Close to Home
November 14, 2006
Episode: Prodigal Son
Sony Studios – Stage 20

What do you do with the wardrobe department for Spiderman 3 when you don't need it any longer? I don't know, but they cleared it out of stage 20 and today we were shooting a scene from Close to Home there. And an odd but short day it was too.

First of all, Close to Home's home stages are 23 and 26 on the north side of the lot. 20 is near the south side and next to The Grill and the tennis courts. When given the scene that was to be shot on stage 20, the set building crew was handed a design, told to build it, and Central Casting was told what they needed in the way of background.

Needed:

On the day...(that's movie/T.V. talk for “when it is time to shoot”) the PA who is signing the three of us in (myself playing the clerk, the background repairman, and the background guard) gets an ear full from the 1^st AD, and there is a change in plans. You see, the set building crew were not told of the need for an elevator, and so, none was built. The elevator repairman background actor, was suddenly an extra extra, and became another clerk (in his 60's).

On set, there were three things that became clear, quickly.

The set was really tiny.
There was smoke everywhere.
And you had to be aware of the three pigeons at all times.

We hadn't been on stage more than a few minutes when the 1^st AD came over to meet us, and tell us that he would be needing me soon for the file room shot. He also said that he wasn't sure when or if he would use the guard, and we kind of began to understand that the extra extra was now a back up if I had a serious medical emergency or just clearly couldn't play the part of a disconnected file clerk. The space we were filming in was not wide enough to put my arms out to my side without hurting my fingers, and if you sneezed while standing next to another actor, you might find yourself with a sexual harassment suit. So I ended up being the only one of the three to work that morning.

My acting classes came in handy as months of pantomime paid off. I nailed the task of portraying a file clerk who was so busy watching T.V. at his desk, that the two investigators going through his drawers went completely unnoticed. Heh.

The smoke was not real smoke, of course. The guy who made the smoke said it is the same basic stuff they use during Halloween in haunted houses. The reason for it on set was one of lighting. With enough of the stuff in the air, you had that soft focus light that allows the sun shine streaks of light to cut through the “dust” and add atmosphere. Of course, that's what I thought I was there for. You see, background and extra are only two words for who we silent folk are. We are also know as atmosphere.

Rob Roy Thomas Project
November 16, 2006
Pilot
DC Studios

OH. MY. GOSH.

What a day. This is what happens when you get an actor (Greg Proops – Whose line is it anyway?) who is a master at improve and a Director (Rob), who doesn't have a script. Heck, he didn't even want one. He has an outline, but no script.

Here's how it went.

The Director would tell the actors what they needed to do in the scene, such as, come into the Rotunda of the Congressional building, and one of them keeps being beeped by the metal detector, until his shoes are the last thing to come off. Meanwhile, the other actor (Proops) zones in on him like a shark to chum.

On background, we 50 or so background actors began our assigned crosses (which were a lot less random than the dialog) while the two actors made it all up as they went along. I suddenly began to appreciate the improv we were doing in my acting class, and heard the Director make the same comments as my teacher. “Make New Selections”.

Make new selections is what you do when you aren't moving any further on a specific riff. Try something meaner, loftier, kinder, rip his heart out. Whatever, just make a change. Along the way, the Director, who had the manic energy of an EverReady Bunny in need of Ritalin, would jump in, sometimes during the take, and tell them to do it again, “only...” Or he might say, “great, keep that line, and Make new selections.”

The usual way a show is shot is to call roll sound, slate (that black and white clapper thing) then action, the actors do their thing, and when they are done (and the script tells everyone when they are supposed to end), the Director calls cut and that would end the roll. That is a take. On this show, there was roll and slate, and action, and the actors, and the director would say, “Keep rolling – Back to one” (meaning everyone back to the beginning) and then while the background and actors were returning to their first position, he would make suggestions, and then call action again without slating. Each take was from several minutes to 10 minutes long with no devision along the way. No slate. In short, really long takes.

If this show gets on the air, I will be very curious as to what takes, what “New Selections” he uses for the final product.

In one scene, he has Proops character harass the other actor whose character has come in, a mess after an all night drunk. He shot take after take having Proops make one change after the other.

“Just laugh at him. Don't say a word.”
“Laugh, but offer to help him.”
“Heep on the pity, and offer the help.”

And then, after he had hit every other angle, the Director told him to “...rip him apart. No mercy.” And that is what Proops did. On the last take, we were all dead silent after the complete destruction of the other character.

Proops is best know for his comedy work, but when the stops were pulled, he delivered a killing effort that is worthy of the best in drama.