When I found out that I was gone, I was stoked. I was ecstatic.
I just remember getting on my phone and calling my parents and being like,
this is going to be the most exciting trip ever.
And then with the week up to leaving, we could not stop talking about it.
The night before we left, I got maybe two, three hours of sleep.
I'm just this kid from Kansas and I had never been out there.
We flew in over the Pacific Ocean and it was just like, I've never seen the Pacific Ocean.
So this is a really new experience for me.
We saw palm trees and things. I was like, yep, this is different.
I still couldn't believe it when I woke up the next morning.
I'm like, I'm waking up in Los Angeles.
In March of 2011, nine KU students from the Film and Media Studies Department
were selected to be a part of the second annual Hollywood Hawks Career Orientation Week in Los Angeles.
What did we do while we were there? What didn't we do while we were there?
Might be the appropriate question.
The itinerary was nonstop from 7 a.m. till 11 o'clock at night.
And I mean, that was the best way to do a trip to LA is just to dive in
and not even worry about getting air.
Having the Hollywood Hawks and having people you know that are KU alum is wonderful.
It's really great to know that you have people looking out for you.
The Hollywood Hawks are great to be so welcoming into their community.
We just showed up, nine of us, and they're just like, yeah, come on in.
We're going to help you out as much as we can.
We met with a lot of people.
One in particular was Scott Thomas at Titmouse Studios.
Scott is a writer at Titmouse, and it was cool to go and see his little writing studio and the panel writers.
But after seeing Titmouse Studios, it was like, that's what I want to pursue.
That's what I want to do, and that's where I think that I could probably do the best at and succeed at.
Seeing Rock, Paper, Scissors was so eye-opening and seeing how a huge post-production house
and graphics house works like that and getting a chance to meet David Brody
and realizing that a KU alum has succeeded.
He's in the game, he's in the system, it really made it seem like this is totally achievable.
You keep working hard, you meet new people, and you just work on it.
I went out there and talked to some younger kids that had just gotten out there
that I actually went to school with here, and they were like, man, the stuff you're doing,
I haven't even got to do, and I work out here now.
One place that really stuck in my memory was Paramount Pictures Studios,
and we got to see the stages, we got to see the pool that was built into the stage,
we got to see the back lots, we got to see the community set.
We saw the set of Glee, which was great.
It was amazing to see an actual set live, like a hot set, because that's what I think we really needed.
We also met Michelle Nguyen at Disney Studios, and she gave us a tour, just walking through that whole studio
was really cool, just because Walt Disney is such a staple in the film industry and part of American culture.
One day we got to go to Redmond Canyon with Gordie, which was absolutely beautiful,
and probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.
The things we got to see blew our mind, and it was incredible.
Like I said, it's hard for me to put into words because it just was so surreal.
We got a chance to meet an Academy Award-nominated cinematographer.
Isidore Mankowski was at Mole Richardson, giving a demo and experiencing something like that for myself.
In LA, at Mole Richardson, with an ASC cinematographer, it just kind of gave me the confidence that being out at the coast,
going to a different school, didn't really make a difference.
It was how much heart you have for doing the job, and I realized that you can be in LA and you can be close to action,
but if you don't learn it from the bottom up, you're not going to know it.
So that was really comforting and actually gave me kind of a lot of pride in being from KU.
And we made that connection with him by just being at the Mole Richardson factory,
and he invited us back to the ASC clubhouse.
Meeting two ASC members and getting to talk to them personally,
and going to the ASC clubhouse and being on the set of one of the hottest shows on TV,
you couldn't ask them more than that.
The meetings at Capital City Grill where we got to watch KU basketball,
we just see 50, 60 people in crimson and blue who are all supporting the J-Ox.
We're like, wow, this city is not as big as we thought it was.
It coincided perfectly with the beginning and the end of our trip.
Because at the beginning of the trip, we were really nervous, all of us, going into it.
But then as the week went on, we had all these sit down meet and greets questions and answer sessions.
Just the fact that there was that one person who really grabbed me and said,
you know what, this industry has a spot for you too.
And that was really cool.
I can do this job. I'm getting a great education from KU,
and I don't feel like any of the other schools have anything over us.
I wouldn't have been able to be where I'm at now or see my future that wasn't for them.
My eyes are open to the actual industry now.
And the connections that you do make on this trip are worth every penny.
It's absolutely amazing.
