Tomorrow will mark the day I move back to Umass and begin my Sophomore year of college. To think that an entire year has gone by since starting my Freshman year completely, absolutely and entirely blows my mind. This year has so much in store and after a great year and amazing second semester, I am ready to go back and attack this one full force. 

As many of you know if you saw my recent Facebook status, it will not be an easy semester. I am taking 8 classes (27 credits) and on top of that I am the Assistant Director for a television show called "Code of Conduct" and I will be working two jobs. Why are you doing this insanity to yourself? you may ask. 
Well honestly I thrive off chaos and crazy schedules. Last semester I had six classes (22 credits) while working on the TV show and with HerCampus and I was downright bored at times. 

Not only am I taking some extremely interesting classes, but I feel like after my trip to L.A. my career is actually beginning to stir. I'm in contact with many of the producers, writers, actors and execs that I met in L.A. and I'm attempting to meet up with as many people in the New England area to create a network here as it might be a while until I can get back over to the West Coast. 

But to those people I know who always tell me how "lucky" I am or how "perfect" I am being able to juggle my schedule and still seem to calm and unstressed, this is what I would like to say: 

These things, like being able to go to L.A. and getting great grades, don't just happen for me. I work hard. Like...REALLLY hard. In the summer I don't get to see my friends. I don't go to the beach on the weekends and sleep in. I work. I work so that I have money so that I can afford to go to L.A. to meet people and further my career. Over this summer I work almost 60 hrs a week at Camp and 20 - 30 at my other job. Most weeks I totaled about 80+ hours a week. And I save my money so that I won't have college debt when I graduate. I make sacrifices so that I am able to handle my school work. Like I don't go out nearly as much as most college kids because I am usually writing papers or working. Last year I went home msot weekends to work at the wedding venue I work at so that I will maintain my higher status and continue to get staffed and receive positive reviews from my higher ups. I am by no means "perfect" and it isn't "luck" at all. I work my ass off to get what I do. And when I want something, I go out there and do what it takes to get it. And that's what I plan to do this semester. 

I want to go to France in the Spring. So I am going to go out there and look for scholarships and get everything lined up so that I can do so. I am going to look into getting a work visa so that I can make money and have a cushion for when I come back and am most likely going to live in NY or LA for the summer. In addition I am possibly going to take place in the Cannes Film Festival program with the American Pavilion while I am in France, which will cost a few thousand dollars. (it's actually really exciting and I'll perhaps blog about that later!). 

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that nothing in life comes free and good things come to those who work for them. You can honestly do whatever you want in life. All of you. It just depends on whether or not you are willing to make it happen. 

I have faith that you can! 

Thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille 

Don't (Remix ft. Rick Ross) by Ed Sheeran 

Finally, an unedited version!! <3 <3 <3

Harrington has been a crucial part in creating the young woman I am today. Steve Lockney, who's been the camp's director since I have been there, has taught me responsibility, respect and so much more. It's because of him that I will arrive 20 minutes early to any and all events, job interviews and meetings. It's because of him that I understand how to be smart and serious when doing my job but to also balance fun and know when to be relaxed. 

This past summer has definitely been, while one of the busiest, still one of the best summers I have ever had. From mini golfing with the gang, to getting deep during our car circles at Meola's to our drive-in adventures and our SaSS classes with Maura and Bethany, it's truly been amazing. There isn't one second that I would take back from it. Thank you to all who have made it so great and the perfect last year as a Staff at Camp Harrington. 

And of course, thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille 

Today was an extremely informative day full of some amazing people and some amazing occurrences. 

To start off our day, the group headed to the Sony Pictures Post Production Studios. We met three time Academy Award winner, Paul N. J. Ottosson. He won Oscars for sound mixing and editing in The Hurt Locker as well as for sound editing in Spiderman 2 back in 2005. We talked with him and listened to some of his work for a while in his "office" (an amazing room with amazing sound equipment and all the snacks and drinks a person could ever ask for) before moving on to the next stop in our tour: the sound stages and editing studio. 

After eating lunch on the beautiful Sony campus (and I mean seriously beautiful here people) we drove over to Sony Animations down the street. 

It was somehow even more amazing. While the campus was much more subdued and modest the people were so friendly and excited to be meeting with us. We were blessed enough to sit down with Michael Kurinsky, the Art Director of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the Production Designer of Hotel Transylvania 2 which will be coming out in 2015. After Michael we met Henry Yu who is the storyboard artist for Popeye which is coming out in 2016 and has worked closely with director, Genndy Tartakovsky for years. He was honestly one of the most humble - yet hysterical - guys I have ever met. 
After meeting with these amazing artists we got to try our hand at animating in the Sony Animation training room and then learned how they create camera movement in completely computer generated scenes and try our hand at moving the "camera" around Spiderman as he swung between the buildings. 

I felt so blessed to have been able to meet with such amazing people and learn such valuable things from them, and not to mention Melissa, a marketing employee that was bringing us around who was the absolute sweetest thing! A big thank you to her and all those at Sony who were nice enough to show us around. 

On our way out of Sony we stopped in the lobby where Melissa gave us all small gifts from the company...and where we saw Ed Helms sitting on chair ten feet away. He was signed in the book at the reception and it was clear he was waiting for some kind of meeting. But, yes, I saw Ed Helms. And, yes, it was amazing. It was clear, though, that he was trying to hide his face from us so as to prevent a group of about eleven people from ambushing him on a Monday morning while he's trying to wait for a meeting so we let him be and just took peeks from out of the corner of our eyes. 

All in all it was another eventful day and we ended with a 5.5 hr continuation of the pitch meeting with Harrison Reiner from yesterday where we got a lot of great ideas out there and got the creative juices flowing.

Can't wait for tomorrow! We have so much great stuff in store! 

Thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille

Try by Colbie Caillat

Today my LA adventures have consisted of mostly sight seeing and getting to know the area in which I one day might be living. And doing a few touristy things that we wouldn't be able to do once our week really starts. 

First we visited the Westwood Cemetery where I got to see Marilyn Monroe and Ray Bradbury's graves along with several other celebrities. 

Afterwards our program director, Michael, took us all around Los Angeles and showed us all the different neighborhoods. 

I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time!

Drove near Venice beach and saw the amazing houses on the canals. 

Ate lunch at the Farmer's Market and visited the Grove

And took an amazing hike in the Hills where we got an amazing view of all of Los Angeles...

We did even more that I won't get into including visiting Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Strip. 

At the end of the day we were rewarded with a great dinner back at UCLA and a meeting with a man who was supposed to help up learn how to pitch movies. We started off going around and explaining what exactly we wanted to do with out careers. Granted not many of us has a solid idea and just knew what we were interested in and had many goals that all seemed viable. This man helped us refine what we wanted to do and explained how exactly we were going to have to get into these jobs. After a while (about three hours) we got into the actual pitching of movies.

I think that i have learned more from this six hour meeting about my career and the Entertainment Industry than I have in my entire life. It was great and we are only halfway finished with our pitch meeting! Tomorrow is when the real work begins and when we will start to meet more people who are working in the industry right now, followed by the second half of our pitch meeting. 

Things are going great over here on the West Coast and I can't wait for even more!

Thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille

Preparedness by The Bird and The Bee

Before I begin this post I would just like to apologize for it seems that more than a month has gone by since I have posted anything to this blog. My life has been a whirlwind of craziness for the past four or five weeks involving 80+ hr work weeks in which I also fit the gym almost everyday, running errands, taking care of my animals and somehow jamming in a social life. Oh and that left a little bit of time for sleep (I'm talking somewhere around three hours a night people). I haven't had a day off of work in over six weeks until today. But what is happening today you might ask? 

Well, I'm typing this blog post as I sit on a plane taking me to Dallas, TX where I shall be boarding yet another plane to take me to LA. 

Today marks the start of an eight day adventure in Los Angeles, CA where I will be doing lots networking in hopes of getting my name out there in the big scary world that is Film and Television Industry. It marks the first time I have ever been to the West Coast and the first time going on a trip by myself. Its all very crazy, but before I know it I will be unpacking at my UCLA dorm and meeting some crazy people.

I can't wait to get started and see my itinerary for the week. I will break this post up into several updates as the day goes on and post them all at once, so for now, that is all. I will soon be strutting my stuff under the Hollywood sign, so until then it's over and out. 

Sitting at the gate in Dallas, TX waiting during my 2 hour layover. Not much to discuss. I'll check back in later. Wouldn't want to bore you now would I? 

It's now Sunday morning as I simply did not have the energy to do anything last night except come back to my room andfall asleep. 

My Itinerary looks like it has some crazy awesome plans for this upcoming week that I can't wait to tell you all about including some great opportunities for networking and meeting some very important people. 

Yesterday after getting off my plane in LAX and being shuttled over to UCLA I spent some time walking around and enjoying the beautiful LA weather until it was time to check in. I soon met up with my group and ate dinner. Then we all walked into Westwood and met up with the man who previously ran this program and his recent wife. We had some great conversations and all got to know each other better as we stood in line for some Diddy Riece ice cream. Let me tell you. This had to be the greatest thing I think that I've ever eaten. My mind was blown and it was only like $1.75 or something ridiculous like that. It was a nice way to be welcomed into Los Angeles and now I'm off to spend the day taking tours and getting to know this place a little better. 

That's all for now!
Thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille