Current mood: accomplished

First of all, my vacation in Texas was grand (Houston and Austin). Will post pics when I have time.

I have a new IMDB credit that can be seen here:

Michelle Osorio on IMDB

It’s funny how long I worked (about a year) to get Safety with Scissors on IMDB (Internet Movie Database) to no avail. Then recently, I discovered it had been listed. But, I wasn’t credited as writer, producer or director! Finally, after more work bugging the support team with emails I got a credit… but only as producer. They also changed the release date with my amendments, thankfully.

I wonder why they only credited the special effects and film score guys originally? Anyone can do a google search and see I directed it. Also, what about the actors? Well, I’ve bugged them enough, I won’t bug them again. I’ll just let the people who were in it know and see if they can’t get the credit up. Maybe they need to affirm my entries…

Anyway, it’s cool, man. Hopefully the Creepshow 3 credit will show up too eventually, as my contract promised a credit. Cheers!

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The Strides Against Breast Cancer walk went great! I’m a little delayed on this post, due to schoolwork. It was actually on October 23rd. It was a great success though. I was able to put together 6 people on my team. That was only half of my goal, but we still raised over $1000!

Many thanks to Aly for putting together the Think Pink concert and to Daisy Rock Guitars for donating our big raffle prize, the heart-shaped bass guitar. It was a wonderful event. I hope to walk another 4.5 miles at Balboa Park and on the freeway next year!

Kristy, Kim and David makin’ strides (above).

In other news, I am talking with David about his sci-fi screenplay. It’s a great story that deserves an organized production. I believe he’s going to be directing it with IcePants behind him, and I think I would make a great producer for it. I just have to consider the time element. First, I will be spending the winter break finally editing Micromatic’s Roller Coaster music video. Then there’s all the work of next semester, which should be my last intense semester of non-film related subjects.

Also, there is a good chance I will be returning to the Divas Direct program, but this time as a full-fledged instructor. I will be giving teenage girls hands-on instruction in filmmaking. The work is very similar to what I did for the San Diego Media Arts Center. I love it… Whew. It’s going to be a very busy, but exciting Spring.

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I’m a new homeowner! And… 12 hour work days suck!

No joke. I closed escrow about two weeks ago. Investment property with my mom. The contractors are already fixing it up. It’s a surefire sell thanks to some clever research done by mumsy about the home’s zoning restrictions.

This ugly ass firepit is gonna get turned into a garden bed.

There’s a fireplace too! It’s stressful having a mortgage, but mom is doing most of the work. I just had to do a lot of paper pushing. My good credit got us a great interest rate on the loan. For now, I have to be very careful with finances and credit-related stuff until the late Spring. I hope to use the profit I made towards a camera. Unless I end up going to school in Austin. Then David and I might *consider* going halfers on a down payment for a real home there.

We’ll see. Bustin’ my ass with 17 units now and 19 units next semester in a hurry to transfer. Considering the girls film camp I mentored and my work with the Media Arts Center, I am hoping I can get to a decent school. I’ll be bummed if I have to go to my state college here. High A in all four classes so far and I’m on the debate team. The question is if I can keep it up through December…

Okay, I worked 12 hours today and worked an extra half hour for free so I need to go to sleep. Moving tomorrow. BYE!

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First of all, David made it back fine so thank you for your kind words and support. I feel lucky to associate with such a stand up guy.

I never talked about the film camp. I mentored Divas Direct, a film camp for at-risk teen girls. The program is put together by the San Diego Women Film Foundation. It was challenging at times to deal with the girls’ behavioral problems, but in the end they made me very proud. Each group produced a Public Service Announcement about issues important to their generation and background. We screened at the Museum of Photographic Arts. This was all in August and is the most productive thing I did all summer next to working on Creepshow 3.

I have been milling over what to do with my film thang. I did finish principal photography on the Micromatic music video, but I won’t be editing until December. That’s because I am taking 17 units at school this semester! I’ve decided I really need to get some academic obligations over with before I continue with film. That’s because the sooner I finish these few pesky classes, the sooner I can go to film school. It’s only a matter of months now.

Lastly, I would like to thank David Gonzalez, Jeff Hillman, Jennifer LeBron, Joseph “Israel” Perez, “Mattzog,” and Luis Robledo for all their help on the video. I know it’s going to come out great. Extra special thanks to Jen, who risked her life on the last day of shooting. We had to reshoot the roller coaster scene because the one at Belmont Park was far too shaky. We ended up going on a kiddie coaster in Tijuana. Wow, that was an interesting event. The ride operator would sometimes stop the train too late so that I would have to climb back two carts in order to get out, lest I step out and fall the ten feet below me to the ground. Poor Jen tried to shoot the last round for me, but she didn’t understand that when I said the last turn was “hard” I meant HARD! So she literally flew out of the cart, much to our horror, but luckily Mattzog pulled her back in and everyone was “okay.” Amusingly, the ride operator didn’t seem to think that was a big deal and still made them ride around a second time. Guess he wanted us to get our money’s worth.

The security guard got annoyed by us after some time (even though the other guard said shooting was okay) and we were literally escorted out of the place. It was so cool. I love Mexico.

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David is in Covington, 20 miles north of Louisiana. His best friend Robert’s family was running out of essentials and help did not seem to be on its way. So the two of them left Friday night to travel all the way there, stopping in Texas to ger David’s family’s truck. They literally had to make that trek because it doesn’t look like any governmental body is going to get there soon.

I was no longer able to reach his cell phone as he neared Baton Rouge today. He did manage to text and say he made it to Robert’s family’s house okay. I won’t stop worrying until he gets his ass out of there alive and hopefully he’ll convince Robert’s family to leave too because, to be honest, I don’t know WHEN the Red Cross, FEMA, national guard will EVER get there. They sure as hell aren’t there now and people are really in need, just like many other towns left to fend for themselves without governmental help and without gas, electricity, water and so on. I’m pretty discouraged and disappointed. There’s probably people still dying considering all the outlying towns that have been ignored. The news articles speak about the “aftermath”, but there are still people abandoned out there! News Article.

Anyway, I’m really proud of him for traveling all the way there from California to help and if anyone can send good energy his way, I’d be greatly appreciative. I won’t be myself until he’s back. I cried at work today once I couldn’t get through the first time on the phone. I am pretty sure he’ll be okay, but considering the things that have happened to people trying to help… (car jackings, shots fired at rescue helicopters and so on). Note that they were driving with an open truck bed full of supplies into a town that has been forsaken… As David put it in his text, “These people need a lot of help out here. It’s bad where I am and we’re in the best part.”

Speaking of which, my co-worker Halimat told me about her friends who are down South right now gathering their family in different states (the mother was put on the wrong bus) to take them back here. The black woman of the couple tried to get a room in a hotel, but when she mentioned she was from New Orleans, she was turned away (although she meant she was originally from N.O. and now lives in California). The desk agent told her the N.O. guests were trashing the rooms and couldn’t afford to pay to stay anymore. Then the white partner came in and magically was given a room…
There have been many discouraging stories in the nightmarish coverage I’ve read about (from suicides to rapes) in New Orleans. Originally I had lost all faith in humanity, but I’ve been reminded of the light side.

First of all, there’s David, who drove all the way to Louisiana to help pieces of one family (Robert can’t drive). Plus, I just started a team to walk in Strides Against Breast Cancer and raised $50 in one day! It doesn’t take place until October 23rd and I hope to get 12 team members and cumulatively raise $1500. The encouragement I’ve met with thus far has renewed my faith in my fellow humans.

Nonetheless, I won’t feel whole until David’s returned. I had meant to post last week about the mentoring I did for the homeless girls’ film camp (very rewarding), but I think I’ll have to recap that another day. I also had a birthday. I’ll talk about that later when I’m in a more festive frame of mind. Until later…

Michizzle

Click to donate to my team fighting breast cancer

Click here to donate to the Red Cross

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Adventures at Universal: Production Diary, Day 9-18

This is going to be a rather lackluster blog since I waited so long to finish the production diary. The middle week was hell. Very hot and long. Plus I didn’t have a day off for three weeks, as my days off from the shoot were when I had to drdive three hours south to San Diego and work at Sea World and then drive three hours back up. Although it was more like 2.5 hours because I was driving… er… fast.

By the end of the second week I almost fell asleep at the wheel on my way to San Diego. The weather was so nice here (as it almost always is) and working at SW is pretty much like a day off. I didn’t want to go back, honestly. But I am glad I did. The last few days of production went well and I had a good time.

One big thing I came away with on this shoot is the decision to go to BUSINESS SCHOOL. That’s right. Everyone and their mom graduated from film school in L.A. The other PAs I worked with all graduated or were about to graduate. In fact, many people I work with at Sea World got film degrees. I think a business degree could prove more useful to me. Actually, not so much the degree as the education. I’m not interested in getting a job with it. I just want to learn the financial aspects of everything. I want to be like the people who were in charge of Creepshow 3. None of whom went to film school.

Anyway, enough about that. I had my wisdom teeth removed yesterday and I can onl eat soft foods. Yesterda it was ice cream, jamba juice and yogurt. Yuck, I don’t ever want to eat sweet foods again. Today I graduated to cream of wheat which was pleasant. I am looking forward to cream of mushroom soup later. My teeth hurt. Ow. I have to go brush them now, unfortunately. BYE.

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Um, yeah. So I’ve been working an average of 15 to 16 hours per day and sometimes running errands before and after too, so my posts will be sparse from now on.I got heat stroke the first day of shooting and still worked 16 hours. I got a fever that night and then for a week the most painful, burning sore thrroat of my life. Then I had a cough, but that’s going away. I am woman, hear me roar. I got yelled at a few times for things that weren’t my fault and I seem to have become the unofficial Office P.A. I was also helping the 2nd 2nd AD with cast wrangling for about a day until he realized I keep getting called away to work in the office.

I’ve been driving off campus less and I don’t mind the office work since it keeps me out of the sun, although the production coordinator loves it insanesly cold in here so I wear a sweater when he’s around since he leaves the AC on. So this movie is tough work, but I’m learning so much and getting paid for it so I don’t mind the short turnaround time before returning to set and it’s cool seeing how it gets done on a bigger budget, although it seems like this movie is a half million dollar budget maybe and of course, that’s super low budget by Hollywood standards. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re the lowest budget film on the lot Normally, I guess films with this budget can’t afford to shoot here, but Mr. Rami Rank, production Coordinator extraordinaire, worked out a good deal with Universal since he’s worked on this lot before.

Random thought… Driving the cart is so much fun. It’s like when you were a kid and you went to Disneyland and you wished you could take control of the ride and go wherever you wanted.

Pablo (my friend, and probably the only writer/production assistant ever to exist on a movie set) and I have decided after all this laboring that this definitely inspires us to direct more because it’s a lot more fun being a creative force than picking up trash/cigarette butts on set and being the last to eat at lunch.

Oh, the best moment this week was when we shot at the Chicken Ranch (those of you familiar with the Universal Studios tour know it as the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas house), which we are still at, and some crew people staged a little entertainment for the tourists driving by on the tram rides. The script supervisor stood on the lawn yelling into her cell phone and throwing her coffee cup at one of the camera crew and screaming that she wanted her agent. The tram people seemed pretty shocked as they were driven past the scene. It was hilarious.

Another thing is, when we shot down the street a little ways on Elm Street, it took alot of coordination to pause the Jaws ride so we could shoot (as well as keeping two P.A.s up on Wisteria Lane to hold construction on the Desperate Housewives set). However, yesterday Crossing Jordan was shooting on Elm Street (just below the Chicken Ranch) and they shut down Jaws entirely for them! Wassup wit dat?! It took forever to get in or out of that area in a car(t) because there were three different things shooting at once. Crossing Jordan was shooting something with cops and dogs and gun shots.

Blah blah blah. I need to get back to work and file the release forms for all the extras. Fun!

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Today I worked about 12.5 hours from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. I started out by getting lost trying to get to the front entrance of Universal because I got directions from three different people. No big deal though. The place was cool and so spread out. First we carpooled off the lot to rent a cargo van and a huge passenger van, which I was put in charge of. Then I drove the streets of L.A. alone in this white tank over to the costume designer’s house to pick up her kit and tons of boxes. Drove them to the studio and picked up the production manager, his assistant and a production intern over to Elm Street, where we’re shooting. A quaint curving street where the art department was painting the interior and prepping it for shooting.

Dropped off people here and there and then waited to be called to bring all the wardrobe stuff over when the street was clear enough. Took a long time so I bought a cheeseburger at the Backlot Cafe across from our office for $2.75 (didn’t know when lunch was and didn’t wanna wait). Finally, I actually got sent in my own car to go buy two cases of water (70 bottles). Didn’t want to call the PM and tell him I was lost so I called my Divx pal, David who navigated me to the Smart and Final. Thanks, David. Came back and got clearance to enter the lot with the car (instead of just parking it in the structure at the front). Drove down to Elm and delivered the water bottles and I forget what I did next. Got a ride with the production intern on his nifty golf cart back to the office and we picked up Pablo (another p.a. and my friend). Dropped off all the wardrobe stuff in the wardrobe trailer just past Elm Street and then drove down back to James Stewart Road and continued to the Costume Department.

Made several trips there bringing racks of clothes down the 4 story elevator and loading them in the van. Took them to the wardrobe trailer where we hung them. Ate some pizza at some point too. Can’t remember when. Was working off two hours of sleep. They went to do some other stuff and I set up the walkie talkies, charging them and making an inventory of them. 2nd AD instructed me that on the set I should always carry a couple of charged batteries so when someone’s walkie dies I can switch it immediately and go charge the dead one….Then went back to wardrobe, this time by myself. Finally got to talk to the producer on my way back. He was really great, telling me I did a great job on the last film and that is why I was back and being paid. That felt good. Maneuvered the van a few times, drove around some more.

Dropped off a check worth more than my car to Fotokem for processing cost deposit and then drove down to the company’s main office down in Hollywood helping the p.a.’s prepare the updated script, inserting the pink sheets. Hope we didn’t mess up considering how sleepy I was. Gotta eat, shower and sleep now. Getting up at 4:30 a.m. All exterior shoot tomorrow.

Wow. Gonna be a scorcher, but looking forward to our first day of shooting! Universal Studios is fun. It’s so funny to see the kids wave at you from their tour tram and to hear the Jaws part of the ride going on behind our set. Hehe. Oh yeah and I almost drove into the road where the pond parts like the red sea, in the wrong direction. Luckily someone yelled at me I was going the wrong way. Whose idea was it to combine a theme park with a movie studio anyway?

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First of all. For those of you wondering: no I did not get the Dolphin Show host gig. . Bums me out since I really did such a good job at the audition. Much better than last time when I got a callback even. At least it motivated me to learn the guitar, which is pretty cool. And you know what? Life is funny. Not long after the disheartening news, my friend at Taurus Entertainment said that the producer I worked under for one day at the Day of the Dead 2 reshoots asked for me to return and help on their next production starting next week.

I’ll be on the Universal lot as a production assistant on Creepshow 3. This is my first paying gig for a feature film where I am there the entire time (not just a one-day intern type thing). I’m pretty excited. I am also amazed that Sea World Audio-Video is letting me leave for three weeks (although on my one day off each week, I’ll be driving three hours south back to San Diego to work one shift here at the World). I feel pretty blessed, and if I had gotten the Dolphin gig, I probably wouldn’t have been able to take so much time off already.

It’s pretty cool too that I was remembered from just one day of work back in January. Just goes to show, even in Hollywood, you really can be appreciated if you practice hard work and an above-and-beyond attitude. I thought that would be common up in L.A., but in my experience, a good work ethic is rare in any field. So I’m glad someone up there likes me, and it was a good reminder that, though performing is fun, my true calling is behind the camera.

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Archived from my old Xanga blog:

You can see all the Star Wars trailers here:

Star Wars III Commercials

You can also see a music video that features a bunch of awesome footage from the movie.

Now specifically, on the linked page, you will find the Tragedy ad. In it, you will notice Anakin Skywalker has a scar on his face. It appears to be a long scratch on his right side. Where did that scratch come from? We’ll have to wait and find out. However, in one shot in the commercial, the scar is on the wrong side!

This is most likely due to the editor “flipping” the shot. This was done often in the old Star Wars movies and many fun bloopers have been pointed out in fan books and sites.

Um… I’m done now…

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