I have returned from Los Angeles intact! I had a wonderful time! Everything was really great. We toured film production facilities non stop. Sight seeing was left to a drive down Hollywood blvd at 2 am. We passed Grahmans (sp?) Chinese Theater..you know where they have all the famous hand and feet prints in cement. I made them turn around so I could look again...they wouldn't stop tho. Finally I convinced them to pull over so I could see a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Just so happens it was Sylvester Stalone and Diana Ross. That suited me and I got back in the car with out incident.
On Saturday before our flight home we crammed some more touring in. West Hollywood was great. It's where the gay population seems to hang. We went thru Beverly Hills with the windows roll down singing Sweet Home Alabama. This got a different reaction than when we did it thru Watts. (Just kidding) We tried to turn on to Rodeo Drive but after sitting in the middle of the intersection for 10 minutes trying to turn left with no chance in sight we continued to Santa Monica. When we finally hit the beach, I got to put my toes in the Pacific. It was only in the mid 60s and windy...so no girls in thongs roller blading. We walked on the pier and had a drink and then went to Venice Beach just two miles down the lane...but so very different. It's more seedy. Vendors line the boardwalk and shops hawk bongs, psychic readings, henna tattoos, Tibetan clothes, tickets to the taping of Roseanne, toe rings, and there are piles of weirdos roaming around shouting at the FBI in helicopters in the sky or they are leaving the priesthood because the Church has gone soft. What can i say...PARADISE ON THE PACIFIC. Venice Beach is famous for the muscle men working out on the beach. I saw a whoppin' 2. MOAN. I guess it was too cold. So I had some Ahi Tuna with my good friends out on a deck and we all decided that L.A. wasn't as bad as we thought it was gonna be and yes...we'd all think about moving there.
The traffic was horrid tho. There was ALWAYS a jam. Very rarely we did freeway speeds. I guess this figured into OJ's low speed chase back then. The cars of choice were Lexus and Boxster Porsches. I've never seen so many. And everyone was talking to each other on the cell phone.
Piles of museums and history and studios...man so much to do and so little time. Gotta go back!!
We went to the camera blocking session of Friends. The sets were so small looking. They rehearsed with some stand ins because the stars don't get up that early. So the stand ins had signs around their necks sayin "TOM SELLECK" "COURTNEY COX" so the camera man would know who it was. The stand in playing Chandler was so openly Gay that it was funny to hear him say his lines about loving Monica and wanting to marry her...he was so insincere!!! LOL. Finally the Courtney and Matt Leblanc (joey) came on set. Courtney is anorexic...she is unhealthy looking. Joey has a great smile. Jennifer Anniston and the girl who plays Phoebe, Lisa Kudrow arrived. Jennifer was sporting a HUGE diamond ring..it looked HUGE from where I sat. She whined about the script and her lines. The director and writer babied her. They(the writeer and director) laugh loud and fake when they say their punch lines. I guess this is to help with their timing and line delivery, but it was annoying. Lisa looked bored. Matthew Peery came in and I didn't recognize him at all....can you say chubby?? We were gonna go back for the taping the next night but the tour at Panavision went long. None of us had eaten all day and we just said it wasn't worth it. (but then we got our second wind and went cruising at 2am as i told you earlier)
I won't bore you with all the tours...(but I will anyway) I gotta tell you the cool stuff. We went to Warner Brothers and they let us go into the sound editing room since we were film students. There we met the 3 guys who won the academy awards for the Matrix sound effects. They were nice as can be! The let us watch them lay audio tracks for Battlefield Earth..John Travolta's new movie. We went to Todd AO studios also and saw a nominated sound editor adding sound tracks to the remake of the French film The Visitor. They had the same huge 30 foot long console that they adjusted the levels for each sound. SO COOL. I want their job.
Then we met two set of foley artists. Productions never use the sounds they record while the actors are in front of the camera. They toss it and lay in all the sounds you hear. The foley artist were doing sounds for Walker Texas Ranger. The female said we were not to tell Chuck Norris that a female does his walking sounds for him. So we all held out breath and they recorded walking sounds wearing cowboy boots. They demonstrated a few other ways they make sounds. It was great. I learned alot. Foley artist are usually out of work actors. They have no union and get no respect in hollywood. But from what i see..they sure do make the movie and tv show better. I want their job!
One more thing...I saw all three Batman costumes. Woo. Michael Keaton was the smallest. Then Val Kilmer and then George Clooney. However, Val Kilmer had the biggest feet. Sorta makes me wonder....
Oh yeah and speaking of Clooney, we saw the out side of the ER hospital ambulance drive up on the lot at Warner Brothers. Also got to see Drew Carey's set and where they just got done filming "The Perfect Storm."
The plane ride to and from was a trip it's self. I've never had such a hilarious time on a plane. And being confided to a van with these people was pretty funny too. They are all my friends and i love them.
I hope you have a good time in London.