March 6th, 2014

The first thing on the agenda was a meeting with Rocco Hindmann, an alum who has found work in LA as a below-the-line agent. He was very knowledgable about what it takes to find work for people who generally work on crew. Like Rocco himself, I've never really considered being an agent. I really loved how he talked about how he used to work on productions and then he gradually drifted from that field to focus on strictly being an agent. Kyle Bowser, another OU alum joined us as well. Kyle is the president and CEO of Res Ipsa Media. His path to success in LA was truly remarkable to listen to. From Bill Cosby taking him under his wing, even to Kyle's Aunt Edna that years later revealed she was an assistant to Barry Gordy, Kyle's favorite producer as a kid growing up. If anything, a story like that just tells me to speak whats on my mind when its on my mind. Had Kyle of asked his aunt about where or how he could find Barry Gordy, he would have been able to meet him and who knows what kind of opportunities would come from that. I'm glad he is able to tell that story with a sense of humor and not too much regret, because it really speaks to me about being passionate about what I am doing, letting people see that passion, and asking questions. You don't get what you don't ask for.

Kyle was nice enough to hook the group up with a tour of the CW, more specifically their promo and marketing building. I cannot believe how many awesome things are constantly going on in that office. Kyle and a man named Leonard Richardson, who works in the sound department, took us around the building to meet the various people and to see what they do to contribute to the promos we see for the shows on the CW. We met people who do layover graphics, after effects for title sequences, nonlinear editing for the promos, and sound for the promos. Every person we met literally posts up in their office for the day and is being creative every minute they are there to deliver the best promo so that people actually tune into the show when it airs. If these people were not as passionate as they are, the shows would not be as popular as they are right now and the CW is finding a lot of success, especially with shows such as Supernatural and Arrow. The thing I enjoyed most was meeting Mike, the video editor for the 10, 20, and 30 second spots we see on TV. As someone who loves editing film, I found myself jealous that he gets to sit in his office with gigabytes of footage from every shoot, and he gets to choose what works best and put it together for the promo. I really liked a quote he said about editing promos, "Each week I get to edit a mini movie". I think thats such a cool way of thinking about what his job entails. I am so happy that Kyle set us up with a tour of the CW. It was a really great experience seeing how a team of people are able to successfully market shows. 

We then met with Randall Winston, the producer for shows such as Scrubs and Cougar Town. He came to show us a pilot for his new single-camera show Surviving Jack, and an episode of the new multi-camera show Undateable. Both episodes were so incredibly funny, I would be surprised if they both don't become very successful. I've always been a fan of mostly single-camera shows because they have the feel of a movie. They are very cinematic and the lack of audience laughter really pulls you in and makes you forget you are watching a show. I really like seeing the difference between both types of shows and how they are produced. Undateable is a new multi-cam sitcom starring Chris D'Elia. The show has already been picked up so Randall showed us the sixth episode of the first season. After seeing Mike & Molly, it was more interesting to see Undateable and picture the studio audience and how they move from set to set, now that I know how productions like that work. Randall was a very insightful guy and very down to earth. I'm glad he is so successful and took the time to show us these new shows before anybody else in the world gets to see them. 

Lastly, we had the OU Alumni Screening at the Charles Aidikoff Screening Room in Beverly Hills. I was even fortunate enough to have my film "Bad Eggs" premiere in front of everyone. I cannot stress enough how grateful I am for that experience. I had a ton of people come up to me in the reception afterwords and compliment me on my work. It was such a rewarding experience that I will forever cherish. I met with two alums specifically afterwords that were really eager to help me out when I get here, Alex Weschler and Jeff Kolada. Both of them had so much advice for me and actually came up to me first and initiated the conversation. They each offered to take me out when I get here and even look for job opportunities for me in the meantime. I am so happy about how the screening went and how all of OU's work was received. It just goes to show how prestigious our media school is and the quality of work the students can create and I know the alums out here are so excited to see the content we bring each year. 

The Charles Aidikoff Screening Room

The Oscars selfie has nothing on us