August 25th, 2024

Hey everyone! I arrived at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank on Thursday August 22nd and have been here for the past few days!

My mother and my aunt came down here as well, which is really nice. I felt like it was a good idea to bring my mom, because I feel like it would ease her stress of me going all the way across the country. I may be an adult, but she still gets worried. Gotta love moms! I also appreciate her twin, Aunt Kelly for coming out, because I realized I was busier getting ready than I thought I was going to be.

The first day, I wouldn’t describe as a day, it was more like hours, apun hours apun hours and a change of time zone. California is 3 hours behind New York, so that was a change. But so far so good!

We had a meetup with our entire group that is out here in Los Angeles. It is a semester with the RIT School of Film and Animation Students, and a new combination through the School of Liberal Arts, and its transmedia entertainment program.

That was crazy getting to our classes, but our group figured it out eventually! Then we watched a movie called “That Thing you Do!” by Tom Hanks. I really enjoyed it, however I had to do some phone calls and discussions with our program directors, in establishing my career here.

I will definatly watch it again sometime! I think I would really like it.

Friday, we explored a bit more, and ended up at Griffith Park Observatory!! Where they shot the Planetarium scene in La La Land!!!!! I was so stocked to be there, it was really neat! You could see the entire city, and the Hollywood sign. Awesome excursion, very gorgeous day. (well its LA, everyday appears to be gorgeous!)

Here are a few photos that I took while I was there!

On Saturday, I was called to be G & E (grip & electric) on a short film called Under! My friend Dallas, is the Director of Photography, and asked if I could come out there and help, given they needed more hands for the lighting setups.

So I Ubered to Altedena California, which is north of Pasadena, and helped them out for the day! Dallas is an RIT Alum and a Director of Photography in the industry. I know her through working on sets from RIT. I also met some of the other RIT alum, Ryan, Dan and Nolan. It was awesome to see them, and the set was really well run! I mostly worked under Nolan and Lucas, our Key Grip and Gaffer. I met some neat people there as well. Super excited for when the film gets out! It’s a horror short about a monster under the bed.

Mirror selfie I quickly snatched when I was not needed!

Today, my mom, Aunt Kelly and I are going to Venice and Santa Monica Beach!! I super excited to swim in the ocean!

Till next time! -Lily