Back from LA

Sights set on Hollywood

Aloha everyone. It'd be a stretch to say it's good to be back east, but it's definitely nice to be back in non-100+ degree weather. Also, nice to be able to get from one side of town to another in under 30 minutes. Other than the gridlocked traffic, LA is a fantastic place to be; great weather, plenty of things to do nightly, and countless film studios/prop houses.

Mad Props

While I was out there, I was able to assist with the prop department on a film, The Business (starring Donnell Rawlings, the Chappelle's Show "I'm rich, beeyotch" guy). Since I was working in the prop dept., I got the chance to go onto the Paramount Studios lot and enter their huge prop house. Imagine a small Home Depot with organized aisles of props for just about anything. I saw everything from the dinosaur eggs from Jurassic Park, Steve Carrell congress photos from Evan Almighty, and even a baseketball from the film with the same title. The above picture was taken at the prop house on the guns/weapons aisle, and that was easily the biggest gun they had at the time.
After the Paramount Studios stop, we ventured to Sunland, CA to the Independent Studio Services building to search for more props. Here, the employees seemed less busy and were more helpful, and the prop house itself was more organized than Paramount's. We were able to get the TV New camera and DC license plates we were looking for, without too much trouble (even got some free beer out of it too, but that's a different blog).

Movie Land

Heading back to set, we passed by the Warner Brothers studios shown in the photo above. For those of you who've seen Pee Wee's Big Adventure, you may recognize that gate. Once we arrived back at set, it was almost wrap time and I helped remove some heavy furniture from the house they'd been using all week, all while meeting and chatting with several crew members.
All in all, my trip to Los Angeles was well worth it and I can't wait to visit or relocate there sometime shortly.