I Left LA a Year Ago Today
It's kind of funny - the process of how I ended up going to LA. I applied to be in the program during the 2nd semester of my junior year. I was experiencing seasonal depression, and just couldn't stand being stuck in Athens since there really isn't a lot for me there. I talked to one of my music production professors about what I was going through, and he thought it would be good for me to get out of Athens for a while, and suggested I apply for the Ohio-In-LA program. I had heard of it before, but never actually considered doing it. I applied, did my interview to get in, and then the wait was on. The news came on Monday, March 19, 2018. I remember this because it was the 1st day of what became a 4 day hospitalization (even though I was out-patient the first day) for some horrible chest pains. While sitting in the hospital room waiting for test results to come back for what ended up being acute Pericarditis, I decided to check my email to see if I had heard back from one of my professors about a paper that was due that day that I wasn't going to be able to turn in on time. Instead, I saw the email from Ohio-In-LA director that I had been accepted into the Fall 2018 program. I never thought it was possible to be so excited while being in so much physical pain.
When the time finally came for me to leave for LA, I have to admit that I was apprehensive. The furthest away I had ever been from home and my family was Athens, which is just 1 1/2 hours away from Columbus. So going over 2000 miles away from home for 3 1/2 months was quite intimidating for me. However, once me and my dad got on the road, things started looking up. The trip out there was actually pretty cool. Except for Kansas. Kansas was awful. NEVER drive through Kansas. We saw some cool things on the road, but coolest thing was without a doubt seeing Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, CO. Our final day driving was from St. George, Utah, to Tustin, CA (Anaheim suburb) to stay with a friend of ours. The next day, I dropped my dad off at LAX to fly back to Columbus, and I was officially on my own. I spent part of the day with our friend, and then I headed up to the Hollywood hills to the apartments that we were staying at. I remember the first time I saw the Hollywood sign. I remember being kind of thrown-off when I saw it because it isn't as big as I thought it would have been. I also remember pulling into the apartment complex for the first time blaring Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up The Sun" out the car window. It's funny how one can remember such minuscule things like that. That night was our first meeting as a group in LA.
While it was exciting being in such a different place than what we were used to, the primary reason we were there was for school. First and foremost, the program is an internship program. My goal was to get an internship at a recording studio to gain experience in one. Unfortunately that didn't end up happening, but I ended up getting one at a great place. It's a few different things in one office in Beverly Hills - there's a couple record labels, a booking agency, as well as talent management. It was really laid back, and my internship coordinator was awesome. I got to see a side of the music industry that I never was even interested in before, but still thought was really pretty cool when I did get to see it. Even though it isn't what I wanted in my internship, I still couldn't have asked for a better one.
It isn't the internship that made me fall in love with LA though. It's the experiences and the people that I was around. One of the experiences that I will never forget was the making of the short film. One of the requirements of the program was that all the students collaborate to make a short film. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated at the prospect of doing this. I had never done anything of the sort before, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. Not to mention the fact that if I messed up as Sound Mixer/Sound Recorder, the whole thing was going to be ruined. Luckily, my roommate - who was the boom-op as well as the post-sound person - was pretty handy with audio, so we were able to work collaboratively. The first weekend of shooting was kind of a mess, especially the 1st day. We weren't prepared the way that we should have been, so it was a rough start. We got through it though, but not until 2:30 in the morning. We ended up taking a day off the next day for a variety of reasons, and then resumed shooting the next day. The second day of shooting went a lot better. Though, some electrical wires above us on location at an outdoor shoot proved to be a real thorn in the side with the interference they were causing on our LAV mics. The second weekend of shooting went significantly smoother than the first. While the whole thing was definitely hard work, it ended up being a lot of fun, and it got me interested in being on set. The film is called The Unfortunate Side Effects of Conversing with Plants. I will post the link to it if any of are ever find it 😐😁.
With the interest in being on set that I gained from the short film, I wanted to see what I professional set was like. I got exactly that when I got to spend a couple days shadowing the sound crew for a sit-com called Rel. I didn't get to do any hands-on work, but I didn't expect to. I just wanted to see what all went into making professional TV/movie content. One of the things that I loved about being on set - both for the short film and on Rel - was the collaborative environment. There is so many people doing so many different things to make one product, and it's awesome to be a part of it.
In addition to our internships and the short film, we also had to take a few classes. However, the workload wasn't heavy at all, and a lot of our assignments were based on the group excursions that we did. A lot of the things that we did we had to refer to for assignments for our History of Hollywood class, but it never felt like we were doing these things and going to these places because of school. Whether it was for class or not, it always felt like a group of friends going out to do or see something that we had never done before. There were a lot of fun things that we got to do as a group. Heck, the first week there was nothing but group excursions that weren't even for any classes. We went to a Dodgers game, toured the Warner Brother's studio lot (which was just a quick minute down the road from our apartments), and went to a live taping of America's Got Talent. Some of the things that we did during our semester include:
-Attend the AMAs
-Go to Universal Hollywood
-Go to Disneyland
-Tour multiple studio lots
-Tour the Dolby Theatre
-Tour the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
-Do a walking tour of Old Hollywood
-Visit the Jim Henson Creature Shop
In addition to the group outings that we had, I got to do a little exploring of my own. One of the first things that I did when I got to LA was go to Amoeba Music, which is the biggest independent record store in the country, if not the world. I had heard of it before I ever thought about going to LA and was beside myself with excitement to actually be able to go to it. The place is huge, and it even has a stage that has been host to the likes of many musicians, including Paul McCartney. I also found some great restaurants around the area that we were staying at, my favorite being a place called Simmzy's. One of my favorite things that I did on my own was go to a nightclub called No Vacancy. We saw the place on the walking tour of Old Hollywood, and I was intrigued at it since it seemed like a really cool place. That, and seeing that the premiere after-party for my favorite show, The Haunting of Hill House, was held there made me want to go. I finally went the last week of being in LA after the screening of our short film. It's a more sophisticated nightclub, which is something that I really enjoyed about it. It's also a speakeasy, so the act of actually going in was made all the more cooler. I also got to recreate the cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here with my dad when my family and I toured the Warner Brother's studio lot. If only that huge trailer hadn't have been on the left so the support pillars on Stage 16 would be visible 😬.
Of course, with me being a concert addict, I HAD to go to a couple concerts. The first show that I went to was Beck at the Hollywood Bowl. I had wanted to see Beck for a couple years up to that point, and I had wanted to see a show at the Hollywood Bowl. Putting the two together just killed two birds with one stone. It was a great show. The Bowl is by no means an intimate venue, but Beck still somehow managed to make it seem like it was. The other concert I saw was Gary Clark Jr. at the Fonda Theatre. While I had never really listened to Clark, I knew that he was a killer guitar player. When I saw that he was playing four nights at the Fonda (another bucket-list venue for me), I knew I had to go. As expected, it was a fantastic concert, and the venue is beautiful, with the best part of it being the rooftop terrace. I also tried to go to a twenty one pilots concert at The Forum, but it sold out in minutes, and I was about #22,000 in the virtual line on Ticketmaster.
I got to do and see a lot during my time in LA. However, the people that I met out there are equally as important as the things I saw and did. When I first arrived in LA, I never could have guessed how close I would have gotten to the people in my program as well as some people that I met through a family friend who lives in Orange County. When it comes to the people in the program, there were so many times that we were able to get together and hang out on our own outside of school sanctioned events. We had cookouts together, we went to Taco Tuesdays at a Mexican restaurant down the road, had parties at the apartments (I always left before they got wild lol), among other things. They grew to be like a family to me, and there hasn't been a day that's gone by that I don't think about them and wish we were able to get together again.
I also met some people who live in the LA area through my family friend in Tustin. Even though they lived about an hour away from my apartment, I always jumped at the chance to spend time with them if I was able to. Whether it was going to the beach on a bike ride, brunch, or just a straight up cookout, they always made sure to send an invite my way, and I enjoyed every second I got to spend with them and their kids. Needless to say, it was also cool being able to see my family friend again as well. I still stay in contact with them, and we always end up talking for a pretty long time.
My time in Los Angeles kind of taught me some things about myself as well. My time there helped me realize my (at the time) undiscovered interest in the movie industry. It helped me to be more sociable. It made me do things that I would never do in Ohio. In general, it helped me realize something that people have been telling me and that I've been trying to convince myself of for a long time - and that's that there's nothing wrong with pushing the boundaries, branching out and doing things that you wouldn't normally do. I think the moment I realized this was when I went to No Vacancy. I ended up going there by myself since no one could go with me. Normally I would have gone, but wouldn't have been able to stop thinking about how I wanted to be there with someone else, or I just wouldn't have gone at all.
If you would have told me during my freshman year of college that I was going to spend a semester in LA, I probably would have scoffed. Obviously, things changed. Once word got out, people from past programs told me that I was going to fall in love with the city. At the time I thought they were just being dramatic. However once my time there was done, I understood what they meant. After having been away from it for a year now, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I want nothing more than to go back. With all the places that I discovered and all the people out there that I met, it became a second home to me. It may not be practical for me to go back out there right now, but I will jump without hesitation at the chance to go back once it's in the cards.
I know it was a long entry, but I wanted to write it because of how important my experience was out there. Thanks for reading the whole thing. No rhyme intended in the title.
Also, go give my original song, "In LA", a listen!: https://soundcloud.com/ericallen-1/in-la
When the time finally came for me to leave for LA, I have to admit that I was apprehensive. The furthest away I had ever been from home and my family was Athens, which is just 1 1/2 hours away from Columbus. So going over 2000 miles away from home for 3 1/2 months was quite intimidating for me. However, once me and my dad got on the road, things started looking up. The trip out there was actually pretty cool. Except for Kansas. Kansas was awful. NEVER drive through Kansas. We saw some cool things on the road, but coolest thing was without a doubt seeing Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, CO. Our final day driving was from St. George, Utah, to Tustin, CA (Anaheim suburb) to stay with a friend of ours. The next day, I dropped my dad off at LAX to fly back to Columbus, and I was officially on my own. I spent part of the day with our friend, and then I headed up to the Hollywood hills to the apartments that we were staying at. I remember the first time I saw the Hollywood sign. I remember being kind of thrown-off when I saw it because it isn't as big as I thought it would have been. I also remember pulling into the apartment complex for the first time blaring Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up The Sun" out the car window. It's funny how one can remember such minuscule things like that. That night was our first meeting as a group in LA.
While it was exciting being in such a different place than what we were used to, the primary reason we were there was for school. First and foremost, the program is an internship program. My goal was to get an internship at a recording studio to gain experience in one. Unfortunately that didn't end up happening, but I ended up getting one at a great place. It's a few different things in one office in Beverly Hills - there's a couple record labels, a booking agency, as well as talent management. It was really laid back, and my internship coordinator was awesome. I got to see a side of the music industry that I never was even interested in before, but still thought was really pretty cool when I did get to see it. Even though it isn't what I wanted in my internship, I still couldn't have asked for a better one.
With the interest in being on set that I gained from the short film, I wanted to see what I professional set was like. I got exactly that when I got to spend a couple days shadowing the sound crew for a sit-com called Rel. I didn't get to do any hands-on work, but I didn't expect to. I just wanted to see what all went into making professional TV/movie content. One of the things that I loved about being on set - both for the short film and on Rel - was the collaborative environment. There is so many people doing so many different things to make one product, and it's awesome to be a part of it.
In addition to our internships and the short film, we also had to take a few classes. However, the workload wasn't heavy at all, and a lot of our assignments were based on the group excursions that we did. A lot of the things that we did we had to refer to for assignments for our History of Hollywood class, but it never felt like we were doing these things and going to these places because of school. Whether it was for class or not, it always felt like a group of friends going out to do or see something that we had never done before. There were a lot of fun things that we got to do as a group. Heck, the first week there was nothing but group excursions that weren't even for any classes. We went to a Dodgers game, toured the Warner Brother's studio lot (which was just a quick minute down the road from our apartments), and went to a live taping of America's Got Talent. Some of the things that we did during our semester include:
-Attend the AMAs-Go to Universal Hollywood
-Go to Disneyland
-Tour multiple studio lots
-Tour the Dolby Theatre
-Tour the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
-Do a walking tour of Old Hollywood
-Visit the Jim Henson Creature Shop
In addition to the group outings that we had, I got to do a little exploring of my own. One of the first things that I did when I got to LA was go to Amoeba Music, which is the biggest independent record store in the country, if not the world. I had heard of it before I ever thought about going to LA and was beside myself with excitement to actually be able to go to it. The place is huge, and it even has a stage that has been host to the likes of many musicians, including Paul McCartney. I also found some great restaurants around the area that we were staying at, my favorite being a place called Simmzy's. One of my favorite things that I did on my own was go to a nightclub called No Vacancy. We saw the place on the walking tour of Old Hollywood, and I was intrigued at it since it seemed like a really cool place. That, and seeing that the premiere after-party for my favorite show, The Haunting of Hill House, was held there made me want to go. I finally went the last week of being in LA after the screening of our short film. It's a more sophisticated nightclub, which is something that I really enjoyed about it. It's also a speakeasy, so the act of actually going in was made all the more cooler. I also got to recreate the cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here with my dad when my family and I toured the Warner Brother's studio lot. If only that huge trailer hadn't have been on the left so the support pillars on Stage 16 would be visible 😬.
Of course, with me being a concert addict, I HAD to go to a couple concerts. The first show that I went to was Beck at the Hollywood Bowl. I had wanted to see Beck for a couple years up to that point, and I had wanted to see a show at the Hollywood Bowl. Putting the two together just killed two birds with one stone. It was a great show. The Bowl is by no means an intimate venue, but Beck still somehow managed to make it seem like it was. The other concert I saw was Gary Clark Jr. at the Fonda Theatre. While I had never really listened to Clark, I knew that he was a killer guitar player. When I saw that he was playing four nights at the Fonda (another bucket-list venue for me), I knew I had to go. As expected, it was a fantastic concert, and the venue is beautiful, with the best part of it being the rooftop terrace. I also tried to go to a twenty one pilots concert at The Forum, but it sold out in minutes, and I was about #22,000 in the virtual line on Ticketmaster.
I got to do and see a lot during my time in LA. However, the people that I met out there are equally as important as the things I saw and did. When I first arrived in LA, I never could have guessed how close I would have gotten to the people in my program as well as some people that I met through a family friend who lives in Orange County. When it comes to the people in the program, there were so many times that we were able to get together and hang out on our own outside of school sanctioned events. We had cookouts together, we went to Taco Tuesdays at a Mexican restaurant down the road, had parties at the apartments (I always left before they got wild lol), among other things. They grew to be like a family to me, and there hasn't been a day that's gone by that I don't think about them and wish we were able to get together again.
I also met some people who live in the LA area through my family friend in Tustin. Even though they lived about an hour away from my apartment, I always jumped at the chance to spend time with them if I was able to. Whether it was going to the beach on a bike ride, brunch, or just a straight up cookout, they always made sure to send an invite my way, and I enjoyed every second I got to spend with them and their kids. Needless to say, it was also cool being able to see my family friend again as well. I still stay in contact with them, and we always end up talking for a pretty long time.My time in Los Angeles kind of taught me some things about myself as well. My time there helped me realize my (at the time) undiscovered interest in the movie industry. It helped me to be more sociable. It made me do things that I would never do in Ohio. In general, it helped me realize something that people have been telling me and that I've been trying to convince myself of for a long time - and that's that there's nothing wrong with pushing the boundaries, branching out and doing things that you wouldn't normally do. I think the moment I realized this was when I went to No Vacancy. I ended up going there by myself since no one could go with me. Normally I would have gone, but wouldn't have been able to stop thinking about how I wanted to be there with someone else, or I just wouldn't have gone at all.
If you would have told me during my freshman year of college that I was going to spend a semester in LA, I probably would have scoffed. Obviously, things changed. Once word got out, people from past programs told me that I was going to fall in love with the city. At the time I thought they were just being dramatic. However once my time there was done, I understood what they meant. After having been away from it for a year now, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I want nothing more than to go back. With all the places that I discovered and all the people out there that I met, it became a second home to me. It may not be practical for me to go back out there right now, but I will jump without hesitation at the chance to go back once it's in the cards.
I know it was a long entry, but I wanted to write it because of how important my experience was out there. Thanks for reading the whole thing. No rhyme intended in the title.
Also, go give my original song, "In LA", a listen!: https://soundcloud.com/ericallen-1/in-la
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