Welcome to La La Land!

I can’t believe I was still in Boston just a week ago. So much has happened, and life’s been pretty hectic. I moved in to a spacious apartment in Park LaBrea on Sunday, and my suitemates are awesome. I share a huge room with one girl, and we have a walk in closet that you could practically live in.

It’s still so surreal that I’m here; I’ve wanted to do this program since high school. The weather is gorgeous, the palm trees are beautiful, and the smog isn’t TOO bad (but it definitely does exist). Some of the other people in the program have already seen celebrities (including Steve Carrel from The Office in the 7-11 across the street, B.J. Novak from The Office at the Grove, and Marcia Cross from Desperate Housewives), but I still haven’t seen any.

Driving in LA is crazy, especially since I’ve only ever driven in a suburb before. There are tons of rules I’d never heard of before. Because of the intense traffic, there are strange rules. For example, there are some left turns that you can’t make during rush hour. But I’m starting to get used to it; except when I went to an interview at Spyglass Entertainment, and accidentally ended up on the freeway. That was scary. But most of the time, driving around here reminds me of Entourage. Which, of course, is awesome.

My two internships are going to be awesome. The first one I got is Goodspot, which is a movie trailer production company. They specialize in lower-budget films. I’ll be helping to design trailers, select fonts for use in trailers, and with other office tasks. I’ll have an even better idea for what I’ll be doing when I start next week. The internship I got just today is at The Ant Farm. This is another movie trailer production company, but they make the trailers and posters for many of the mainstream movies. They’ve done Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Shrek, The Kindgom, and so many more. They work on 50-80 movies at a time. I’ll be working in the music department, helping to organize the music database and suggest songs for use in the trailers.

So big news relevant to the writer’s strike: the director’s guild has made a tentative deal with the AMPTP. So hopefully this will have a domino effect, and the writer’s strike will be over very soon. It’s definitely easier to find out the latest insider news over here. It was also strange seeing the picketers for myself this morning on my way to The Ant Farm.

So if I don’t disappear in (1) an earthquake, (2) a forest fire, (3) a riot, (4) a gang fight, or (5) the smog, (yeah, BU spent like 5 hours warning us about the dangers of LA) I’ll post again soon. Despite the awesomeness of being here, I do miss Boston.

the late night TV heroes

It seems that David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company is the first the try to reach a deal with the WGA. Although CBS has issued a statement saying that they have no part in the deal, hopefully it will be like dominoes from here. According to the New York Times, John Stewart is following suit. This could be amazing news for workers *and soon-to-be-interns* in Hollywood. Once one studio starts negotiating, the rest won't be too far behind. As long as the strike ends by January, I'll be happy.

I don't have to worry too much, though, as I've already secured one of my required two internships. YAY! *Skips around the room.* It's a design internship, too, which is amazing, since most internships in LA involve a lot of general office work.

In other news, there has been snow. Lots of snow. And there will be more snow when I'm supposed to travel on Friday. But I've taken it as an opportunity to work on my website. The changes, which all live in the "Fun Extras" section, will most likely be going public tonight.

Next step: re-learn Flash.

I finished my website!

... well, mostly. It's a work-in-progress, but I've finished enough of it to put it out there. And I'm already #1 if you google my name, ahead of that artist that had me beat for a while. And that's even without quotes. Check it out: http://www.dianafreedman.com

So now I'm all set to apply to some internship positions in LA. I'll keep the specifics hush-hush until I secure the internships, in case there's lurking competition out there. The BU in LA program requires that we have two internships when we're out there, which is a bit scary considering the WGA strike that's going on. Thousands of people are losing their jobs, and I need to get two. Sigh.

Shameless plug: http://america.gather.com. Click, enter email, enter name. Please do it.