A Much Needed Catch-Up.

Well hello there! It sure has been a while, hasn't it? Over a month to be more precise - needless to say it has been a very busy month, and I've really struggled to find the time to sit down and write this blog. But now, the time has come - I'm back, baby!

No biggie, just a roll of 70mm IMAX film laying next to my desk...

If you're wondering why it is that I've been so especially busy this last month, the reason for my lack of time is largely because of my new internship, which I started shortly after my last post. For 2 days a week (up at 7:30am, back at 7pm), I've been heading to Aperture Films - a small film production company that's nearby where I live, and more excitingly, just outside of Hollywood! The company focuses mainly on making documentary films, museum films and interactive exhibits, and Government public service adverts, and from the end of October, I have been officially a part of the team. I already feel like I've learnt a lot from working with these guys, and have gained a lot of experience in many areas of filmmaking - from pre-production tasks through to doing editing and after-effects in post-production. I've very quickly learnt to love working here at Aperture, especially as it has such a fun working environment - thanks largely to office frisbees, nerf guns and a big employee lunch break trip to a nearby trampoline place just the other day - it has been a lot of fun!

The Nerf war rages on...

Awesome lunch break battle-beaming at 'Big Air' trampoline park!

Speaking of work, the other big thing eating up my time lately has been the university midterms. The two midterms that I had (one exam, and one 10 page essay) went well, and now I'm rather worryingly speeding towards the impending finals in a few weeks time, when I will have 3 10 page essays due in on the final week before Christmas - gulp...

And now for all the rest of what happened in the last month - which as I'm sure you can imagine, has been a lot! So this moment calls for just one thing: Quick-Fire Round!!!

Oliver Stone: Acclaimed film director Oliver Stone came to campus last month to present a screening and a Q&A of his bold and controversial television series The Untold History of the United States. Afterwards I got the chance to meet him and get a cheeky photo too! If you're at all interested, it was a fascinating episode and an insightful Q&A too, and both of these can be online for free by clicking right here!

Halloween: Halloween also came around, right on cue on the 31st of October. Unfortunately due to work commitments, I was unable to really do anything for the occasion, unlike all my lucky friend who went out to party. So instead I carved out this Monsters University inspired pumpkin (see above).

LA Trip: This was one of the bigger events of the last month. In just one day, I (along with a number of my fellow international colleagues) were taken by some of the exchange partner programme students to... deep breath... Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills (feat. a Warner Bros. TV Exhibition), the Griffith Observatory, and (*drum roll*) HOLLYWOOD!!! It really was one hell of a day, and of course finally making it to Hollywood understandably made me a very happy Dave!

Great Expectations: Just the other weekend, I received a very special invite to an exclusive screening of Great Expectations, which has only just been released in the States despite it's UK release being a whole year ago. The film was fantastic, but the evening was well and truly made by the presence of director Mike Newell and actor Robbie Coltrane (yes, Hagrid himself) who introduced the film and followed it up with a fantastic Q&A. Afterwards, me and some friends hung around for the opportunity to meet the two and talk to them both. Mike Newell in particular was fantastic, giving us a lot of his time telling his stories as well as being just as interested in what we were doing as we were in him, even making sure to wish us luck before he left. It really was an incredible evening that I won't soon forget.

San Diego: On Veterans Day, with the university closed for the holiday, me and a few international friends headed down to San Diego for the day. It has to be said, I absolutely loved San Diego, and I can't wait to get down there again sometime soon - it felt just like a mini New York city! How so? We started the day at Balboa Park, with its gardens, architecture and museums reminding me of a mini-Central Park. Then on down to the Gaslamp District, with its skyscrapers and a plethora of bars, restaurants, cafes, theatres, and more creating the non-stop city environment of New York (on a far smaller scale). Then onto the docks, where I was half expecting to see the Statue of Liberty beyond one of the giant bridges leading into the city. It really did feel like a highlight reel from my trip to New York earlier this year, which is never going to be a bad thing at all!

 

 

 

Restaurant/Bar from Top Gun

Playing Goose's piano!

Disneyland: Of course, you wouldn't expect me to let my annual pass go to waste now would you?! I've been up to Disneyland a couple of times since the last update - once for one last day of Halloween festivities, once for a spontaneous late night trip night last week for the opening night of the new Christmas World of Color show, and then once more just last Friday with a couple of my international friends, who I took along for their very first trip. Of course, they repaid me by very kindly sitting me at the front of Splash Mountain in order to get this very flattering photo out of me - hmm...

 

See, I told you it was a busy month! So who knows when my next update will roll around, but there's not long left before I will be heading home for Christmas on the 18th of December! Up next though is Thanksgiving, so perhaps I'll have to give you a little update on how that goes before then... or at least I'll try anyway!

So 'til next time, this is Dave Startup signing off from Sunny Califor-ni-a! ;)

This blog update is dedicated to the memory of Pumpkin Mike. It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the passing of Pumpkin Mike today. In the early hours of this morning, Pumpkin Mike was found past his expiry date in our flat - just 25 days old. A small service was held this afternoon in his memory, before his cremation on our apartment porch. The sun was shining down from the heavens, it was as Pumpkin Mike would have wanted it. He lived a short life, but he was loved by many. Long may he rest in peace.

Beginning to feel like home

It's been a while since my last blog update, and God knows my family have been pestering me for a new one for a while now, so I apologise for the delay - but as you'll soon see, a lot has been happening for the last few weeks. Oh boy, where to even begin...

Well, to those of you back home who have been suffering through what I've been reliably informed is horrible Autumnal weather, and looking my glorious sunny beach photos through gritted teeth, this might help to make you feel a little less infuriated:

Yep, that's right; it rained here too... a lot! Just the other week, I opened my blinds one morning to a grey, cloudy sky, and just a few hours later the heavens well and truly opened. Nothing like some miserable weather to make a Brit feel at home! It was all a very surreal experience, as the lucky people of Southern California clearly aren't used to weather of the wetter variety. There was even a snow-day like hype surrounding the oncoming rain: whispers and rumours of it's arrival for days, people screaming "IT'S RAINING!!" at the sight of the first single drop of rain, and everyone dressing up with coats, hoods and umbrellas in anticipation (yes, that's right, some people had their umbrellas up before it even began to rain!) - it was all a very surreal experience. But even the heavy rain couldn't dampen our spirits in SoCal, as a wonderful international dinner with the other international students provided foods from all over the world (more than an of us could handle...), and there was also the small matter of an interview that day too, but more on that soon...

This however, was what the next day looked like:

...And the day after. And the day after that. And the day after that too. And every single day since... B)

So I just mentioned an interview on the rainy day, well let me put you out of your misery and explain, firstly by rewinding to a few days earlier. On the afternoon of the Monday of the week before last, whilst browsing Facebook I saw an advert on the university's film and media department page for a post-production internship opportunity at a local film production company. Interested by the opportunity, I sent them a quick email with my CV and a couple of examples of my work attached, not really expecting to hear much back from it but applying on a whim nonetheless. Well to my surprise, the next day I received a phone call from them asking a few questions, and inviting me to an interview - the next day! So on that dull rainy Wednesday, my flatmate Ej very kindly drove me down for my 2pm interview, which seemed to go well. Very well in hindsight, as after I left they actually rang the university film department to check that I was able to do it, and within just a few hours called me up to offer me the job! I was even able to drop a class from my timetable to take this on for course credit too. So as you can imagine, I am very excited to start working with them this Wednesday, and am still in shock at just how suddenly it all happened! The internship involves me helping with the editing of their film projects, from readying footage to applying after-effects, and maybe some production assistance too - so I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it all goes soon. Rest assured, the words 'film experience on the outskirts of LA/Hollywood' will soon be appearing on my CV...

So the internship is around a 15-20 minute drive away, and accessible by bus, and you know what else is? Disneyland! Yup, that is right, it's just down the road from us. So a couple days after all of this happened, me and my good ol' flatmate Ej drove down to do the inevitable; buy (and in Ej's case, renew) our annual passes! Need proof? Say no more...

   

I don't think I need to explain how fun it is there, and I've already been back again too; I'm determined to make the most out of my investment in an annual pass (which is discounted by the way, as I am both local and a student)!

Amongst the above, so much more has happened lately, including a trip to the IMAX cinema at the Spectrum Centre to see the new Sci-Fi Gravity - which is an incredible experience on IMAX and, dare I say it, in 3D too...

Last Friday, the university held an annual event known as 'Shocktoberfest' - where they get in a big name music act or two to perform a concert for the students. This year, the headlining acts were the world renowned rapping megastar expletive-filled performances of 'YG 400' and 'A$AP Rocky'!!!!!!! (No, I haven't heard of them either - and even having seen them live I still don't really know who they are; it all just sounds the same to me at least...)

Then the next morning, the international office held its first major event: a trip to the Getty Museum in LA - and it was FREE!! The trip was short, but good fun, and provided some incredible views of the smog-covered city of Los Angeles...

...and that just about brings us up to date. No doubt I've forgotten about and missed a number of things, but these are the main things that have happened over the past few weeks. Classes are all going well still, as my midterm exams quickly approach! As you can see in the photo below, I've been studying very hard too...

So 'til next time, this is Dave Startup signing off from Sunny Califor-ni-a! ;)