I'm a Big Shot Executive Lady

Not. But in 5 years I will be.

I am so pleasantly surprised at how much responsibility I get at work.  Both companies really take my opinions into consideration when considering taking on a project.  I feel so powerful knowing that if I think a script is crap, which they often are, the executives don't even look at it.  But it's not like if i think a script is good, they immediatley pitch it to a studio and start casting.  No no.  But it at least gets a second read. 

Becuase of my "power" some aspiring writers have been sucking up to me.  It's kind of funny.  Yes, the execs don't look at a script unless I like it, but if I don't like it, I'm not passing it on.  It doesn't matter how much I like you.  If your script sucks, its' not seeing the light of day at this company. Is that mean?

This job is hard.  I haven't had a full time job before, and I'm quickly learning how exhausting it is.  I calculated my work hours I work a week, including my commute, and it's 60 hours.  And I often have to bring work home with me and I have homework.  It takes me 1 hr and 15 minutes to get to one office, and 40 minutes to get to the other.  I collapse on the weekends.  My friends here are calling me "grandma" because I'll leave a party at 10 so I can go to bed.  What can I say? I'm tired!

I run alot of errands.  Alot of errands.  I don't really mind, and it's nice to get out of the office.  Sometimes tasks are not so glamorous, like "take my dogs to my house" and "take my dog for a walk" and "go pick up my medicine."  But sometimes they are really cool, like "go deliver this script to this director." Or "go deliver this document to the writer of ________ "(I can't say but it was a good movie).  This one place I went was right in this really fancy office building.  My car got checked by a security guard before they would let me in a garage, and once I got in the building, I had to go to another security guard to get a key that would make the elevator go up.  But he wouldn't give it to me until he called the place I was going and confirmed they were expecting me. It was a production. 

It's the weirdest thing.  I have never felt so comfortable so fast in a city before.  There was never an adjustment period or a time when I was scared to be in a new city.  I got here, and I immediately felt at home and like I had lived here forever.  It's safe to say I love it here and am excited to settle down here and live here pernamently once I graduate college in August. 

Even though this job is exhausting and stressful and demeaning at times, I love every single second of it. This is such a hard, wonderful, rough, and stressful experience.  And the weird thing is I love every bit of it!! This is such hard work, but I love it!! I have learned that I like working in an office, and all that I talk about is movies and TV. Seriously.  I don't remember the last conversation I had that wasn't about this business.  I get really sick of talking about it at times, but that's usually at the end of a ten hour work day.  Understandable.  But then I go home and talk to my roommate about her day and we talk more about the business, and then my friends ask me about the business and how my jobs are going, and before I know it, I'm blue in the face because I've said the word "script" 20 times in one minute. 

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Utah to go to my dear friend Stephanie's wedding.  I'm super excited!! I can't wait to snuggle with my nephew, hang with my sisters, and be around good friends.  And the best part is I only had to work 3 days this week! Thank you Stephanie for getting married and letting me come to your wedding! This break is very much welcomed!

Lauren out.

Sports Weekend

For anyone who knows me well, you are probably confused by the title of this post. Lauren? Sports? Those are never affiliated with each other. I know. But last weekend, those words were. 
My friend Alyssa, came out from school for the USC vs. Utah game. It was the first game my school played in Pac 12.  I obey the Beach Boys, I'm true to my school.  So regardless of whether I liked sports or not, I went to the game. How could I not? It was right there!

Alyssa is a big Yankees fan, so we went to the Angels vs Yankees game the night before. It was lots of fun!

This is my friend Alyssa.

This is our sad face when the Yankees lost.

The next day, we got to go to the game! The USC colessium is HUGE!!

I'm trying to do a "U" with my hands. Don't know if I accomplished it. The guys behind me are Alyssa's brothers and friends.

It would have been the perfect day if we won that game. Oh well.

This weekend, I went on a walking tour of the Theatre district. It was in a really cool  neighborhood with lots of little shops and street markets.

All these theaters are theaters that showed films and vaudeville shows back in the day. Now all but one is boarded up or turned into a store.

This is the Million Dollar Theater. This holds films in the summer time only. Sorry, they're bad pictures. This is the balcony.

This is the Bradbury Building. The final scene in 500 Days of Summer was filmed here. And it's a beautiful building.

Example of a boarded up theater.

Example of a theater turned into a store.

We went to this adorable little place for lunch!  It had all these cute little outdoorsy displays. It was so fun!

Peace. Lauren out.

Labor Day Weekend

Yes, I know it's been a week since Labor Day weekend and am just now posting. Sorry!
Labor Day weekend was so much fun! My family came out for vacation and were in Newport Beach, about 40 miles away from me.  It was  so much fun!! It was so good to see them.  The best part was it was my nephew's first time at the beach, and he LOVED it!!

He really loves French Fries. Even  if they're sandy.

He did this all the time. He would just lie in the sand and get his belly warm.

This is my family. We were incomplete because my very pregnant sister and her husband couldn't come due to how far along my sister is. She's due October 1st! I'm so excited to meet my new nephew!

From left to right: My Dad, Brad (my sister Rachelle's husband), Rachelle, Me, my Mom, my nephew Eli, my sister Andrea (mother of Eli), and Adam (husband of Andrea, father of Eli)

The boys HAD TO watch football on Saturday.  They left the beach in the middle of the day to go and watch. I don't get it.

We went to Laguna Beach for dinner. It's so pretty there!

The lovely Albas.  Because we always refer to them as one, we have combined their names to make it easier, so we call them Adandrea.

Eli loves it when we cuddle.

As you can tell.

The Tilleys. We combined their name to B.Rad. The husband's name is Brad, and Rachelle's initials are R.A.D.

My mom and pop. How I love them. They're the best.

I love this little guy SO MUCH! He's 14 months.

My family went back to Utah on Sunday, so on Labor Day, me and my new friend from Church, Kristine, went to Hollywood to see the sights. This is me at the Kodak Theatre.

I love her.

Iron Man

YE-AH!

Me and Kristine. Can you see the Hollywood sign in the background?

That statue of Marilyn actually looked really creepy up close.

Bumblebee from Transformers.

Footprints at the Chinese Theatre.

How awesome is it that Bruce Willis wrote "Yippie Ki Yay!" It's the best.

This is the plaza right next to the Chinese Theatre. It was so cool!

It was a super fun weekend! One more thing.

This past week I got to go to the Sony Pictures Lot to run an errand for work.  It was so cool!

This is my parking pass. I felt special.

And this is the lot. It reminded me of a street in Disneyland.  It had shops and restaruants where the workers could eat and shop.   

I tried to wander around and explore for as long as I could get away with, but a security guard came up to me and said "you look lost." I didn't want him to follow me around, so I said "nope, that's the building I'm looking for." But I was too scared to get caught again, so after I found a stage and looked at it from afar, I left. When I got back to the office, the assistant asked me how I liked the Sony lot.  He said ideally I could have wandered around, no one would know. I told him I tried. And failed. Darnnit! At least I got to see a bit!

Getting Into the Swing of Things

Hello all!  I have been in LA for two weeks now and am loving it.  It's been a much easier adjustment to living and working here than I thought it would be. 
Blog posts that have no pictures are boring, so here are some for your enjoyment that have nothing to do with what I'm about to say. 

Pretty pictures. I think I said this before, but I can't say where I'm working or who I'm working for because I really don't want anyone at either company to find this blog.  That would be really unprofessional and just not good.
The word intern, when translated in the entertainment world, means slave. My duties at both internships include washing dishes in the kitchen, going to the post office, driving to executives houses to pick up their mail or take their dogs home, and reading ALOT of scripts.  At one internship, my main job is to bring papers from the printer to the proper execuitve.  That's the only time I get to talk to the execs.  It's very exciting.  I also get to bind alot of scripts and do coverage.  Script coverage is when you read a script or book and give comments and tell the executives if they should consider buying it and making it into a movie.  Last week, I was given a book to cover, and it was 600 pages.  It took so long to do and was so stressful because the coverage was for the president of the company, the one who the company is named after.  Big deal. I really wanted to do a good job because it was the only chance I had to let him know who I am. I hadn't even met the guy yet. 
At my other internship, the other interns were asking me where I was from, and I told them I was from a small town in Southern Utah.  I told them there was lots of red rocks and it was in the desert and two hours away from Vegas.  They deicded to Google it.  When they found out the population was 72,000, they said that's not a small town, that's a city.  I guess it's true.  It just doesn't feel that big when you grow up there.  It was fun to tell people where I'm from and was really nice of them to care enough to Google it. 
I was in the kitchen doing dishes when the head of Drama Development for Television walked in.  I was trying to be polite and professional, so I said "Hello Mr. _____ how are you today?" He responded with "Oh, my, you don't need to call me that." I said "What, I can call you ___ (first name)?" He said "Yes! If you called me Mr. _____, I wouldn't even know you were talking to me. Are you southern? Southerners are so polite." I said "No, I'm from Utah. I guess we're polite people too." He said "Oh ya, I know some people from Utah and you guys are really nice." What a nice fellow.  First name basis with the executive producer of Desperate Housewives? Awesome.
We have a binder filled with unaired pilots of 2011, that are premiering at the end of this month, so when I'm not doing anything, I get to watch them.  I'm excited about some of the new shows premiering. A few are really different and I think will do really well.  My work did 10,000 BC and Source Code so the other day I was reading the budget breakdowns for 10,000 BC and the script for Source Code.  I also got to read some scripts written by two Oscar winners.  One was a pilot, the other was a film.  It was so cool and I can't wait to see these amazing writers' works be made.  Sorry I have to be vague, but I had to sign a confidentiality agreement.
Terrance Howard came into the office for a meeting. Since this is LA, I thought that when famous people came into the office, no one would really notice because they're used to it.  But I was so glad that everyone else in the office was freaking out as much as me  So we took turns pretending to go to the kitchen so we could casually walk by him.  When I approached him, I smiled and he politely nodded.  It was magical.  Later, the exec told some of the interns to straighten the movie posters in the lobby.  I wasn't there for this, but as the interns were doing so, Terrance walked up to them, stood there for a second, then said "Man, I think ya'll be trippin'."  Darn, I wish I was there for that!!
A few days later, Minnie Driver came into the office.  I was sitting in the intern room when a fellow intern came in and said "shorty short shorts is here." I said "Who's that?" He said "Minnie Driver." Out of my chair I was and into the lobby I went.  She was sitting there all famous like, wearing a romper, hence the short shorts, and her hair was all crimped and pretty.  She's prettier in real life I think. 
The next day, I was sitting with an assistant at her desk doing expense reports when Frank Darabont walked in.  He is the writer/director of Shawshank Redemption and the writer of Green Mile. AKA, he's been nominated for three Oscars.  And he created the Walking Dead TV series.  I got him a water.  Which he did not drink.  It was cool. 
Everyone is really nice and I'm making friends with alot of the other interns.  But this is hard work.  Before I came, I was prepared to have exhaustation be my best friend and stress be my constant companion.  I was right.  I think I'll buy them best friend necklaces.  I have 10 hour work days, it takes me an hour each way to get to work and back due to traffic, and I have homework and class for my program that I'm in with my school.  But being an intern is a right of passage.  You literally cannot be a producer in LA without being an intern first.  I'm trying so hard to be the most awesome slave they're ever had.  Because by golly, by the time I leave, all the execs will know my name and will think I'm the great.  References! That's the goal.  Right now, most of them don't even know I exist.
That's all for now my friends. 
P.S. The printer at work is the size of my bed.  Literally.