Volume 3 Number 08

Copyright 2007 Phillip Moon

Scrubs
Date: January 25, 2007
Episode: My Words of Wisdom
Location: Studio City, The Congregational Church of the Chimes

There are many churches that offer their buildings for the filming of shows, T.V. and Movies, and todays holding is in the smaller sanctuary of this one. There was a scene shot in the front of the church that I was involved in, but otherwise, I spent 13 hours there, and the first hour of shooting is all I was involved in. I was held on to in case they needed me, but that clearly never happened. This is part of being background.

"24”
Date: January 26, 2007
Episodes: Hours 16 and 17
Location: 20th Century Fox Studios, Chatsworth

The cast was delivered new lines just before the shoot, and so needed to rehearse them. There were a total of 9 and ˝ pages to shoot today, and that is a lot of pages. They were worried that they would not get to the Counter Terrorism Unit's filming, but they did. Kept the takes to a minimum and pushed on through.

One of the lines by the Navy Admiral was a reference to the time before Impact of the missile The first few rehearsals and the first take, the actor said “launch” of the missile, not the “impact”, and no one caught it. Even the ever vigilant script supervisor had missed it each time. I called over the 1st AD and asked her if maybe someone should mention to the script supervisor that he was missing the line, and sure enough, she did. A moment later, the script supervisor was over talking to the actor, and the correct line was henceforth given each time.

The OC
Date: January 30, 2007
Episode: The End's Not Near, It's Here (Shows final episode)
Location: Pasadena, California Institute of Technology (CALTECH)

It has been a while since the last time I spent any real time on this campus. Easily 19 years. The first show I did on this campus was South Pacific, and it was my introduction to the cast of characters that make up CALTECH. The shots for the day were to end up as a montage at the end or near the end of the episode, thus helping to tie up some story lines. Alas, the rain nearly torpedoed the efforts of the crew, when there was a sudden down pour. The reason that is of any importance to me is, that just before that down pour, the 1st AD picked me from a line up to be the professor in a short scene with one of the leads.

My job was simple. I was teaching students out on the lawn. I would ask a question, and the principal would respond by raising her hand and I would select her to answer. Then the rain came down, and well, all ran for cover. The location for that scene had to be moved elsewhere, and that meant indoors. They moved the scene into the Baxter building, and the Remo Auditorium, where I performed in South Pacific as Luther Billis for the first time at Cal Tech,. Just a note here. Jessica also appeared on stage for the first time on Remo in the same show. Because I was a featured background, I was provided with my own chair (with CAST on it), and had my own stand in. When the scene was done, I went back to being a normal background actor, but for a while there, I was walking on air. I saw the final episode, and there I was, walking across the Remo stage, pointing to the young actor. Thank goodness for the rain.

Heros
Date: February 1, 2007
Episode: Parasite
Location: City of Industry, Pacific Palms Convention Center

With the lobby turned into a casino, Vegas Style, the background actors made crosses, and strolled up and down the line of slot machines, past doors, and in convoluted circuits all day, and yet when asked to go to, or from, holding which was across the parking lot, they would grumble. I find it funny that they will walk all over the set over and over, and bulk at a walk that will take them to a comfortable place with food.

7th Heaven
Date: February 6, 2007
Episode: Some Get Togethers, Some Brake-ups
Location: Santa Monica

Been a while since I last worked the show, and today, I ran into Cathi from the acting class Jessica and I were in last year. Cathi is doing what many actors do to learn about how things work on set for T.V. and Movies by going into background work. This was close to her first show. She is paying attention, and so will learn quite a bit.

A lot of books get read on set. I think that somewhere along the way, I will do a servey over maybe a week, to see what people are reading.