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December 20, 2005Episode:(Guessing) Risky Business Located: 20th Century Fox  Jennie O'Keefe (the 2nd AD on the show) looked at me and said, “I recognize you. You've done the show before. Come with me.” and with that she took me and two other BG actors and marched us to stage. I have done this show twice before, and Jennie recognizes me. I've made it! Woo who!My task this episode has to do with a bit actor who has done this show many times and is a “Blooth Employee.” While doing an impersonation of Tom Cruise in Risky Business, this fellow waring only a shirt, shocks, shades and his BVD's, slides into another employee standing on a ladder (all of which takes place off camera) in the Blooth offices. The ladder climber limps off past Jason Bateman (who is on the phone with his mother) just a short moment before the actor I'm with makes his cross past Bateman. As he makes the cross he remarks to me how he couldn't see the guy on the ladder because of the sunglasses and crashed right into him. I nod, pat his back and stick to this guy like glue. This is the only time I will be used today and I am going to get my face time in. Now here is yet another opportunity to confess to something that happened on set, and I won't know the outcome until the show airs. Being as the show is on hiatus and its last episodes may not even make it on the air (may have to wait for the DVD set) I could have a very long wait. As many of you know, I grew up waring glasses. They have been a fixture on my face almost as long as I have had a face. There have been times when contact lenses have been used, but still, the glasses have always been handy. Until...a few years ago I had Lazik eye surgery done and the glasses stopped being a norm (except for reading glasses). Recently, I had a glasses prescription done for watching TV and Movies. I can either ware them or not for just about any other activity, and sometimes I put them on to drive (though I don't need them for that) and sometimes I don't ware them all day. Back to the set, where Phil is getting ready for the turn-around (meaning they shot from behind and now they have turned the cameras around and will be shooting from the front). We have several takes of this scene in the can from the back, it has been 20 minutes or more and now we are ready to shoot the scene from the other angle, and I have a deli ma. I had put my glasses on at some point, and I don't remember if I had them on during the earlier takes???!!!! Seldom do I ware my glasses on camera, but a request by Central and the need for a little change on another set got me to do it a few times, and now I did not remember if I had warn them on this one. Ah well, I took them off, and I am hoping the odds are with me. We'll see when the show airs, and I will make a point of NOT waring my glasses on camera. Live and learn. Phil... |
December 19, 2005Episode: Location: Hollywood Center Studios The Suite Life is a Disney show that appears on the Disney Network on cable T.V. I have actually seen an episode while surfing through the channels. Typical Disney T.V. fare with no big surprise. I found it rather funny that the most pampered one on the set was the dog. They needed specific shots, and nothing got done until the pooch produced. The trainer would tell the dog to stay, but as she moved away, the dog moved. She got sneaky and gave a treat to the young teen actor who was standing next to the dog, and the canine kept her eye on the snack. Barking was needed, and if I hadn't been sitting only a few feet away I would never have heard the little peakiness yap. Sometimes though, the most interesting thing about my day isn't what happens on set, but where the set is. We were shooting at Hollywood Center Studios near downtown Hollywood. Odds are, you have never heard of Hollywood Center Studios, but I am sure that you have seen at least a few of the T.V. shows and movies shot there. This studio has been in operation since 1914. Here are a few T.V. shows shot on this lot: The Addams Family, Beverly Hillbillies, Bob Cummings Show, Burns and Allen, The Lone Ranger, Mr. Ed, Ozzie and Harriet, Ski King, Petticoat Junction and the Rockford Files. Some of the movies: Save The Tiger, Shampoo, The Outsiders, The Karate Kid, Invaders From Mars, Iron Eagle, Running Man, Throw Mamma From The Train, Scrooged, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, Adams Family, Con Air, A Civil Action, The Out of Towners, What Dreams May Come, X-Men, Dumb And Dumberer, Shaggy Dog. Next to Stage Two Near the front of the lot is a small cafe named Babalu. If you ask them why Babalu, they will tell you. “What else would you call a cafe located right next to the loading door of Stage Two where Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz shot the first two years of I Love Lucy?” Phil... |
December 18, 2005Location: The Roosevelt Hotel – Hollywood I am sure that some of you watched Dancing with the Stars, and some of the rest of you may have seen the previews of episodes to come. Take a number of B-list actors, give them a professional ballroom dancing partner and give them time to learn to dance. Then make them compete with each other on national T.V. What a concept! Don't you wish your silly ideas could work like that for you? Now, what happens when the winner of the show decides to capitalize on the success of the show? That's right, let's make a DVD and sell it on Dancing with the Stars Two. Thus the title of Dancing Under the Stars with John O'Hurley and Charlotte Jorgensen teaching you the viewer how to dance the rumba, cha-cha, waltz and the quick step. But what instructional DVD would be complete without an enthusiastic audience to holler, cheer, whistle and applaud the wonderful dance steps demonstrated by our attractive profession dancers and laugh at the delightful jokes and wit of the hosts. That's where I come in, with thirty-nine other wildly excited men and women. Imagine, if you will sitting for twelve hours. Sitting up, looking interested for twelve hours. Sitting up, applauding, whistling, cheering and hollering for twelve freaking hours. There are few, if any, things I would sit and watch for twelve hours were it not for the pay check that kept me in that seat. At one point during taping, were went out into the hotel lounge/lobby and took over the soft cushioned chairs and sofas for well deserved naps. Alas, once again we were called back to the set to perform our function. The AD would bring the steady cam over with the boom mic, and tell us to applaud as though we had just seen the most amazing dance move ever. We did. Most of us had no feeling in our hands when we went home that night. Then the AD would ask us to laugh. No simple hardy har-har would do either. He wanted full blown, three dimensional, down to our toes honest gut busting, like anything on this DVD could pull such a laugh. For forty five long seconds, we laughed. If we waned, he would signal us to laugh harder. If we weren't loud enough he demanded more. I wonder if he had a security escort to his car that night? Still, I think it went well all things considered. Of course, twelve hours is a long time and there are bound to be casualties. Two of our number did not make past the beginning of our day when the camera landed on them and even a blind man could see that they had fallen deeply asleep. What do you do when background falls asleep during taping? You send them home to bed. If I'd only had the nerve. Phil... |
December 16, 2005Episode: Dead or Alive Location: Sony Studios This is my third time on the sets of Close to Home, and as always, they know how to treat people (read BG) right. Today we are shooting on the sets of the DA's conference room office, which is one of the main office sets for the show. I was booked as a Lawyer, not as hallway background, which means I was not only the only non-union Lawyer, but also had to ware my good suit. Now the funny part of that is that I actually have a good suit. Not only that, but I have three other not so bad suits, and one used suit bought at “It's a Wrap” where used movie and T.V. show clothes go to pasture. I have never owned, much less had a use for five suits. Now I take one with me at least twice a week. Holding is in the courtroom hallway set, where the floor makes even the quietest shoes squeak with pride. Don't know what it is about this set. It's the only one that has a floor like that. And the hallway around the DA's office doesn't do that, so it is only the one set. The DA's conference room set is sided by four hallways, each one extending into other hallways or office sets. The task of the day was walking in circles or semi-circles, back and forth making the hallways look busy and productive as the actors emote in the center of all that action. At one point, I ended up in the holding area for the Stand-ins and the make-up and hair people. On cut, one of the make-up people had a coughing fit, and all the other people joined in. Sounded like the set of a Ricola commercial. In my wanderings backstage, I ran into the director and one of the lead actors discussing movie remakes. I joined in the conversation, sounding almost as authoritative as each of them. See, I really am an actor! Part of the way though the day, we got news that John Spencer (Leo on West Wing) had died of heart failure. I have only worked once on an episode with him, but got the impression of a nice guy and hard working actor, both pluses. Alas even in the most serious of moments humor can raise its head. I commented that I thought the set of West Wing probably shutdown early today. One of the AD's commented that if I died, they would close this set down early too. I pointed out the I would have to die on set, while that was not so with someone like John Spencer. Darned if he didn't agree. Shoes became a problem with two BG people when they were deemed too loud. I helped out with a suggestion. The first was a young lady who's heels were too hard and clacked along with each step. They pulled her off the set, and sound didn't seem ready to help all that much, so I made some suggestions. She went one better and took an extra pair of socks, wrapped them around the heals and tapped them on. She was back in business. The other was a young man with noisy heels, and I found him sitting on a chair cooling said heels during takes. I walked him over to a trash can where I pulled out a newspaper and made pads which I then taped to his heels. He too was back on set in no time. There was a third BG person with heel problems, but he handled his problem by simply removing his heels, along with the shoes, of course. Phil... |
December 15, 2005Episode:Debut Location: The Alexander Hotel – Downtown L.A. Cold Case is about a team of detectives who take murder cases that were never solved and give them another look, often ten, twenty, thirty and sometimes forty years later. In this episode, the time of the murder is 1968 and best as I can tell, occurs at a debutante ball. Costumes are provided by the show, so on the information line we call to get details about the booking, the men were told wardrobe was black socks. Just in case I was pulled over on the way to location, I also wore pants, shirt and shoes. Don't want to shock the locals, you know. The men had it easy. Ladies came with hair in curlers. Some of the BG women didn't have rollers, or had only a few. One gal had five rollers, and so that is what she used. Men were dressed in either suits or as waiters. I was a hotel employee, and as such, wore a waiters uniform and a pair of pointed shoes that went out of style almost as soon as they came in. My feet started hurting when I looked at them and still punished me the next day.  This shoot was on location at the Alexander Hotel in downtown L.A. This hotel has seen better days, and in those days has seen Stars, Renowned Businessmen, and even a President. Now, it looks as though it is going through some renovations, and the large ballrooms and dance floors remain unused, except for today. Today the ground level ballroom with a beautiful ceiling stain glass sky light is where the debutante balls of the past (1968) and present (2006) take place. Lighting inside has to be done without marring or damaging the property, so some clever methods are used, and the one used here were lights with large envelopes around them in the shape of a ball and filled with helium. These are large lights that give off a 360 degree glow that brightens up any location.They shot the first ball, that takes place in 1968, where one of the young debutantes comes to harm. During this scene, they have her trip, and to get the shot for the flashbacks, they used a high speed camera. It is just as well that they don't need sound when they do this, because this camera made a whining noise that would have been hard to cover up. That's a lot of film whipping past the lens. When they were ready for the shot of the 2006 ball, they moved the background around to change the look of the audience. The back half of the audience moved to the front and the front half to the back, and they everyone switched sides. If you sat in the left front of the audience during the 1968 ball, they you sat on the right back for the 2006 ball. Clever, them Hollywood folks. And one last thing. I had noticed during the shoot, that there was an ice sculptor on the counter behind the buffet table, and the thing never melted. Another background actor and I came to the conclusion that the ice must have come from Michigan or Wisconsin, where the weather is colder and ice melts more slowly. From what I've seen, L.A. ice melts way to fast to be of any use during a day long shoot. Phil... |
December 14, 2005Episode: Nexuss Location: DC Stages and Sets This was my night for talking more than shooting scenes. If the day is long enough and the background work is slow enough, you can pretty well cover ones life story. Sometimes even two life stories, a reunion of sorts and light banter with new people. First up is Toni Blair, a background actor who has been doing this for quite a while. Her history included growing up in Washington state with a grandmother who didn't want electricity in her home, and cooked on a wood stove till she died. The second life story came from a young lady who looks like she could play Alyson Hannigan's twin sister. It was her birthday, and she was hoping that she wouldn't have to work. Instead she answered the phone and found herself on a DC Stage waiting to be wrapped so she could go spend the rest of her evening with her boyfriend. Her mother was Mormon, her father Catholic. She is Mormon, her boyfriend is Catholic. There is more to the story, but we still have to cover two more ladies. I met Helen on the set of Related, only a few weeks ago. She was my “wife” during the diner shoot. I have been on the job long enough that even though there are a lot of BG actors, I am beginning to see a lot of people I know from previous bookings. Only four months and I am almost an old timer. The last gal became my “daughter” and was flirting with one of the BG bailiffs. I asked him his intentions, but my “daughter” didn't seem concerned. It is fun when I get into a group of BG actors who are performers. There are some who do this because of the food or easy work, (despite the hours) but most either want to be actors/entertainers or connected to the process that makes Hollywood what it is. We were working on DC Stages and Sets, which has clearly been around for a while and is located in East L.A. The longer I do this, the more chances I have of working on lots I didn't even know existed. DC has more than twenty three standing sets, including a Congressional/Senate Hearing Room/State Supreme Court Bench set, Line-Up Room with viewing window, and a Law Library with wood floors, tall windows, columns, 2nd floor balcony/mezzanine 18+ bookshelves, 1,000's of law books, and it also dresses up as a mansion, police precinct and a restaurant. All I want to know is, how did I miss the books? Phil... |
December 13, 2005Episode: Body and Soul Location: Palisades Ice Skating Rink – Burbank How do you get two hundred extras who can all skate on ice in one place? You put a call on the lines that says, “ER needs people who can ice skate. You must be able to skate well. And you must have your own skates!”. They were looking for couple skaters, hockey skaters, figure skaters, and regular people who could skate really well. They did get a lot of good skaters, many of them kids and young teens/adults, and they got a few who could use a hockey stick, but they had that call up for two weeks, and on the thirteenth, they were still looking for people who could skate. By this time they were mostly concerned that they not fall and hurt themselves or others. Several people who showed up as spectators, were given skates and told to hit the ice (providing they could at least stay on their feet), and one gal who had quit skating years ago because of her knees, couldn't take watching all the people on ice, so she got skates and hit the ice too. I stayed to the spectator part of the sport, realizing that eight hours of walking beat eight hours of skating. We were shooting at the Palisades Ice Skating Rink in Burbank, CA, and had a closed set. The rink closed for the day to accommodate the crew, but clearly today was the only day to shoot the ice skating scenes, so we were not spending a lot of time on takes. The rink was bloody cold. I was waring jeans with a tee shirt, shirt, gray flannel sweat shirt, overcoat, gloves, knit hat and scarf, and was still freezing my chest hairs off. I was one of the better dressed for the set, as many of the people didn't take the wardrobe call as much to heart as I did. In two scenes, I spent time walking around with two other BG people talking about religion and politics. If you have ever been in an ice skating rink, you will understand that the sound of every skate is magnified and makes most conversations hard to have. We walked back and forth without having to match any shots because getting over one hundred ice skaters to their marks was too much. We chatted for several hours with little interruption from the making of the show. They wanted movement, and we gave them that, while conversing right along. At one point, I came across a person I recognized, though I couldn't remember where from. I asked him what shows he's worked on before, and he said he had worked on others, but that I might recognize him from ER. Turns out that Paul McCrane was not only the director on this episode, he had played Dr. Robert Romono for many seasons on ER, until they cut off his arm with a helicopter and then crashed it on him a year later. The fates and writers of drama are cruel. Happily, they returned his arm too him after he left the show as a character and started directing. Phil... |
December 12, 2005Episode: Stranger in Your Bedroom Location:Warner Brothers Studios What is it about me and restaurant scenes in T.V. land. I understand that they can't risk using food that could go bad. And they want to make the scene look good, but really... Doesn't anyone in any of these T.V. shows eat NORMAL food? Somewhere in some 20th floor office, a conversation happened between a bunch of network honchos. I am sure one of them thought that they could save money by having their characters eat at high class restaurants because they could serve plates that had just enough food on them to test a mouses' apatite. And the dishes are arty, so they will look good if they get them on camera. And the fancy locations won't cost them any more than most burger joints. On What About Brian, a mid season replacement for what ever show didn't make it though it's first three episodes this season, the scene we're shooting is in, yes, you guessed it, a restaurant. But not just any restaurant. Warner Brothers knows how to use its assets. This restaurant is located on the studios lot, and it's after hours. That's a good thing too, because during hours, you couldn't get a background actor in here unless it was their day job busing tables. And it is a nice joint, too. BG are brought in and we are placed at tables. I end up at one right next to the table with all the principal actors, which means we are close to the cameras and because of proximity, must not eat the meager offerings placed before us. Not that it would ruin our apatite for dinner later. You actually need enough food to register in the stomach, to register on the brain. There were four of us at the table, and we spent the twenty to thirty minutes of pre-shot setup trying to identify our food. There were bread loaf shaped cretonne like crackers to eat with the pink paste provided on the same tray. We held a sniffing contest, as none of us could get past the smell to try a tasting contest., and decided that while it was likely edible and would not hospitalize us, why tempt the fates. We were provided with another tray of crackers with slices of unidentified animals in a post living state, cheeses that tickled the nose the way a typical two year old tickles the ivory's of the piano, and made to look like the cover of a “wouldn't you like to cook like this” magazine. We passed this tray around the table each time background was called and three of the four of us took an appetizer and put it on our plate. We then proceeded to pretend to talk as we also pretend to ignore our food. We did this for several hours while the food began to look like it had escaped a half way house in D.C. That will happen when the same crackers are handled by the same people thirty or forty times without being consumed. One of the AD's came over and looked at our plates. “You aren't eating any of that are you?” he asked. His concern seemed genuine. More interested in our well being that the inconvenience of a ambulance trip to the hospital. It was a heart warming moment, and yet rather unsettling. Phil... |
December 09, 2005Episode: Location: Universal Studios Last time I worked Crumbs, it was being shot on the town square set of Universal Studios, and while the show films before a live audience, our segment was being pre-filmed for use on the upcoming Friday's live filming. This time, we would be shooting our scene during the live filming of the show. I am trying not to confuse terms here, but it is hard to do. Part of me wants to use the word tape, as in “Taped before a live audience”. Taping and filming are not the same thing. A lot of the shows I do are shot with film, while some are Hi Def and shot on tape. You can tell which is which when you see the camera and notice if it has film canisters on it, or if it is the newer Hi Definition camera that has wires running off to the tape recording unit. Crumbs is filmed before a live audience. That is always fun. 
Keep in mind that directors and the AD's that help them, are inclined to keep a steady pace going during filming of a T.V. show before a live audience because the people will want to get home before sun up Saturday. They are not being paid $6.75 an hour, and there fore are unlikely to spend the night shooting a single scene thirty five times. This means that if an actor messes up his lines or blows her entrance, the director is going to yell, “still rolling, back to one” and suddenly the set is a hazardous place to be while BG actors rush to return to their first marks. The Actor who messed things up may be able to saunter to their mark because the director will wait for them, but BG isn't that high on the food chain. We run. Watching three people race past each other on the stairs to return to our first marks can be a little like watching the Key Stone Cops.One of the actors on this show is William Devane, who I have enjoyed watching for years. I remember him as J.F.K in The Missiles of October, and was happy to see him in Space Cowboys in the movies. This is an actor that I think of as a proper star. He is William Devane. So I found it odd that when he went missing during rehearsal, and an AD had to find him, the call that went out rather caught me off guard. It went something like this. “Mister Devane” Yelled the AD. “William Devane” Yelled the AD. “William” Yelled the AD. “Bill” Yelled the AD. “Billy where are you?” Yelled the AD. Billy? Billy Devane? How crass! That's like calling out for Larry Olivier. Just wrong. Phil... |
December 08, 2005Episode: George Enrolls Like That Location: Warner Brothers Studios From 1988 to 1998, Joe Regalbuto worked as an actor on Murphy Brown. He played the reporter Frank Fontana, one of Murphy's co-workers. Since 1998, he hasn't done a lot of acting, but he has done a fair bit of directing, and George Lopez is one show he has directed a lot. Being an actor person, and not so much a director person, I am always surprised when I recognize the director. What makes Joe a bit different from other directors I've watched is that he was in a business suit. Most directors are in jeans and an old but comfy shirt. Some are in shorts. Until he started talking about what he wanted to do with the scene we were in, I just thought he was a guest actor on the show. For those of us that arrived at 9:00 am, there was only one scene we were involved in. George, his wife and son all show up at the school assembly hall with other parents and their kids. It was a short scene and we were out of there by noon. Mostly it went well, and I ended up as part of a trio the camera follows to find George and his family, as well as a small group that reacts to his lines during the scene.  What made it a little longer was the twelve year old kid (boy) that was given to us as our son. Twelve years old is such a hard age. They are so close to being teens and yet are still firmly grounded in being children. This is the age at which children become such a strong reminder of why we have birth control. We tried to trade him off, but there were no takers, so during the filming, my “wife”, two other “parents” and myself, had to tell him not to try so hard to be funny. His concept of humor was trying to fight a battle of wits with people who were much better armed and after the first thirty minutes, were willing to battle to the death. He was returned to his mother in one piece, but only because we were merciful.All sets provide water to their BG actors. It's the law and a good idea. Arrowhead, Sparkletts, H2O, and others are the big winners here, because there are a lot of people on these studio lots, and they all need water. George went a little step further, and provided water with his own label. I brought one home as a souvenir. Here is a picture of the bottle. My only regret is that I did not meet the producer of the show. Sandra Bullock, produces the show and as Linda knows, if Sandra Bullock were to ask me to be her love slave, I would have to say yes. Strangely, Linda wasn't worried. Phil... |
December 06, 2005Episode: Daddy's Little Girl Location: Warner Brothers Studios We were shooting on Warner's Brooklyn street today. It's a New York winter, and we were all dressed in clothes that would have done us proud in New York. Alas, Warner's back lot is in Hollywood, and really, it's not so cold here. One fellow driving a cab laughed and told me that as the day proceeded, he was taking off more of the layers he had on. The rest of us pretended to be cold. The AD let us all know that this is supposed to be New York City, and proceeded to remind us that in New York, cars do not stop for much of anything, especially pedestrians. So he let it be known that cars were not to stop, and those of us hoofing it had to wait for a break in traffic and run across the street. Nothing like putting your life at risk for $6.75 an hour. At the top of a scene we were shooting, a large number of us were beyond the range of where we could hear an action or background call, so the camera rolled and we stood there doing nothing. After the shot, I found the AD and told him we hadn't been involved in the last shot and that we needed someone to let us know when to start. He put me on a corner, and told me that when I saw the other people start moving, to begin my action. He then told the other fifteen or twenty folk to watch me and begin their actions when they saw me move. No good deed goes unpunished.  When I brought the AD to our far flung corner, he noted that the Hot Dog Vender's cart was unmanned, so I told him that Joe, a Brooklyn native, had an apron and would make a good vender. He put Joe at the Hot Dog cart and Joe proceeded to sell hot dogs to pedestrians and drivers alike.As it became dark, we started filming the Diner scene, were I was paired up with Helen (my temp wife) and Jessica (my temp daughter...who just happens to have my real daughters name). We would enter the diner just after Ginnie, one of the sisters, played by Jennifer Esposito, and walk to a table where we pretended to talk. At one point, Jessica, who was sitting across from me, started to have giggle fits during a shot, because she thought I looked so real, talking to her. Lucky for her she was not on camera in that shot. During this scene, Rose comes in after I'm seated and sits at the table with her sisters. Rose is played by Laura Breckenridge. Now here is the part where a little math will tell you what it takes to shoot a scene that is only a few minutes long. There are four sisters, each needing a close-up. There are three angles covered by the camera that includes all four sisters and the BG in the diner. That's a total of seven angles, and each angle involved at least five takes, for a grand total of about thirty five takes. The last scene of the day was a street scene again, and the cars were all lined up to start driving on background. The front car was being driven by a woman BG who was sitting there like a deer in the head lights after the AD told her what to do. She had no time to digest the directions, so when the director yelled action, I walked up to her and keeping my hand low to my side, I waved her on telling her to drive. She drove. A few moments later the AD came over and asked me if I had waved the car on. I explained that the poor gal was clueless about what to do and that yes, I had waved her on. He walked off camera laughing. This was the same fellow that I had dealt with earlier, so I think he was beginning to understand me a little. Phil... |
December 05, 2005Episode: Changing Partners Location: Van Nuys Windfall is a new show being filmed for a mid-season replacement slot. A group of friends win a $300+ Million dollar Lottery and one of them buys a restaurant. We are filming in a Golf Club restaurant in Van Nuys and this is the first time I really get to eat the food put before me in a restaurant setting. (I did get to eat on the street fair scene in CSI: NY, but that was not a restaurant.) There is a scene where a lawyer is eating with one of the winners and giving him legal advice. At the beginning of the scene he takes a bite of his salad and then another before the scene is over. We had about eight takes of this scene, and after each “cut”, the food props person would walk up to his table, add more salad and dress his plate for the next shot. Off camera, she would reset food on the plates the background waitress had taken out. Only the actor playing the lawyer actually ate anything. After he shot the scene, we broke for lunch, where the actor playing the lawyer got to eat real food. After lunch, he came back to the set, where we filmed the same scene several more times. Doing a restaurant scene takes some focus, because you can't let the silverware hit the plate, or make loud sipping noises (as one BG did) while drinking your coffee. And you need to take care not to eat all of your food. I had a pasta dish (I could not identify it) that I wasn't wild about, but still took a bite each take. I pretended to like it, even though I prefer my pasta hot. The food dishes, including the chicken dinners that my table mates were eating, were served cold. I put bread on my plate, and along with the bite of pasta I took each time, I also nibbled on the bread.  Red and white wine was served at our table, or more correctly, red and white grape juice pretending to be wine. Two of the BG at my table refused to drink the grape juice, so between each take, props would come over and pour out all but a smidgen of the red grape juice into a bucket so the waitress had something to refill when she came to our table during the shot. By the time we finished the scene, half of the pasta dish was gone, most of the bread had been devoured and I had finished off my glass of white preprocessed wine.What I have not mentioned yet is that this restaurant is under the flight path of Van Nuys airport. I kid you not, with a sling shot and a good aim, David could have hit one of these birds and brought them down. Each time one of the bigger planes flew over head, I had to re seat my fillings. I picked a spot in the parking lot to stand and took a picture of the restaurant we were shooting in, and then waited for a plane to fly over and took its picture. This is a composite of the two together, but remember, I was in the same spot and had the same settings for both pictures. Phil... |
December 02, 2005Episode: #12 Location: Warner Brothers Studios This day started out off a bit when I got to Warner Brothers Studios at 8:00 AM only to find out that our call time was changed to 8:00 PM. There were 7:30 AM people who showed up on time to find out their time was changed to 4:00 PM. I always get to set thirty minutes early to allow time for traffic problems (this is L.A. after all) and that meant a 5:45 AM wake-up time. There were 20 of us who were there and on time according to the call times given us, and over half of the people went home and decided not to come back this evening. Central Casting had to put up rush calls for anyone who wanted to work tonight. With an 8:00 PM call, you can bet we all knew that the shoot would go past midnight. Our wrap time was 2:18 AM and that makes for a 21 hour day. Thankfully, I was able to go home and nap before heading back to the set. Gilmore Girls has had a bad rep in the background circle, with comments about testy stars, bad craft service and a not so friendly crew. For those of you (like my wife Linda) who are Gilmore Girls fans, I can set the rumor to rest. At least my experience was different. We were checked in by a friendly AD and wardrobe was efficient and professional as well as friendly. The crew were great, as most are, with please and thank you as a basic part of their speech. I have yet to meet a bad crew, and I find most of them to be professional and polite. And then there is the Star. Lorelai Gilmore is played by Lauren Graham. There were comments made by BG I've talked to that she was unfriendly, but I would have to say that is not so. She came over to talk with background during the setup for a shot, and also spent a few minutes in Craft Services chatting while she got some food during the setup of another scene. Friendly and charming. Just the way she appears in interviews. That all said, there was another moment for me this week. In this episode, there are twenty people who are professional maple syrup tasters (myself being one of them), and our job is (you guessed it) tasting maple syrup. The good news is, they did not use real maple syrup or they would have had twenty BG tossing their cookies. Instead, we had little coffee cups filled with water and food dye, made to look like maple syrup and on each take of the scene, we had to down a little cup of fake syrup. That's a lot of fake syrup, because we had about ten or so takes on this scene, and alas, three of those takes were my fault. Where to begin... After the scene had been shot (in about seven to eight takes) with the stars (the above mentioned Lauren Graham and Melissa McCarthy who plays Sookie St. James) the director comes out and sets up a shot that has as its unexpected focus, me. He asks my name and then tells me what he wants me to do. He asks that I start drinking my maple syrup before the others, and tells me what the line is. Now most of you know that I have been in theater off and on for thirty years. That means that I generally had several tries to understand and follow the directors instructions. There are times I miss the stage, because on a Hollywood set, there is the instruction and the shooting and not so much with the rehearsal. We shot the scene and I drink the fake maple syrup when I think I am supposed to. On cut, the director comes out and tells me that I drank too soon, and repeats the line and off he goes to call action again, and this time, I drink the bloody fake maple syrup only six lines early. Sigh... This time the director comes out and he has the script in hand. There is a light smattering of chuckles. Over he comes and sets the script down in front of me. He shows me the lines the actors say, and then shows me the line on which I am to drink the syrup. Off he goes. Third times a charm. After all that, I can only hope the bloody shot ends up in the final cut. Phil... |
December 01, 2005Episode: Poison Location: Franklin Canyon Park, BH At 10:05 this morning my cell phone rang and when I answered it, Central Casting was calling to see if I wanted to work today. They knew that I wasn't booked for the day, because I had my name on their availability list for rush calls. A rush call is one that results from someone not being able to make it to set, or a new requirement is added. When you call the work line first thing in the morning, you may hear a rush call that the casting people could not fill, so they will put it out there for anyone who can make it and who fits the call. By putting my name on the availability list, they were free to call me, already having looked at my file and noting that I would be right for the call. I said yes, and picked up another day of work. By 11:10 I was in Beverly Hills at Franklin Canyon Park, and being driven out to the location. Once on location, I waited until they were starting a new scene and was put in the shot, near the camera. The scene was about a company team building session gone bad, in the great outdoors. Someone poisoned a bunch of envelopes, and when the corporate campers licked the adhesive, their fates were sealed. I was a sick camper. And as seems to happen of late, the AD put me right in front of the camera. Scene opens and there I am looking sick and on the verge of puking. The verge of puking thing I had to do for myself, but the looking sick was helped along by make up. A happy little makeup man daubed my face with a soap and gliseryan combo that gave me the look to accompany the action. Instant beads of clammy sweat. Ah but then there is the rest of the story. The cast is ready, the cameras are rolling and I am close to the camera, as is one other fellow sitting to my left. Suddenly, before the AD can say action, a swift moving crew member rushes up and squirts water onto my fellow sickies face. He was unprepared for the assault, but I just had time to close my eyes. Spritz...spritz, and off he went. Action. We were ready for the next few applications of water, which were sprayed on each time just before the call to puke. You got to watch those guys. Their sneaky. Phil... |
| Copyright 2005 By Phillip Moon |
