Tuesday, October 22, 2013

October 18, 2013: Nikki & Nora Premiere in Hollywood

Date: October 18, 2013
Event: Nikki & Nora Premiere in Hollywood
Location: Hollywood, California
Summary: Being a funder/supporter for a new webseries based on an old pilot, I was invited to its Hollywood premiere.  :)

I’ve been doing much traveling for work of late which has taken me away from home a little more often than I’d like. But at least on this trip out to the left coast I was able to combine business with pleasure, ending my week attending the N & N Files premiere in Hollywood.  Oooo, yeah!

This description is just one fan’s / one supporter’s experience, to be shared with other fans/supporters who couldn’t be there (and I hope it’s clear it is all said in good fun!). I apologize for the utter crappiness of the photos. My camera let me down (and maybe it had something to do with the wrong ISO setting I had it on; poo on me!) Anyway, here goes.




The event started at 7:00 pm (or was supposed to, at least). According to google maps my hotel was 15 miles from Raleigh Studios. Also according to google maps, without traffic, this trip should take me about 30 minutes. I doubled that to account for traffic, and added 30 minutes to get lost while trying to find parking (even though they said parking was right across the street).

Thus, at 5:30 pm I departed. I made the turn out of my hotel parking lot and O-M-G traffic. I mean TRAFFIC. Like LA traffic, only worse (yes, I know, I know, I was *in* LA so how could it be worse than LA traffic but just work with me here because I enjoy being melodramatic bout LA traffic). After crawling 0.2 miles in 5 minutes I gripped the steering wheel and silently screamed in my head, “I should have left for the event yesterday!!”

Thankfully, it did speed up a bit after that, but maps on my iPhone, which originally was predicting arrival at my destination at 6:17 pm slowly succumbed to the retched reality and predicted 6:21, then 6:29, then 6:34, then with 1.2 miles to go down Melrose, 6:43. Thankfully, I made only one wrong turn (and only got into one almost-accident trying to take a picture of the moon) and was safely in a parking spot by 6:47.

And I was in a parking spot next to a parking spot reserved for a member of the Castle crew! OMG I forgot Castle filmed here (*fangirl moment as I take a picture of a parking space*).

*ahem*

Okay, I had just a few minutes before 7:00 struck, and both the moon as well as the waning moments of the sunset were not to be missed. So from my awesome-parking-next-to-Castle spot, I went not to the entrance of Raleigh Studios across the street, but instead out to Melrose Street. Sadly, I couldn’t capture either the moon or sunset as they really appeared; so with these photos it's not possible to fully appreciate how gorgeous a night it was.  But I tried.  These pictures below were taken from essentially the same spot – one facing east along Melrose, one facing west.

Moon

Raleigh_sign

Okay, now really, it was time to head inside. And that means – a visitor pass! (Again, just work with me here, I’m a fangirl, I get excited over such things). Wheee! I'm walking through a Hollywood studio, so cool! (I was tempted, of course, but did not peek my head in anywhere it wasn’t supposed to be peeked in, promise). But I did stop and just take a quick picture of the trailers just as a small memory.

VisitorPass

Raleigh_trailers

Also, another (crappy) picture of the moon, this time shining soooo very brightly over Stage 9. Seriously, it was soooo bright that night! So beautiful.

MoonOverStage9


And then I (finally) made my easily-distracted way around to the screening theater the event was being held in. As I approached I recognized Christin (@christintello) (since I’d seen pictures of her on twitter) and had to remind myself she had no clue who I was as she greeted me with a, “Are you here for the premiere?!” I said I was and introduced myself (briefly wondering if I should use my twitter name or real name (I went with my real name)) and she ‘Mardi Gras-ed’ me (put a bead necklace on me) and then, standing in front of a Tello Films backdrop a professional took our photo – I felt all rock-star like, woo! (unfortunately, I don’t have the photo (yet) so I have no proof of this awesomeness (yet)). She then invited me to go inside where they had drinks (in souvenir cups) and fancy New Orleans chips to snack on.

While inside I had a bit of time to explore, time to deftly avoid the roaming camera person they had filming the event (lol), as well as time to just hang out with other fans (turns out, if one turns up on-time to a Hollywood event, one has actually turned up vastly early for that event...live and learn, right? ;) ).

Some pictures from my exploration of the theater:

It was the Charlie Chaplin theater, cool!
Raleigh_ChaplinSign

It’s a picture of Yul Brynner getting his hair cut. YUL BRENNER GETTING HIS HAIR CUT. WAT? …yeah, I was highly entertained by this… Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!
YulBrenner

The theater itself – a very nice, intimate venue.
ChaplinTheater

And my artistic (or attempted artistic) combination of our Nikki & Nora cup in the theater. :)
Theater_nncup

Snacks, New Orleans style!
chips

So, after my little exploration, I found a few other fans and we just spent some time chatting about where we’d come from. One person had come in from Austin, having landed at midnight and flying out the next day at 6:00 am. One had come in from Hawaii and was going to be in LA for about a week, making this event part of a longer vacation. One person…well she’d come from down the street about 20 minutes.  We were not impressed, lol. I also talked a bit with someone who had worked in NOLA during filming, hearing about some busy but fun days.

And our little group talked about something else: the email we had received just three days prior telling us that the event was going to be cocktail to casual-cocktail attire. Pretty much all of us related how much we freaked out upon reading that email, saying to ourselves, “I don’t even own anything like that!!” We were all laughing over our various reactions and frantic putting-together of clothes that would be appropriate. … as it turns out “cocktail to casual-cocktail”, like the whole concept of time, apparently, does not mean the same thing in Hollywood as it does everywhere else, more on that in a little bit.

In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed just chatting with these other fans. And then, then the cast started to arrive, how exciting! Our little fangirls hearts were all, ooooooo.

After several minutes of being all calm and trying to pretend Christina Cox (@ReallyChristina) and Liz Vassey (@LizVassey) weren’t five feet away talking to a couple people, me and one other fan decided it was time to get bold and go meet them. It was exactly then that the aforementioned roving camera thwarted our well laid plans and grabbed the two of them for an interview.

But all was okay because it was also exactly then that Deb Mell walked in front of me. I tapped her on the arm and introduced myself and told her that I’d seen her speech on the floor of the Illinois assembly and that it was amazing and inspiring and that it was an honor to meet her. (You can watch it here) I was able to shake her hand and we talked briefly about the continuing fight and that people are all watching now. It was pretty cool.

Alright, then the two stars freed up and my new-found friend and I went over to introduce ourselves and get some pictures (woowoo!!) I also had a fun exchange with Liz Vassey. She said it was so nice to see an actual camera (I was carrying and using an actual camera as opposed to an iPhone or other similar device). I said I loved my camera and am afraid that they’re going to disappear someday soon. She said her husband had the same fear. And she said she’s afraid books are also headed for a similar disappearance. I said I agreed and was sad because cameras and books were two of my favorite things in the world. She nodded and said she might have to agree that they were two of her favorite things, as well. Yeah, it was nothing earth shattering, but she was just so friendly and gracious to take the time to chat with a fan. I appreciated it. :)

And speaking of cameras, here Liz Vassey is taking someone’s picture with one, LOL!
LizVassey

My new friend and I also ducked outside where we found Jim Beaver and Larry Poindexter (OMG, one of Maura Isles’ beards, um, I mean boyfriends!) and got pictures with them, too. Fun!

Finally, after much hobnobbing, they migrated us into the theater for the main event: The much-anticipated-ten-years-in-the-making Premier! So exciting!

As we were getting settled, I was taking a few last pictures and got this one of the elusive Nancylee Myatt (@ishakeitup). LOL she is sooooo giving me a sideways scold with her eyes. I’m sorry! Whatever I did, I’m sorry! However, let me also point out that this is the person who wrote us the email about proper attire for the evening…. What is wrong with this picture (I do like the bow tie, though)? So while she’s giving me a sideways look, I’m also giving her a light-hearted sideways look, too -- you can’t see me, you just have to trust that’s what I’m doing. ;)
NancyleeAndChristin

Also, I got this (again crappy) photo of the people in the row directly behind me… OMG, it’s the cast! Like right behind me! (*fangirl moment*) (BTW, Liz Vassey is not a vampire that cannot be photographed, I promise, just low light and fast movement, heh)

TheyreSittingRightBehindMe

So then Nancylee and Christin and one other person (I’m so so sorry I can’t remember your name) got up to introduce what we’d be seeing. They paused to have all the donors rise and be acknowledged (aww, shucks, parade-wave, parade-wave, thank you, thank you). They also explained that what we’d be seeing was a rough cut that wasn’t quite complete, but that it was a story about two women who were keeping “New Orleans safe and foxy!” Heh. Indeed.

And before they rolled that beautiful bean footage, Nancylee reminded us, “Oh, and no spoilers!” to which someone yelled out in utter defiance of the no-spoiler rule, “They’re gay!” LOL

Anyway, I will absolutely respect the no-spoiler rule, so no details, but I will say it was so much fun to watch it in the theater with the cast and crew. There was some chuckling over the rougher parts that still needed some post-production help and a few small comments from the peanut gallery that added to the entertainment.

I will also say that it is clear a lot of effort, a lot of fun, and a lot a lot a lot of love went in to making this. And I think everyone is going to love the end product. I recommend everyone sign up to watch it here!

Thanks to everyone for making it happen! It was a fun night and here’s to many more episodes/seasons!



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