Location, location, location.

I've been bouncing around on a few different jobs out in Los Angeles, mainly doing Craft Service and Production Assistant work, and in the little amount of time I've been out here, I've seen some incredible things. I try to snap photos of the locations we are on and I'll share a few here. Enjoy!

These first few are shots from "Mystery Mesa" which is a location about 45 minutes north of Hollywood. Tons of productions go down here, including Iron Man 2, apparently.






The next few are from a shoot out in the Valley, the west side of the Valley, actually. We were in a house that was on the side of a mountain. Check out the infinity pool. So awesome. So expensive.




These last few are from a Nerdcore shoot I did with some friends. I was there just hanging out at this crazy abandoned hospital in East L.A. Apparently it was abandoned in 1991 and used as a location for all kinds of things. From what I understand there was another shoot going on later that night, a FEAR-type show. So, it's probably haunted. Awesome.







I'll try to update with more photos when I visit cool sets. There is always plenty of cool stuff to look at in California.

Best. Photo. Ever. In the world.

I just wanted to share with you the BEST PHOTO EVER.

The most interesting place ever!

Alright, quick updates:

I found an apartment! I'm actually moving in tomorrow. Hooray door with a lock and my own bathroom!

I've been searching for work around L.A. and found a few cool projects to get my feet wet. I also turned www.jackpattillo.com into something more than just a photo of me and Uday. Hooray online resumes!

Things have been going really well. Stuff is falling in to place and I'm having a really great time here. A good friend of mine wrote me an email and asked how L.A. was going, I wrote this back to her tonight:

Let me describe the day I had to you:

I woke up late, rolled off the fold out couch I'm sleeping on right now and headed to Best Buy to pick up tapes, and then Target to get some sheets for my new bed I'm getting (I'm moving in to an apartment tomorrow, woot).

I then came back to the place I'm crashing, relaxed for about an hour and then went to a gym where I did P.A. work for a webisode of a show shot by some guys who work on The Office. (Including the newly Emmy-nominated sound guys. Wild.)

We worked on that for a few hours, then I grabbed my camera and drove down to Beverly Hills to go shoot an art show opening that was curated by Danny Franzese, aka, Lindsey Lohan's friend from Mean Girls. I got free alcohol and did interviews with Andy Milanakis, Martin Starr (awesome) and Eric Jungmann, the "Friend" from Not Another Teen Movie. The one who chases after the girl and ultimately gets his shit kicked out at the airport.

And there were people dressed in costumes.

Oh! And I saw old Pete from Pete & Pete, the old Nickelodeon show. What??

I then swung by Carl's Jr. on the way home and grabbed a western burger, and now I'm returning emails.

So yeah...that's how L.A. is going for me. :)

I'm having fun.

How ya been?

I haven't updated here enough. I need to start posting more ramblings as it is a nice way to journal my time. I think that was the whole point of this crap anyway, right?

So, my first project with I Am 8-Bit went well. I shot the DVD launch party for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, then cut it and Fox Home Video approved it. Hooray!

I've been bouncing around as far as sleeping goes. While we were in production on Knifepoint, the home invasion film I PA'd on, I was crashing on a couch in the cast room. Then after we wrapped I actually slept on one of the beds we used during filming. I threw down the mattress on the floor and for the first time in L.A., slept on a bed. Technically.

From there, we wrapped the loft we were shooting in and moved all the crap into the "production" loft. This was nice because I actually got to set up my big computer and got to do some legit editing again. Also, I started crashing on the fold-out couch we have in the office. Not too shabby.

Things have been really nice out here, I actually went for a bike ride with some friends to a burger joint, then came back and hit the pool. Believe it or not, I am actually a shade or two darker than when I left Austin. The weather out here is insane. Highs in the mid to upper 80s, and mid 60s for the low. On Twitter I asked out loud how the weather in Austin was. This was my friend Eric's response:

eric_duncanATX: @jack_p weather is 100% chance of affordable living with only occasional L.A. douchebags.

I miss you guys sometimes. First round of Peter Pan is on me.

What a difference two weeks makes!

Good lord, it's been a busy one. I pretty much hit rock bottom a few weeks ago. Work wasn't looking too solid, my cat ran away, June Gloom was raining over Los Angeles. Not the greatest feeling, ya know?

A few days after Qusay's disappearance, I hooked up with an old friend from Austin who is currently directing a movie here in Hollywood and landed myself a job as a Production Assistant. The pay isn't incredible, but I've made some pretty great contacts and I definitely have more work coming my way after this one wraps. Oh, and I never thought I'd be pulling 70+ hour weeks, but here I am.

This is the first "real" set I've been on. (I don't think short films at UT really count) It is really fascinating. I've learned more in two weeks than I learned in entire semesters at college.

One thing though, I really feel as though I should have been here years ago. Ah well. I'm here now.

Anyway, I've been killing myself during the week, and on this Saturday me and a couple of my roommates took a drive up to Santa Barbara. It's about two hours away from our place, and about 10 minutes away, I get a call from someone in Beverly Hills. They had got my number from Qusay's tag. She was alive and hanging out on their back porch!

So, I called up my buddy Daniel and he tried to get her. Well, that didn't go well and he has the cuts to prove it. So after a night of partying out by the beach, I came home and crashed, woke up the next morning and headed to Beverly Hills to reclaim my girl.

To make a long story short, I managed to coax her out from under a deck and get her in my car and in to Daniel's apartment, safe and happy.



Things are looking up.

Qusay's Day Out

So, California has been interesting.

E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo was a blast, I saw a bunch of cool games, a bunch of cool people and drank a lot of free alcohol. It was good times.

But like all things in my life, a series of ups is usually followed by a series of downs.

I had to find a place to move the cats to until I find my own pad, an apartment or whatever. And that's where things start to get crappy. I got the cats in to the car, Uday was pretty cool about it, Qusay caught me with a back foot and cut my ear. Ouch.

I drive the two of them out to Beverly Hills, call up my buddy Daniel, pick up Qusay and just as we're about to get in to the door of his building, she flips out, like, seriously nutzo, twists out of my arms, hits the ground and BOLTS. Like, full speed. I have no idea why she would have done that. I run after her, but she rounds two corners and loses me in an alley. Daniel and I spent the next hour wandering around looking for her, but who knows where she could have gone. She does have a collar with her name and my phone number on it, so here's hoping some nice Californian finds her and gives me a call.

As much shit as I talk about her, I do love her. Qusay and Uday have been with me for six years now and to lose one of them is pretty damn painful. Keep her in your hearts.



Hope to see you soon Qusay.

I'm here!

Good lord, what an exhausting few days.

My dad and I drove with two cats in the car from Austin to Los Angeles, in one straight shot. It actually was a pretty good drive. Wasn't too crazy and the cats were pretty awesome. Uday slept most of the way and Qusay kind of found her place after I smacked her a few times. Dad and I have a few cuts on our arms from her crawling around while we were driving though.

Anyway, I made it in to town, unloaded my stuff and started settling. The cats have settled pretty well too. Uday is walking around like he owns the place and Qusay is slowly learning to live with the other animals in the house. (There are two other cats and two dogs currently living here too.) Their food is inside and their litter box is actually outdoors. So the cats are getting used to that too.

As far as me, I'm going to be living on the couch for a little while until I figure out exactly where my head will rest full time. It's not so bad though, the weather here has been insane. We leave the door open and the cool air blows in and keeps me happy at night.

I've been here all of three days and I've already participated in a photo shoot, a massive party for King of Fighters 12 and I saw Paul Rudd at a bar. Not too shabby.

My dad is flying back home tomorrow, and at that point it will be official. I will be living in California. I'll let you know when it sinks in.