One Day Ad a Time

Today was a much-needed, low-key day. We had our pre-pro meeting this morning at 10 a.m. and discussed a final list of the shots we’ll be getting, as well as the logistics of how the day will play out. It nice to know we’re in the good hands of a very capable production team that has thought out every single detail. Even if a lot of stuff goes wrong, they have developed a plan to ensure we still get what we need to make a commercial.

Coming out of that meeting, I have been extremely excited and confident that tomorrow will go well. I spent most of my day at a coffee shop in WeHo (West Hollywood) called The Coffee Bean. From what I can tell it’s a small franchise, perhaps just local. They served up a fantastic blended coffee and I sipped on that while I tightened up my scripts for the host of our behind the scenes video.

I ended up having “lunch” at about 6pm. I was starving by that point, so even though we had reservations for sushi at 8, I went to a little pizza joint up the street and had a couple of slices. As I walked around the neighborhoods of WeHo, I was able to take in a lot of the beauty that the west coast has to offer. From the different foliage to the beautiful Hollywood Hills. It was really nice to get around on foot today.

Dinner tonight was really great. It was just the McKinney crew tonight, with my producer Naomi, Rachel and I, and our creative directors Glen and Philip. We did an awesome family-style feast at a Japanese restaurant called Koi. I got to eat so many different dishes, I can hardly remember all I ate. But, I do know I had freshwater eel sushi for the first time. It was actually really good. We finished it all off with some creme brulee and this fresh berry and passion fruit cheesecake. (Not very Japanese, I’ll admit.) They were both off-the-charts good.

As if my day couldn’t get any better, I wrapped up the evening with a little time in the rooftop jacuzzi. It’s absolutely gorgeous up there, with the moon to my right and the twinkling lights of The Hills on my left. Not a bad way to end the night.

BIG day tomorrow. THE day, actually. It’s the day of the shoot. It’s now or never. I’ve got an early wake up call…5:45am. So, I’m off to get some shuteye. I’m so excited for tomorrow. Hope I can sleep.

Look for a big update tomorrow night, if I don’t fall asleep in my hotel room doorway on the way in.

Goodnight from LA,

-A

Today was a pretty cool day. It was eventful, but not insanely busy like Monday’s practice day was. We started out the day with a trip to view our casting call-backs. It made a huge difference to see and interact with these actors versus just seeing their audition tapes. We all came to a clear consensus on who our behind the scenes host should be and we talked wardrobe a bit.

Next we grabbed lunch with the directors Sam and John and our client Jeff. We ate lunch at a spot called Hal’s in Venice Beach and then made our way over to Beacon Street Studios. What an awesome space they have! It’s this uber-cool renovated house that has certain rooms gutted and dedicated to mixing and the rest of the house is peppered with instruments, old organs and pianos, and old comfy couches. It’s set up so that they can literally record a track from almost anywhere in the house, since they had pre-wired connections running back to the mixing rooms. It was the kind of place I’d like to camp out in for a week or two and just observe the magic that must go on in there on a daily basis.

After Beacon Street, Rachel and I walked with Jeff along Venice Beach about 25 mins. up the boardwalk to a nice hotel called Shutters. On the outside, it hinted at classic southern design, but on the inside it was bustling with industry types all there for seemingly different reasons. We sat out on the balcony that overlooks Venice Beach and the Pacific and had a drink to send Jeff off. He was whisked away to LAX shortly after.

The last part of the day was the big dinner we shared with the team from Humble, our production house. They treated us to a very swank little dinner in the heart of West Hollywood and it was quite a meal. I joked that I’ve never seen so many words I didn’t know all in one menu. Suffice it to say, the food was fancy, haha. We shared some laughs, wine and even passed around desserts to each other before it was all over. It was a great end to a great day and it reminded me how lucky Rachel and I are to be on such a cool shoot with such an amazing and fun production crew. I hope all the directors and crew we work with in our careers are as generous and inclusive as the people from Humble. They’ve really set the bar high.

After a night cap at an awesome speakeasy-feeling bar Rachel and I discovered, The Roger Room, we all strolled down La Cienega Boulevard back to our hotel. It was a really fun day. Tomorrow is pre-pro (pre - production) where we’ll have our last briefing before the big shoot on Thursday. I’m looking forward to getting this thing going! For now, it’s off to bed.

Goodnight from L.A.!

-A

I promise to try to be disciplined enough to give a daily synopsis before I go to bed. I really hope I can hold true to that.

Day 1 was unbelievable. We drove about an hour and a half out to Lake Elsinore, CA to Skydive Elsinore. This place is gorgeous. It’s nestled between to picturesque rows of “mountains”. (Only in quotes because they’re really not true mountains, but they look the part.

Today was a big practice day. We needed to do a bunch of jumps to learn how the computers would act with the full weight attached and the parachute strapped on. Also, we wanted to see how much we could control where the laptop landed once the chute was deployed.

The first drop was actually perfect. Everything worked as planned, but you could call it beginners luck, because that was the last of the run throughs that went off without a hitch. The next run was the most exciting, but for the wrong reasons. Although we got some great footage of the laptop free falling, the chute ripped upon deploy and the laptop hit the ground at an estimated 70mph!! I’ll post some pics after this post and you’ll see just how extensive the damage was. BUST! But I will say that we learned something from every single jump.

The big day for the shoot is Thursday and the weather looks like it’s going to be picture perfect…76 and sunny, with light variable winds. I hope that forecast holds, cause we couldn’t ask for anything better.

My producer, creative director and I went to this great Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills tonight and had a fantastic meal, along with a great bottle of wine that I can neither pronounce, nor spell so you’ll just have to take my word for it. So, now my belly’s full and I’m wiped. It’s been a long, but exciting day. Tomorrow we get to meet our casting call-backs for the host of our behind the scenes video — and we get to meet with our sound production house. It should be a great day.

Pics from today coming up. Cheers from L.A.!

-A

In LA for my first video production…more posts to come. Stay tuned this week for lots of pics and stories. Here goes nothin’!
-A

Hashable is a new app that aims to replace traditional business cards. But unlike its predecessors (like Bump) you can exchange contact info with anyone, whether or not they have the app. All they need is a Twitter handle or email address. To up the ante, Hashable also gives a list of preformatted hashtags for you to use when crossing paths with contacts. Not only can you keep track of when you met someone, followed up with them or had a beer with them, you can also designate the most important contacts as your “inner circle” and keep tabs on the people they’re bumping into. You never know who your new contact knows. Therein lies the real power of Hashable. In my opinion, it’s worth a shot.

Here’s a recent article about Hashable’s efforts to get noticed in Austin at SXSW Interactive:

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/york-startup-hashable-battles-big-brands-sxsw/149397/

I can’t be there, so I’m watching online instead. Just heard from Dennis Crowley, founder of Foursquare…good stuff: http://sxsw.com/interactive/live