Our Trip: Part 2

So I'm back with another installment of our Trip Journal.  While the highlight of our time in Cali for Matt was the guitar stuff, for me it was the time spent seeing famous sights and taking a tour of Warner Bros Studios.  I simply soaked in all of this stuff!  I've never wanted to be an actor, but I would LOVE to be involved in the movie/TV making process!  I LOVE this stuff!

I  know I'm overloading you with photos...sorry.  Here are some of the really neat ones!  

This one is of a porch light (on a brownstone I'm not sure what a porch light would be called).  Actually, it's where they put porch light for filming.  The process sort of reminds me of how a church would use a Fellowship Hall.  One group comes in and decorates it for a wedding.  Then they have to strip it back down to it's bare walls. The next group might be using it for a silent auction, so the decorations will be completely different.  Well, on these streets they remove all the lighting so that each production can have the appropriate look.  For example, a movie set in the 50's would use a totally different kind of street lamp than one set today...

If you can't recognize this set, I'm surprised!  The only hope you have is that it is from a slightly different angle.  This is "Central Perk" from Friends!  The real props have been removed from the working set to this room in "the Mill" which is the massive prop storage place.  Fun Fact:  The really cool cappuccino machine used in the show, and seen to the left in the photo was real.  The problem when they first started shooting was that no one on set knew how to use it.  So they hired a nearby barista to teach them how to use it.  Turns out he stuck around to be the character fondly known as "Gunther."  :)

I tried my best to watch the TV show Gilmore Girls.  I really like both the main actresses and think the idea is great.  But for some reason I just didn't have enough interest.  BUT, I do remember Lorelei Gilmore's parents' house.  A few years ago they tore down the old Western Town used to film Little House on the Prairie to build a modern neighborhood.  In this town is Lorelie's parent's house!  The neatest thing about this is that they use these houses as office spaces.  Literally, writers for certain shows spend their hours writing in these modern style houses.  There's a back entrance so that the filming is not interrupted when writers need to go in and out.  You can see in this pic the car of one of the writers!  SO FUN!!  (For more really cool info on this tour, click here!)

OH, this was cool!  The picture below is of the Ambulance bay from ER!  THE ER!  The one with George Clooney!  They wrapped the last episode just before we got there (within a day or two) and were done with it forever.  We were literally the last tour to get to see the bay in tact.  If you look closely, you can see the plywood framing.  They had already removed the sliding glass doors.  Fun Fact:   The "automatic" doors were not really automatic.  They said that they couldn't trust machinery to open just right each time so those doors were really opened and closed by two stagehands each time!!  

And the set below was used for a lot.  If you're a Friend's fan, you will remember Ross' monkey, Marcel.  This is the stage they used when Marcel was filming a commercial, I think.  Anyway, that was probably the only episode I missed!  But look closely...see the fire escape stairs?  Recognize them?  This was the rainy alleyway MJ walks through when thugs try to attack her.  In swoops Spiderman to save  the day.  These are the stairs where MJ removes the mask and kisses her upside-down hero!

Inside the "Mill" are hundreds of thousands of props they can use for movies.  As we walked down the hallway known as "Antique Row" we saw specific items tagged.  This item was tagged to be used in an upcoming Denzel Washington film called, "Book of Eli."  

After a very worthwhile tour we headed to Hollywood Blvd. to see the Walk of Fame.  There were so many stars on the ground...many more than I expected!  I took several pictures, including BILLY GRAHAM's!  How fun is that!  Then, the pinnacle!  We saw JESUS!  Cracked us up!  

Random fact about me...I hate the sun shining in my eyes.  My best friend, Anna, and I are perfect compliments to one another.  She LOVES it!  This works well when we sit in the sun...I face away from it, she faces it!  That actually hasn't happened in a long time, but it used to work out marvelously!  As Matt and I were driving to Rodeo Drive just to say we had been there, we traveled Sunset Strip at sunset.  The name of the road finally hit me!  The SUN SETS right in the center of this road!  Check out this picture of the setting sun!

Stay tuned for more episodes of, "Our Trip."

~Jen