My friend Jeff, who I know from a million years ago and have been talking to on occasion over the past year and a half but haven't seen, called me up and asked if I wanted to meet him and his wife at this art opening. He thought I'd be interested because the artist was doing works that were inspired and created while he listened to specific songs, including The Beatles.
I said sure. He went on to tell me it was at his friend's post production studios on Wilshire and San Vicente. By the time he was going to say the actual address I spit out "640." Yeah, that's it.
Well, I hadn't been to that address in a really long time...I'm guessing the late eighties when a boss of mine raised his voice to me (I worked for screamers who screamed at everyone except me because I told them the day they scream at me is the day I leave) and I walked out of the building. The company was Cannon Films - they made all the Chuck Norris (Delta Force 1 thru 86) and Charles Bronson (Death Wish 2 thru 143) movies, etc.
But what made it even weirder to return to this building was the fact that my old bosses purchased the building as a shell...you know, without any walls or halls and all that...with the millions of dollars they made off a movie called Breakin'...and it was my ex that did the whole inside of the building, including the post production facilities that house Jeff's friend's company, Wildfire.
Okay, I'm putting this up and adding to it in real time...just so I can make my deadline of a post every day.
Okay, moving on...time to put up a photo of the outside...
The construction of this facility became a part of my life - it takes a lot of work to oversee the building of post production facilities...the screening room, the ADR/Foley stage, the mixing rooms, the machine room and on and on. Months and months of work until the day when they threw the big Christmas party (complete with real snow on the top level of the car park) that was also the official grand opening of the building. And just when we were about to celebrate the fruits of my ex's labors, I went into mine. We missed the party...I think it was Chuck Norris, or someone of that stature, that ended up announcing the birth of Tyler over the party PA system.
So, entering the now Wildfire post production became a walk down memory lane with a lot of ghosts stirring up all kind of thoughts and feelings. Probably because the place (structure and layout wise) looks exactly the same. The screening room which is now a mixing room has the same chairs (at least the first three rows that are still there), the same wall coverings and the same movie screen. The recording room is exactly the same as it was when Jaimie did a voice-over recording for a movie, playing a young Kathy Ireland.
I think we should use Wildfire to mix my movie just to bring the whole thing full circle. It's not like I would slumming for the sake of a strange ending to a story -- their recent movies include Milk and Twilight.
Let me see if the artist has a website so you can check it out -- that was easy...here's how you kill two birds with one stone...a taste of Edward Beckett, the artist, on the Wildfire site.
And here's a shot of the gathering...
Cool art, good wine and food, and nice people. All in all, a successful night.
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