It wasn't supposed to be this way... not that I'm complaining.
I am informationally clogged, but basically this week's been full of inspections and looking for parts and paperwork to register Zilla in Texas and meeting fans in the strangest places and finding out the transmission leak is also an oil leak and the carburetor was missing major parts all 2300 miles of the way home and, hello, that's one of the reasons we got 9 miles per gallon. *facepalm*
Our trip to that Big Building in Vancouver What Has All Those Cars and Sets and Crew and Hockey Sticks and Whatnot, right?
This wasn't supposed to be a set visit, so it wasn't a typical one. Please don't copy anything in this post elsewhere. Links are okay. Spoilers are marked.
Sunday night, the 23rd, I called Jeff on the transpo team, at his request, to let him know where we were staying and to arrange picking up the truck. Before we left for Vancouver, I emailed that we could come by the offices, or wherever the truck was, and do the paperwork and everything on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, whichever was better for him. Aaron and I had planned to take the SkyTrain there (which is a 30-minute straight shot to 22nd Street in Burnaby from the Waterfront station), but on the phone, Jeff said Nah, I'll come get you in the morning around 10, as soon as I'm done with my cast pickup assignments. Oh. Okay. Thanks. That would be awesome.
When he showed up, Aaron and I got into the backseat of his truck. Jeff introduced himself with a smile and we shook hands and then I smiled even bigger because in the front seat next to him was John, the Keeper of the Impalas, who also introduced himself. I knew his face from some other set visit pictures I've seen, so I shook his hand while trying not to be too obvious that I recognized him. I was also silently chuckling at the irony that, here I was, buying The Dad’s Truck from two guys named Jeff and John.
John mostly led the conversation on the way back about the weather; how he'd been checking the forecasts on the internet for Washington and Oregon because he was worried about us driving through all the late season snow, but Dad's Truck has off-road tires and four wheel drive, so you should be okay if you leave early tomorrow. I was floored that he was watching out for us like that. What an awesome guy!
(ETA: John is in this scene. He walks through the background, checking the straps on the 18-wheeler. *fangirl wave*)
He also mentioned that he and Jeff were brain-storming how to get us through Customs. Usually, they work with transporter companies that handle the importing and exporting, so they had little experience with anything driven back out. In Canada, when you sell a car, the plate stays with the previous owner, who puts it on their new car, so John's truck didn't have any plates at all that they could give us or let us borrow. (The ones on it for the show were props and weren't legal, obviously.)
They were also shocked that we didn't have to give notice to the border patrol for our return to the States. Law requires them to notify Customs whenever they are expecting a shipment of vehicles from the States at least 72 hours in advance and requires a $200 fee on every vehicle regardless of age. For us, and partly because John's truck is considered a classic at 27 years old, we just had to show up at the border with a bill of sale and an insurance card - and we wouldn't pay a dime. It was getting us to the border without being pulled over that they were worried about. Also, finding a place to park it in downtown overnight would be kind of a pain (It's too tall for downtown parking garages? oh...). So, they said, let's just look at it today, think about how to handle the trip to the border tomorrow, but in the meantime, how about we just walk around the set a bit?
Aaron and I just stared at each other and my eyes must have been as big as saucers. I said, Yeah, that's a bit unexpected, but I'm not turning that down. I think all three of them laughed at how stoked I was, but I don't remember for sure because everything kind of went gray for a second. Then John nudged Jeff and said Hey, why don't we go to the warehouse? I need to grab something and Jeff goes, But where's the truck? Isn't it at the studio? and John says Yeah, it's at the studio parked with the circus and Jeff goes Okay, we'll stop by the warehouse and John turns to me and says Wanna see the Impalas? with a little twinkle in his eye and I swear I think all I could do was nod and swallow really hard. I realized that they were Ninja-ing my way into the world of Supernatural and my brain was totally not ninja. More like scrambled eggs.
Then he asked if we get the magazine. It was a big topic on set that day because they had just gotten the advanced copies for #3, but they weren't sure if fans were liking them. I said, Of course we like them. I get them at the bookstore as soon as they come out and so do several of my friends. I liked the article about the Impala okay, but I was a geek and still wanted to know more. They said they'd been interviewed on video recently about the cars and they weren't sure who or what it was for, but hopefully we'd all see that soon.
We got to the warehouse. Jeff called it unassuming and John said something like it was Secret HQ and I agreed. It's just a big gray building several blocks from the studio with no signs on the outside. John unlocked the door and motioned us in and Jeff said This is unofficial, you know, so any pictures you take all day can't be on the internet, okay? My scrambled brain? Heard: Sooper seekrit operations! Not to be having teh sharing of evidencery! *iz saad no wait is happeeeee* because my eyes nudged my brain and said, Look! Impala La La La! Lots of them!
The light was pretty dim in there, but there were three Impalas and two police cars parked closely together and then two parked at an angle just inside the garage door. The Impala in the far back, I noticed, was still painted red, a recent purchase, they said. Parked next to it was "Hunter", the original picture car from the Pilot. They 'retired' it (I think he said due to high mileage), but there's no plans to part it out. I touched the hood. I have a picture of all of them with the hoods popped open but I don't honestly remember looking into any of them specifically except for the "Hero", the current stunt car.
We got to see the engine and John took the air filter off so we could see the carburetor and the intake. It was very clean and organized and looked just like it did in Fresh Blood. John and Jeff also mentioned the full protective skid plates underneath and that it had double brakes, (I think John called them "stomp brakes"?) that control the front and rear separately. This change allowed the car to do that cool 180 spin turn in Croatoan. Jeff said a stunt driver did the actual turn, but with a bit of practice, Jensen probably could have done it himself. John nodded and said that Jensen was getting to be a really good driver.
Then we looked at the "Civilian", the main picture car at the moment. This one had the foam from Sam's overhauled Weapon's Box from The Mystery Spot still in the trunk, but no weapons since the props department gathers them again when the shoot is over. It was parked right in front of the "Hero". John opened the driver side door and stepped back. The first picture I took was blurry because I was so excited and didn't realize it was still on Manual Focus. Then John smiled and asked why wasn't I sitting in it? I got in and slid to the middle and my heart melted. It smelled like vinyl and grease and dust. It was perfectly clean except for a couple of stains in the tan carpet on the driver's side. I ran my hands over the seats and stared at the dash for several seconds, put my left hand on the steering wheel and my right on the seat. I imagined sitting between Dean and Sam. I am fuzzy on what it actually looked like - as in some details about the dash - it all barely registered because my first and only response was an emotional one. Time stopped.
And then Aaron slid in beside me. John took a couple of snapshots. I don't think that I'll frame them or anything because I look about as spazzed as I felt. I was sitting in THE IMPALA. The. Impala. THE. Impala. What? It's time to get out? Did the sun go down? I haven't memorized everything yet... THE IMPALA... the... okay.
As I got out, I held onto the door and noticed something... odd. About the car. I looked at the other Impalas and noticed the same thing. And I asked point blank Where are the spot lights?!
Jeff lowered his head and John huffed a little. They explained that one of the directors (who shall remain nameless for fear of hate mail or eggs on his car or something... but he was director of DALDOM *looks around innocently*) had trouble getting the camera rack shots up the side of the car like he wanted and ordered them all to be removed. Jeff was worried that fans would notice and I laughed in agreement and said, yeah, here I am, noticing. He wanted them to write an explanation into the scripts about where they went or why the boys removed them, but he's pretty sure they won't. Those lights had been one of the only modifications that came with it when Supernatural bought the first Impala; he liked them because they made it unique and he was a bit sad to see them go. He started to explain that they were actually on a different model of the same car. I said, Oh yeah, the Biscayne police version, right? and his eyes bugged out a little and he said Yeah, that's right. Boy, you've done your research. I smiled and said it was his fault; they made me a fan of the car and it was fun finding out tidbits like that.
When I looked up from the roof of the "Civilian" as I got out (which I also touched lightly because, hello, rooftop confessions, but I didn't want to leave fingerprints), I saw all the spotlights sitting on a shelf and went to look.
Where we were standing was under a deck platform that was built to separate the warehouse into two parts. I asked what was on the other side and Jeff motioned me to come up the stairs with him. We looked out over shelf upon shelf upon shelf, piled from floor to ceiling, of props. The Cicero Pines motel sign from A Very Supernatural Christmas was practically touching the roof of a two story building, there was so much stuff. I boggled aloud at how on earth do they keep it all straight, where things are. Rows and rows. The avocado green oven. The ugly chairs. A motel table is sitting on top of a yellow refrigerator that still has magnets on it. Mattresses. Walls, even.
I didn't let on that I was recognizing stuff, but I ticked off things in my head and was completely blown away by the understanding that they had all of this cataloged and knew where it all was. Then my jaw literally dropped open when Jeff said, Yeah, this is one of two warehouses for props. Jerry [Wanek] is really amazing. Jerry worked on X-Files with Kim Manners, one of the directors, and did you know Kim was supposed to be the original Dennis the Menace but his family had to move?... And I’m all speechless and all I could say was Kim is awesome. He directs some of my favorite episodes. I got the impression that Kim has quite a following up there, not just on this set, but among the TV crews in general. The caliber of people we have working on Our Show is awesome. :)
John yelled up that he had what he needed and was ready to go whenever we were. I said that my friends who were fans had a few car questions, if there was time. He said Jeff was good for those since he owns most of the cars. So I said fans knew that KAZ 2Y5 stood for Kansas and the year the show started, so does CNK 80Q3 mean anything? Jeff looked down at John, and John just blinked at me and said well, you know more than I do and he didn’t know of any license plates on the show with meanings like that now. That plate was from a different crew that worked the pilot and they inherited all that stuff when it got picked up.
Then I asked Jeff about the blue Bug that Ava and then Sam 'drove' and he replied that’s one of his and how funny you recognized it on both episodes, as in woops. Ha. When he bought it, it was under a tree. Literally. A tree had fallen onto it.
What about Gordon’s car? I said. Well, Gordon’s dead now, he said gleefully. I laughed. Yeah, but the El Camino? Oh, that red one? Yeah, that was rented from another guy. He mentioned the blue Gremlin from Hell House and it is his, too. He had been proud that it really hauled all that stuff and the camper, since it’s a little four cylinder. Some of the other cars in that camping scene were his.
He said his favorite episode for cars have been Hell House, Bobby’s junk yard in Devil's Trap, and the vampire's cars in Dead Man's Blood, but Route 666 was his all-time favorite because of the Dodge Power Wagons they used. They actually got to sink one in that pond, but then they had to clean it out. Ick.
Bobby’s Chevelle? Was a necessity. The old Ford tow truck barely runs, just barely enough for John to get it on set. That’s why in every scene it’s just sitting there. Bobby’s tow truck… needs a tow truck. So the Chevelle was a replacement when the script called for Bobby to actually be driving.
Then we walked back downstairs, and I asked what they were going to do with the spotlights. He didn’t know. Then he picked up a set of the black side marker shells - the ones they replace with the white ones that light up - and said I could have them. I said I felt a little guilty taking them, but he replied that they would just end up getting thrown out.
Right before we left, John lifted the cover on another car parked under the deck. It was a shiny dark blue Chevy Malibu in the same body style as the Impalas. I asked if this was for a new character and he said no, it was just his. He even said he would have started it up for us, but that he didn't have the keys with him. I loved the paint color. He’s done a beautiful job restoring it. Obviously, the love for that era goes far beyond just caring for the show’s cars.
We all got back into the truck and were at the studio within a few minutes. This is the part where I start losing time because my mind was so busy processing and imagining. I was in a bit of an Impala-induced overdrive.
As we drove up, the studio looked exactly like I expected: huge and gray and pretty unassuming, like a big warehouse. We went to Jeff’s office first (which is about the same size as my cube and he was sharing it with another guy) and while he grabbed the keys for the truck, I gazed at all the pictures on the wall. Some of them were pictures of his personal project cars and drawings of a very kitted-out Impala. I asked what it was from and he said Oh, I drew that for the show. S’what I do in all my spare time. Wouldn’t that have been cool? You guys. It had a custom ram air hood scoop with badges for a 527 engine, polished one-off wheels, suicide doors with shaved handles, a tube grill cover that wrapped over the lights, a 3.5" chopped top (lowering the roof), spotlights with pentagrams etched in them so that when the light was shown it would work as a devil’s trap, and a rotating license plate to throw off the cops. It was The Impala on Steroids. It was awesome.
(Small ETA: I just found a site that has the floorplan for the whole building.)
Then we followed him through a stage, to the “circus” in the parking lot. I spotted what looked like Bobby’s house, but only the stairs and the wallpaper were there. They were converting it into another place and would change it back again later. I saw four guys hammering and moving big boards. One of them dropped a corner of a wall or something on his foot and yelped. When the others asked if he was okay he drawled, It’s all good! which was obviously code for this sucks and they all busted out laughing. These would be some of the same half dozen guys I’d see over the next hour, on every stage, hustling from one task to another. I can’t imagine redoing Bobby’s place over and over again, but they do. They all work so hard. Across from Bobby’s was another set that looked familiar. Again, not much was left except the bench seats and tables, the walls and blind covered windows, some of the stacked dishes, and the sign hanging from the ceiling. “PIG N’ A POKE” it said. The bench the boys had sat at had a bottle of water on it and some boxes and if it weren’t for a screen door leaning against it, I would have stolen a quick sit, but I was raised to keep my hands in my pockets, so I moved nothing and came back out with a big grin on my face.
The “circus”, I learned, is just a term for the mobile version of the production. As we walked, Jeff pointed at each one: Jared and Jensen’s trailers, FX, makeup, costume, props, technical, and catering are just the ones I sort of remember. Ah, catering. They had two awesome restored trucks, too. This whole crew seems to be into the classics.
There was a tent with multiple carafes of coffee and a mini fridge with about four different kinds of creamer, fruit, jello cups, juice - it even had sugar-free hard candy. And that was just the snacks tent.
After I got some coffee to warm up, we walked to the back of the lot, and I saw The Dad’s Truck right in front of me and John smiling, holding the door open. I smiled and turned my head thinking I must be blushing, stop when I see something else. More cars. The more cars I’d been wanting to see. The bashed Impalas and Bobby’s Chevelle. I pointed. Is that really Bobby’s car? and my voice shook. And Jeff replied, Um… Yes? and I swear to heaven, guys, I actually squealed and flailed. Right in front of Jeff. And then I caught myself and almost whispered Sorry, I just had a moment… Bobby… he’s one of my favorites. And Jeff laughed and says Yeah, I can see that. And then it hit me… that he didn’t mind. They all quite literally support each other around here and see fan silliness so often that it wasn’t that strange at all. Suddenly, I felt better.
We kept walking to the truck and John turned the key to start it up. It coughed and growled like an irritated old man with just enough breakfast, not enough coffee and too many little kids prodding at him. Someone had washed it, so it was bright and gleaming. It didn’t sound like it had been sitting for two years. They opened the hood and both doors and showed us where all the controls are. I got a kick out of the fact that the bright headlights are controlled by a silver button on the floorboard that you press with your foot. Even though that’s apparently common in these models, I’d never seen that before. John continued to pick at it, mentioning that he’d put a new battery in it, just in case, and then he found a screwdriver to tighten down a few things. That’s how all this gets done, I found myself thinking, they see something that needs done and they just do it. And then I think how the heck am I going to get up in this thing? The floorboard is almost to my hips and there’s no footing. This is probably why the driver’s side seat is caved in. You basically fall into it from throwing yourself up there. I have no more questions about why exactly we never see Jeffrey Dean getting into it, only out. He opens the door. But you never see the actual hefting up there. It’s certainly not a graceful procedure upon the first few encounters.
Aaron and John were chatting about various things and Aaron seemed very amused when Jeff showed him the makeshift radiator overflow tank, which was basically an empty windshield washer fluid jug with a hose in it and strapped down through the handle. Hey, it works. Overall, Aaron was smiling and I could tell that it was in better shape than he’d thought it was going to be.
We closed it all up again and I couldn’t help myself. I walked straight over to the Impalas, five parking spaces away. They were shuffled off to the side and had been used several times for parts over the last year. There wasn’t much left of the 2.02 car at all, but the trunk was there, getting rusted in all the spots where Dean had gone at it with the crowbar. I could tell the difference in the depth of the hits from the first take and then the second one when he’d asked for a bigger crowbar. They were all holes, but the dents were deeper than I thought. There weren’t just circular dents from the curved end. There was impression after impression of the entire crowbar, all the way down the handle to his hands, scarred into that trunk. He really wailed on it.
There is no way to keep this from sounding silly, so I won't even try... All this was racing through my brain as I stood there and skimmed it with my fingers, laid the palm of my hand on the edge, and felt Dean’s vacancy at that moment. I didn’t even want to touch the deepest ones, like there was too much pain slammed into it. Dean became real. Right then. There’s no other way to describe what I felt except that I couldn’t breathe for a minute. ...As a person (check), or an actor (check, sorta). How the hell do you do that? All I know is, I've been there as a person. And that, to me, automatically makes it real. I've had to tap into real things to do something like that. So maybe it is a shrine for fangirls. But it goes a lot deeper than that, too. I got it. And, wow. Man. DDL. Yes. You can. The End.
When it felt like I'd been standing there maybe a bit too long, I walked over to Aaron, where Jeff was explaining how they did the semi wreck with the 1.22 car and my eyes got big when I saw the back seat. It was literally bent in half at a 45 degree angle and the front seat had collapsed down to the floorboard. The dash had crumpled like a pretzel. I wouldn’t want to sit in that car afterwards, let alone at the time of impact. They used cables and pulleys, ala tricks you see on MythBusters, to regulate the speed and contact point of the two vehicles and the car was supposed to bounce off, but the cables cinched and they stuck together as the semi dragged it. All that damage was done by a semi going 40 MPH (about 64 km/h).
Bobby’s Chevelle SS, one of two I’m told, was sitting docilely with a flat tire and South Dakota license plates: 607 82E. It’s still beat up, with about six different colors and a beat up interior that you wouldn’t invite your enemy to sit in. They both match. One is the stunt car that they drove into a "wall" in Magnificent Seven and the other is the picture car. This one was the stunt car, I believe, since it was the one with the driver's side marker light missing.
Sitting between it and the 2.02 car was the little Gremlin. That little thing, honestly, is as long as the Impalas are wide. Cornflower blue with white zebra seat covers; just looking at it makes you want to laugh.
Jeff got called away to do something, so before we could fill out the paperwork for the truck, he left us with John, who was hungry. And he knew where the food was. It was on set. Except that they were filming. So we waited with a couple of ladies who were the Keepers of the Door and they joked with John about they were Serious Mister, you’d better not go in there until I say it’s okay and maybe not even then, right. When the light went off we waited a bit more until there was a bell and then John could open the door. It was dark and smoky from lots of dry ice which made my throat a little parched. We had to watch where we stepped because most of the concrete floor was covered in raised wood panels that stopped and started again a bit illogically in places, not to mention thick cables and tables on wheels everywhere. One of the tables on wheels was of great interest to John and as a few distant lights came on, he asked if we wanted ham or turkey. Turkey. We took our sandwiches to a less busy spot, past a bank of monitors and a huge swath of black fabric hanging to one side.
SPOILERS START HERE
We munched down for about 10 minutes and then things picked up again, going dark, yelled voices echoing. I swear it took almost 2 full minutes for all those marker checks. It might have been because of the multiple cameras for the scene: at least three, probably four. I heard Phil Sgriccia say Action and then Jared’s and Jensen’s voices behind the black fabric. I could understand everything Jensen said but only about half of what Jared said. They were a good 30 feet away, at least.
As I watched the monitors, I thought I saw a small hiccup in the smoothness of the scene happen when Jensen is talking toward the camera for his line and then he did a come hither look which made a bunch of people on set chuckle out loud. Phil yelled cut and told them to reset from the beginning because Jensen, the line isn't Labor Day, it's LEAP YEAR day. Jensen cracked up and then Jared echoed him, laughing at him laughing.
They reset super fast and this one went well, getting all the way through the scene when the Ghostfacers show up and panic ensues. There was lots of cussing and ad-libbing. I heard the line "Hey... aren't these the assholes from Texas?" clear as a bell and it made me laugh so hard that my whole body shook and I had to cover my mouth so I wouldn’t spew sandwich everywhere. John just looked at me with a huge grin on his face.
It was a long scene, several minutes of filming in one cut, but I think this is due to the way they were shooting it, which was mostly on hand held digitals.
END SPOILERS
When they finally yelled cut again and a couple of flood lights came on, I could see some chairs and a couple of people to my left in the haze. It was Jeannie and Shannon. Jeannie was leafing through a magazine and I remembered what John said about them getting the third one that day, so I sidled over to within seeing distance. Shannon was leaning more over her other shoulder as they remarked on who was in it this month and did Shannon make it or not. They whispered for a second and then she put the magazine down on the seat of another folding chair in front of her.
I asked her if she was finished and when she said yes, I turned it to face me in the chair and picked it up quickly to leaf through a page or two. It’s a very relaxed group of people and I felt welcome, but socially unfamiliar. Curiosity got the better of me and I leaned forward to see whose chair I was nosing into. It said in bold white letters: Jensen Ackles. Um. Oooh. okay. Not too embarrassing, but so not cool. So I folded it shut again and as I’m putting it back exactly the way I found it, a PA walked up with an admonishment on her lips and then she got distracted by someone or something almost directly behind me. I nodded and told her calmly I’m sorry, I didn’t know and I walked briskly back toward John and Aaron, who had walked further away. After about ten feet, I turned and looked back into that darn light and my feet called a mutiny.
Jensen Ackles. Had been standing right behind me. Waiting for me to get my turkey mitts off his magazine that he hadn’t had a chance to read yet. And I wouldn’t have had a problem apologizing to him, or even having a conversation, had I turned and seen him before I walked away. Except that by the time I turned, I didn’t see Jensen. Not really. I saw a bright halo of white and a sharp, close outline of spiky hair and a popped collar, slouchy jeans and boots, and bowlegs with all their weight on one foot, his head dipped forward as he paged through that magazine. It was Dean. It was DEAN. It was probably mostly due to the light, but... Tunnel Vision Episode Of The Day Number Two. Forget it.
See? Moms and their hands in pockets advice. It applies all the time.
I turned back around, that image seared in my brain (it’s still there), and caught up with John and Aaron, and now Jeff, over by the green screen stage. The green screen Impala was there, number eight, under a car cover. Jeff lifted it to show us where they made cuts so that the roof or other parts could come off. It doesn’t even have wheels. It’s just a shell that sits on rolling dollys.
Then we walked through the other two stages. There were pieces being reused and repainted. I found the “concrete” wall where the red, No Spitting sign was painted in the cell in Jus In Bello.
SPOILERS AGAIN
I grinned at someone leaving a shiny soda can in an otherwise dingy looking basement set that moved right into one that actually had a ceiling. It was marked 'Fall Out Shelter' and I had no idea what it was for, but it had one chair in the middle of the room and that was it. A couple others were the interiors for modern houses, with full kitchens and living rooms, staircases and front doors.
There was also a stack of boxes pulled into the walkway between two sets. One box was marked Bloody Pelts. It continued to slay me just how freaking organized this all was. Organized chaos, for sure.
We turned a corner for another ghostly looking house. Part of it was the old motel room for Dream a Little Dream of Me. I recognized the crazy blue-green bird wallpaper. It was glazed with brown paint and graffitied with the word Loser in all caps. It was a bit déjà vu. My feet must have stopped again because Jeff looked back at me and said, I don’t think that one’s come out yet. And I said, I know it though, from Dream. And he goes, Man you know your episodes, dontya? And I half whispered, That one? Yeah. I know that one…
OKAY IT’S SAFE
Jeff had to disappear again and the three of us went upstairs to the big offices. We tried to find Jerry Wanek, but his team was out on a survey for locations for 3.14, so we checked out the postcard wall for a few minutes. My favorite was a plain index card with two quarters taped to it. It said simply “Contribution to Dean’s Magic Finger Fund”.
By then, “real lunch” was ready, so we headed out to the tents again and grabbed piles of Asian stir fry and rice. It was so good. The selection that they bring to set on a truck every day is better than most restaurant delis I’ve been to. Just amazing.
We sat in the chow tent with a few other crew members who popped in to eat and then were off again. No slackers. When a guy walked in and his soup bowl went flying because he hit a hidden pole, his buddies laughed. Someone at another table said that was the third time today that he knew of, so one of the guy's buddies got up to make sure that the pole was more obvious. Things just get done around here.
Aaron told me later that he saw Jared and Jensen and another actor going to get their lunch and walk back to their trailers and that Jared sort of peeked in to see who was around. Aaron and I sat across from each other so I didn’t see them.
Mostly, Jeff and John and I were talking about their other gigs when Supernatural wasn’t in production. They like television better than features because the jobs usually last about ten months instead of three.
I asked them if they could ask a Supernatural fan anything, what would they ask us? and Jeff said, What do you want to see more of? Music, right? He smiled when I smiled and then he added that the crew, most of them anyway, notices and misses the same things that we miss. They try to keep their budgets and costs low so that Kripke can get another song, like from Foreigner or whatever.
When I decided I couldn’t eat anymore, we walked back and Jeff weaved towards the boy's trailers and then back again. Whaaaht? I asked, smiling. Oh, they usually stop and say hi, but they're mad at me right now, he laughed. I guffaw at that. What? Why? Because I was asking them to sign the dash or a picture for you... and that's kinda how they realized that I sold Dad's Truck... AWW! ... and they've been really busy with the show and schedule changes, so... Yeah. Well, that's okay. It's just not the right time. I know they're okay about it now, but I felt bad at the time that they were surprised by someone wanting it that much!
I'm blessed with good friends who have let them know that it went to a good home, where it will remain Dad's Truck and it will be fixed up running wise but kept as much the same as possible. I'm still hoping that they'll get to see it again someday, being in Dallas, and get to show them that it's just as important to us as it is to them, shocking as that may be. :)
TINY SPOILER
So we went inside and walked back through Stage 3 and toured the Big Black Creepy Drapes Set, which was empty now. Their laptops and papers were on a long table where they had left them for lunch, screens lit with representations of websites and video feedback. It felt like a real, haunted house. I wondered who drank all the beer in the empty beer bottles and smiled at a table with three legs and an old barrel keg.
AND OVER
The sets are mindblowing. Cameras don't do justice to how detailed they are. Mostly, the whole stage area smells like Home Depot: fresh cut wood, dust, weird heat smells from heavy electrical gear, the Halloween smell of dry ice.
We went to Jeff's office for a minute to sign the paperwork. A crew member barreled past us in the hallway, hockey stick in hand and grin on his face. There goes that, Jeff says. They're gonna play now. I'd heard they get to play a while after lunch sometimes, so it was good to know those games are still happening and they all get some downtime.
We got back into Jeff’s truck and he drove us to the SkyTrain a couple of blocks away. We took that back to the hotel where Aaron promptly diagnosed me "functionally comatose" and ordered himself some bed rest. So I went to the coffee shop around the corner and chided myself at what a dorky fangirl I was... and then squealed silently to myself some more.
Our trip to that Big Building in Vancouver What Has All Those Cars and Sets and Crew and Hockey Sticks and Whatnot, right?
This wasn't supposed to be a set visit, so it wasn't a typical one. Please don't copy anything in this post elsewhere. Links are okay. Spoilers are marked.
Sunday night, the 23rd, I called Jeff on the transpo team, at his request, to let him know where we were staying and to arrange picking up the truck. Before we left for Vancouver, I emailed that we could come by the offices, or wherever the truck was, and do the paperwork and everything on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, whichever was better for him. Aaron and I had planned to take the SkyTrain there (which is a 30-minute straight shot to 22nd Street in Burnaby from the Waterfront station), but on the phone, Jeff said Nah, I'll come get you in the morning around 10, as soon as I'm done with my cast pickup assignments. Oh. Okay. Thanks. That would be awesome.
When he showed up, Aaron and I got into the backseat of his truck. Jeff introduced himself with a smile and we shook hands and then I smiled even bigger because in the front seat next to him was John, the Keeper of the Impalas, who also introduced himself. I knew his face from some other set visit pictures I've seen, so I shook his hand while trying not to be too obvious that I recognized him. I was also silently chuckling at the irony that, here I was, buying The Dad’s Truck from two guys named Jeff and John.
John mostly led the conversation on the way back about the weather; how he'd been checking the forecasts on the internet for Washington and Oregon because he was worried about us driving through all the late season snow, but Dad's Truck has off-road tires and four wheel drive, so you should be okay if you leave early tomorrow. I was floored that he was watching out for us like that. What an awesome guy!
(ETA: John is in this scene. He walks through the background, checking the straps on the 18-wheeler. *fangirl wave*)
He also mentioned that he and Jeff were brain-storming how to get us through Customs. Usually, they work with transporter companies that handle the importing and exporting, so they had little experience with anything driven back out. In Canada, when you sell a car, the plate stays with the previous owner, who puts it on their new car, so John's truck didn't have any plates at all that they could give us or let us borrow. (The ones on it for the show were props and weren't legal, obviously.)
They were also shocked that we didn't have to give notice to the border patrol for our return to the States. Law requires them to notify Customs whenever they are expecting a shipment of vehicles from the States at least 72 hours in advance and requires a $200 fee on every vehicle regardless of age. For us, and partly because John's truck is considered a classic at 27 years old, we just had to show up at the border with a bill of sale and an insurance card - and we wouldn't pay a dime. It was getting us to the border without being pulled over that they were worried about. Also, finding a place to park it in downtown overnight would be kind of a pain (It's too tall for downtown parking garages? oh...). So, they said, let's just look at it today, think about how to handle the trip to the border tomorrow, but in the meantime, how about we just walk around the set a bit?
Aaron and I just stared at each other and my eyes must have been as big as saucers. I said, Yeah, that's a bit unexpected, but I'm not turning that down. I think all three of them laughed at how stoked I was, but I don't remember for sure because everything kind of went gray for a second. Then John nudged Jeff and said Hey, why don't we go to the warehouse? I need to grab something and Jeff goes, But where's the truck? Isn't it at the studio? and John says Yeah, it's at the studio parked with the circus and Jeff goes Okay, we'll stop by the warehouse and John turns to me and says Wanna see the Impalas? with a little twinkle in his eye and I swear I think all I could do was nod and swallow really hard. I realized that they were Ninja-ing my way into the world of Supernatural and my brain was totally not ninja. More like scrambled eggs.
Then he asked if we get the magazine. It was a big topic on set that day because they had just gotten the advanced copies for #3, but they weren't sure if fans were liking them. I said, Of course we like them. I get them at the bookstore as soon as they come out and so do several of my friends. I liked the article about the Impala okay, but I was a geek and still wanted to know more. They said they'd been interviewed on video recently about the cars and they weren't sure who or what it was for, but hopefully we'd all see that soon.
We got to the warehouse. Jeff called it unassuming and John said something like it was Secret HQ and I agreed. It's just a big gray building several blocks from the studio with no signs on the outside. John unlocked the door and motioned us in and Jeff said This is unofficial, you know, so any pictures you take all day can't be on the internet, okay? My scrambled brain? Heard: Sooper seekrit operations! Not to be having teh sharing of evidencery! *iz saad no wait is happeeeee* because my eyes nudged my brain and said, Look! Impala La La La! Lots of them!
The light was pretty dim in there, but there were three Impalas and two police cars parked closely together and then two parked at an angle just inside the garage door. The Impala in the far back, I noticed, was still painted red, a recent purchase, they said. Parked next to it was "Hunter", the original picture car from the Pilot. They 'retired' it (I think he said due to high mileage), but there's no plans to part it out. I touched the hood. I have a picture of all of them with the hoods popped open but I don't honestly remember looking into any of them specifically except for the "Hero", the current stunt car.
We got to see the engine and John took the air filter off so we could see the carburetor and the intake. It was very clean and organized and looked just like it did in Fresh Blood. John and Jeff also mentioned the full protective skid plates underneath and that it had double brakes, (I think John called them "stomp brakes"?) that control the front and rear separately. This change allowed the car to do that cool 180 spin turn in Croatoan. Jeff said a stunt driver did the actual turn, but with a bit of practice, Jensen probably could have done it himself. John nodded and said that Jensen was getting to be a really good driver.
Then we looked at the "Civilian", the main picture car at the moment. This one had the foam from Sam's overhauled Weapon's Box from The Mystery Spot still in the trunk, but no weapons since the props department gathers them again when the shoot is over. It was parked right in front of the "Hero". John opened the driver side door and stepped back. The first picture I took was blurry because I was so excited and didn't realize it was still on Manual Focus. Then John smiled and asked why wasn't I sitting in it? I got in and slid to the middle and my heart melted. It smelled like vinyl and grease and dust. It was perfectly clean except for a couple of stains in the tan carpet on the driver's side. I ran my hands over the seats and stared at the dash for several seconds, put my left hand on the steering wheel and my right on the seat. I imagined sitting between Dean and Sam. I am fuzzy on what it actually looked like - as in some details about the dash - it all barely registered because my first and only response was an emotional one. Time stopped.
And then Aaron slid in beside me. John took a couple of snapshots. I don't think that I'll frame them or anything because I look about as spazzed as I felt. I was sitting in THE IMPALA. The. Impala. THE. Impala. What? It's time to get out? Did the sun go down? I haven't memorized everything yet... THE IMPALA... the... okay.
As I got out, I held onto the door and noticed something... odd. About the car. I looked at the other Impalas and noticed the same thing. And I asked point blank Where are the spot lights?!
Jeff lowered his head and John huffed a little. They explained that one of the directors (who shall remain nameless for fear of hate mail or eggs on his car or something... but he was director of DALDOM *looks around innocently*) had trouble getting the camera rack shots up the side of the car like he wanted and ordered them all to be removed. Jeff was worried that fans would notice and I laughed in agreement and said, yeah, here I am, noticing. He wanted them to write an explanation into the scripts about where they went or why the boys removed them, but he's pretty sure they won't. Those lights had been one of the only modifications that came with it when Supernatural bought the first Impala; he liked them because they made it unique and he was a bit sad to see them go. He started to explain that they were actually on a different model of the same car. I said, Oh yeah, the Biscayne police version, right? and his eyes bugged out a little and he said Yeah, that's right. Boy, you've done your research. I smiled and said it was his fault; they made me a fan of the car and it was fun finding out tidbits like that.
When I looked up from the roof of the "Civilian" as I got out (which I also touched lightly because, hello, rooftop confessions, but I didn't want to leave fingerprints), I saw all the spotlights sitting on a shelf and went to look.
Where we were standing was under a deck platform that was built to separate the warehouse into two parts. I asked what was on the other side and Jeff motioned me to come up the stairs with him. We looked out over shelf upon shelf upon shelf, piled from floor to ceiling, of props. The Cicero Pines motel sign from A Very Supernatural Christmas was practically touching the roof of a two story building, there was so much stuff. I boggled aloud at how on earth do they keep it all straight, where things are. Rows and rows. The avocado green oven. The ugly chairs. A motel table is sitting on top of a yellow refrigerator that still has magnets on it. Mattresses. Walls, even.
I didn't let on that I was recognizing stuff, but I ticked off things in my head and was completely blown away by the understanding that they had all of this cataloged and knew where it all was. Then my jaw literally dropped open when Jeff said, Yeah, this is one of two warehouses for props. Jerry [Wanek] is really amazing. Jerry worked on X-Files with Kim Manners, one of the directors, and did you know Kim was supposed to be the original Dennis the Menace but his family had to move?... And I’m all speechless and all I could say was Kim is awesome. He directs some of my favorite episodes. I got the impression that Kim has quite a following up there, not just on this set, but among the TV crews in general. The caliber of people we have working on Our Show is awesome. :)
John yelled up that he had what he needed and was ready to go whenever we were. I said that my friends who were fans had a few car questions, if there was time. He said Jeff was good for those since he owns most of the cars. So I said fans knew that KAZ 2Y5 stood for Kansas and the year the show started, so does CNK 80Q3 mean anything? Jeff looked down at John, and John just blinked at me and said well, you know more than I do and he didn’t know of any license plates on the show with meanings like that now. That plate was from a different crew that worked the pilot and they inherited all that stuff when it got picked up.
Then I asked Jeff about the blue Bug that Ava and then Sam 'drove' and he replied that’s one of his and how funny you recognized it on both episodes, as in woops. Ha. When he bought it, it was under a tree. Literally. A tree had fallen onto it.
What about Gordon’s car? I said. Well, Gordon’s dead now, he said gleefully. I laughed. Yeah, but the El Camino? Oh, that red one? Yeah, that was rented from another guy. He mentioned the blue Gremlin from Hell House and it is his, too. He had been proud that it really hauled all that stuff and the camper, since it’s a little four cylinder. Some of the other cars in that camping scene were his.
He said his favorite episode for cars have been Hell House, Bobby’s junk yard in Devil's Trap, and the vampire's cars in Dead Man's Blood, but Route 666 was his all-time favorite because of the Dodge Power Wagons they used. They actually got to sink one in that pond, but then they had to clean it out. Ick.
Bobby’s Chevelle? Was a necessity. The old Ford tow truck barely runs, just barely enough for John to get it on set. That’s why in every scene it’s just sitting there. Bobby’s tow truck… needs a tow truck. So the Chevelle was a replacement when the script called for Bobby to actually be driving.
Then we walked back downstairs, and I asked what they were going to do with the spotlights. He didn’t know. Then he picked up a set of the black side marker shells - the ones they replace with the white ones that light up - and said I could have them. I said I felt a little guilty taking them, but he replied that they would just end up getting thrown out.
Right before we left, John lifted the cover on another car parked under the deck. It was a shiny dark blue Chevy Malibu in the same body style as the Impalas. I asked if this was for a new character and he said no, it was just his. He even said he would have started it up for us, but that he didn't have the keys with him. I loved the paint color. He’s done a beautiful job restoring it. Obviously, the love for that era goes far beyond just caring for the show’s cars.
We all got back into the truck and were at the studio within a few minutes. This is the part where I start losing time because my mind was so busy processing and imagining. I was in a bit of an Impala-induced overdrive.
As we drove up, the studio looked exactly like I expected: huge and gray and pretty unassuming, like a big warehouse. We went to Jeff’s office first (which is about the same size as my cube and he was sharing it with another guy) and while he grabbed the keys for the truck, I gazed at all the pictures on the wall. Some of them were pictures of his personal project cars and drawings of a very kitted-out Impala. I asked what it was from and he said Oh, I drew that for the show. S’what I do in all my spare time. Wouldn’t that have been cool? You guys. It had a custom ram air hood scoop with badges for a 527 engine, polished one-off wheels, suicide doors with shaved handles, a tube grill cover that wrapped over the lights, a 3.5" chopped top (lowering the roof), spotlights with pentagrams etched in them so that when the light was shown it would work as a devil’s trap, and a rotating license plate to throw off the cops. It was The Impala on Steroids. It was awesome.
(Small ETA: I just found a site that has the floorplan for the whole building.)
Then we followed him through a stage, to the “circus” in the parking lot. I spotted what looked like Bobby’s house, but only the stairs and the wallpaper were there. They were converting it into another place and would change it back again later. I saw four guys hammering and moving big boards. One of them dropped a corner of a wall or something on his foot and yelped. When the others asked if he was okay he drawled, It’s all good! which was obviously code for this sucks and they all busted out laughing. These would be some of the same half dozen guys I’d see over the next hour, on every stage, hustling from one task to another. I can’t imagine redoing Bobby’s place over and over again, but they do. They all work so hard. Across from Bobby’s was another set that looked familiar. Again, not much was left except the bench seats and tables, the walls and blind covered windows, some of the stacked dishes, and the sign hanging from the ceiling. “PIG N’ A POKE” it said. The bench the boys had sat at had a bottle of water on it and some boxes and if it weren’t for a screen door leaning against it, I would have stolen a quick sit, but I was raised to keep my hands in my pockets, so I moved nothing and came back out with a big grin on my face.
The “circus”, I learned, is just a term for the mobile version of the production. As we walked, Jeff pointed at each one: Jared and Jensen’s trailers, FX, makeup, costume, props, technical, and catering are just the ones I sort of remember. Ah, catering. They had two awesome restored trucks, too. This whole crew seems to be into the classics.
There was a tent with multiple carafes of coffee and a mini fridge with about four different kinds of creamer, fruit, jello cups, juice - it even had sugar-free hard candy. And that was just the snacks tent.
After I got some coffee to warm up, we walked to the back of the lot, and I saw The Dad’s Truck right in front of me and John smiling, holding the door open. I smiled and turned my head thinking I must be blushing, stop when I see something else. More cars. The more cars I’d been wanting to see. The bashed Impalas and Bobby’s Chevelle. I pointed. Is that really Bobby’s car? and my voice shook. And Jeff replied, Um… Yes? and I swear to heaven, guys, I actually squealed and flailed. Right in front of Jeff. And then I caught myself and almost whispered Sorry, I just had a moment… Bobby… he’s one of my favorites. And Jeff laughed and says Yeah, I can see that. And then it hit me… that he didn’t mind. They all quite literally support each other around here and see fan silliness so often that it wasn’t that strange at all. Suddenly, I felt better.
We kept walking to the truck and John turned the key to start it up. It coughed and growled like an irritated old man with just enough breakfast, not enough coffee and too many little kids prodding at him. Someone had washed it, so it was bright and gleaming. It didn’t sound like it had been sitting for two years. They opened the hood and both doors and showed us where all the controls are. I got a kick out of the fact that the bright headlights are controlled by a silver button on the floorboard that you press with your foot. Even though that’s apparently common in these models, I’d never seen that before. John continued to pick at it, mentioning that he’d put a new battery in it, just in case, and then he found a screwdriver to tighten down a few things. That’s how all this gets done, I found myself thinking, they see something that needs done and they just do it. And then I think how the heck am I going to get up in this thing? The floorboard is almost to my hips and there’s no footing. This is probably why the driver’s side seat is caved in. You basically fall into it from throwing yourself up there. I have no more questions about why exactly we never see Jeffrey Dean getting into it, only out. He opens the door. But you never see the actual hefting up there. It’s certainly not a graceful procedure upon the first few encounters.
Aaron and John were chatting about various things and Aaron seemed very amused when Jeff showed him the makeshift radiator overflow tank, which was basically an empty windshield washer fluid jug with a hose in it and strapped down through the handle. Hey, it works. Overall, Aaron was smiling and I could tell that it was in better shape than he’d thought it was going to be.
We closed it all up again and I couldn’t help myself. I walked straight over to the Impalas, five parking spaces away. They were shuffled off to the side and had been used several times for parts over the last year. There wasn’t much left of the 2.02 car at all, but the trunk was there, getting rusted in all the spots where Dean had gone at it with the crowbar. I could tell the difference in the depth of the hits from the first take and then the second one when he’d asked for a bigger crowbar. They were all holes, but the dents were deeper than I thought. There weren’t just circular dents from the curved end. There was impression after impression of the entire crowbar, all the way down the handle to his hands, scarred into that trunk. He really wailed on it.
There is no way to keep this from sounding silly, so I won't even try... All this was racing through my brain as I stood there and skimmed it with my fingers, laid the palm of my hand on the edge, and felt Dean’s vacancy at that moment. I didn’t even want to touch the deepest ones, like there was too much pain slammed into it. Dean became real. Right then. There’s no other way to describe what I felt except that I couldn’t breathe for a minute. ...As a person (check), or an actor (check, sorta). How the hell do you do that? All I know is, I've been there as a person. And that, to me, automatically makes it real. I've had to tap into real things to do something like that. So maybe it is a shrine for fangirls. But it goes a lot deeper than that, too. I got it. And, wow. Man. DDL. Yes. You can. The End.
When it felt like I'd been standing there maybe a bit too long, I walked over to Aaron, where Jeff was explaining how they did the semi wreck with the 1.22 car and my eyes got big when I saw the back seat. It was literally bent in half at a 45 degree angle and the front seat had collapsed down to the floorboard. The dash had crumpled like a pretzel. I wouldn’t want to sit in that car afterwards, let alone at the time of impact. They used cables and pulleys, ala tricks you see on MythBusters, to regulate the speed and contact point of the two vehicles and the car was supposed to bounce off, but the cables cinched and they stuck together as the semi dragged it. All that damage was done by a semi going 40 MPH (about 64 km/h).
Bobby’s Chevelle SS, one of two I’m told, was sitting docilely with a flat tire and South Dakota license plates: 607 82E. It’s still beat up, with about six different colors and a beat up interior that you wouldn’t invite your enemy to sit in. They both match. One is the stunt car that they drove into a "wall" in Magnificent Seven and the other is the picture car. This one was the stunt car, I believe, since it was the one with the driver's side marker light missing.
Sitting between it and the 2.02 car was the little Gremlin. That little thing, honestly, is as long as the Impalas are wide. Cornflower blue with white zebra seat covers; just looking at it makes you want to laugh.
Jeff got called away to do something, so before we could fill out the paperwork for the truck, he left us with John, who was hungry. And he knew where the food was. It was on set. Except that they were filming. So we waited with a couple of ladies who were the Keepers of the Door and they joked with John about they were Serious Mister, you’d better not go in there until I say it’s okay and maybe not even then, right. When the light went off we waited a bit more until there was a bell and then John could open the door. It was dark and smoky from lots of dry ice which made my throat a little parched. We had to watch where we stepped because most of the concrete floor was covered in raised wood panels that stopped and started again a bit illogically in places, not to mention thick cables and tables on wheels everywhere. One of the tables on wheels was of great interest to John and as a few distant lights came on, he asked if we wanted ham or turkey. Turkey. We took our sandwiches to a less busy spot, past a bank of monitors and a huge swath of black fabric hanging to one side.
SPOILERS START HERE
We munched down for about 10 minutes and then things picked up again, going dark, yelled voices echoing. I swear it took almost 2 full minutes for all those marker checks. It might have been because of the multiple cameras for the scene: at least three, probably four. I heard Phil Sgriccia say Action and then Jared’s and Jensen’s voices behind the black fabric. I could understand everything Jensen said but only about half of what Jared said. They were a good 30 feet away, at least.
As I watched the monitors, I thought I saw a small hiccup in the smoothness of the scene happen when Jensen is talking toward the camera for his line and then he did a come hither look which made a bunch of people on set chuckle out loud. Phil yelled cut and told them to reset from the beginning because Jensen, the line isn't Labor Day, it's LEAP YEAR day. Jensen cracked up and then Jared echoed him, laughing at him laughing.
They reset super fast and this one went well, getting all the way through the scene when the Ghostfacers show up and panic ensues. There was lots of cussing and ad-libbing. I heard the line "Hey... aren't these the assholes from Texas?" clear as a bell and it made me laugh so hard that my whole body shook and I had to cover my mouth so I wouldn’t spew sandwich everywhere. John just looked at me with a huge grin on his face.
It was a long scene, several minutes of filming in one cut, but I think this is due to the way they were shooting it, which was mostly on hand held digitals.
END SPOILERS
When they finally yelled cut again and a couple of flood lights came on, I could see some chairs and a couple of people to my left in the haze. It was Jeannie and Shannon. Jeannie was leafing through a magazine and I remembered what John said about them getting the third one that day, so I sidled over to within seeing distance. Shannon was leaning more over her other shoulder as they remarked on who was in it this month and did Shannon make it or not. They whispered for a second and then she put the magazine down on the seat of another folding chair in front of her.
I asked her if she was finished and when she said yes, I turned it to face me in the chair and picked it up quickly to leaf through a page or two. It’s a very relaxed group of people and I felt welcome, but socially unfamiliar. Curiosity got the better of me and I leaned forward to see whose chair I was nosing into. It said in bold white letters: Jensen Ackles. Um. Oooh. okay. Not too embarrassing, but so not cool. So I folded it shut again and as I’m putting it back exactly the way I found it, a PA walked up with an admonishment on her lips and then she got distracted by someone or something almost directly behind me. I nodded and told her calmly I’m sorry, I didn’t know and I walked briskly back toward John and Aaron, who had walked further away. After about ten feet, I turned and looked back into that darn light and my feet called a mutiny.
Jensen Ackles. Had been standing right behind me. Waiting for me to get my turkey mitts off his magazine that he hadn’t had a chance to read yet. And I wouldn’t have had a problem apologizing to him, or even having a conversation, had I turned and seen him before I walked away. Except that by the time I turned, I didn’t see Jensen. Not really. I saw a bright halo of white and a sharp, close outline of spiky hair and a popped collar, slouchy jeans and boots, and bowlegs with all their weight on one foot, his head dipped forward as he paged through that magazine. It was Dean. It was DEAN. It was probably mostly due to the light, but... Tunnel Vision Episode Of The Day Number Two. Forget it.
See? Moms and their hands in pockets advice. It applies all the time.
I turned back around, that image seared in my brain (it’s still there), and caught up with John and Aaron, and now Jeff, over by the green screen stage. The green screen Impala was there, number eight, under a car cover. Jeff lifted it to show us where they made cuts so that the roof or other parts could come off. It doesn’t even have wheels. It’s just a shell that sits on rolling dollys.
Then we walked through the other two stages. There were pieces being reused and repainted. I found the “concrete” wall where the red, No Spitting sign was painted in the cell in Jus In Bello.
SPOILERS AGAIN
I grinned at someone leaving a shiny soda can in an otherwise dingy looking basement set that moved right into one that actually had a ceiling. It was marked 'Fall Out Shelter' and I had no idea what it was for, but it had one chair in the middle of the room and that was it. A couple others were the interiors for modern houses, with full kitchens and living rooms, staircases and front doors.
There was also a stack of boxes pulled into the walkway between two sets. One box was marked Bloody Pelts. It continued to slay me just how freaking organized this all was. Organized chaos, for sure.
We turned a corner for another ghostly looking house. Part of it was the old motel room for Dream a Little Dream of Me. I recognized the crazy blue-green bird wallpaper. It was glazed with brown paint and graffitied with the word Loser in all caps. It was a bit déjà vu. My feet must have stopped again because Jeff looked back at me and said, I don’t think that one’s come out yet. And I said, I know it though, from Dream. And he goes, Man you know your episodes, dontya? And I half whispered, That one? Yeah. I know that one…
OKAY IT’S SAFE
Jeff had to disappear again and the three of us went upstairs to the big offices. We tried to find Jerry Wanek, but his team was out on a survey for locations for 3.14, so we checked out the postcard wall for a few minutes. My favorite was a plain index card with two quarters taped to it. It said simply “Contribution to Dean’s Magic Finger Fund”.
By then, “real lunch” was ready, so we headed out to the tents again and grabbed piles of Asian stir fry and rice. It was so good. The selection that they bring to set on a truck every day is better than most restaurant delis I’ve been to. Just amazing.
We sat in the chow tent with a few other crew members who popped in to eat and then were off again. No slackers. When a guy walked in and his soup bowl went flying because he hit a hidden pole, his buddies laughed. Someone at another table said that was the third time today that he knew of, so one of the guy's buddies got up to make sure that the pole was more obvious. Things just get done around here.
Aaron told me later that he saw Jared and Jensen and another actor going to get their lunch and walk back to their trailers and that Jared sort of peeked in to see who was around. Aaron and I sat across from each other so I didn’t see them.
Mostly, Jeff and John and I were talking about their other gigs when Supernatural wasn’t in production. They like television better than features because the jobs usually last about ten months instead of three.
I asked them if they could ask a Supernatural fan anything, what would they ask us? and Jeff said, What do you want to see more of? Music, right? He smiled when I smiled and then he added that the crew, most of them anyway, notices and misses the same things that we miss. They try to keep their budgets and costs low so that Kripke can get another song, like from Foreigner or whatever.
When I decided I couldn’t eat anymore, we walked back and Jeff weaved towards the boy's trailers and then back again. Whaaaht? I asked, smiling. Oh, they usually stop and say hi, but they're mad at me right now, he laughed. I guffaw at that. What? Why? Because I was asking them to sign the dash or a picture for you... and that's kinda how they realized that I sold Dad's Truck... AWW! ... and they've been really busy with the show and schedule changes, so... Yeah. Well, that's okay. It's just not the right time. I know they're okay about it now, but I felt bad at the time that they were surprised by someone wanting it that much!
I'm blessed with good friends who have let them know that it went to a good home, where it will remain Dad's Truck and it will be fixed up running wise but kept as much the same as possible. I'm still hoping that they'll get to see it again someday, being in Dallas, and get to show them that it's just as important to us as it is to them, shocking as that may be. :)
TINY SPOILER
So we went inside and walked back through Stage 3 and toured the Big Black Creepy Drapes Set, which was empty now. Their laptops and papers were on a long table where they had left them for lunch, screens lit with representations of websites and video feedback. It felt like a real, haunted house. I wondered who drank all the beer in the empty beer bottles and smiled at a table with three legs and an old barrel keg.
AND OVER
The sets are mindblowing. Cameras don't do justice to how detailed they are. Mostly, the whole stage area smells like Home Depot: fresh cut wood, dust, weird heat smells from heavy electrical gear, the Halloween smell of dry ice.
We went to Jeff's office for a minute to sign the paperwork. A crew member barreled past us in the hallway, hockey stick in hand and grin on his face. There goes that, Jeff says. They're gonna play now. I'd heard they get to play a while after lunch sometimes, so it was good to know those games are still happening and they all get some downtime.
We got back into Jeff’s truck and he drove us to the SkyTrain a couple of blocks away. We took that back to the hotel where Aaron promptly diagnosed me "functionally comatose" and ordered himself some bed rest. So I went to the coffee shop around the corner and chided myself at what a dorky fangirl I was... and then squealed silently to myself some more.