The day began at CBS, with a live taping of "The Talk." I'd love to post some pictures, but we weren't allowed to take photos in there. In fact, Mike Mulig and I actually got yelled at by a page (think Kenneth from 30 Rock, except wearing CBS red) for taking pictures...oops. It was really interesting to see how live television shows are put on, with the audience enhancer (a guy named Bill whose job it was to get us pumped up) getting us laughing and cheering, the cameras, the telepromters and cue cards...so much. I can't tell you everything I took in, because 1) I'm pretty sure I signed a non-disclosure agreement, and 2) I took in a lot. Trust me, you don't want to be sitting here reading that much, just for what happened before lunch. 

What I will tell you, though, is what happened after the show. We met with the executive producer, the head of lighting, and a Production Assistant, and got a behind-the-scenes tour of their production trailer. Most notable for me was meeting a guy named Chris. Chris is the audio mixer for the show, and I got to ask him a few questions, and even got his email address. I must say, the audio process for live television is very simple, so much simpler than I had imagined. He doesn't run the audio through any computer programs, just the board. For the most part, there's less than 20 inputs on the board being used, but when they have a band, he said they fill up every input, which makes sense. What really stuck with me about him, though, was that he also does freelance on top of working on The Talk. Their crew call is 6:45am, but they're out of there by 2pm. Blew my mind. What a work schedule. Since everyone we've talked to has said that you're probably going to be working 2 jobs out here, 7-2 would be great for that. 

As you can probably tell by the above photo, the next place we went was the Warner Brothers lot. We got a VIP tour, led by a very knowledgable tour guide, Max. On this VIP tour, we got to see the Gilmore Girls house, the sets for Two Broke Girls and Suburgatory, and many other places on the lot. 

One of the places we went was the Warner Brothers museum. This was one of the few places we could not take pictures, as some of the pieces in there were on loan to WB, and they didn't have permission to allow photos taken. The photo above is Harry Potter costumes in the main lobby of the tour center. The bottom floor was costumes and props from 90 years of big WB films including Bane, Joker, and Batman costumes, and the top floor was all Harry Potter. One of my friends is a huge fan of Harry Potter, and I really wanted to take photos to show her it all, but alas, production companies are just a little strict about taking photos where you're not supposed to...


What we could take pictures of, though, were some little things from the good ole' days.

Yes, that is the Mystery Machine, yes that is Central Perks coffee shop from Friends, and yes, they had every single batmobile ever made in the same room. Be jealous.

Anyways, back to the learning part of things...we had a panel with 14 OU alums that live here in LA and are part of the industry. There were a couple that were more relevant to me than others, as many of them were producers or something along that line. The main thing I got from them all was just a lot of pointers on where to live in LA, what employers here are looking for, lots of trade secrets I need to keep on the hush hush, you know? Kidding, but at this point, it's looking like moving out here after college could be a real possibility. The alums reassured us that it might take a couple years to get used to the swing of things living in the biggest city in the US, and have us some pointers on how to make the transition a little easier, like going and doing things, having a social life. 

One of the alums, Mark Adelsberger, with whom I've worked at Baker University Center, works at an audio post-production house, so I've definitely got a GREAT connection there, but I was also told to look into Media City Sound and other production companies for opportunities to work at post-production houses. 

I'm learning so much that will help me succeed in my career, and I've very nearly made up my mind to move out here to LA after college. Keep up on following this blog (it boosts my ego a little...) and I'll keep up on telling you all the awesome stuff I'm doing while you're just sitting there on Facebook. Yup. As my receipt at the Warner Bros. gift shop said today, "That's all folks."