Work Trip to LA

Now that I'm actually making real life commercials, occasionally they send me to shoots. Just got back from a week in LA. 

MONDAY

Arrived in Santa Monica Monday evening. Our hotel (Loews) was amazing and right on the beach. 

Continuing the tradition from my New York work trip, first stop is Umami Burger.

After that we went to West 4th and Jane, a bar associated with the founders of Untappd. Had a Pliny and a Modern Times beer. Walked back to the hotel...

...and enjoyed the fire pit on my private patio.

TUESDAY

Grabbed some breakfast on the way to the casting session. Darren took a behind the scenes shot of our commercial shoot for social media. So I took a behind the scenes shot of the behind the scenes.

After seeing casting videos of 74 actors (for two roles) we brought in 24 for "callbacks" so we could see them live and give them notes. From there we selected our two guys.

After casting, I had time to go to the Santa Monica pier.

I spent $8 on ten plastic balls and got one in a prize hole which won me this. Upon arriving home, I cut the baby panda away from his mom so each boy could have a panda.

Tuesday night we went out to the Den on Sunset, Laurel Hardware and Rainbow Room.

WEDNESDAY

Spent the morning working in the hotel room and then had a little time to kill before our pre-production meeting.

After pre-pro, we took the client out to dinner at Brick + Mortar. 

And walked back via the beach.

Did spend Wednesday night working on McRib commercial scripts pretty late.

THURSDAY

Bright and early on the road to the Simi Valley for our shoot day. 

The first hour of a shoot is just getting the set ready.

After an 11-hour shoot, had our wrap dinner at Tavern. Had a $60 bottle of wine and a $95 steak for two. 

By the end of that, I was exhausted and had to get up early for our Friday flight. Good shoot, good trip.