Sony – Kelly Tatham

Does anyone know any good memory boosting tricks? I think with all these fictional characters and events swirling around in my head, my brain is having trouble grasping on to the tangible ones. Or maybe it’s just a product of my generation: if I didn’t tweet it youtube it instagram Facebook tumblr snapchat (ok, that last one’s flawed) right away, it never happened. Why would my brain exert actual energy when social media (and its warehouse of servers in Alaska*) can do that for me?**

What I’m trying to say is I only have one picture from Day 8, so it practically didn’t happen. But it did and it was great. Onwards!

*There’s a horror movie pitch somewhere in there.

**Those platforms have to store their info somewhere, right? Someone told me that once… I think I need to read more books.

The picture is from Day 7.

What we did in the morning doesn’t matter. (I don’t remember.) It likely involved breakfast at some point and probably a little TV. What matters is what we did in the evening: attend our first LIVE! STUDIO! TAPING! Well, except for Jimmy Kimmel the night before… So, it was our first LIVE! SITCOM! TAPING! (to be aired at a much later date). Barbara (the Wonderful) arranged for us to attend a taping of Men at Work, the TBS show we have previously seen a rehearsal of.

Danny Masterson, Adam Busch, Michael Cassidy, James Lesure

And now, like all our feelings for Clint Eastwood, I bring you the conflicted chart* of emotions:

The Good: The show, Men at Work: It’s funny. It’s not 30 Rock but not everything can/should be. It’s cute and fun and would make for excellent background TV on a rainy day of collaging.

The Bad: Our audience warmer** whose name escapes me but we’ll call Chris, because that’s what he called every male he brought up to the front, (except for Ryan – see below). I understand now that there are different calibers of warmers (stay tuned for future post) but way back then, on Day 8, I thought all studio audiences had to sit through an uncomfortable, groan inducing*** and, frankly, racist five plus hours of Chris’s brutal jokes. (He more or less just brought people up to the front, heckled them, then made them dance.) I understand that the job must be VERY hard — I could certainly never do it — and it probably wasn’t as awful as I’m making it out to be and, in fact, most of the audience seemed to really enjoy it, so, you know what, why not run with it, Chris, the same way I’ve completely run away with this ridiculous sentence.

The Ugly: The two individuals, (one nicknamed “rapey Ryan” and the other, let’s call her Christina), who chose to bump, grind, and otherwise engage in inappropriate behaviour in front of 200 hundred people. (I’m no prude but when the shirt AND belt come off and you’re shaking your bits atop the face of a woman who is now lying on the floor, I’m looking away.)

The Good: The attractive writers/crew. Nisha found her future husband. (Who, naturally, we stalked after the show and who, naturally, completely ignored us.)

The Bad: The sandwiches they served far later than midway through the night. But, hey, the taping (and the sandwiches (and Chris’s entertainment)) was all free, so this is not a real complaint.

The Good: Michael Cassidy! This guy has the smile/wave/laugh move down like you wouldn’t believe. He even took the time to come up to the audience and answer questions. It might take another 10 years but this guy’s going to be a movie star. Mark my words. (Seriously, I got a total Ryan Reynolds/George Clooney early TV days vibe.)

The Bad: Danny Masterson. (Hyde!) I couldn’t tell if he was phoning it in or his character was meant to be really, really low energy. Probably not the best question to arise.

The Ugly: Molly Sims’ face. It. Doesn’t. Move. (Which really isn’t ugly so much as sad.)

The Good: The rest of the cast. James Lesure nailed every take and brought something new every time. Adam Busch was also fantastic as were the “suburb” extras.

The Bad: The Nickelback joke! There was a great Nickelback joke in rehearsal and it got cut. I think we were the only ones who laughed at it in rehearsal and the show doesn’t air in Canada, so I get it; but we were sad anyways.

The Good: Going to a taping of a sitcom!!! All bad and ugly aside, it was an incredible experience. It’s absolutely longer than ideal, but five or six hours of numb butt is the trade off for seeing a television show taped live; and it’s worth every minute.

*Not a real chart. More of a list, actually.

**One who keeps the audience “warm” i.e. laughing during the lengthy hours and repetitive takes.

***I know that a “groan” is still categorized as a “laugh” but let’s not aim for that, okay?

The alien spaceship we saw floating on the way home.

Oh boy, do I ever love to eavesdrop. I’m back at Aroma Cafe; this place is amazing. Aside from the ludicrous display of baked temptations (today it’s a sticky bun), and the menu, packed bottom to top with savoury lunch and breakfast items, the true draw is the wraparound back patio. Wicker chairs, large wooden umbrellas with deep red covers, palm fronds*, antique lanterns and faux chandeliers, and every second person deserving of a double-take, “Wait. Do I know you from somewhere?”

To my left is a middle-aged woman bragging about how well the Universe is treating her these days; (I’ve gathered that it has something to do with her donating all of her shoes.) At my ten o’clock is a five o’clock-shadowed writer, complete with ball cap, v-neck, and cheap, worn down shoes. (He’s actually just reading a screenplay and not writing one, so the writer assumption is based purely on appearance.)

But enough about this place, let’s talk about Day 5!

So last year I graduated from the Writing for Film & Television program at VFS. (Yes, I realize this has been established; stay with me.) The head of that program is one Michael Baser. Now, Mr. Baser is married to a lovely woman named Barbara Stoll. Barbara happens to live and work in L.A. at Sony Pictures Studios as a line producer and was kind enough to invite Nisha and I to join her for lunch.

We left the house by 9 a.m. ensuring that we wouldn’t be late for lunch. (Actual travel time: 1 hour 40.) Thankfully Hayley and Ryan live quite close to a metro stop so we were able to hop on that and transfer to a second line, taking us all the way to Culver City. We were a little early so we popped into Trader Joe’s so Nisha could experience all its otherworldly glory. After some free samples, we walked a few more blocks, checked in, and walked onto the Sony lot.

I can understand how someone might get jaded quickly, but walking onto that lot for the first time was pretty damn cool. Everything is polished and manicured and a giant wooden rainbow streaks across the sky and the buildings are labelled with names like Garbo, Hepburn, Gable, and Crawford.

Barbara was kind enough to invite a VFS writing alumni to join us for lunch and answer some questions. Richard has been living in L.A. for three years and has been extremely successful working his way up as a sitcom writer. He reiterated that people want to read original scripts as opposed to spec episodes and seemed to attribute a lot of his success to being aggressive. (Maybe I’m misremembering here, but a theme that’s been standing out to me lately is BE AGGRESSIVE — more on this later.) We took a tour around the lot and Barbara let us peek our heads into the sets of Men at Work (TBS) and her pilot, The McCarthys. Then, our most wonderful host arranged for Nisha and I to sit in on a rehearsal of Men at Work; (and drove us to said rehearsal in a golf car. Highlight of the week!)

I’ve been lucky enough to sit in on a multi-cam rehearsal once before (Some Assembly Required in Burnaby, B.C.) but this was Nisha’s first experience. (Let’s be honest, though, still just as cool the second time; especially when Michael Cassidy is wandering around.) The sole voyeurs in the bleachers, we moved back and forth as the cast and crew went from scene to scene. Neither of us had seen the show before (it actually doesn’t even air in Canada) but it was a lot of fun to watch, particularly seeing Danny Masterson (Hyde from That 70s Show), Kelen Coleman (The Mindy Project, The Newsroom, and recently cast in The McCarthys), and the aforementioned Michael Cassidy (Zac from The OC). Also, to our confusion, we spotted Breckin Meyer on the floor, standing around, not acting. Turns out he actually created the show. Who knew! It’s always really cool to get a peek behind the scenes and we even got to chat a bit with one of the writers afterward.

View from the Universal City metro stop.

We then said goodbye to Barbara and hopped back on the metro. After a long journey, we arrived home, popped several bottles of wine, and had a lovely dinner with Ryan and Hayley.

* I literally have no idea what a palm frond is or if those two words accurately represent the foliage on the back patio, but it really rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Say it: palm frond. Ahh, yes, like a tropical ocean breeze.

Tag Archives: Sony

Tuesday at the Studio