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| Our film was shown at the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre. |
I spent March 7-11th in Hollywood, LA (not to be mistaken with the other Hollywood) for the first time. The trip was both business and pleasure as I was apart of the Idle Entertainment crew (
www.facebook.com/idleentertainment ) who were representing Buffalo in the 48 Hour Film Festival. For such an exciting location and for such a thrilling event, I really don't have epic/Hangover-esq tales to tell. I can say that, despite being in a different environment, the group of Buffalonians did what they do best: Make friends and drink beer. (In no particular order.)
We flew in on Thursday. It was under 40 degrees. The first day 1/2 it was cold and rainy. The only day is rained in California all year...go figure. As if talking about the weather could be anymore exciting than it already was with strangers.
"Ohh you're from Buffalo? You brought the weather with you, didn't ya?"
"Yeah, thanks. Can you just please bring me my drink now."
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| Hotel Lobby. That guy was not a movie star... |
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The lavish "W" Hotel. ooOOooo... |
Here's where I will quickly note that our hotel is a higher-rollers type of hotel. You can see that right across the street was a theatre with THE Mike Tyson reciting excerpts from his book (insert joke) "Undisputed Champ" or something.. Whatever it was all the camera crews were there that weekend for it, and Spike Lee was directing it, or holding cue cards, or yelling his lines to Mike- who knows what the hell that travesty was. All I can say is that we bumped into Spike twice, as he was staying in our hotel. He rocked a Lakers outfit day one, where day two he donned a bright prison orange jumpsuit w/ a royal blue valet vest in support of his Knicks. The outfit was like a human highlighter. He was a walking traffic cone. Anyways....
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| Maaaaaatt Daamonnnn. |
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| Figured this'll save you some time next time you make the trip to the Blvd. |
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| Free in the lobby! Donation required. |
The group (Matty, Bobby, Christopher, Kyle, Kevin, and myself) went many different ways throughout the trip. I found myself gravitating towards the I.O West (Improv Olympics) and caught a couple of shows to wet my comedic appetite. By and large we wanted to hang around the hotel and hot spots that the 48 Hour Filmapalooza people had secured for all us filmmakers. SO many filmmakes from all over the world! It was the closest I'll come to being apart of the United Nations. And Hollywood.
Not everyone went home with an award, but we made sure they had that song in their head on the plane ride home. Business cards are overrated when you're the ones yelling the "Shout" song (specifically the "AAa-ye AAa-yye!" part) in the middle of any given croweded/public setting. Let's just say Lebannon, Egypt, and Bejing will never forget who is from Buffalo. (Bobby especially had to answer numerous FB friend requests after his rendition of "Sweet Caroline" at Big Wangs karaoke with our international crew.)
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| YES. |
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| I'm not afraid to search my feelings on the Blvd. |
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| Shot of lobby of hotel from the giant red staircase. |
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| Networking day one right outside the lobby of our fancy hotel. That fire was later put out. |
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| One of my favs. |
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| Aaaaaayyyy! |
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| Besy Decor, worst ride. |
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| Our door prize. |
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| Kevin enjoyed breaking the law at Universal Studios... a little too much. |
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| Bobby ended up doing so. Money well spent. |
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| Chet Wild crashed out after party on awards night! No winners in this photo.... |
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| Music Video contest. I don't know if you can tell, but it was really dark here. |
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| This ATM was heavily guarded. Had to find a new one. |
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| Not Shown: Chris Scherr |
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| If this is really Spider Man, I'll fight the Goblin, myself. |
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| What our view was across the hotel. Photo courtesy of Kevin Jackson |
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| Kevin reunites w/old friend comic Jason Lawhead (check him out!) |
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| Venice Beach. Who's kid is that? |
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| Beach shots. |
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| Bobby found the ugly ones.... |
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| I met Natalie Portman! |
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| Wasn't Natalie Portman. |
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| Was hot as hell at Venice Beach. |
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| LEGIT costume. May even be the real deal. |
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| I ate that entire ice cream. |
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| GOOD RIDE. |
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| Frankenstein's autograph comes with a price. One Chris was only too willing to pay. |
My overrall thoughts on California- great thus far. I plan on making it back for one reason or another. Though we didn't have a lot of time to commit to the touristy stuff (nor did we want to) we made time to hit up Venice Beach and see a few quick sites in reasonable distance to our location without the use of a rental car. And I'm glad we did. Hollywood Blvd itself is kind of a dump. It's basically just a greater Chippewea (Buffalo street reference. Look it up) The criteria that made up nearly every street consisted of the following ingredients: Medicinal marijuana outlet. Kinky sex shop. Hollywood collectibles store. Pepper in some Starbucks, McDonald's and a tourist shuttle buses and you get the idea.
We were able to get some nice press from BuffaloRising.com about our film once we got home! What a nice surprise. Thanks to Suzanne!
For more info on the event itself and what we were involved in- check the link below.
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| Goulet. |
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