WORKING ON OUR MEdia JOURNEY IN HOLLYWOOD

Now that the girls are Cadettes, we are working on the MEdia Journey.  I had heard the journeys were no fun and most girls didn't enjoy having to do them.

I was bound and determined to make it make fun.  One way or another. 

So far, we are having a good time going on our journey.

I wanted the girls to go see a TV show taping but most shows were only allowing 18 and older to get in.

I then found out that Nickelodeon had a new show that is coming out in 2013 and they were just starting to tape it.  They were letting kids 10 and up get in. 

SCORE!  We were going to a tv show taping!

The show was being filmed at Paramount Studios.  I have been to several TV show taping but never there.  I wasn't sure what to expect.

This was going to be new for all of us.

We decided to make a full day out it.  Our first stop was for lunch.  We could go anywhere we wanted to go.

I left it up to the girls to pick.

They picked Taco Bell!  Can you believe it?  Oh well, I guess it was a good choice for them because they were trying to budget their money and Taco Bell was cheep and they enjoyed it.

Plus, we knew we were going to go eat after the show was done taping and they needed to save some money for dinner. 

Good going girls!  I'm proud of the way you all budgeted your money.

After eating, we started our day of playing tourist.  We drove up to the spot that is claimed to be the best location to take a picture with the Hollywood sign in the back. 

We found the location, parked the car and took the short hike up the hill.  It was a nice clear shot but not as close as we thought it would be.

Next time we are going to the top and find the back side of the sign!

Our next stop was on Hollywood Blvd to Grumman's Chinese Theater to see the hand and foot prints of the stars. 

I felt really old because these girls didn't know most of the stars.  Here they are with Tom Cruise and they didn't even know who he was. 

Then we took a picture with Elton John's star.  I think it's really exciting to think these stars were actually standing right where we were.

The girls weren't really that thrilled.  They were more into the "monster" that was taking pictures with everyone for $5.00. 

The girls love scary things.  Monsters, ghosts and so on.  So I thought of a place they may like.

We went to the cemetery in Hollywood.  The Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  We were going to go search for stars graves.  Something a little bit creepy but still having to do with our journey.  Nothing disrespectful at all.

Plus, when we were working our Family Tree and talking about our family members who died, the girls had asked to go to a cemetery.  This would take care of that request too.

Only, we were met at the gate and told we couldn't get in.  The cemetery was closed "for a private funeral".

We later found out it for the director, Tony Scott.  He directed Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

We then drove up to Griffith Park and stopped at the Observatory. 

The girls all struck a pose like the statute they were standing in front of.

They loved the sun dial.  It was a good reminder to us that we didn't have much time left.

It was about 3:04pm and we had to get going.  We wanted to be in line for the taping by 3:30pm. 

We all agreed we had fun running around town and seeing the sights.  Even if we didn't get to spend much time there. 

We also agreed we were going to go back soon.

We found Paramount Pictures!  This is where we were going to see the show.  We parked the car.  We go super lucky and found a spot about 10 feet away from the gate we were going to go in.

We couldn't bring any cameras in so I left mine in the car.

Once inside the girls were excited to see how things were set up.  I explained about the tape on the floor is where the actors stand and the cameras will be during different shots.

The thought it was interesting to see that the rooms were set up with real stuff.  Real furniture, pictures, rugs and so on.  It looked like a real home but with only three walls.

We got moved down from our seats to the 2nd row.  We were right in back of this boy who turned out to be the brother of one of the actors.  He was a lot of fun.

In between takes, the crowd would do fun stuff like sing, play games, dance and if they did they would get small prizes or raffle tickets. 

Trinity and Jesse sang and Liz was in one of the games.  I was happy to see they were not shy acting and got into the fun.

It took about 3 1/2 hours to finish taping a 1/2 hour show.  While they were filming I told the girls to take note of the different jobs, how many people it took to do one show, how they had several cameras shooting the same shot so they could get different angles and things like that.

I think they learned a lot but I know, without a doubt, they had a wonderful time! 

On the way home we stopped for dinner and then it was home for everyone. 

They were given an assignment to be thinking about writing a short film but they all agreed they would rather do a commercial about a made up product.  I was fine with that.

I can't wait to see what they all come up with.