I briefly told you before about how I was going on this trip, but back then even I didn’t really know all the details of what this trip was all about. Now that I’m waiting at the gate in LAX airport on my way home, I can fill you in.

So I got an email on July 10th to our company email account from someone working for Hill & Knowlton, which wasn’t particularly informative, but definitely intriguing.

“Hello,

My name is ***** and I happened to come across this address from www.filmschoolstudent.com. I’d like to be able to contact the publisher of the blog and was hoping you could, since you worked with the publisher, provide them with my contact information. It is in regards to an opportunity with television series “On The Lot”. Feel free to contact me on my direct line below if you would like additional information.

Thank-you,

*****”

So I contacted them and they told me that they were working with Ford who was a major sponsor of the show and would like to invite me down to Hollywood to watch a taping, provided I was interested and available. Right off the bat I wasn’t sure if I was available, but I knew I had to take advantage of this chance and said yes pretty much instantly.

Until I got here I wasn’t really sure what to make of this whole thing. I didn’t know how big a deal it was or really what to expect. However, when I arrived at LAX Tuesday afternoon I found out pretty quickly that this was a pretty big deal. I was greeted at the airport and quickly introduced to my driver Howard, who was a really cool guy, had a great talk with him on the way to the hotel. Howard looked like a bodyguard (6” plus, and ex-football player), and I couldn’t help but smile as he walked me over to the brand new Lincoln Navigator that he drove. I felt like some sort of celebrity.

Traffic on the way to the hotel was pretty brutal, but that’s typical LA I guess. The hotel they had us staying at was the Roosevelt Hotel across the street from Grauman’s Chinese theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. This was an awesome hotel. Once again, starting to feel like a little bit of a celebrity at this point. The room was really nice, and I found it pretty funny when I found the pill bottle by the bedside table that had white colored M&Ms in it.

I only had a few minutes after arriving at the hotel I had to be back downstairs to leave for CBS Studios where On The Lot was being shot. I discovered that there were 17 of us bloggers that had been invited down. We hopped in a bunch of Ford Escapes and started driving. It was pretty cool to get to drive in LA but I will say having a driver from the airport was much more Hollywood, I’m not complaining though. I was driving one of the new hybrid cars, which was a little strange at first. When you idle the car the engine turns off to save gas, and turns back on again depending on the needs of your acceleration, rate of speed etc.

Anyway, we drove to CBS Studios where we immediately began a fairly exclusive backstage tour. We saw all of the production offices of the show and met a lot of the behind the scenes staff, who were all very friendly, which was something of a recurring theme throughout this trip. We saw John Ratzenberger hanging around Mark Burnett’s office, but no Mark.

After the tour we sat down to watch the show, but beforehand Mark Burnett came over and introduced himself to our group. It was really cool to hear someone so successful talking to us about the entertainment business. It was hard to hear him since it was so loud in there, but the one quote I pulled from him regarding success was “You have to learn to take a pat on the back and a kick in the balls the same way”, or sometimes your up and sometimes your down, but you have to keep on moving forward and not let people define who you are.

I went to see David Letterman the first time I went to NYC, so the whole live taping thing wasn’t all that new to me. It was cool to be there after watching the show every week since it started, and especially since I am an aspiring filmmaker. After the show we got to hang around and meet the judges, Penny Marshall, Gary Ross and of course Carrie Fisher.

I told Carrie Fisher how I was rooting for Zach since he was a fellow Canadian boy, and she commented on how he was her favourite, but that she had been giving him a hard time since she would like to see him be more like “Schindler’s List” Spielberg than “Jurassic Park” Spielberg. I said that I quite liked Jurassic Park and she got a little bit annoyed, cause Schindler’s List was such a good movie. Anyway, that was cool, having a mini argument with Carrie Fisher (I’m not saying that Jurassic Park is better than Schindler’s List, just saying Jurassic Park was awesome). It’s hard to tell from the picture below but Carrie Fisher was grabbing my shoulder and shaking me. We also got to talk with the show’s host Adrianna Costa briefly, which was pretty cool.

Afterwards we went down to the bungalows that the contestants were staying at and got to have cocktails with them. It was really cool to get to hang out with those guys, and they were really friendly, especially since they had been living under constant supervision and had only really got to see people from the show to that point. They have only been able to see their families for brief moments throughout the whole process, which must be hard.

After cocktails we were driven to “Social” which is a really trendy restaurant, where we had another opportunity to meet the contestants of the show. I sat next to Will at dinner, and just across from Adrianna Costa. I was constantly thinking to myself how surreal it was to be in this situation, hanging out with all of these people I had been watching on television only a week before, just imagine how THEY feel! I really worked hard to pick Will’s brain all night, and he was exceptionally friendly and willing to impart his knowledge. I didn’t really get to talk to any of the other contestants at the restaurant because we were all so spaced out and it was loud, but I did briefly talk with Jason, as well as Adrianna. That girl can talk. I think it is safe to say that she commanded the conversation for our section of the table for the majority of the evening.

The five of these guys weren’t just allowed out on their own, they did have a “supervisor” named Holly. Now, I say supervisor hesitantly, because she was more like Van Wilder than a chaperone. She was feeding us drinks and taunting those who refused, so needless to say pretty much everyone was drinking throughout the night, especially Holly who was extremely entertaining.

After eating a delicious meal we went back to the Roosevelt Hotel where we lounged at the Tropicana Bar. You may recognize this bar from the HBO tv show Entourage. While we were there I spent a good amount of the night talking to Jason. It was really interesting to talk to all of these guys and realize that even though this is a very unique way to succeed in the film industry, that success is attainable, and not something mythical. I can see how the industry is extremely competitive, but also I’m more confident than ever that it is possible for me to succeed, especially if I can continue to be as lucky as I was to get invited to this event.

On Wednesday we had the chance to head out to a shoot for the “Boredom Hurts” campaign that Ford is running in conjunction with On The Lot. It was pretty cool to be on the set like that, considering it was just for some online short, it was a pretty big production.

After watching the shoot for a while we went back to the hotel where we then began our photo rally. Basically we drove around the Hollywood area taking pictures at different key locations. This took a few hours, and while it was cool to see the town, I was really tired and a little bit hung over from the night before to be perfectly honest.

The rest of the night was nothing particularly exciting, but we did have a nice dinner at a restaurant called Vert (one of Wolfgang Puck’s places) and hung out by the pool once again. All of the people in the group were just great, and the people from Ford were so accommodating and really interested to hear from us about Ford and the new car. I liked the Escape, but I don’t see myself buying a Ford (unless Ford buys back Aston Martin, and I make it in the industry). The people from even went so far as to re-book my return ticket to eliminate connections I had to make. Instead I got a direct flight, which was very nice of them to do for me.

Overall this had to be one of the coolest experiences I have ever had, and certainly the most random and out of the blue. For me this makes me feel as though there is some sort of fated reason for me to keep doing what I have been doing for the past 3 years. This experience has also made me realize what decisions need to be made down the line to get to where I want to be, but you’re going to have to just wait and see what those decisions are.

On a side note, while I was there I met Jeremiah and Josh Daws from Atlanta who are also aspiring filmmakers that just finished principal photography on their first feature. Their website “Adventures in Filmmaking” at www.dawsbrothers.com chronicles their journey much like I’m doing, except that they are actually making movies now, whereas I am probably a little ways away from that stage. Check them out!

I will be adding more photos as they get uploaded to the events Flikr account, so stay tuned for updates to this post.

[Update]: If you’re interested there is an album with ALL of the photos available - Ford On The Lot Photos

Posted by Emmet Gibney on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 10:17 am.