Tag Archives: screening

Wrapping Up An Awesome Year Of Movies (or Still Loving SAG-AFTRA Film Society)

Posted on April 6, 2016 | Comments Off on Wrapping Up An Awesome Year Of Movies (or Still Loving SAG-AFTRA Film Society)

This past weekend was the final weekend of screenings for this season of the SAG-AFTRA Film Society. I’ve written about the Film Society in the past and how awesome it is. It’s one of the few union perks that cost above and beyond your membership dues, but it’s totally worth it! Right now they are taking applications and it is $115 for the season (which runs May-April). Each season there are about 4-6 first run movies a month that you can go to see and you can always bring a plus one.

I’ve been a member of the Film Society for a couple of years and it really is one of my favorite things. Movies are so expensive so paying for the season is so much cheaper than buying all those movie tickets. And since it’s a one-time annual fee, I go to see more movies than I probably would have anyway because I know it’s a free night out. You almost make up the cost of the membership after seeing just a few movies since they do show 3-D movies in 3-D (and in LA 3-D can cost about $25 a person). So to me it’s obvious that I would sign up for it each year.

I think this past year I went to more movies than I have the past few years. Part of that is due to having my friend David (I met him at Orangetheory) who likes to go to movies pretty much as much as I do. He’s already called dibs on any superhero movie that I get a screening for, and since most people haven’t called dibs on other movies he ends up joining me a bunch. We’ve seen a bunch of crazy movies this past year, and it’s better to have someone else driving home with you so you can discuss the movie and rant or rave about it. And I’m glad he goes with me to superhero movies because he knows the back story of them and doesn’t care that I ask a million questions after the movie since I’ve never read the comic books.

The second to last weekend of Film Society I saw 2 movies. First I saw “Midnight Special” (which was good but I was a bit confused at the end) and “Hello, My Name Is Doris”. I absolutely loved “Hello, My Name Is Doris”! Sally Field was amazing in the movie and I loved the journey that her character took! Without giving away a lot about the movie, the final few seconds were my favorite. It was not how I expected it to end but it made the movie wrap up beautifully and really showed how her character grew. I walked out of the theater with the biggest smile on my face and couldn’t stop thinking about how much I loved the movie! It’s one that I think everyone should see but a lot of people might not because it’s not a big blockbuster getting a ton of promotion.

For the final weekend of Film Society, I went to one movie: “Batman v Superman”. This was one of the movies that David had called dibs on if I got a screening for it so as soon as I saw it was coming up I let him know. He was so excited to go see it, but I was feeling a bit worried because of some of the negative reviews I had read online (and a friend who posted a major spoiler that I was afraid would ruin the movie for me). While I did think that it might have been a bit long, I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of good action, I liked seeing all the superheroes working together at the end, and it actually did make sense to me that Batman would be fighting Superman (I didn’t get it before the movie). After it was done, David and I both thought it was a fun and entertaining movie and it helped get both of us excited to see the Justice League movie. I still have some questions about the movie, but none of the things I’m wondering about ruined how entertained I was watching it.

Since I’m already signed up for the next season of Film Society, the movies will be starting up again in a little over a month. I know that I’ll be taking advantage of the membership as much as I have in the past and I’ve got another great year of movies coming up.

I’m aware how lucky I am to have this option for me plus the screenings I get for the SAG Awards voting. Not everyone has that luxury and it’s something that I really do appreciate having and I try to share my plus ones with as many friends as possible. It’s fun getting to bring people to screenings who have never seen them before and seeing the experience through their eyes. Hopefully this season I’ll have more friends joining me and more movies that make me just as excited to be an actor.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Summer Of Movies (or Grateful For Union Membership) Default ThumbnailMovies And Christmas Lights (or A Busy Movie Week) Default Thumbnail3 Movies In 4 Days (or I’m Grateful For Free Screenings) Default ThumbnailWatching Some Inspiration (or A Weekend Of Screenings) Default ThumbnailSuch An LA Night (or Just Having Some Fun With A Friend) Default ThumbnailNew Year More Brunches (or Awesome Company, Not So Awesome Restaurant Service)

Comments Off on Wrapping Up An Awesome Year Of Movies (or Still Loving SAG-AFTRA Film Society)

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

Once Upon A Time: The Rock Opera (or An Awesome Giveaway!)

Posted on March 24, 2016 | 11 comments

Today’s post includes an awesome giveaway and I’m so excited to share this with you all! It’s seriously a super awesome prize and I think a lot of you will be entering this!

The other day, I was invited to check out my friend Erin’s movie “Once Upon A Time: The Rock Opera”. They are getting ready to launch a screening tour and they started in LA this week. Erin has been working on this rock opera for a bit and I couldn’t wait to check it out (you can check out the trailer for it here).

OUAT: The Rock Opera actually started as a parody video of the ABC show “Once Upon A Time” that Erin made called “Once Upon A Anonymous”. That then turned into an award-winning web series. After doing the web series, Erin decided to take things up a notch and create a rock opera that has 7 original songs in it!

I’ve seen an episode or two of “Once Upon A Time”, but I’m not super familiar with the show. So I was a bit worried going into the screening that I wouldn’t get it too much. I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t the case!

OUAT Rock Opera

All you really need to know about the story is that the characters are all fairy tale characters (Snow White, Hook, Tinkerbell, Cruella DeVil, Ariel, Ursula, and others) and they are in the mythical town of Storybrooke, Maine. The story of the rock opera was pretty self-contained so I didn’t need to know the plot points from the TV show to get it. I’m sure I missed some jokes because they were about the show, but I still was laughing a lot during the movie. The songs were super awesome and covered a bunch of musical genres. And while I’ve seen a lot of films my friends have made, I think this was the most professional looking film I’ve seen by a friend! It looked just like something a studio would have created and it had some really fun special effects.

And of course, the actors were all amazing!

With Erin and Ace

Erin plays Emma Swan, the lead in the movie, and she looks just like the actress who plays the character in the TV show. And her husband, Ace (you might recognize him from playing Aladdin at Disneyland), plays Hook. I didn’t know most of the other actors in the movie, but I really enjoyed watching them all. They all played the characters exactly how I would want them to and they all had awesome singing voices! You can buy the soundtrack for the movie if you’d like so you can check it out!

They’ve already done other screenings that typically sell out plus they’ve had a big live performance at San Diego Comic-Con! The fanbase for this rock opera is big and I think that people who are fans of the ABC show have to see this and non-fans need to see this just because it’s awesome!

With their new screening tour starting up soon (tickets are on sale for some locations now!), Erin and the entire team behind OUAT: The Rock Opera wanted to give away an amazing prize to all of my readers! They are letting me give away 2 VIP tickets to any of their screenings on the current screening tour (but you would be responsible for any travel costs to get to the screening if you need to travel to it) plus a digital download of the full movie! This is such an awesome giveaway and I’m so grateful that Erin and the team are letting me give this away to one of you! All you have to do is enter via Rafflecopter below and a random winner will be selected after the contest ends at midnight on April 15th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There are a lot of opportunities to enter and you can enter every day with the tweet about the giveaway option! The giveaway will run through midnight on the 15th and I will email the winner that they won (you’ll have 48 hours to respond to my email before a new winner is chosen). You will have a chance to say which location you want screening tickets for (don’t worry, what you put as a comment doesn’t have to be where you really want them) and Erin and the OUAT: The Rock Opera team will coordinate with you to get you your tickets and digital download.

If you don’t win, you will still be able to buy tickets for their screenings,  buy the soundtrack for the movie, and starting on April 1st you can buy the digital download of the movie.

Good luck with entering and I can’t wait for you all to get to experience the Once Upon A Time: The Rock Opera yourselves!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailI Wish I Could Go To Comic Con (or Your Chance To See The Rock Opera) Default ThumbnailWrapping Up An Awesome Year Of Movies (or Still Loving SAG-AFTRA Film Society) Default ThumbnailA Night At A Screening (or Forgetting What Non-Screenings Are Like) Default ThumbnailScared Speechless (or A Book Giveaway!) Default ThumbnailMy Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (or A Movie With A Fun Friend) Default ThumbnailWatching Some Inspiration (or A Weekend Of Screenings)

11 Comments

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (or A Movie With A Fun Friend)

Posted on March 23, 2016 | Comments Off on My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (or A Movie With A Fun Friend)

The other day, I got an email from Women In Film inviting members to attend an advance screening of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2”. Women in Film does really great screenings (like the one I went to for “Miss You Already”), so I signed up for tickets right away. Since there were limited tickets for members I wasn’t sure I would get tickets, but a day later I got the email that I got my seats!

I put it out on Facebook to see who else wanted to see the movie with me, and my friend Elisa said she wanted to go. I met Elisa through Tone It Up, she also works out at Orangetheory (but a different location than I go to), and she’s now going to be a part of my Pantages season tickets group next season. But she and I haven’t really hung out a ton by ourselves so I was excited to go to the movie with her.

I was super excited to see this movie. I remember when the first movie came out and loving it! And the story of how it was a one-woman show turned into a movie was really inspiring too. As soon as I saw that there was going to be a sequel, I knew I’d go to see it. And I’m so grateful that I got an opportunity to see a screening for it because there are so many movies lately that I want to see and I can’t afford to see them all!

We got to The Grove (where the screening was held) a little more than an hour before the movie was supposed to start. We were told that even though we had tickets it wouldn’t guarantee us seats, so we wanted to make sure we lined up early to get in. We were toward the front of the line and got our tickets pretty quickly. But then we noticed that they were not assigned seats (I thought they would be). So we didn’t want to wait too long before going into the theater. Even though The Grove has a bunch of restaurants, we both ended up getting movie theater food for dinner. Not the best choice, but I got a hot dog and water so it wasn’t too horrible.

We got some pretty great seats once we went inside (it didn’t get crowded until a few minutes before the movie started) and sat down to enjoy our dinner. We did get to catch up on life and everything since we had an hour before the movie started. Elisa has some cool things coming up in her life and job so she was filling me in on that. And we had a good time talking about all things Orangetheory. And before we knew it, the representative from the studio was talking to the audience explaining that since it was a pre-release screening they had antipiracy officers in the audience looking for cell phones and the movie was starting.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

The movie was really good! I was shocked afterward to see that there were negative reviews online when I enjoyed it as much as I did. I had seen in interviews that the original cast was returning for this movie. And there were a ton of people from the first movie! Every scene it seems like I was realizing that the actor on screen played a cousin or something in the original. It’s nice to see that so many cast members loved doing the original movie and they wanted to come back!

The story was really cute and even though some moments were a bit absurd, there was always something real and heartfelt to bring it back to reality. Elisa and I both were laughing throughout the entire movie and it seemed like everyone in the audience enjoyed it as much as us. The only thing that bugged me were the women sitting next to me. They talked pretty loudly and decided to do some dancing in their seats (and elbowed me a couple of times). I’m also used to going to screenings where you cannot eat inside the theater so the noise of people eating threw me off a bit (but that’s a personal issue and not an issue with the movie).

I’m so glad that the movie was just as good as I hoped it would be! It’s tough to do a sequel over a decade after the original, and this one did not disappoint at all. And I think Elisa would have the same review as me.

With Elisa

I wasn’t able to hang out at The Grove after the movie because I didn’t want pay too much for parking and I wanted to get home at a decent hour. But it was nice to get out there since I missed doing my post-New Year’s cheesecake outing with my friend Joanna this year (hopefully we’ll do that eventually this year).

With it being after the awards season now, there aren’t as many movie screenings as there were earlier this year. But I’m glad that there are still some so I can go to the movies and not worry too much about having to splurge with my spending. There are a couple of movies that are screening this weekend that I’m going to, and if they are as awesome as “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” was, I’ll be writing about those for sure!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Night At A Screening (or Forgetting What Non-Screenings Are Like) Default ThumbnailAnother Grove Adventure (or Dinner And Not A Screening) Default ThumbnailMovies And Christmas Lights (or A Busy Movie Week) Default ThumbnailMaking My Friend Try On Wedding Dresses (or I’m So Glad She Found The Perfect Dress!) Default ThumbnailSuch An LA Night (or Just Having Some Fun With A Friend) Default ThumbnailBeautiful Wedding For A Beautiful Friend (or I’m Glad I Wore Waterproof Mascara)

Comments Off on My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (or A Movie With A Fun Friend)

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

A Speedy Friend Visit (or Making The Most Of 24 Hours)

Posted on February 16, 2016 | 1 comment

When my friend Kate stayed with me the last time, she mentioned that she might be coming to town in February to watch the Olympic marathon trials. I set the date aside in my calendar and was really excited when Kate told me that she had booked her flights and that she wanted to stay at my place again. But because of her work and the varying costs of flights, Kate was only able to be here for 24 hours (almost exactly). So I was planning out how to make this the most awesome 24 hour visit ever!

Kate got here on Friday afternoon (which is why I couldn’t work out on Friday). I picked her up at LAX and I was super excited to see her. I miss having her live in LA, so even when her visits are super speedy it makes me so happy to have her in the same city as me. It’s funny that it’s such a big deal because since we graduated high school, we’ve lived in the same city for a very limited time. But since she moved to LA briefly I am even more excited when she comes back!

I had gotten an email from the SAG-AFTRA Film Society earlier that week that there was going to be a screening of “Hail, Caesar!” at the DGA that evening. So I asked Kate if she wanted to go to that and she did. It was actually her first time going to a screening with me (for some reason we could never coordinate schedules with the screening schedules when she lived here). But this time it worked out pretty nicely so as soon as I had picked Kate up we headed over to the DGA.

Since the screening wasn’t until 6:30, we had some time to grab dinner before the movie. We walked across the street to The Counter (I love that place!) for burgers and some catch up time. Kate filled me in on her work and her cats and I filled her in on the craziness of everything and my workouts. We had to eat pretty quickly to make it to the screening, but it worked out fine.

I really enjoyed “Hail, Caesar!”! It was really funny and even though some of the jokes were very much about the entertainment industry, I think that enough of the movie isn’t insider stuff that everyone should be able to enjoy it. I was laughing quite a bit through the movie and I think that the entire cast was amazing!

After the screening, Kate and I walked over to the West Hollywood Orangetheory location. I don’t work out at that location, but I wanted to show it to Kate because there is a Orangetheory near where she lives and she’s thinking about checking it out. Even though the studio was closed, the manager (who I’ve met several times and he knows me) was there and he let us in. I showed Kate the various equipment inside and I chatted with the manager about the crazy workout from Thursday (where there was 22 minutes on the floor straight). We didn’t want to keep him there too long after hours, so Kate and I headed out and headed back to my house.

The next day was the main event that Kate came to town for: the Olympic trials. I’ll share more about this tomorrow but Kate went early in the morning and I was able to join her there after I was done with work. Even though I missed most of it, I got to see a little bit.

After we were done watching the racers, we headed over to my side of town to get some lunch at one of my favorite places, Lyfe Kitchen. Even though they have so many good things on their menu, I tend to get the same things each time. I love their BBQ chicken flatbread but instead of fries (since I had some the night before), I got a side of steam veggies with my food.

Lyfe Kitchen

After lunch we only had a little bit of time left before Kate needed to be back at LAX for her flight home, so we were trying to figure out what to do. We finally decided on doing a bit of random searching in the car for new wine bars. My favorite local wine bar, Bottle Rock, closed down right after the last time I was there so I was on the search for a new place. I knew that any new place I found wouldn’t be walking distance like Bottle Rock was, but I still wanted to see what other places were out there.

I had randomly seen a wine bar driving around a few weeks ago, so we headed over there first. Sadly, the place wasn’t open yet for the day. But we were able to see a menu online and it looked promising. After checking out that place, we did a search on Google Maps for other wine bars in the area and we set off on an adventure! We ended up checking out 2 other wine bars (one that looked good and one that didn’t) and then it was time to go to LAX.

Considering that this was all done in 24 hours, I think we succeeded in maximizing the limited time that Kate had in town. She kept saying that this wasn’t really a friend visit since she was coming here for the Olympic trials, but I lucked out because she was staying at my house. So I wanted to make sure that Kate had a fun time in LA and didn’t just feel like she was flying in, sleeping at my house, watching the Olympic trials, and flying out.

I’m just glad that Kate was just as up for going on as many adventures as we could like I was.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Friend Weekend (or Getting Up Early and Not Doing Much) Default ThumbnailMarathon Viewings (or Olympic Trials and Workout Friends) Default ThumbnailOne More Outing To Bar Food (or A Friend Leaving LA) Default ThumbnailLast Happy Hour Of 2015 (or A Speedy Catch Up) Default ThumbnailLong Layover Visit (or Celebrating With My Mom In Person) Default Thumbnail3 Movies In 4 Days (or I’m Grateful For Free Screenings)

1 Comment

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , , ,

Miss You Already (or Women Filmmakers and Cancer Patients)

Posted on November 5, 2015 | 1 comment

I recently had an opportunity to see an advance screening of “Miss You Already”. I was excited enough to go see a new movie, but this screening also had a Q&A with the director, Catherine Hardwicke, as well as with Toni Collette and Tyson Ritter, who are actors in the film. While going to screenings are a fairly regular occurrence through my union, my WIF membership, or other industry opportunities; this one ended up being very special for me.

The first thing that was so special about this screening was the casualness of the entire event. Usually when there is a screening with a Q&A, after the Q&A is done the cast and crew are whisked away by their publicists and other handlers and are in their cars before the audience gets to move. There’s almost never interaction between the audience and the guests.

That was not the case with this screening. It seemed to be not only a WIF event, but a crew and production team screening. Many people in the audience were involved with the film in various positions and they had a little after party after the screening that my friend who joined me for the screening and I got invited to join.

I got to talk to Catherine Hardwicke a little bit. She’s seriously amazing. She’s a big advocate for making sure that more movies are made with female directors and writers. Men are a majority of writers and directors and things really should be more balanced. She is an incredible director and I feel honored that I got to meet her and she spent a little bit of time talking with me (and taking this awesome picture with me).

Miss You Already

The other reason why this screening was so special to me was the subject. Without giving a ton of spoilers away, one of the characters in the film gets a breast cancer diagnosis. The character has to go through several of the same treatments that my mom went through (the character had a similar type of breast cancer). But the way the character reacted to her cancer was very different from how my mom did and that made me feel so grateful for my mom.

When my mom was diagnosed, she told me pretty much right away. I wasn’t able to share it with friends right away because we wanted family to know first and my mom to get through some things before the news was shared. But it was a pretty open discussion with us all. I could ask my mom anything I wanted to without fear of her reaction or upsetting her. A lot of things were (and still are) unknowns, but nothing was hidden from me or anyone else in the family who wanted to know.

After my mom’s surgery, I saw her in Tahoe when I went to visit my family. While I was there, I got to see my mom’s scar and what things looked like. That helped me feel much more comfortable with everything. When you look up post-mastectomy photos online, they can seem both scary and unbelievable. Seeing what it looked like on my mom normalized things.

Through surgery, chemo, and radiation; my mom kept a very positive attitude. Yes, technically cancer at any stage can kill you (or the treatments can kill you or make you sick), but as a family we just focused on positivity and recovery and believed that my mom would get through this just fine. That’s exactly what happened, but I know that even if it wasn’t that way my mom would have still maintained her positivity. Again, that all made me feel much better about the circumstances and helped me avoid googling things that I shouldn’t.

For all I know, my mom just put on a brave face for us all and it was much scarier and more horrible than I know; but if she did protect me from the negativity I appreciate that.

Obviously, my mom’s cancer story isn’t everyone’s cancer story. Not everyone has the ability to stay positive or immediately get a fatal diagnosis. And my family is much luckier than most because almost everyone is in medicine so we understood things without having to do as much research (and that research is so terrifying). And even though the story in “Miss You Already” isn’t my mom’s story, it’s so refreshing to see a cancer story that tells things honestly and doesn’t make it seem easy or so hard that life is over from the moment you are diagnosed.

“Miss You Already” opens this weekend and I really encourage you all to go and see it. Not only will you be supporting a fabulous movie, you will be telling the studios that films by female directors are popular and there should be more of them. Both of those things are very worthy things to support.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Screening At The Walt Disney Studios Lot (or “What The F@#- Is Cancer And Why Does Everyone Have It?” Default ThumbnailCancer Questions (or Hopefully This Will Help Someone Else) Default ThumbnailAn Evening Of Fabulous Women (or Getting More Involved At Women In Film) Default ThumbnailMy Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (or A Movie With A Fun Friend) Default ThumbnailF#*k Cancer (or Proof That My Mom Is A Badass) Default ThumbnailThe Sorority Nobody Wants To Belong To (or Getting Support From Strangers)

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Family, Tough Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,

More Friends More Fun (or Still Building My Social Circle)

Posted on October 22, 2015 | Comments Off on More Friends More Fun (or Still Building My Social Circle)

I’ve talked before about how I’ve had to work hard as an adult to make friends. I lost a lot of my friends when my best friend from college and I ended our friendship and it was tough for me to start over. I was eventually able to reconnect with people I had lost track of in the past (social media was a huge help in doing that) and also went out of my way to make new friends. And after a while, I had a ton of amazing friends that I am incredibly grateful to have in my life and continue to push me to be the best person I can be.

Because I have so many amazing friends now, I do get lazy from time to time when it comes to making friends. I meet people at events and we friend each other on Facebook, but then we never really hang out. And my schedule is partially to blame for that because I’m still over booking myself a bit (I think life will calm down after Thanksgiving).

But lately I’ve been in opportunities to not only meet lots of amazing people, but to get to spend time with them and build real friendships. The SAG-AFTRA Convention is the perfect example of this.

I spent so many hours with my fellow delegates. A lot of the time, we were exhausted from long hours and lack of sleep which helps to put everyone’s guards down and make friendships much easier to start. I did know some of my fellow delegates going into the convention, but through the convention (and the fun of the gala), I got to know so many more people and I’m happy that I’m already finding time to hang out with some of them!

I had the chance to work with one of my fellow delegates when I did coaching for my audition I had recently. While I had an hour of coaching, I was really there for like 4 hours because we were having too much fun hanging out and getting to know each other.

I’ve seen delegates at the SAG-AFTRA Film Society screenings I’ve gone to lately. I’m sure we’ve seen each other at the screenings in the past (most of us go to as many screenings as we can), but since I didn’t really know them until the convention, I never really paid attention. Now, we are all running into each other at each screening and usually we also end up trying to sit together. It’s nice to have friends at the screenings with me since we usually have to wait in line to go into the screening (sometimes for a pretty long time) and there is always time to kill once we are in the theater. And while I’m always prepared with a book, I’d rather use that time to be social.

With it being the start of awards season, I’ve got a lot of screenings coming up. And I’m making a serious effort to try to reach out to my friends (old and new) to come and be my plus one for them. For the past few screenings, I’ve been able to bring a different friend to each one and that’s been pretty awesome. I get that one on one time with a friend while we are waiting for the movie to catch up on life and be silly. And that’s something that I know I don’t do often enough.

I know I always say this, but I have to make my social life a bit more of a priority in my life. These screenings are helping, but once screening season is done I don’t want to neglect my friendships. I don’t know what I’ll do to fix this problem. Maybe I should start going out after I do my late afternoon workouts, but usually by the time I get home all I want to do is shower, eat dinner, and be lazy on the couch for a bit before going to bed. My weekends are getting a bit packed with work obligations until Thanksgiving (seriously, I don’t have a free weekend until after then) but I’m going to start trying to schedule things with friends more in advance so it’s on my calendar and becomes a priority.

Even though I always have the concern about not spending enough time with my friends, I’m glad that right now it’s not a huge issue and that I’m aware of it enough that hopefully I can make sure that it’s not an issue in the future.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailFinding Time For Friends (or Busting Out Of My Routine) Default ThumbnailAnother Meeting of Mentees (Social Hour and Not Business Hour) Default ThumbnailMaking Friends As An Adult (or Am I Weird?) Default ThumbnailSocial Days Off (or Finally Seeing Some Friends) Default ThumbnailHow I Spent My Actual Birthday (or Friends, Friends, and More Friends) Default ThumbnailSeeing Friends In Random Places (or Unscheduled Hangouts)

Comments Off on More Friends More Fun (or Still Building My Social Circle)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

Watching Some Inspiration (or A Weekend Of Screenings)

Posted on October 13, 2015 | Comments Off on Watching Some Inspiration (or A Weekend Of Screenings)

I realize that I’m pretty lucky with the screenings I get invited to. Some of them are because I am current on my SAG-AFTRA dues and I get to vote for the SAG Awards. Some of them are through Women In Film. And some of them are because I pay to be a part of the SAG-AFTRA Film Society.

Most of the screenings I go to (with the exception of the voting season for SAG Awards) are through the SAG-AFTRA Film Society. Prior to this past weekend, I had been to lots of movies through them. Most of them are either in theaters right now or about to be in theaters. And on the rare occasion those screenings include a Q&A.

Late on Friday night, I went to go see “The Walk”. I knew the story pretty well because I had seen “Man On Wire”, but I think that this film was pretty awesome. The screening was in 3D and my palms were sweaty the entire time the walk was going on (the friend who joined me said that he was barely able to breathe that time because he was nervous). It was a fun movie to watch and even though I was really tired Saturday morning I’m glad I went out to see it.

And on Saturday I got to see “Steve Jobs”. I was looking forward to this movie because I love the actors who are in it. I picked a screening time to go to that worked out with my schedule and was ready to go. But then a few days before the screening I found out that the screening time I was going to was also going to have a Q&A with the writer, director, and 3 of the actors in the film.

I was excited to attend the Q&A (which fortunately was after the film because it’s always weird when it’s before the movie you are seeing), but I knew that that movie was going to be extra crowded because of that.

I got to the theater pretty early and was a decent way back in the line, but I managed to find a pretty close and centered seat.

The movie was amazing. I had read the biography of Steve Jobs that the film was based on, but the movie was so different from what I expected. It pretty much takes place in 3 distinct acts (each act is a somewhat real-time representation of a certain day). The pattern of the movie was fascinating to watch and it felt like the movie flew by.

And soon as the credits were done, the Q&A started.

Steve Jobs Screening

It’s always fun to hear about the making of a movie, but what truly inspired me was hearing how they did the rehearsal process for each of the acts. The actors had over a week of real rehearsal time (not being distracted by wardrobe fittings or other things) where they were in a rehearsal room with the set being marked out by tape. This way, the actors had time to get used to the dialogue (and there was a lot of dialogue) and not have to worry about taking up time on the set while the crew was there.

They got to do this rehearsal process for each of the acts (rehearsing for the week or so prior to filming that section). This is not normal. Most movies don’t really give actors real rehearsal time to work on their characters, lines, and relationships. But hearing that some directors feel this passionate about making sure their actors had what they needed to do the best performance possible really made me happy. I can only dream that I get to have an experience like that on set one day.

Normally when I go to screenings, I have fun because it’s a day or night at the movies. This past weekend, going to the movies inspired me to keep going and keep pursing my dream. Just seeing the passion in the filmmakers’ and actors’ eyes proved to me that I’m on the right path.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Night At A Screening (or Forgetting What Non-Screenings Are Like) Default ThumbnailA Summer Of Movies (or Grateful For Union Membership) Default ThumbnailWrapping Up An Awesome Year Of Movies (or Still Loving SAG-AFTRA Film Society) Default ThumbnailEnjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners) Default ThumbnailInspiration On TV (or I Voted For Her) Default ThumbnailA Night Of SAG Awards (or Watching Union Unity)

Comments Off on Watching Some Inspiration (or A Weekend Of Screenings)

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

“The Theory Of Everything” (or The Fanciest Movie Theater I’ve Ever Been To)

Posted on October 30, 2014 | 1 comment

Last week was full of movie screenings! First I saw “What The F@#- Is Cancer And Why Does Everyone Have It?”. Then I got invited to check out “The Theory Of Everything” in an advanced screening!

IMG_3938

“The Theory Of Everything” is the story of Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane. The movie was based on a book that Jane wrote about their relationship. I was super excited to see it, and I invited my friend Robert to be my plus one.

The screening was put on by Women In Film and held at iPic Theaters in Westwood. I knew that it was a fancy movie theater, but I had no idea how luxurious it would be!

I’ve been to some fancy movie theaters before, and I’m well aware that I am spoiled by that. But seriously, this was more than I could image! When Robert and I walked in, we realized that basically every seat in the theater was a leather recliner.

IMG_3937

We got there pretty early, so we were able to get 2 recliners pretty much right in the middle of the seating area. A few minutes after we sat down, a waitress came over to us. She explained that Women In Film was treating us to 2 drinks and whatever food we would like to order (up to a certain amount).

I was totally not expecting that!

So Robert and I checked out the menu on the iPad that was at the little table between our seats.

IMG_3933

I got a water (since I didn’t feel like having a cocktail in the middle of the afternoon) and some truffle fries. But there were so many food options available including entrees. I have no idea what the fries normally cost, but I’m sure they weren’t cheap. While we waited for the movie to start, we googled the theater and realized that the seats we were in usually cost $25 each for movie! Definitely not something that I could afford normally.

The movie started and soon after our food was served. And after that, complimentary popcorn was served too (I turned that down since I was happy with my truffle fries). We were definitely treated well at the theater! And I thought having waiters going around the theater during the movie would be distracting, but it really wasn’t. The way that the seating is arranged, the waiters are never really blocking the screen as they help other patrons.

And the movie was incredible! I didn’t know that much about Stephen Hawking before seeing the movie. Just some of the basics like he has a disease similar to ALS and that he is a scientist, mathematician, and a writer. But this movie covered his life pretty much from college until about his later 40’s. And his wife Jane was pretty amazing too! I actually downloaded the book that this movie was based on onto my Kindle as soon as I got home.

I have no doubts that this movie will be getting a lot of awards during awards season. I think it could totally win Best Picture at the Oscars. The performances were so amazing that at times I forgot that I was watching an actor play Stephen Hawking and not the man himself. It’s just so mind-blowing!

After the movie, Robert and I were in agreement that this was one of the most amazing movies that either of us has seen in a while, and easily the best movie of the year! The movie officially comes out in a week and I highly encourage you all to go see this movie!

You Might Also Like

Default Thumbnail“Lincoln” and “Les Miserables” (or Time For Some Movie Reviews) Default Thumbnail“A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood” (or Doing A Rare Movie Review) Default ThumbnailA Night At A Screening (or Forgetting What Non-Screenings Are Like) Default ThumbnailEnjoying A Mini-Splurge (or Sometimes The Best Plans Are The Simplest Plans) Default ThumbnailMy Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (or A Movie With A Fun Friend) Default ThumbnailEnjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners)

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

A Screening At The Walt Disney Studios Lot (or “What The F@#- Is Cancer And Why Does Everyone Have It?”

Posted on October 28, 2014 | 1 comment

Through WIF, I was invited to an amazing screening this past week. It was for the film “What The F@#- Is Cancer And Why Does Everyone Have It?”.

WTF-MOVIE-POSTER-FINAL

Immediately, I was interested in attending the event. I was even more excited when I found out that it was held on the Walt Disney Studios Lot (which I have never been on before).

When I got my ticket for the event, I found out that I got to bring a plus one with me. I asked my Evil Twin, Shey, to come with me. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer many years ago and Shey was one of the people who really helped me deal with my mom’s diagnosis and what it meant for me. I knew that this would be a movie that both of us would enjoy and have a deep connection to.

When we got to the lot, we were both so excited to be there. The lot has not changed a lot since Walt Disney was there and it was so cool walking around to see all the different buildings and the signs of what departments they were on our way to the theater.

When we got there, there was a giant poster of “Frozen” to greet us.

IMG_3915

The theater was gorgeous and amazing. The seats were super comfortable and Shey and I got there early enough to get some great seats.

IMG_3916

The quick summary of the film is when the filmmaker, Allison W. Gryphon, was diagnosed with breast cancer, she looked for a movie to help her understand what it all meant. She couldn’t find what she was looking for, so she asked around to her friends to help and they created this wonderful documentary.

I wish I could explain how amazing this movie was, but I know that my words won’t do it justice. I wish that I had seen this when my mom was diagnosed (I think it would have been great for her to see it when she was diagnosed as well). It was such an honest viewpoint of cancer (mainly breast cancer) and answered so many questions that are either not answered online or are way too scary to look up online.

I know for sure that if I hear of anyone else being diagnosed with breast cancer, I will send them a link to this movie immediately (it’s available on iTunes and you should all watch it).

After the screening, there was a Q&A with the Allison.

IMG_3919

The Q&A ran a little long (it was over an hour), but it was all very informative. The fact that Allison was able to create the documentary while she was going through treatments for breast cancer is so inspiring. And it proves that anything can inspire you to create a movie.

After the Q&A, I went up to talk to Allison briefly. She was so kind and generous with her time and all I wanted to say was thank you. This really was such a great experience seeing the movie.

Then, it was time for Shey and I to head out. But before we went back into the parking garage, I really wanted to get a picture of the building on the lot that has all of the Seven Dwarfs on it. We saw a security guard near where we were walking and we asked him if it would be ok to take a picture. Not only was it ok, he walked us to where the best view was!

IMG_3924

While Shey and I were taking photos and just being in awe of the fact that we were there, the security guard told us some amazing Disney history. He explained that the Seven Dwarfs are holding up the building because the building was made with the profits of “Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs”. He also showed us where Walt Disney’s office was. Shey and I both assumed that that office wasn’t in use anymore and was preserved as a dedication to Walt Disney. Nope, they rent it out because it’s the best office that gets the most rent money.

We then said goodbye to the awesome security guard (whose name I never got), and then went back to my car.

I wish I could express how amazing seeing the movie was, but I’m really still taking it all in. It was one of those experiences that I know will stay with me for a long time. There are screenings still happening so if there is one near you, I highly recommend going.

And while I hope that nobody reading this has to go through a breast cancer diagnoses, if you do, watch the movie.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailMRI Time (or Another Type Of Cancer Screening) Default ThumbnailCancer Questions (or Hopefully This Will Help Someone Else) Default ThumbnailRunning For Cancer (or Health Supporting Health) Default ThumbnailMiss You Already (or Women Filmmakers and Cancer Patients) Default ThumbnailA Night At A Screening (or Forgetting What Non-Screenings Are Like) Default Thumbnail“The Wisdom Of Walt” (or Time To Win An Amazing Book!)

1 Comment

Posted in Family, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,

Supporting A Friend (or Another Story I Haven’t Talked About Before)

Posted on October 7, 2014 | Comments Off on Supporting A Friend (or Another Story I Haven’t Talked About Before)

This past Saturday evening, I drove into Hollywood (which I hate to do on weekends) because a friend of mine was screening his film.

The film is “The Sublime And Beautiful” and it is written by/directed by/starring Blake Robbins. I have gotten to know Blake a bit. He was a guest on the podcast I work for so I know a lot about his story. It was awesome to get to see him again and to watch his film on the big screen.

IMG_3837

I’ve also seen the film before. Without giving much away, the film deals with the aftermath of a drunk driving accident (not caused by the main character).

This film is truly incredible to watch. I highly recommend everyone sees it. It is currently screening through this week in LA, but you can see future screening dates on their website.

But for me, this film has another meaning.

When I was 6, I was involved in a drunk driving accident. My brother and I were being driven by our babysitter. My parents had been on a vacation and we were going to surprise them at the airport. We made a quick stop at Taco Bell for dinner (this was the first and last time I ate at Taco Bell). And then we were off to the airport.

I was sitting in the back with my brother and our babysitter’s dog Pierre. We were trying to make Pierre sit in the middle seat and wear a seatbelt when a drunk driver ran a red light and slammed into our car.

I know that some people might not think that you can remember something really well from when you were 6, but I remember so much from the accident. I remember the sound that the car made as it was hit. I remember screaming to my brother to duck and cover because I was so sure that this was an earthquake (the 1989 San Francisco quake was the year before and clearly that stuck out in my head). I remember how it felt like forever before the car stopped moving.

Another car stopped and came to help us. They got my brother and I out of the car and someone waited with our babysitter who was up in the front. I don’t remember how they found Pierre, but I learned later that by my brother and I trying to make him wear a seatbelt, we probably saved the dog’s life. If his foot hadn’t gotten caught in it (and made him hit the door of the car), he probably would have gone through the windshield.

The paramedics came quickly (or at least it felt quickly to me). Our babysitter was on one backboard and my brother and I shared another. As the paramedics were taping our heads to the backboard, I remember screaming at them that they had to take us to Kaiser because that’s where my dad worked and that’s what our insurance was.

At the hospital, my brother and were checked out and we were both fine. My brother had a cut lip and I don’t remember any injuries for myself besides bruises. Our babysitter was hurt a bit more, but she was fine.

It seems like in most car accidents, the drunk driver lives and the victims in the other car die. In our accident, the drunk driver died.

I know that I should feel horrible that someone died, but I just remember hearing from someone (I’m not sure who said this to me) that we were lucky that that is how the outcome was. Not only did we live, we did not have to go through a trial with the drunk driver. Now that I’m older, I occasionally think about the drunk driver (whose name I don’t even know) and what their family must have gone through. Even though they did something wrong, their family still lost a loved one.

If you haven’t been personally affected by drunk driving, you are so incredibly lucky. To this day, I will almost never drink if I have to drive. And if I do drink, I usually make sure that I only drink one and that I have at least 2 or 3 hours before I have to drive. I’d rather be over-cautious than to have a horrible accident happen.

The story in “The Sublime and Beautiful” is heartbreaking to watch, but I feel like it is something that everyone should see. Maybe if more people saw how doing something so stupid could affect so many people, they would think twice about drinking and driving.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAre You Freaking Kidding Me?!?!?!?! (or It Feels Like “Groundhog Day”) Default ThumbnailHit and Run (or I Don’t Want Car Accidents To Be An Annual Thing) Default ThumbnailA Drunk Driver On My Street (or Meeting Some Neighbors After 9 Years) Default ThumbnailMy First Subpoena (or A Date For Court) Default ThumbnailCrash (or This is Totally Not What I Was Planning On Writing About) Default Thumbnail“BLUE” (or Supporting A Friend’s Film)

Comments Off on Supporting A Friend (or Another Story I Haven’t Talked About Before)

Posted in Tough Stuff

Tagged , , , ,