I'm addicted to pain killers, i'm so LA right now!

Pain. Fuck.

So we got into LA last night after our BACKWARDS flight via Dallas. Thanks AA. Not. The good news is that because of my broken collar bone, i got priority seating right up the front while Chalker and Matt were up back.

So we get in, get our sweet hire car and head to our home for the next 6 weeks in the Hollywood Hills. We are at the bottom near Universal Studios and the Hollywood sign. Only problem is there are only 3 beds and 4 people, so we have a roster of 2 people sharing. This week it's Dom and Matt sharing the master bed(wink wink).

Last night we went to this cool club called Cinespace on Hollywood blvd, we were on the guestlist but still had to wait in line whilst all these cool LA types just walk in off the street. Whatever. We get in and the club is awesome, Steve Aoki of Dimmak fame is DJing and kids are losing their shit on the dance floor. This club is growing on us and we decide we're going to hang out here every Tuesday. Bars here close at 2am, so Matt and I decide to bail - on the way out we meet Steve Aoki briefly who is a nice guy.

Today we wake up late for a lunch with our executive producer, Bill Silva on Sunset. Bill has given us some office space in his office block on Sunset Blvd right across the road from the Hustler store and in the famous strip. Sweet set up. Allyson, who works for Bill is awesome and has hooked us up with a free pair of shoes each and is taking us to see Peter, Bjorn and John tomorrow night at The Roxy(you know that song "young folks").

Now we're at home chilling. Photos soon.
x

Ouch. I broke my collar-bone.

True story.

I did it today snowboarding on only my second run, was running good down the mountain hit a bump, caught my edge and fell on my shoulder(and head, thank you helmet). I lay on the ground for awhile thinking it wasn't that bad and maybe i had dislocated my shoulder. I took my board off and walked about 50 metres to ask someone where the medical centre was, 5 minutes later ski patrol came and picked me up, strapped me into the sled on the back like a dead corpse and took me to the medical centre. Everyone was really nice and helpful, i got an xray and it turns out that i had broken my left collar bone - they actually call it snowboarders shoulder. So they gave me a sling, an ice pack and a prescription for some pretty powerful painkillers and sent me on my way. I had to catch the bus home and the pain started to get worse as time went on, i get in and Chalker is just about to get in the hot tub(doctor has banned me from the hot tub) he hurt his knee today too. Sophia called me, which was nice and was the first person i've spoken too on the phone since i've been here.

Anyway this is the first bone, i've ever broken, spending my teenage years playing football, skatboarding and bodyboarding i find this quite surprising. Off to LA on Tuesday for the beginning of our 6 week shooting window for the film. Luckily i'm only the director and not the cinematographer, hopefully Dom doesn't fall tomorrow on his ski's.

New photos below

Bad Religion, Justin Timberlake and Mandy Moore

So what do these 3 have in common? The last 3 days of my life, that's what. So a quick update i am still in Park City, Utah for Sundance actually i just returned today from Cleveland but more on that later. Let's go in chronological order here.

Thursday
Matt Wardle and I get up really early to get some tickets to some movies we want to see today, we got tickets to The Good Life(written and directed by pro skater Steve Berra) and Sk8 life(one of the worst movies i have ever seen). Today is the first day we decide to hit the slopes and go snowboarding, fuck we are terrible. We decide to ditch the lesson because we are pretty crap skateboarders and think fuck it we can do this. We were WRONG. First of all we don't know how to strap ourselves into the board or get on the chairlift, 10 minutes later and we are at the top of a pretty big mountain. I decide to go first and fall pretty quickly, actually i fall as i am coming off the lift. Dom drops one of his Ski stocks from the lift onto the ground. Matt and I go one way and Chalker goes another. BIG MISTAKE. Matt and I actually went on the advanced path, shit. I ate alot of snow, have a few million bruises and 2 hours later we had made it down the mountain. Feeling like kooks we decide to give it one more shot, take the lift up but this time take an easier route and in 10 minutes we are down the hill with minimal falls, this leads to a big confidence boost but unfortunately the lifts have shut for the day.

Friday
Another early morning. 5:30 to be exact. Matt and I have to fly to Cleveland, Ohio for the Warped Tours induction into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. America shits me. The security at airports is so anal and you always have to take connecting flights. BORING. We get to Cleveland and check into our hotel aka THE MARIOT. No big deal. The Rock hall of fame is amazing, Kevin Lyman the founder of Warped hooked us up with Media passes so that we could film the induction for our film. This was exciting for us, but what was more exciting were the bands performing. Bad Religion + Pennywise + Bouncing Souls + Paramore. I filmed some of the bands sets and got to watch these bands play in a museum infront of about 200 people. A couple of emo teenage girls think that we're famous and ask for our autographs, i signed some girls report card. We head back to the hotel, to sleep for another early morning flight back to Salt Lake City, Utah.

BUT WAIT... While we had left, Dom and Chalker stayed at Sundance. My good friend, Jacki came to visit us and took the guys to the Little Miss Sunshine/Netflix private party. Mandy Moore was at the party and her and Chalker shared a kiss, at first i could not believe this but it turns out it's true. Through mutual friends they ended up hanging out and Jacki told Mandy it was Chalkers birthday, so that is when they had their kiss. I was insanely jealous by this story and thought that her and Zach Braff were dating, right? Well the same morning i walk past a newsagent and she is on the cover of Jane Magazine with the title reading "MANDY MOORE: SINGLE AND LOVING IT". At this moment i pushed everything aside and declared that Mr Steven Chalker had won at life. In another story, Dom also picked up a girl(or should i say woman) who claimed to be 31 but stories say more like 41 nicknamed "The Cougar".

Saturday
It's Saturday night right now. Not a real eventful day, we went to a few terrible fucking bars and am now sitting in the loungeroom of our townhouse trying to work out where we went wrong. Tomorrow is the last day of Sundance, but everyone has left anyway. Oh hang on you want to know my celebrity spottings, ok they are: Justin Timberlake, Jena Malone and Zooey Deshanel. Everyone has been here though from Bono to Lindsay Lohan. Tired, tired, tired. Going to hit the slopes again tomorrow, hopefully i get better at this snowboarding shit.

Jai

25 hours, 4 airports, 3 flights and no sleep

So what a day(or was it two?). We left Sydney at 9am on Tuesday morning, arrived at 6am on Tuesday morning in LA, waited around a couple of hours and flew to Dallas, waited a few more hours in Dallas and then flew to Salt Lake City. We eventually arrived to Park City, 25 hours after we had initially left Sydney.

So did anything interesting happen on the flights? Fuck no. I watched 5 films on my way to LA, i saw Kenny, Mulholland Drive, Traffic, Who Killed The Electric Car? and Miami Vice.

However one thing that was interesting was on my flight to Dallas i sat next to this 19 year old kid, who liked Halo. We got talking and i told him that i was on my way to Sundance, he told me that he had just got back from Iraq where he was stationed for 6 months and was on his way to a training base in Florida before heading back to Iraq. This kid was 19 years old. I didn't give him my opinion on the war but was more interested in finding out his perspective on what life was like for a soldier in Iraq especially as a kid, it was surreal but he was a nice guy. He told me that not much had been happening there where he was stationed, except for the odd homemade rockets that Iraqis would fire at their vehicles. He also made jokes about the 2 soldiers that had to carry shotguns because he didn't understand why they had to carry them when the others got to carry M16's.

So after arriving in Salt Lake City, we get a taxi to Park City where we are staying. HOLY SHIT, this is the best place i have ever been to in my life. Our accom for the week is a 3 level townhouse on Park Ave, about 3 minute walk to the chairlifts and a 5 minute walk to main street where all the films are. Not only is our townhouse 3 levels, but it also has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a hot tub on the balcony. So what did we do? 3 of us dudes all got in the hot tub together. Yay. At the moment out entourage consists of myself, Matt Wardle and Chalker, Dom is flying here from London and we have no idea where he is. Turns out he comes into town, gets Chalker while Matt and I are asleep and they goto a gay bar for an after party of some film showing. They had a good night.

Today is Wednesday, we awake at 2pm. I don't feel jet lagged. We go pick up our festival passes and have a nice lunch. We goto our first film tonight, it's called 'Weapons' other movies i really want to see while here are: Chasing Ghosts, Sk8 Life and The Good Life.

Okay well i'm off to have another Hot Tub. Check out photos below.





















From top to bottom: Salt Lake City airport, our townhouse, Matt and I in the hot tub, the view from our balcony.

Packing

So i leave to Utah tomorrow. I can't wait to get out of this shit heat and into the snow. Sundance should be fun, today we heard there is this documentary screening called "Zoo" that is about this ring of men who have sex with horses, it's apparently really graphic. Matt Wardle got excited by this.

On Saturday we did our first interview with Larry Livermore, he's the guy that started Lookout Records, signed Green Day and Operation Ivy and taught Tre Cool how to play drums. I think it went well, i was pretty nervous but am stoked about the outcome. Nick was my DOP for the day as Dom is still in London and we meet up with him tomorrow.

I still haven't packed. SHIT MAN.

Jai

Welcome to my blog punx!

Hello. This is my NEW personal blog, i will be contributing to it as often as possible while i am in the US making my debut feature film. I guess as the blog continues, more information about this project will become clear.

I leave next Tuesday.
I'm fucking anxious.
First stop is Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
I'm fucking excited.

Speak soon,

Jai