Hi!
We just had one of the craziest weekends so far in this fantastic Lights Out adventure we're on. Let's have a look, shall we? If any of you said no, I'm not listening to you; I'm gonna show you anyway!
Photo: David
We were invited to Youtube space in New York to hold a master class there about our journey from youtube to Hollywood. Since David is super busy prepping for Annabelle 2 we couldn't even stay the night, so it was the quickest New York trip ever. We had 8 hours there before we had to go back, but it was the most amazing 8 hours so it was definitely worth it.
Photo: David
We took the plane from LA late Friday evening and arrived in New York on Saturday morning. They had booked us a hotel room so we had somewhere to relax when we got there, but all we had time for was to take a shower and change clothes. Then we walked across the street to Chelsea Market where Youtube has their studios. Popped into a Starbucks first- my coffee headache was getting crazy!
Photo: David
It took awhile to find Youtube Space because the elevator door was hidden in the deepest hallways of Chelsea Market. It felt a little bit like trying to find Platform 9 3/4 in Harry Potter.
They had built a set there inspired by the film set in the Lights Out feature. And then they had invited a few up-and-coming Youtubers to take part in making their own shorts in the Lights Out set. The youtubers will take inspiration from our short and the feature and make something that fit their channel.
Let's just stop here for a second and think about how crazy it is that the short that David and I made in our apartment in Gothenburg has led to this.
Okay. Let's move on.
Before the master class they wanted to show us the set, filming us at the same time to get our reactions.
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
Our reactions were like this. Happy and amazed.
Photo: David
Very very giggly.
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
If you've seen the trailer for Lights Out you'll notice how well they've captured the feel of each set. It was so weird to walk around there, because even though the things and the scale aren't the same it really did feel like we were on the Lights Out set. They did an amazing job recreating these rooms!
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
Fun with black light!
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
Here we are with Bettina and Bryan from Warner Bros Marketing.
Photo: David
Lurking around the mannequins.
Photo: David
After that it was time to get dolled up. As always we weren't prepared for this so I had already done my makeup, but since we were going to be on camera I could do with a little touching up.
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
Love this photo. I think it's funny that you can see David looking at the photo he took of me above here. So meta.
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
And then it was time! Here we are waiting in a little VIP area next to the stage while Bettina from Warner marketing presented us.
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
So Spooky!
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
It was so much fun! I love to do these things with David. It feels so good to be able to talk with people who are in the youtube business too because they get it. They understand what it takes and maybe we can give them something that helps them. We started on youtube and that's were our hearts are. This strange and amazing journey wouldn't have been possible without youtube and it's so important for us to be able to keep that part going. Just because we ended up in Hollywood doesn't mean we'll abandon youtube. The shorts we make are just as important to us as the feature films we will be making. The dream (and plan) is to combine the two, because it's not "either or" for us.
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
And here it seems like someone in the audience said something nice to us.
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
After that we went back to the Lights Out inspired set again to show it to the youtubers who are going to make their own shorts in there this week. I'll link to all of them when their videos are up, so stay tuned!
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
I think this is such a nice photo of me. Hair on fire!
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
David telling a story about when he filmed a scene in the room that looked like this in the feature.
Typical David gesture while being interviewed.
Photo: David
When we were done with everything at youtube space we all went to a restaurant for drinks and food. We had to take a few photos of us in New York as proof, since we were there such a short amount of time.
Here's everybody!
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
David wore his Lights Out t shirt. I was going to do that too, but it just didn't feel right. And sometimes you have to just go with that feeling!
Proof of kissing in New York!
I also had to take a photo of Chelsea Market. It's quite the crappy tourist photo but I'm including it anyways because: PROOF!
Photo: David
Our driver was already waiting for us when we got back.
Photo: Carlos Chiossone
The photographer loved my shoes and said he wanted to take a photo of them and naming it "Portrait of actress Lotta Losten" so the last thing we did before stepping into the car and saying bye bye to everybody was snapping this photo. I made my best to pose with my feet, haha.
And then we took the plane back to LA. We got home almost exactly 24 hours after we left.
And that was that crazy New York day!
/Lotta