The Life and Times of Dan Meyerowitz

It's around 9pm on a Friday, the day before I am going to shoot my first movie. I go downstairs to get something to eat and notice the mail box. I hadn't checked my mail since I got to USC (because I had no need to, I wasn't expecting mail) so I decide to check it. I open the mailbox up and sort through some magazines for my roommate before I find a letter with the word "confidential" marked on it at least 3 times with my name on it. I think nothing of it really, I assume its just a bill or something and proceed to open it up. "Dear Mr. Meyerowitz, A report has been received in this office that you allegedly have violated the University Student Conduct Code". WHAT! The letter continues, "Date(s) of Incident(s): June 20th, 2008" WHAT THE HECK! I moved in on the 16th! Your telling me I did something to break the rules of conduct within 4 days of being here? Well what do they think I did? "Violation(s): 11.32 Endangering safety of self and others, 11.36B Causing apprehension of harm, 11.38 interfering w/campus activity, 11.44A engaging in disorderly conduct, 11.44B Encouraging disorderly conduct, and last but certainly not least 11.47A unauthorized use or possession of firearms/weapons" WHAT THE F**K! What do they think I did? Get drunk at a party and brandish a gun? For anyone who knows me you should be laughing at that thought. I would have been laughing as well if I wasn't panicking. So I keep reading the letter, "Please meet with us by " July 9, 2008". It's July 12th! The letter goes on to tell what the meeting will be about and what happens if I don't respond by the time they ask. What happens is my transcripts get put on hold.

I'm totally flipping out at this point. This is so not me, they obviously have the wrong person. So I take out my phone and dial the number on the sheet. No one answers. Of Course no one answers, its 9pm on a Friday what am I thinking. Well I'm not really thinking I'm just plain panicking. Just as I'm about to totally loose it my friend Mark calls and needs help setting up his set in the apartment I'm in. I rush over to him and tell him what just happens and he agrees with me that it obviously isn't me they are talking about and tells me to call our program coordinator. He gives me the number and I call. No answer. I leave the most frantic message of my life, I'm sure the poor women could barely understand what I'm saying, Mark assures me that if it was that big of a deal, they would have come and found me. That helps a little but not much. Next on the list is to call my parents (I don't care what you say about this step, it was the right thing to do). No answer from either of them so I leave another frantic message and head back to my room. The logical thing would have been to ask my roommates if they knew anything about this, but I was stupid and thought maybe they were the ones who called the report in and I didn't want to get into a huge argument. Now remember I have a shoot tomorrow, in fact I have the shoot for my first short film and really my first ever narrative piece that I myself have directed, so I already have some nerves working against me and now I have this. I have to get some sleep though so I crawl into be and by the grace of god fall asleep.

I get up the next morning and proceed to get ready to shoot my movie. I had to put the thought of my impending doom in the back of my head while I shot my movie. It was hard but I pulled it off. No, I am not going to talk about my shoot right now, you have to wait till next time. The next day I get a hold of my dad and he said that he talked to my program director. They had met when my dad and brother dropped me off and through a humorous series of events ended up getting a ride back to the place they were staying due to the fact that the car they drove to USC with me was staying with me. I David (the program director) really took a liking to my brother and my dad and him had a good talk. Anyways my dad said I was to go to David's office first thing the next day to get things sorted out.

With the ridiculous letter in hand I went over to the summer program office on Monday morning. I walked up the stairs and was greeted by Liz (the program coordinator). She told me she got my message but had no clue who it was from because it sounded so frantic. She then proceeded to make copies of the letter for their records as well as print me off information about what I was accused. She then called the people I was to talk to and after being given the run around got off the phone and told me I had to go over there because "They are not allowed to discuss information about the accusations with people not involved". I have to say Liz was awesome and I really appreciate all the help she gave me. I was about to leave the summer office to go to the office to speak with the guy about my accusations when I passed David's door and he called me in. He asked me what was going on and I told him I had no clue. I showed him the letter and said that this was all supposed to happen 4 days after I got to USC. I swore it wasn't me and he obviously believed me. He seemed pretty pissed off "I have never had something like this happen before" he said. Then he proceeded to pick up the phone and call the office of student affairs. "What is the meaning of this" he said in a very, very stern voice to the guy on the other end of the line. "You better have proof of every single one of these accusations because I know this young mans father (he met that one time) and I will recommend he get a lawyer if this is not resolved to his liking." I'm sitting there half trying to hold back a smile and half trying not to stop David because I still have to go see this guy. David then says something like "Oh you have lunch right now? No I am sending Daniel over right now and you will sort this out. I swear I have had nothing like this happen before" he then hangs up the phone. He tells me to go over there right now and straighten this out. I leave the office and book it over there, not sure how this guy is going to react when I get there.

I arrive at the office and am told to take a seat. About 3 minutes later a guy who I swear can't be older than 25 comes out and tells me to please come with him. I'm lead into this room and he begins to ramble off some legal stuff about how things have to be done and why he couldn't discuss things with David or Liz. He then hands me a written report of what happened. It stated that someone says they saw someone shooting a airsoft gun off of my balcony. I sit there stunned,, but not because it obviously wasn't me but because I actually saw the same thing. I can't event finish the report before I blurt out "I saw this too!" He then tells me how the person who reported this later said they weren't so sure it was my balcony and that the charges had been dropped. I proceed to tell them what I saw and where I saw them shooting from (this is not me snitching this is what dumbasses shooting airsoft guns in a university owned apartment get for being so stupid). He then hands me a letter say that the charges have been dropped. Think it apologizes for the inconvenience or maybe he personally apologizes? Well if you said yes you are sadly wrong. I never once was told sorry for the misunderstanding or for troubling me. I was just glad it had been cleared up so I left and went back to David and Liz to give them the good news. On the way I called my parents and they were relieved. I got back to the Summer office and thanked Liz and David for their help in the matter. I have to say I honsetly feel like both of them truly cared about each of their students and did an amazing job during the entire summer.

Well that is all for the case of mistaken identity, make sure to tune in next time because its the one you all have been waiting for... The Shoot!

Posted by Dan Meyerowitz at Thursday, August 21, 2008 | 1 comments  
Labels: crime, USC

Hello again and greetings. Thank you for tuning in for another thrilling chapter in the USC saga. On this weeks episode Dan and his actors do a workshop in class! Lets waste no more time with greetings or trying to be clever and jump right in!

Part of the requirements of the Directing Intensive class is to workshop a scene in class. Now you might be asking yourself what exactly "workshop a scene" means but never fear for I am here to tell you. Basically what happens is you pick a scene from your script that you feel you could use a bit more work on and perform it in class. Our classroom wasn't your normal classroom, in fact it wasn't a classroom at all, it was a soundstage. Why am I randomly dropping this bit of information in here at this time? Well its not random because I need to tell you so you know that we were able to stage the scenes as they were really going to happen. The stage was already set up as a house with two rooms and furniture but it could double as anything you wanted it to be. We also rigged up 5 cameras (you told people where to place the cameras) to a switcher so you could cut between cameras and see how your scene might play out on the screen. Now I say "You told people where to put the cameras" instead of "You put the cameras where you wanted" for a good reason. When it was your turn to do your workshop you were not allowed to touch the cameras at all. My teacher did this to simulate what really happens on an actual set. The director doesn't just pick up the camera put it where he wants and tell the DP (director of photography, sometimes called the cinematographer). He just doesn't have time to do that and he shouldn't be doing it in the first place. So we weren't allowed to touch the cameras at all, no big deal right? Well not so fast, it isn't always that easy to convey the shot you have in your head to another person. Not being allowed to touch the camera wasn't the only thing we weren't allowed to do, not by a long shot. We weren't allowed to look at the actors as they played out the scene because we had to watch the monitor and call which camera we wanted up (we never actually did the switching, one of the TA's would use the switcher and we would call out which camera to put up). One girl just couldn't get the idea of not looking at the actors in her head and my teacher used me as a human wall so she couldn't see the action. I almost got punched a few times but in the long run it helped her.

Okay so now that you know just what the workshop is and have been supplied with a few funny anecdotes, its time to talk about my experience. We had already gone through about half of the class by the time it was my turn to do my workshop (we did 3 each day and got about an hour and a half to workshop our scene) so I thought I knew exactly what to expect and how I should do it. I thought wrong. It wasn't a total 180 from what I thought but it wasn't as easy as i thought it would be. I had a plan of where to put my cameras and how to express just where i wanted them but many things changed. Originally I wanted to have all my cameras on tripods to give it the still look that would be in the rest of my movie. However after running through the scene once I realized that it just wasn't gonna work so the cameras came off the tripods and went handheld. After a few runthroughs my teacher stepped in and offered so suggestions. Of course his suggestions were great so I ended up using them. After about 7 more runthroughs my time was up and it was time to move on to the next person's workshop.

All in all it was a great experience to have and it really helped me come filming time. Well that's all for now, next time I'll tell you how I was accused of having a gun on campus. How's that for a cliffhanger.

Posted by Dan Meyerowitz at Wednesday, August 20, 2008 | 0 comments  

Again I apologize for the tardiness of this post (that is if anyone still reads this thing) I have actually returned to Tucson but really want to tell you all about my experience.

Now that that is out of the way let me tell you about casting. One really awesome thing about USC is that they have an agreement with the Screen Actors Guild ,or SAG for short, that allows their members to work on our films for free. So that freed up a lot of money for other things. I'm not exactly sure how it was done before the Internet but now a days there are websites that allow you to post your project on. I used two websites; nowcasting.com and lacasting.com . I set up a character description for both my characters and by the time it was time to call I had over 100 applications.

So it's time to call and I am dead nervous. I picked out the people who were right for the class. You would probably laugh at some of the people who applied because they were just plain wrong for the part and didn't fit the description at all. Anyways I started calling people and most calls went something like this:
ME: Hi is (insert name here) there?
THEM: This is (insert name here)
ME: Hi this is Dan Meyerowitz, I'm calling in response to the application you posted on nowcasting/lacasting.com for the project, The Death of Our Father. I looked at your resume and head shots as well as a reel (if they had one) and was really impressed with what I saw (this was actually true everyone i called impressed me in some way) and would love for you to come and audition for me.
THEM: Great where and when?
ME: (insert time) at the Robert Zemekis Center for Digital Arts at USC (that's right the building my classes were in and where I held my auditions were at was named after the director of Back to the Future and Cast away just to name a few of his films)
THEM: Okay great see you then. Are there sides? (sides are what you supply the actors for the audition. They are a short expert from the script that you wish them to perform for you.)
ME: Great I am excited to meet you and see what you have.

All in all I called about 25-30 people and booked 20 of them. Some never got back to me but unless I remembered incorrectly no one said no. So i emailed everyone their sides and prepared for my auditions on Sunday. However before my auditions I was helping Max and John with theirs on Friday and Saturday.

Decked out in my nice clothes I headed to the Zemekis Center to meet John and Max. My job that day was that of a casting assistant, so I sat outside the audition room and greeted the actors/actresses who came in, told them that I would tell John or Max (whoever they were there to audition for) that they were here and that they could have a seat wherever they liked and I would call them when they were ready. I would go in and tell Max or John and they would tell me to send them in, actually they would tell me to wait a minute so it looked like we were talking about something important before I let them in. If it was a girl that was there they would actually ask me if she was hot or not ( Max and John are mnors if you don''t remember. Actually Max turned 18 while at USC but he was still a minor at the time.) Eventually we tried to use AIM to communicate, we even tried video chat but it was just too dorky so we went back to me going in there. I tell you this because one time when I was im'ing John about a women who was there to audiition she saw we were using AIM and she asked me if they were asking me if she was hot. I had to try really hard not to laugh and told her no as to protect John's reputation. I also had the pleasure of meeting my fair share of very attractive women because Max's movie called for one. That was fun. All and all I sat out there for about 12 hours and it was actually really fun.
The next day it's my turn. Max takes my position and mans the door while John sits in with me and helps me out as well as reads lines to actors. I start to freak out because people aren't showing up right away. Thoughts are flowing through my mind, what do I do if no one shows, is anyone going to be in my movie, am I going to be able to make a movie? I express some of these thoughts to John and he tells me to shut up because people will show up, and after a bit they do. The level of talent really ran the gamut from horrible to amazing. I could tell some people I had asked to audition just weren't right for the part while but had talent while some looked right but were just plain bad. Then David walks in. He is auditioning for the role of Mark and after a brief introduction he dives into his performance. I was blown away. It was exactly what I was looking for, but not for the part of Mark. He was perfect for the part of Luke and I wanted to cast him on the spot but had to see everyone else just to be sure. A few more people come in and they aren't what I'm looking for, then in walks Jace. He reads for the part of Luke but I could tell he was my Mark. 8pm rolls around and I'm done for the day. A few people weren't able to come that day but I was able to see them the next day but they weren't right so I happily decided to go with Mark and David.

So I call up Mark and David and they are both excited to get to work. Now came the hard part, I had to call up everyone I auditioned and tell them that I hadn't picked them. It wasn't as hard as I thought (luckily I got a lot of voicemails) and the people I did talk to were really nice and understanding about it.
I have my cast and now it was time to work with them. Think I'm gonna tell you about that now? Nah your gonna have to wait, but I promise it will come quicker than this one. So tune in next time for the Workshop post most likely followed by a post about the filming of my movie.

Note: As many of you already know I am back in Tucson now but I really want to talk more about my experience so I will take my Delorian and go back to the future and finish up my USC experience.

Posted by Dan Meyerowitz at Sunday, August 03, 2008 | 0 comments  
Labels: casting, film, movie, USC

I apologize for the long gap in between my last blog post. I have been really busy and the free time I usually have is later at night after I have been to class and done other stuff so I am not usually in the mood to write. None the less I have returned and much has occurred over the past few weeks. Rather than write one really really long post on all the stuff that happened I'm going to break it up into smaller portions. So strap yourself in and prepare for a thrilling ride of text!

I realize that I haven't actually announced what the project I am working on actually is. Sure I told you that I have to make a 5-12 minute movie but other than that most of you don't know anything about it so without any further delay let me tell you about it. The movie is called "The Death of Our Father" and takes place over the course of one afternoon when two brothers on bad terms are forced to pack up their recently deceased alcoholic father's house. Tensions run high between Luke and Mark as they discuss their father, their past, the present, and their future. Will the events of the day help the brother's make amends or tear them further apart. Okay so that is a very simplified synopsis for the film and truth be told I need to rework it, and tighten it up a bit but hopefully you get the gist.

Some of you may know that this was not my original idea and may even be asking yourselves what happened to that idea, well I'm glad you asked (and even if you didn't I'm going to tell you anyways). Originally I came to USC with the plan to do a modern retelling of the prodigal son parable. When I pitched this idea to Devo (my script teacher, who has become a great friend of mine) she seemed to like it and we set out discussing it during a one on one meeting. The meeting lasted about an hour and over the course of it many great ideas were thrown out but one stuck with me in particular. "What if the father is already dead" Devo said. This isn't how the story of the prodigal son goes at all but that thought really interested me so after our meeting I took about an hour and thought about it and started to develop this story of two brothers and their father. One brother had a lot of resentment towards his father because he felt he loved his other brother more and even held this against his brother. I also had the idea to make the father an alocholic and see how that affected his kids lives. So I started from there and wrote a draft. I sent it to Devo and she liked it, and we discussed how to make it even stronger. For those of you who don't know you never end up shooting your first draft, rewriting is an essential element to movies. I have always been a little scared of rewriting, heck I hate to proof read papers and make changes on them, how am I supposed to do that on a script. It wasn't easy but I started and after a while a lot of things started to come out and the script evolved. An average script goes through about 10 major rewrites, during a lunch meeting Devo told me how the script for An Officer and a Gentlemen went through like 150 rewrites. My script went through 4. I sent the original script to a few of you and I think you will be surprised at how different the final version that shows up on screen is.

So there you have it there is the story of the evolution of my script as well as what it is about. Next up you will hear about my adventures in finding my cast and the audition process.

P.S: A bit of trivia for you. I didn't want to loose the biblical connection completely so all of the characters in my movie are named after biblical characters. Luke and Mark are named after the writers of the gospels and Mary is named after Mary Magdalene.

Posted by Dan Meyerowitz at Saturday, July 19, 2008 | 0 comments  
Labels: death, father, movie, of, our, script, the, USC, writing

So before I get to the meat of this post would like to announce that my bike got stolen. Thats right the brand new bike that I had for all of 3 days was stolen. Well actually most of the bike was stolen they left the wheel locked to the post.

So now that we got that out of the way on to other things. Holy crap things just got a lot more intense. I just started my breaking into the industry and it is going to be a lot more work than I originally thought but I am excited. It seems like a really great class and the teacher knows what she is talking about. She can be found at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0393414/ . I have a lot to read I've already read 3 chapters of the book she wrote ad have to read 3 more by Tuesday along with two trade papers, which are newspapers specifically for the film industry (i.e Variety and the Hollywood Reporter). We have to read another book and present on it as well as go to a networking meeting. Also we have to go to a general information meeting with an industry professional. All of this while I have to make my movie. I love it though, I mean this is what I want to do so I can't complain.

To give you a little sneak peak at the next blog post I'll tell you it will be all about my experience for casting my movie which happens tomorrow.

Posted by Dan Meyerowitz at Saturday, June 28, 2008 | 3 comments  

You know those periods of time you look back on and say "Wow I did all that in that amount of time?" yeah it's been one of those weeks. I'm not even sure where to start I guess the beginning is a good place but when was that? Ok, ok I'll give this a shot.

Day 1. Hi I'm Dan and I don't know any of you.
I show up for my directing intensive class (where I am making a 10 minute short film) the first day not knowing what to expect. After a 30 minute orientation we jump right in. "Ok this is Devo she is your script coach, who has there's scripts" says my teacher Alan Myerson http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002887/ and here is Devo http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193911/ . Oh crap were 40 minutes into class and I'm already behind. Luckily half the class didn't have scripts. The members of the class really run the gambit of ages and ethnicity's. There's the minors ( the under 18 kids who make up a good third of the class) the 18-24 crowd (a few of us) and then the older people who I think go up to 40, could be wrong though. There's a guy from London, a girl from France, a guy from Romania (yeah I know Bridgette I think he hates it too) and others from all over the states.

After we have a script talk were put in groups of three. There's an A group, a B and a C group. Well actually the groups are made of one person from each letter. Guess what the A group shoots their film in 3 weeks the B in 4, and the C in 5. In film making time that is not alot of time especially for someone without a script. I get placed in the B group which is where I want to be placed. The rest of class (which was originally 1-4 Tuesday and Wednesday now is 1-5 ) well I don't really remember what the hell we did the rest of class, it was kind of a blur.

Day 2, equipment day oh and class starts at 12 today.
They roll in a bunch of cases full of gear, unfortunately its not that amazing of gear. The camera is a sony PD-100 and my Panasonic AG-DVX100A is leaps and bounds above it, so I opt to shoot my film with my camera but we still need to lug their camera around. We also get an ok tripod and an ehh shotgun mic and boompole but those things are all better than what I have. So for the entire class we go through our gear and learn how to use it. I'm pretty sure most people already knew but I guess it was good to have a refresher course. During this class a sheet is passed around to sign up for a one on one meeting with Devo about our script or atleast our idea, so I sign up for 9 am the next morning. Oh and remember how I said class was on Tuesday Wednesday? Yeah well I lied, tomorrow at 1 we have a workshop on directing actors. Oh and Devo tells us she is holding a script workshop from 10:30 till 11:30 am the next day as well. One more thing though. turns out we can't check out our gear today so we have to be there at 12 to do that. Ok so a day I originally thought I had off turned into a 9-5 day. I love it. No I'm dead serious I do, that's why I'm here to get as much out of it as I can.

Day 3, oh crap what time was my meeting.
Yeah I said that before I go to bed, if you know me then you know I tend to worry about things like that. Was it 8 or was it 9. I couldn't remember and in a rare lapse of thinking had failed to put the event in my phone. Oh well only one thing to do, wake up at 7:30 and go over and see what time it was (luckily I live down the street from the building my class is in so it's a 5 minute walk. Actually the building is the Robert Zemeckis Center it was named after the director of Back to the Future). So at 7:30 the next morning I, a person who if he can help it sleeps in till he can (were talking 2pm people) get out of bed, get dressed and head to my meeting. Buildings not open yet. Well crap guess it wasn't 8 but was it 8:30? Well I don't want to wait here for 30 minutes and you know MY AIR CONDITIONING IS BROKEN so I should take this chance to talk to the people in my building about fixing that. Back to my apartment.
Oh great they don't open till 8:30 well back to the Zemeckis Center. I get there and about a minute after this girl Ellen from my class comes riding up. Turns out she's at 8:30 so I'm at 9, back to the apartment to wait for the front desk to open. They open and say they will get someone to help (the guys came but couldn't fix it, so they have to get someone else all the while my apartment is a cool crisp 87 degrees).
Back to Zemeckis. I meet with Devo, I originally wanted to do a modern retelling of the prodigal son parable but after some help from Devo I go a different direction (more on that later).She has a white board and is writing a mile a minute but it helps and they are almost all my idea's she just helped me get them out (she is awesome, I mean how could someone who want you to call them Devo not be awesome). My 30 minutes are up and she isn't mad I didn't do a script, she has me go outside and work on a beat sheet. A beat sheet is where you write all the major events of your story out. I work for a while, finish and start to talk to some people around me, more specifically the minors around me (they're awesome).
Time to go to the workshop. It's awesome, it really helps. Time to check out gear. That goes well. Tine for actors workshop; that's awesome. It's so awesome that we go over by an hour and I love it, Wow it feels like it was 8am an hour ago. "Don't forget you have Avid training from 9 to 4 on Saturday" Christine my S.A (she's a T.A but they call them S.As in the Flin department.Well time to go home, but I overhear the minors talking about dinner. I came to meet new people so I take the big leap and ask them if I can join. Of course I can. So me and the minors (ok I was gonna just call them the minors because it sounds cool but I'm tired of it. There's Max, John, Mer, Ellen, Andrew, and David) So we go to eat and relationships are established, sweet! Time to go. I have a movie to get to.
See Class may be over for the day but my day of film stuff is far from it. At 7 that night I go to an advanced screening of The Wackness that the school puts on. I have been looking forward to this movie for a long time and I loved it. Ben Kingsley is hilarious. for info on the film go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1082886/ . Oh yeah the first draft of my script is due on Saturday but I couldn't miss this movie. Also were given two extra homework assignments. 1. make a 1 minute film that conveys an emotion. 2. Watch someone very closely for a while and write about where they are going next and you have to back it up with proof. So basically my teacher told me to go out and be a creeper .

Day 4 a day to chill, umm not!
I hang out with my new friends (the minors, couldn't help it) and we have a great time. I really connect with Max and John. I work on my script as well seeing as it' due on Saturday. I hang out with the minors again, it's a little weird hanging out with people who are my sister's age but I really like them and they seem to like me (or at least aren't totally creeped out by me).shot mine and Max's one minute piece. Oh I don't think I mentioned but I have to cast my own movie so I'm using two sites to do this (lacasting.com and nowcasting.com) so I need to schedule people to audition as well as pick who I want to audition. It's an ongoing process. My script gets turned in.

Day 5 avid training.
Well Saturday comes and with it comes a day in a computer lab learning Avid Media Composer the industry standard video editing software. Sound boring it was, but it was also really fun if that makes any sense. Hang out for a bit with the minorinos. Devo gives me some pointers on revisions. I have a really hard time starting to revise but it starts to come and before I know it I take out one part and add another.

Day 6, Wait what day is it?
Honestly while writing this blog post I got really confused and forgot what day things happened. Ok it's Sunday. uhh oh hang out with Max and John, edit my one minute thing, watch a movie (I think) work on revisions, I really thought my climax was week and I just had a rush and wrote a new one that I really loved.

Day 7, I got here a week ago? Are you sure?
More revisions. I bought a bike today because I have been spending so much time hanging out with the minors and it's a really long walk and you know what i just want a bike. Lunch with Max and John, more work. I watch the movie The Proposition (thank you Theo for this amazing find). It's everything I love in a movie, great dialogue, great compositions, amazing story, and brutal violence. Ok se the last one doesn't have to be there but this movie had it and did it with an amazing touch. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421238/ Watch out Reservoir Dogs I might have a new favorite (not really but IT IS SO GOOD). A really quick meeting with Devo, she didn't get a chance to read my revisions yet. Oh well, dinner with John and Max. More work. Hang out with the minors, come home, write blog. I got an email from Devo:

Dear Dan - you did a great job. I think it is rich, has inner rhythms and surprises.
Let's see what notes Alan and I have on he way to a rewrite. But, great. I will
check with Alan and we will let you know when the next meeting on the script will
be. But, you should be proud. It is very moving. I think there is a way to milk this even more,
but I will perk on that for the next time we meet. Thanks for showing up today and
getting me the new draft. If you have any specific questions, please let me know.
Devo

I'm really happy. It means alot coming from her. Your all caught up and if you read this whole thing I applaud you. Time for bed, things are only going to get more intense I start my Breaking Into the Film Industry class this week and auditions are on Sunday and Monday as well as helping John and Max with theirs. Stay tuned for more. I'll tell you about the script soon I promise.

Posted by Dan Meyerowitz at Tuesday, June 24, 2008 | 4 comments  

So as usual I failed to plan ahead and waited till the last minuter to do anything. There were a few things that needed to be done before I left Tucson. I needed to move out of Vince's, pack for the trip, get my car ready, and do my laundry. I had a week to do these things and waited until the last day to do them. Indact I moved out of Vince's (more info about the Vince in question can be found at http://vincentcatalano.com/) at 9pm the night before I left. Everything but doing my laundry had benn completed and I really failed to realize how long it would take because by the time it was done it was 3:30 am. On the bright side my sister stayed up woth me so we got to hang out all night (we watched Arrested Development season 2). So the laundry was done, my bags weere packed and it was time to go, I told myself that I would sleep in the car and that would be fine.

So at around 4:30 my dad, my brother, and I packed into my 97' MPV and headed to LA where we were going to see a Angels game before stopping at my dad's cousins house for the night. After about 45 minutes I decided to try and get some sleep, which didn't go all that smoothly (men of my stature weren't meant to sleep in cars). I think I got about 6 hours of sleep but it really didn't matter because I still felt terrible. Anyways we get to the ball park about two hours before the game started so I took that time to get a bit more sleep in (didn't really help me much). The game was fun but the highlight had to be when the guy from what I'm betting was Japan (he had a really nice cellphone that looked years ahead of what we have here) who didn't really speak english asked me to take a picture with him. Tat picture can be seen up above and yes my brother is asleep. We decided to leave around the sdeventh inning and started to head to my dad's cousins place.

The next morning we embarked on the final leg of the trip up to USC. I had always heard that LA driving was insane but this was the first time I had been in LA since I have been able to drive and I have to say it is insane. I saw about 5 close accidents in the fourty minute drive from my dad's cousins to USC. I wont bore you with all the details but it took about 4 hours to really get set up in USC and get into my dorm (there were some problems with parking permits). So I got into my dorm whuch is actually apartment style and my journey to USC was complete but it wasn't finished for my dad and brother.

As I said earlier we drove my car to USC and the reason we did that was because I am keeping my car here for the summer so I can get around. Well this is great for me but not so great for my dad and brother who had to find a way back to my dad's cousins house, which was 40 minutes away. During those 4 hours we were running around USC getting things squared away we stopped by my department building to make sure I was registered. While in there my dad gets invited into the department heads office and starts to have a conversation. Well it turns out he lives right by where my dad needs to go and to make a long story short my dad and brother get a ride with my department head (in his really nice merceded).

Back at the apartment I met my nerw roommates Ryan, a usc undergrad film student, and Jordan , A student from Hong Kong who is doing some kind of research. I'm rooming with Jordan and there's a bit of a language barrier but he seems cool. Other than some minor stuff such as having to sleep in a very girly room at my dad's cousins house, the ac not working in my apartment, and the internet freaking out that pretty much raps up the adventure the three Meyerowitz men had on their way to USC. Stay tunned for more.

Posted by Dan Meyerowitz at Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | 3 comments  
Labels: apartment, film, trip, USC