So today began my weeklong trip to Los Angeles. Having never been to the west coast (except for Portland, but that doesn't really count), I didn't know what to expect, besides warm weather. We started at 7pm with hearing from Pam Griffiths, a producer at VIMBY.com, followed by John Swartz - Executive Asst. to Kathleen Kennedy - and Jordan Blum - a writer for American Dad.

Pam talked a lot to us about resumes, and gave us a few tips to succeed in Los Angeles. On the topic of resumes, she mentioned that if you have experience in the service industry, even if that has nothing to do with the job you're applying for, still put that on your resume, because that tells the employer that you can work with people, and that you can multitask. I have been a server for the past three summers, but I currently don't have that on my resume for audio positions, so that's what I'm going to implement from what I've learned from Pam. The other biggest thing I learned from her was that you should NEVER be afraid to say you don't know something. Sometimes we get caught up in being the best person at what we do, but we shouldn't do that. 

John and Jordan were also very full of great advice on what to do now, while we're still in college, and what to do once you get to LA. While at OU, they said to get involved in as many projects you can; they made a lot of shorts while there, and it has given them a lot of great experience to draw on now in their careers. When they started talking about what to do when you get to LA, I mentioned that I'm an audio post major, prompting them to inform me that audio guys are always in demand in LA. That gave me a boost of hope for my future, knowing that I'll probably be able to get some sort of audio job when starting out here. Even if it's not exactly what I want to be doing, as long as it gets me close to my dream, I'll take it, because I'll be able to learn so much. 

Obviously, questions were asked about the pros and cons of living in Los Angeles, and all three of our guest speakers were very insightful on that. Like I said before, I have no idea what LA is like. Basically, the pros are that LA has the most opportunities in our fields, it's a half hour from the beach and an hour from the mountains, it's always warm, and has so much culture. On the other side, the cons are that it's expensive to live here, driving sucks, and it's tough - you get told "no" a lot here, dating is hard, and there are a lot of rude people. Having no idea where I want to go in the country with my career, this information is incredibly helpful in that decision. I feel like I would be able to deal with most of those cons, if I can take full advantage of all of the pros. John and Jordan stressed the importance of doing stuff you love to keep you sane, and I love biking, hiking, and climbing, so if I can get into the mountains whenever I can, I think I'd be able to live here in LA. 

But tonight was only the beginning of a week-long adventure in this strange land, so I should be getting a better idea of how life goes on here as the week goes on. Tune in tomorrow night, when we talk about plugging in lights for shooting at Amish locations!