by Natalie while waiting for me during meetings could power a human being for about a month), and I stood in the incredibly warm weather until I was met by two gentlemen in their late twenties. The area of the studio where we sat and drank smoothies (okay, that's a lie; I had a smoothie and they drank coffee) was sort of reminiscent of this:
This was pretty cool, but not super romantic. I may have idolized it all out of proportion - er, no, make that: I - I romanticized it all out of proportion. But how could I not? This was Columbia Pictures, the studio that Harry Cohn built, bringing us some of the greatest movies of the century, especially its output in the 40's and 50's, and featuring something of a resurgence today, especially in action and comedy films. I'm totally serious here. It was exciting.
The meeting was a very fruitful one. They were extremely friendly and I think we got on well. I told them what I'd been up to lately (this and this, mostly), and they encouraged me to continue working, and suggested that there was work to be had should I head out west, which was amazing to hear.They both had to return to work, but one of them (the movie one) took me aside and told me "Take some time to wander around the lot. You've got a visitor's pass. Just say you got lost if security stops you."
I began wandering, and spent the better part of an hour just walking between huge soundstages. "'Til Death" was filming in one, and a bunch of them had construction work going on inside. Every building was named for a star, like "The Judy Garland Building," or "The Gene Autry Building." I also passed a parking space "Reserved for CCH Pounder," three times, hoping she'd pull up while I was around. No such luck.
It was during this time that I began to think, "I could totally work here." Walking past these soundstages, actually doing things in and around them: that would be fantastic, completely. Could I retain this Kenneth Parcell feeling for years? Almost definitely. This was not the end of my day but guess who wrote a way long blog post, so more later okay.
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