27 October 2012

Week 10: Cornrows and COMICON

This week went by quite quick, didn't go in on Tuesday -- but had long days on Thursday and Friday. Monday and Friday I was assigned to complete VO scripts for My First Home then finish transcribing pre-convention interviews for Geek Love and after all this, begin logging and finally started to edit together six different camera angles during the sci-fi speed dating event at NYC ComiCon. All of these were lengthy and demanding tasks, but well-worth completing.

CONAN on Wednesday and Thursday was generally normal; besides on Thursday, Conan was decked out in a full spray tan and his hair done in cornrows, which was pretty awesome to see! General office duties occurred throughout other times (including answering a phone call from CHELSEA HANDLER, herself - not her staff or assistant, it was actually her!) and during the Thursday taping, I was able to sit backstage with Conan's assistant and other staff while watching the show, as well as stagehands bringing props and talent onto stage.

20 October 2012

Week 9: Billboard de la Musica Mexicana

As my parents left early Monday morning, I quickly got back to work at my Authentic internship Monday and Tuesday. As various Authentic productions have more episodes shot and more post work needed on them, I have been given more tasks related to post -- Chyron / graphics logging, transcribing interviews / voice overs, searching for various clips, and other such tasks.

CONAN was usual on Wednesday (coffee runs, standing in for rehearsal, answering phones, etc) -- Ellie Goulding was on the show -- which was sweet, she sang her new single and it was awesome!! I also was assigned to organize, order, and pick up the editing staff's dinners; since the editors stay later into the night to ensure the show gets air-ready, the company pays for their dinners and I picked it up with another intern.

Now, you might be thinking why the title has something to do about Mexican music? Well... I got an email a few weeks ago about an opportunity to be a TALENT ESCORT for "a Telemundo event" -- it turned out it was the Billboard Mexican Music Awards! In essence, I escorted my assigned talent (Conjunto Primavera) from their vehicle to the red carpet to their seats, then to the dressing rooms, onto stage, throughout the backstage press area, and finally back to their seats. The whole experience was quite unique because I have never worked crew/escort on a live truck-broadcast event, based on a stage (like this awards show). Although I could not sneak a peek into the broadcast truck, it was all really interesting to see how everything else was set up backstage and in-house.


15 October 2012

Parents Came to Visit!!!

With CONAN on hiatus last week (10/8-10/12), us interns weren't needed all day everyday and I was able to switch internship shifts for Thur/Fri. Since I was not working Friday, I was able to pick up a rental car and start driving around Los Angeles and get to LAX to get my parents from their flights.

The Washington Nationals were riding high in October baseball; after Thursday night with a HUGE walk-off home-run by Jayson Werth, my dad and I were hoping to watch them win the NLDS Friday night at a local sports bar... I guess the Cardinals wanted otherwise :(

Saturday was a fun day being a tourist, we went to Griffith Observatory and explored the crazy world of space and awesome views of Los Angeles / Hollywood sign. My mother decided she wanted to walk over the sign, but then realized the only way was to drive down the hill then walk up, which would take about hour -- so instead, we drove through the neighborhoods and got relatively close to the sign (not zoomed at all)! We then explored downtown to Hollywood for lunch at the Hollywood + Highland shopping center; a distant cousin met us after lunch and walked around the area with us, we then went our separate ways. After a short nap (me, in my apartment; parents in their hotel), I picked them up and headed down to a steakhouse for a delicious dinner!

Sunday turned out to be another touristy day -- we went on the WB VIP Studio Tour (yes, I did got the employee discount) and had a great time! I unfortunately had a meeting for an upcoming work gig on Sunday evening, so I brought my dad back to the Glendale area and my mother to the Museum of Tolerance in the Century City neighborhood of LA. After the meeting, we met up with our cousin again for a delicious Italian dinner.

Overall, it was an incredible weekend to get away from reality and see family ... now, back to work and classes :(




10 October 2012

Week 8: New Authentic Show + CONAN Hiatus

After a non-work day on Monday, I went into Authentic on Tuesday to a full day of tasks. In the morning, I had to check the MFH Casting email to see if any more realtors followed-up about being on the show. Then, I followed-up with the tasks from the previous week that I thought I did not finish, which actually were completed. Thankfully, my supervisor quickly put me in contact with a new show's producer, Geek Love and The Next Game Boss on TLC and IGN, respectively.

For the new shows, I created a spreadsheet for a "speed dating" segment (then printed 1,000 -- yes ONE THOUSAND -- copies) on Geek Love and researched new cast for The Next Game Boss. Surprisingly, these tasks were very time consuming and lasted all day!

Since CONAN is on hiatus this week (due to the MLB Postseason), duties and times of intern shifts are even more flexible and relaxed. Simply, we have to answer phones and sort mail -- no coffee, no lunch runs, no equipment runs, no discussions with crew, AKA nothing really to do! But since I need as many intern hours as possible, as per required for credit, I decided to come into the offices and answer the phones on Wednesday... fun stuff!

05 October 2012

Week 7: Honey Boo Boo, Final Cut, and Late Night w Conan


The days at Authentic were quite hectic this week -- proof-checking lists of music clips for an Auction Kings episode; researched clips in Lost; logged a Chyron list for Honey Boo Boo (which is absolutely RIDICULOUS – took me 3 hours to simply review and log a 43-minute episode). Friday is much more hectic: received requests to complete tasks by two different departments at the same time throughout the day! For My First Home, I had to log Chryon text for the episodes that are being finalized. In the afternoon, I color corrected some dog photos on Photoshop and at the same time edited some Final Cut clips for the post department. At the end of today (Friday), there is a birthday celebration for all Sept and Oct staff birthdays -- yay cupcakes!

CONAN was typical but fun, as usual. As a group task, the interns need to digitize the list of all past guests on Conan’s show – starting way back in 1993 from Late Night until the current series of CONAN. We have to type up names and descriptions of every single guest and musical/ comedy act into a spreadsheet. Even though there are now about 3000 episodes of a Conan show on TV, we are about 85% complete. Another cool thing about this internship is that we summarize every other late night talk show -- so the writers don't replicate / remake any of their jokes on CONAN. It is interesting to watch these other late-night shows, while working at one also.