newzealandinc.com Informed. Influential. Indispensable.
By Brierley Penn
Boarding the bus to Andrew’s Air Base at 7am this morning was a notably jaded delegation. After three days of networking, conferencing, 6am starts and a little bit of sightseeing, the group was understandably looking forward to the relative luxury of a five hour sleep on the plane trip to LA. However, in Washington D.C. a trip to a military base is never short of excitement – the group was rerouted to accommodate for Joe Biden taking off from the airbase, complete with a host of security agents.
Following the delays, the NZ plane took off seamlessly, and a five-hour trip later, the plane touched down in LA. A few hours of free time saw the group split up – I enjoyed a lazy lunch and chill out session by the hotel pool.
The highlight of the day though was unquestionably a visit to Paramount Studios in the evening, to attend a function designed to celebrate New Zealand film in the USA. A tour around the studio lot saw a few misconceptions about our favourite films and TV sets blown apart, walking behind the exterior of the houses and office building to find desolate warehouse and empty spaces.
A fantastic kapahaka performance then welcomed us to the official portion of the evening, again to much excitement from our American visitors. Some traditional Californian food (i.e. burgers, tacos and hotdogs – I think I consumed a month’s worth of calories in one night!), complemented by New Zealand wines, set the evening off to a good start, along with a couple of photo opportunities with some of the film celebrities who had come along for the event.
The climax of the night was a showcase of NZ short films, providing an insight into the talent of some of our local filmmakers, but also a view into some of the more amusing aspects of culture. Frosty Man and the BMX Kid was a notable favourite of the evening (http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/frosty-man-and-the-bmx-kid-2010).
After some Air NZ sponsored ice creams, we headed back to the hotel, excited to catch a glimpse of the Hollywood sign en route!