There is so much to say.
Last night was one of the greatest nights of my life.
My film professor is a close friend of director Jonathan Levine.
He's directed 50/50:

And is now doing press for his new movie that he wrote and directed, Warm Bodies:

Jonathan is an alum of Brown University in Rhode Island (for those of you that, like myself, had no idea that Brown was in RI) and he decided to have a pre-screening of Warm Bodies at Brown last night.  My professor went to Brown with him, so he gave her ten free tickets for her students to go to the screening.  I was one of the ten that signed up to go.
Our professor wasn't able to make it, but told us to make sure to talk to Jonathan after the Q&A that was supposed to follow the screening.  So we drive an hour and a half yesterday afternoon to Brown.
My thoughts?
Why didn't I go to Brown?!
It's beautiful.  It's a pretty big and artsy campus (from what I saw) and I just loved it.
So we got there at like 5pm which was a little early so we walked down to a Chipotle for dinner.  The other car wasn't there yet, so it was just Jesse, Chuck, myself, and Chuck's friend Steven.  So we get Chipotle then go to the theatre and tell the people in charge that we were from Gordon and we were supposed to be on some list.  So the girl escorts us in and tells the security that we are guests of the director, then seats us in a 'reserved' row.  It was pretty sweet.  Then the other car from Gordon arrives and we all sit there alone in the theatre (the doors didn't officially open till six or six thirty) for a while.  Then they let everyone in and we sat there for a long time till Jonathan came out for the Q&A.  The projector to screen the movie was having 'technical difficulties' so they had the Q&A before the film.  It was interesting.  He was super funny and friendly and answered a bunch of questions.
But then the Q&A was over and the people in charge came over and said that the movie was not going to be screened because the projector broke.
So so so frustrating.
So we were dismissed and my group went back to the security and asked if we could meet Jonathan.  They said no, and then we found out that he had left.
So bummed.  So so so bummed.  So Chuck calls our professor and she tells Chuck to call Jonathan.  So we call, he doesn't answer.  Chuck shoots him a text just in case, and we leave the theatre.
We get out to the street and Chuck tells us Jonathan texted back and told us to meet him at a local bar.
So we go, and he's there.  And we go to the back of the bar and Jonathan tells us to order whatever we want and the bill is put on Summit Entertainment's tab.
So we sit with him for about an hour and chat.  He apologized to us for coming out and not being able to see the movie.  He was really chill.  He said our professor is one of his best friends and he just kept telling us how great she is as a film critic and a person.  It was really cool because it made me appreciate my professor a lot more.  I want to like go out to coffee with her and talk movies now.
While we were eating dinner I asked him about the film industry in NY and if he thought that I had to move out to LA to get into the industry.  In November when I had lunch at Gordon with Todd Komarnicki (producer of Elf) I asked the same question and Todd had said the film industry is dead in New York unless you are already established.
Jonathan said that I should try New York first because it's more fun and he just likes it better.  He asked me how old I was and then told me that if I can find cheap housing to move to NY first and then after two years if nothing is happening, move to LA.  He said he did that at 24, so I can do it at 21 when I graduate.  He told us to keep trying to get into the business and not to get discouraged because we will get rejected a hundred times before we're accepted.  I asked him if I had to go to grad school and he told me I didn't have to, but it helped him a lot.  He said that he knows a ton of film people that say grad school is a total waste for a film career, so it depends on the person.
He was so cool.  He had a lot of people trying to talk to him and get his attention but even when they interrupted my questions he would always come back to me.  It was just really cool to have like a legit conversation with him.  He was so chill.
It was so surreal.  Then he left to go have a drink with the kids from Brown that put on the Q&A event, and fifteen minutes later he came back to us and took a photo with us and left us to our dinner, courtesy of Summit.
It was the coolest night.
I'm actually really glad the projector didn't work because we had time to hang out with Jonathan and have dinner.  It was also really cool, when Jon was with the Brown students, to hang out with the kids from Gordon that I didn't know that well.  We all just had a great time together laughing and chatting.
It was really really great.
He was really cool.
It was so so so cool.
I'm still a little overwhelmed.  It was so surreal.
He was like talking casually about 'Joe' (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Seth (Rogan) and all these famous people that helped him on the film.  He never bragged about fame or made himself higher than us.  He just sat with us and had a good time.  It was so freaking cool.
This was the photo we took at the bar, Jonathan on the far right.

Coolest night.