SGA Ep 519/01 [or: The Day I Almost Died from Squeeing]
SGA Episode 519/01 "Vegas"
[i.e. - 5th season, 19th ep, first day of shooting] :)
I am going to write this as I have written my past tv/movie entries - in detail, and with lots of information. The squeeing will be further down. So if you are here just for the Joe Flanigan content, scroll down to the pic/ALL CAPS *g*. [There is David Hewlett content too, which is also easy to find] :)
Yesterday I got to work on Stargate Atlantis. Which in itself is PURE WIN, and extras such as myself usually get very little information on what we will be doing or who we will be working with. So I certainly was not expecting anything, except to be able to say I worked on SGA. So this is about my day. Please disregard any and all spelling/grammar/logic mistakes. I am still squeeing.
Warning: LONG DAMN POST. With some caplock abuse.
I had been given a very detailed map last Friday with directions to set, addresses, emergency phone numbers, et al. I left my place at 7am and figured I had tons of time to get to set at UBC [one of the big universities here in Callumland] for my 8:30am calltime. I knew it was the first day of school so I planned for that. I made it to the parking area and a PA [production assistant] was there in a tell-tale vest holding a clipboard. I told him I was there for Stargate. He looked puzzled and said "This is parking for Pysch. And Kyle XY."
WTF. I also knew he was full of crap because Kyle XY was already wrapped for the season. *headdesk* Ugh.
I called the Locations emergency number and was given NEW directions. Yay cellphones. I found the "PPI" signs easily. [These are the VERY bright little signs with arrows and call letters on them to guide you to parking/set. PPI stood for Pegasus Productions IV. Yes I was tempted to steal one.] These signs took me right into a multi-level parkade. Where I was lost again. No crew or PAs anywhere. Bah. I called Locations again. They told me to drive around and around to the very top of the parkade. There I found a Security guy who said I was almost late for my call time. I was tempted to give him the finger. At the front of the parkade I waited until a shuttle showed up, which then took me to set.
Set was at an old research building at the edge of UBC, that hadn't been used for a couple of years, and had been outfitted to look like an American police station. At the holding tent I found Brynn, an awesome wrangler with whom I had worked before. She said, "Get back on the shuttle." Blargh. I still made it to her on time, so that was good. But it appeared that the entire production that morning was a bit of a clusterfuck, so I'm sure I could've been late and no one would've flinched. [Some productions will send you home if you are one minute late. I wish I was joking. I know things run on a tight schedule, but shit happens!]
Back onto a shuttle, to take me to circus. Circus was a looooong line of movie trucks parked along the side of the road. So not only was this the first [and busy!] day of school, but they were paving the damn road that day. WTF. I had to dodge paving trucks to cross the road to the wardrobe truck. Found out the paving company and PPI had double booked that road for the same day. The circus had to move somewhere else, but no idea where. Clusterfuck much?
Walking past some of the trucks I saw something that very much caught my eye: Ronon's wig, sitting lonely on a foam head, in a trailer. Sadly, Jason Momoa was not on set, but I saw his wig! :)
The wardrobe lady had no idea what I was supposed to wear. There were cops, lawyers and detectives she was outfitting, but I was one of two civilians. We talked about why I would be at the police station. Was I a junkie? Was I a hooker? Was I bailing out someone? Did I know someone there? She decided to be safe and picked the most boring and businesslike outfit I had brought. Black capris and a turquoise dress shirt. Whoopee. No tattoos. I got out of the wardrobe truck, got changed in another trailer, and caught another shuttle back to set. At set I changed out of my turquoise shirt [which I got purely for set, as I would never wear it otherwise] and into my cute little black jacket. Didn't want to stain or wrinkle my pretty dress shirt. Heh.
Once I had finished signing in and doing paperwork in the holding tent on set, I went through hair and makeup. The hair guy, this little whip of a man who looked like Dustin Hoffman, waved his hands around me and said I was fine. I had put some of my hair into a loose bun with the rest hanging down. It's easy to do, easy to keep clean, and not distracting. Yay me. The makeup lady I had worked with before, on Pysch. She just put makeup on to cover the bags under my eyes. [I had done nearly 30km of hiking the day before, and although I had slept for about 6 hours I was wishing I had slept MUCH more]
So now I had a chance to check out the call sheet, the most important step in my morning after actually making it to set. There was only one call sheet in our holding tent, otherwise I would've grabbed it and scanned it. I think Brynn would've known it was me who took it *g*. By this time it was nearly 10am.
If you haven't seen a call sheet before, it looks kinda like this:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~rcowart/callsheet.html
Usually call sheets are more complex and longer than that, and the entire back of the sheet lists all the ADs and PAs and who is doing first aid and stunts and catering and locations and security and lighting and sound and playback and grip and blah blah blah.
They aren't hard to read but a lot of extras just throw up their hands when they look at them. Me, I want to know what I am doing, what scenes, how many scenes, who I will be working with, how much coverage for each shot [which may dictate how long it takes to film, if they have to do the same scene several times with several different camera angles, and have to re-set lighting and cameras and sound every time], how much dialogue, that sort of thing. Each scene also lists what cast and what extras are to be used. Today had five scenes. [in theory, since nothing ever goes THAT smoothly].
I read that David Hewlett and Joe Flanigan were in the first scene, with lots of dialogue, with only two extras in the scene. Those two extras had been on set since 6:30am. Second scene was a splinter unit doing some exterior coverage of the police station. No people needed for that. Third and fourth scenes were with Joe, and with the group of extras that arrived at 8:30am [ie, ME.] Fifth scene was at a hospital [just another part of the same building] and used a ton of doctor and nurse extras who were arriving at set at 2pm. Crew call was 7am, so that meant lunch was 1pm.
Looked easy-peasy on paper. Ah, the entertainment business, you cruel bitch, you tease us with things like this and then shit all over everything. Heh. At least the crew had been working with one another [for the most part] for at least this season, and they knew one another's quirks and strengths etc. I have noticed that movie crews, especially during the first couple of weeks, are disjointed and pissy and less organized, and subsequently less organized. Easy for me to say, seeing as I have almost zero responsibility on set except to be there and stay upright. But once a crew is working together for a while, they get a flow going, a kind of one-consciousness thing. Much more productive, with fewer blowups and disputes. Considering that the entire crew of SGA on set that day was around 100 people [crew, not us extras or cast], that's a pretty cool thing to witness.
Since I had seen that the first scene was 3+3/8ths of script [ie A LOT], I knew we had some time to kill. The two scenes I was to be in were 3/8ths and 2/8ths of a page of script. Basically that meant scenes with little or no dialogue, where the camera just pans over or follows the lead or something simple. But that first scene was a bitch. Lot of talking, and some action, and lots of angles.
So from 10am until 2:45, I did crossword puzzles and talked to other extras, one of whom I was on set with during the Farewell Atlantis earthquake shake. Ah, the glorious life of an extra *g*. Other extras showed up at 11am, and still more at 2pm. Altogether maybe 40 extras, so not that many, really. The hair and makeup people were just sitting around bored. It started to rain so we figured out quickly where the holes were in the holding tent. Somehow I was the only person who brought an umbrella. Sigh. The wrangler said that a kid was coming to set, so we should watch our language. I think she was talking to me directly. Heh. So this kid and his mom show up, and the kid is easily 14 and has his own laptop and spends hours filming himself being a dork with his webcam. Heeeee. His mom sat outside, smoking.
The washroom were located inside the 'police station'. This meant I had to walk inside the building and past a lot of gear to get to the bathroom. I had no problem with this. Other than the fact that I prefer actual permanent washrooms over rental washroom trailers anyday, it gave me the opportunity to scope out the set. Sweet. Big lobby, big wood reception desk, long curved staircase coming down into the lobby, lots of glass and light. And way too clean to be a cop shop, but whatever. :) The ladies washroom had two stalls. The mens was just one toilet. By the end of the day, one PA was guarding the women's washroom, and there was a huge sign on the door that said 'WOMEN ONLY. NO MEN.' Considering that 3/4 of the crew and extras were male, it was pretty funny. There was a joke on set about how the men finally got to see what us women usually put up with. It was amusing to see a lineup at the men's. I bet a lot of bushes and trees outside were watered that day. *g*
At around 11am I stepped out of the tent to stretch my legs and see what sort of goodies were in crafting [ie the snack shack]. I came around a movie truck and almost ran staight into David Fucking Hewlett. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
He was on his phone and gave me a glance and a little smile and continued talking. I just about died. He was looking MIGHTY FINE and dapper in a dark suit and purple dress shirt and shiny shoes. My goodness. I totally forgot about finding something to eat at crafting. I just stood outside watching him pace and talk on his big blackberry phone for about, um, 20 minutes. He just kept walking in front of me, wandering around, looking awfully lovely and slender and GOOD. Nom nom nom.
David was shuttled to 2nd unit to film something else, so the only time I saw him was when he was on the phone. Which was SUPER AWESOME. So, no complaints there. *g*
Yes, we were supposed to break for lunch at 1pm, but the director insisted on getting that first scene finished before lunch. So all the union people got a meal penalty upgrade. I heard that they were supposed to have finished MY scenes before lunch, so that wasn't a good sign. The people who showed up at 2pm for the hospital scene were all dolled up as doctors, nurses, and patients. We were all pretty sure they weren't going to do their scene at all. Brynn asked each one of them if they were available the next day. Then wardrobe took photos of all of us for continuity.
Then we were told to go to the catering truck for lunch, to beat the other cast and crew who were just wrapping up the first scene. At the catering truck the chef saw us, looked down the long line of extras and shouted "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!". There was an argument between an AD and the chef, and five minutes later food was ready for us. I had garlic salmon, butternut squash, beet salad, Caesar salad, pasta salad, carrots, beans, mushroom soup, watermelon, strawberries, and a bottle of water. Wonderful catering. It made up for the donuts, cake, muffins, crackers and other crap in crafting.
After we went back into our holding tent to enjoy our lunch, the cast and crew came out to have lunch from the same catering truck. They had to walk past our holding tent. I had no idea if David and Joe ate with the crew or had special menus individually made and brought to their trailers. I stood outside, lingering and loitering.... then Joe Fucking Flanigan came out and walked past me and got in line for lunch. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! The hair, the walk, the eyes, the smile NRRRGHHHHH. He looked almost exactly like this, except with a dark shirt:
*FLAILS LIKE A PATHETIC SUPER FLAILY THING*
Darker jeans too, but you get the idea. And his hair was a little shorter on the sides and not so moppy. And? I HIGHLY APPROVE. *flails* He is as tall as me [nrrgh] and slender nom nom nom and is just..... fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.... hot. And all smiley and dorky and adorable. I think he was pretty tired from that first scene but he was in great spirits and did I mention that he walked right past me? Walking sex. Really. Sadly I was the only extra who even KNEW WHO HE WAS. So I was doing a lot of internal flailing to keep from attracting too much attention. Plus I didn't want the first aid called over because someone thought I was having a seizure. *flails internally, drools*
Am I sad that cameras are not allowed on set? YES. [nor are cellphone cameras, so there.]
His trailer was parked between our holding tent and set and I hadn't realized this until now because he had been on set the whole time. [*wonders what she would've said if she had gone to the washrooms and seen him waiting in line*]. He ate in the crew lunch tent but then went back to his trailer to relax for a bit. *quiet flailing*
So then lunch was over and Brynn announced that they were taking the 8:30 group to set pretty quick. Yay! Six cops, a lawyer and his client, five detectives, a 'dad' and his kid, two civilians [one of which was ME]. We were rounded up and stood outside the building. The 1st AD came out and took us in one or two at a time to place us.
I was waiting outside to be taken onto set by the 1st AD when a crew member ran up with a phone in her hand. Without even thinking or pausing, I said "That's David Hewlett's phone." Both the crew member and the AD looked at me like I was an alien. Then the crew member told the AD that David had left his phone in his trailer and there was discussion on how to get his phone back to him, since he was working with 2nd unit for the rest of the day and it was nowhere near this set. I stayed quiet after that. *g*
They brought the cops and detectives onto set, and then finally came out to me to place me. The AD introduced himself and shook my hand and asked me my name and gave me a great big smile. Then he led me to a doorway and gave me my action. Wait 10 beats after the background call, then take a nice long swinging walk from this doorway through the reception area and out the front door of the station. Easy-peasy. One camera, which would only film me from the side and back. "Do a big banana," he told me. Heeeee.
It took a while to get the camera angles right and place everyone, and get the lighting and sound boom and blah blah blah ready. Then they had to put rubber stoppers on the bottom of the shoes of anyone wearing heels, because the click-click echoed everywhere and screwed up the sound. So while everyone was shouting stuff and moving stuff, I wandered around the lobby. And there was Joe, behind the reception desk. OH HAI.
Apparently he needed to wear a police badge. And, um, he wasn't wearing it on his chest. He was wearing it on his waistband. Nrrgh. I am pretty sure no one caught me actively STARING AND GAWKING, but I spent some very quality time watching him adjust and readjust and generally fondle the badge on his waistband, perilously close to his crotchal area. *deep long happy sigh* Yah, I would've worked all day for free just to see that. I think that was about three minutes of my life, very happy minutes. I sort of lost track of where I was and what I was doing. It was a special moment. *cough*
So then he disappeared into his trailer and we got ready to rehearse. They use stand-ins for Joe [and David too, but I didn't work with him] so we did a few run-throughs of the scene using the stand-in before they had Joe come out for a final rehearsal and finals. [Finals are when they are actually filming]. Joe/stand-in walks down the long curvy staircase into the lobby while talking on the phone. I don't know where he ended up because my back was to him at the end of the scene. It was only maybe 20 seconds of screen time. But here's the awesome part: when Joe/stand-in gets to the bottom of the stairs, we walk past one another. I almost ran into the stand-in on the first rehearsal, but then adjusted my timing. [Of course you don't actually want to bump into someone else unless the scene calls for it, but it's very important not to have people bunching up on screen or blocking the actors or causing any sort of unnatural or weird movement that distracts from the actor's movements.] Nice, smooth, businesslike, purposeful movement.
Once the director was happy with everyone's placements and actions, Joe came back in. We did one rehearsal with him. I got to walk Very Close to him but we never made eye contact because I was supposed to be purposefully walking.. somewhere.... and he was on the phone yapping about... something. Something that would be dubbed over later anyway.
After that one rehearsal there was general director happiness and then I heard "Picture's up!". Which means there would be actual film happening. \o/ Yay! We did four takes, all from the same angle. Every time, I would wait my ten beats [basically just counting to ten in my head] before I would come out of the doorway, walk past Joe who was just coming into the lobby, and then continue walking out the main doors. Pretty simple stuff. I tried not to look at him too much during takes because that wasn't my job. But between takes? You bet your ass I was looking at him. Like watching butter melt over a stack of pancakes. Like watching kittens laying on top of one another purring and sleeping. Like watching the sun sparkle on a lake in a forest. Sigh. Like watching pure sex walk and talk and joke and smile and melt everything around itself. SIGH. *reminds self to flock this post* :)
So will you actually see me in the final cut? If that scene makes it in [and in tv shows, the answer is normally yes, as opposed to movies where lots of stuff ends up on the cutting room floor] then yes. But only for a split second because the camera isn't on ME, nor should it be! I will have to wait for this ep to air to find out what he was saying on the phone. I couldn't hear most of it and besides, I was concentrating on doing my job well and Not Being Fired and not being distracted by His Hotness With Badge Near His Crotch.
After that final take the director said "Check the gate!" which means, in wonderful tv/movie talk, that they were making sure they had what they needed, and that there was actual film in the cameras that worked properly and caught the scene without a hitch. A couple minutes later they said they were moving onto the next scene, and that's when Joe disappeared again [likely to go to his trailer to rehearse and go over his lines for the next scene, and maybe to relax and snack or whatever] and all the crew started moving stuff.
For the second scene I was supposed to be in, they needed to move the cameras and gear up the stairs to the offices upstairs. The space was smaller than the lobby downstairs. The AD decided he didn't need all of us. He looked at me and said he was sorry, but he didn't need me for this scene, partly because I wasn't a cop or detective [and therefore wouldn't logically be in the office area] but also because my turquoise shirt was pretty recognizable [I now hate that fucking shirt more than ever] and in the last scene I had left the building so logically I wouldn't be around. Damn logic. So, yah, go relax he said [which means go back to the holding tent and wait to be called out again]. And thank you, you did a great job. *beams* Normally you only get to hear when you've fucked up or when they want you to do something different. So that was cool. But that meant I didn't get to work alongside Joe again. *pouty face*
When I got back to holding, a guy I had been sitting with in the tent asked me if I finally got my chance to lick Joe. I grinned SO WIDE. I said he needed to watch the ep when it airs to catch the part where I grabbed Joe and licked him head to toe. There was much giggling. :)
Two hours later, the girl who had been sitting next to me in the holding tent got back from set. She was playing a detective [she's in her mid-20s, long dark straight hair, suit and heels, very petite and pretty] and got to walk down a long hallway opposite Joe. By the time she got back to holding she was pretty starry-eyed. I had explained to her earlier who Joe and David were, and the gist of the show and the fangirly-ness of it all. And NOW SHE UNDERSTOOD. She wasn't very coherent when she got back to me. Just a lot of 'MMmmMMm'-ing. Heh. *IS JEALOUS OF HER* She promptly put her head down on a table and shut her eyes to nap, but her smile never disappeared. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Then we sat. And sat. And sat. I knew they wouldn't use us again. They shot a scene that they hadn't planned on doing until the next day because it was short and they wanted to get a 12 hour day so they wouldn't fall behind. The wrangler wrapped all the doctors/nurses/patients and sent them home and told them to come back tomorrow. Then the rest of us sat for a while.... waiting..... Finally the call came from the AD to the wrangler that we could go. Yay!
I was signed out at 7:30pm [so after 1/2 hour lunch, that means 10.5 hours of work, and when you calculate overtime, that's about 12 hours pay for the day. Not too shabby. But I would've done it for free *g*.] Shuttled back to my car, drove home with a big stupid grin on my face.
THE END. Thanks for reading!
And? If you made it to the end of this, you get a cookie! A virtual cookie, but a yummy cookie nonetheless! *g*
And yes I made a Shep icon. Because.
[i.e. - 5th season, 19th ep, first day of shooting] :)
I am going to write this as I have written my past tv/movie entries - in detail, and with lots of information. The squeeing will be further down. So if you are here just for the Joe Flanigan content, scroll down to the pic/ALL CAPS *g*. [There is David Hewlett content too, which is also easy to find] :)
Yesterday I got to work on Stargate Atlantis. Which in itself is PURE WIN, and extras such as myself usually get very little information on what we will be doing or who we will be working with. So I certainly was not expecting anything, except to be able to say I worked on SGA. So this is about my day. Please disregard any and all spelling/grammar/logic mistakes. I am still squeeing.
Warning: LONG DAMN POST. With some caplock abuse.
I had been given a very detailed map last Friday with directions to set, addresses, emergency phone numbers, et al. I left my place at 7am and figured I had tons of time to get to set at UBC [one of the big universities here in Callumland] for my 8:30am calltime. I knew it was the first day of school so I planned for that. I made it to the parking area and a PA [production assistant] was there in a tell-tale vest holding a clipboard. I told him I was there for Stargate. He looked puzzled and said "This is parking for Pysch. And Kyle XY."
WTF. I also knew he was full of crap because Kyle XY was already wrapped for the season. *headdesk* Ugh.
I called the Locations emergency number and was given NEW directions. Yay cellphones. I found the "PPI" signs easily. [These are the VERY bright little signs with arrows and call letters on them to guide you to parking/set. PPI stood for Pegasus Productions IV. Yes I was tempted to steal one.] These signs took me right into a multi-level parkade. Where I was lost again. No crew or PAs anywhere. Bah. I called Locations again. They told me to drive around and around to the very top of the parkade. There I found a Security guy who said I was almost late for my call time. I was tempted to give him the finger. At the front of the parkade I waited until a shuttle showed up, which then took me to set.
Set was at an old research building at the edge of UBC, that hadn't been used for a couple of years, and had been outfitted to look like an American police station. At the holding tent I found Brynn, an awesome wrangler with whom I had worked before. She said, "Get back on the shuttle." Blargh. I still made it to her on time, so that was good. But it appeared that the entire production that morning was a bit of a clusterfuck, so I'm sure I could've been late and no one would've flinched. [Some productions will send you home if you are one minute late. I wish I was joking. I know things run on a tight schedule, but shit happens!]
Back onto a shuttle, to take me to circus. Circus was a looooong line of movie trucks parked along the side of the road. So not only was this the first [and busy!] day of school, but they were paving the damn road that day. WTF. I had to dodge paving trucks to cross the road to the wardrobe truck. Found out the paving company and PPI had double booked that road for the same day. The circus had to move somewhere else, but no idea where. Clusterfuck much?
Walking past some of the trucks I saw something that very much caught my eye: Ronon's wig, sitting lonely on a foam head, in a trailer. Sadly, Jason Momoa was not on set, but I saw his wig! :)
The wardrobe lady had no idea what I was supposed to wear. There were cops, lawyers and detectives she was outfitting, but I was one of two civilians. We talked about why I would be at the police station. Was I a junkie? Was I a hooker? Was I bailing out someone? Did I know someone there? She decided to be safe and picked the most boring and businesslike outfit I had brought. Black capris and a turquoise dress shirt. Whoopee. No tattoos. I got out of the wardrobe truck, got changed in another trailer, and caught another shuttle back to set. At set I changed out of my turquoise shirt [which I got purely for set, as I would never wear it otherwise] and into my cute little black jacket. Didn't want to stain or wrinkle my pretty dress shirt. Heh.
Once I had finished signing in and doing paperwork in the holding tent on set, I went through hair and makeup. The hair guy, this little whip of a man who looked like Dustin Hoffman, waved his hands around me and said I was fine. I had put some of my hair into a loose bun with the rest hanging down. It's easy to do, easy to keep clean, and not distracting. Yay me. The makeup lady I had worked with before, on Pysch. She just put makeup on to cover the bags under my eyes. [I had done nearly 30km of hiking the day before, and although I had slept for about 6 hours I was wishing I had slept MUCH more]
So now I had a chance to check out the call sheet, the most important step in my morning after actually making it to set. There was only one call sheet in our holding tent, otherwise I would've grabbed it and scanned it. I think Brynn would've known it was me who took it *g*. By this time it was nearly 10am.
If you haven't seen a call sheet before, it looks kinda like this:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~rcowart/callsheet.html
Usually call sheets are more complex and longer than that, and the entire back of the sheet lists all the ADs and PAs and who is doing first aid and stunts and catering and locations and security and lighting and sound and playback and grip and blah blah blah.
They aren't hard to read but a lot of extras just throw up their hands when they look at them. Me, I want to know what I am doing, what scenes, how many scenes, who I will be working with, how much coverage for each shot [which may dictate how long it takes to film, if they have to do the same scene several times with several different camera angles, and have to re-set lighting and cameras and sound every time], how much dialogue, that sort of thing. Each scene also lists what cast and what extras are to be used. Today had five scenes. [in theory, since nothing ever goes THAT smoothly].
I read that David Hewlett and Joe Flanigan were in the first scene, with lots of dialogue, with only two extras in the scene. Those two extras had been on set since 6:30am. Second scene was a splinter unit doing some exterior coverage of the police station. No people needed for that. Third and fourth scenes were with Joe, and with the group of extras that arrived at 8:30am [ie, ME.] Fifth scene was at a hospital [just another part of the same building] and used a ton of doctor and nurse extras who were arriving at set at 2pm. Crew call was 7am, so that meant lunch was 1pm.
Looked easy-peasy on paper. Ah, the entertainment business, you cruel bitch, you tease us with things like this and then shit all over everything. Heh. At least the crew had been working with one another [for the most part] for at least this season, and they knew one another's quirks and strengths etc. I have noticed that movie crews, especially during the first couple of weeks, are disjointed and pissy and less organized, and subsequently less organized. Easy for me to say, seeing as I have almost zero responsibility on set except to be there and stay upright. But once a crew is working together for a while, they get a flow going, a kind of one-consciousness thing. Much more productive, with fewer blowups and disputes. Considering that the entire crew of SGA on set that day was around 100 people [crew, not us extras or cast], that's a pretty cool thing to witness.
Since I had seen that the first scene was 3+3/8ths of script [ie A LOT], I knew we had some time to kill. The two scenes I was to be in were 3/8ths and 2/8ths of a page of script. Basically that meant scenes with little or no dialogue, where the camera just pans over or follows the lead or something simple. But that first scene was a bitch. Lot of talking, and some action, and lots of angles.
So from 10am until 2:45, I did crossword puzzles and talked to other extras, one of whom I was on set with during the Farewell Atlantis earthquake shake. Ah, the glorious life of an extra *g*. Other extras showed up at 11am, and still more at 2pm. Altogether maybe 40 extras, so not that many, really. The hair and makeup people were just sitting around bored. It started to rain so we figured out quickly where the holes were in the holding tent. Somehow I was the only person who brought an umbrella. Sigh. The wrangler said that a kid was coming to set, so we should watch our language. I think she was talking to me directly. Heh. So this kid and his mom show up, and the kid is easily 14 and has his own laptop and spends hours filming himself being a dork with his webcam. Heeeee. His mom sat outside, smoking.
The washroom were located inside the 'police station'. This meant I had to walk inside the building and past a lot of gear to get to the bathroom. I had no problem with this. Other than the fact that I prefer actual permanent washrooms over rental washroom trailers anyday, it gave me the opportunity to scope out the set. Sweet. Big lobby, big wood reception desk, long curved staircase coming down into the lobby, lots of glass and light. And way too clean to be a cop shop, but whatever. :) The ladies washroom had two stalls. The mens was just one toilet. By the end of the day, one PA was guarding the women's washroom, and there was a huge sign on the door that said 'WOMEN ONLY. NO MEN.' Considering that 3/4 of the crew and extras were male, it was pretty funny. There was a joke on set about how the men finally got to see what us women usually put up with. It was amusing to see a lineup at the men's. I bet a lot of bushes and trees outside were watered that day. *g*
At around 11am I stepped out of the tent to stretch my legs and see what sort of goodies were in crafting [ie the snack shack]. I came around a movie truck and almost ran staight into David Fucking Hewlett. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
He was on his phone and gave me a glance and a little smile and continued talking. I just about died. He was looking MIGHTY FINE and dapper in a dark suit and purple dress shirt and shiny shoes. My goodness. I totally forgot about finding something to eat at crafting. I just stood outside watching him pace and talk on his big blackberry phone for about, um, 20 minutes. He just kept walking in front of me, wandering around, looking awfully lovely and slender and GOOD. Nom nom nom.
David was shuttled to 2nd unit to film something else, so the only time I saw him was when he was on the phone. Which was SUPER AWESOME. So, no complaints there. *g*
Yes, we were supposed to break for lunch at 1pm, but the director insisted on getting that first scene finished before lunch. So all the union people got a meal penalty upgrade. I heard that they were supposed to have finished MY scenes before lunch, so that wasn't a good sign. The people who showed up at 2pm for the hospital scene were all dolled up as doctors, nurses, and patients. We were all pretty sure they weren't going to do their scene at all. Brynn asked each one of them if they were available the next day. Then wardrobe took photos of all of us for continuity.
Then we were told to go to the catering truck for lunch, to beat the other cast and crew who were just wrapping up the first scene. At the catering truck the chef saw us, looked down the long line of extras and shouted "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!". There was an argument between an AD and the chef, and five minutes later food was ready for us. I had garlic salmon, butternut squash, beet salad, Caesar salad, pasta salad, carrots, beans, mushroom soup, watermelon, strawberries, and a bottle of water. Wonderful catering. It made up for the donuts, cake, muffins, crackers and other crap in crafting.
After we went back into our holding tent to enjoy our lunch, the cast and crew came out to have lunch from the same catering truck. They had to walk past our holding tent. I had no idea if David and Joe ate with the crew or had special menus individually made and brought to their trailers. I stood outside, lingering and loitering.... then Joe Fucking Flanigan came out and walked past me and got in line for lunch. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! The hair, the walk, the eyes, the smile NRRRGHHHHH. He looked almost exactly like this, except with a dark shirt:
*FLAILS LIKE A PATHETIC SUPER FLAILY THING*
Darker jeans too, but you get the idea. And his hair was a little shorter on the sides and not so moppy. And? I HIGHLY APPROVE. *flails* He is as tall as me [nrrgh] and slender nom nom nom and is just..... fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.... hot. And all smiley and dorky and adorable. I think he was pretty tired from that first scene but he was in great spirits and did I mention that he walked right past me? Walking sex. Really. Sadly I was the only extra who even KNEW WHO HE WAS. So I was doing a lot of internal flailing to keep from attracting too much attention. Plus I didn't want the first aid called over because someone thought I was having a seizure. *flails internally, drools*
Am I sad that cameras are not allowed on set? YES. [nor are cellphone cameras, so there.]
His trailer was parked between our holding tent and set and I hadn't realized this until now because he had been on set the whole time. [*wonders what she would've said if she had gone to the washrooms and seen him waiting in line*]. He ate in the crew lunch tent but then went back to his trailer to relax for a bit. *quiet flailing*
So then lunch was over and Brynn announced that they were taking the 8:30 group to set pretty quick. Yay! Six cops, a lawyer and his client, five detectives, a 'dad' and his kid, two civilians [one of which was ME]. We were rounded up and stood outside the building. The 1st AD came out and took us in one or two at a time to place us.
I was waiting outside to be taken onto set by the 1st AD when a crew member ran up with a phone in her hand. Without even thinking or pausing, I said "That's David Hewlett's phone." Both the crew member and the AD looked at me like I was an alien. Then the crew member told the AD that David had left his phone in his trailer and there was discussion on how to get his phone back to him, since he was working with 2nd unit for the rest of the day and it was nowhere near this set. I stayed quiet after that. *g*
They brought the cops and detectives onto set, and then finally came out to me to place me. The AD introduced himself and shook my hand and asked me my name and gave me a great big smile. Then he led me to a doorway and gave me my action. Wait 10 beats after the background call, then take a nice long swinging walk from this doorway through the reception area and out the front door of the station. Easy-peasy. One camera, which would only film me from the side and back. "Do a big banana," he told me. Heeeee.
It took a while to get the camera angles right and place everyone, and get the lighting and sound boom and blah blah blah ready. Then they had to put rubber stoppers on the bottom of the shoes of anyone wearing heels, because the click-click echoed everywhere and screwed up the sound. So while everyone was shouting stuff and moving stuff, I wandered around the lobby. And there was Joe, behind the reception desk. OH HAI.
Apparently he needed to wear a police badge. And, um, he wasn't wearing it on his chest. He was wearing it on his waistband. Nrrgh. I am pretty sure no one caught me actively STARING AND GAWKING, but I spent some very quality time watching him adjust and readjust and generally fondle the badge on his waistband, perilously close to his crotchal area. *deep long happy sigh* Yah, I would've worked all day for free just to see that. I think that was about three minutes of my life, very happy minutes. I sort of lost track of where I was and what I was doing. It was a special moment. *cough*
So then he disappeared into his trailer and we got ready to rehearse. They use stand-ins for Joe [and David too, but I didn't work with him] so we did a few run-throughs of the scene using the stand-in before they had Joe come out for a final rehearsal and finals. [Finals are when they are actually filming]. Joe/stand-in walks down the long curvy staircase into the lobby while talking on the phone. I don't know where he ended up because my back was to him at the end of the scene. It was only maybe 20 seconds of screen time. But here's the awesome part: when Joe/stand-in gets to the bottom of the stairs, we walk past one another. I almost ran into the stand-in on the first rehearsal, but then adjusted my timing. [Of course you don't actually want to bump into someone else unless the scene calls for it, but it's very important not to have people bunching up on screen or blocking the actors or causing any sort of unnatural or weird movement that distracts from the actor's movements.] Nice, smooth, businesslike, purposeful movement.
Once the director was happy with everyone's placements and actions, Joe came back in. We did one rehearsal with him. I got to walk Very Close to him but we never made eye contact because I was supposed to be purposefully walking.. somewhere.... and he was on the phone yapping about... something. Something that would be dubbed over later anyway.
After that one rehearsal there was general director happiness and then I heard "Picture's up!". Which means there would be actual film happening. \o/ Yay! We did four takes, all from the same angle. Every time, I would wait my ten beats [basically just counting to ten in my head] before I would come out of the doorway, walk past Joe who was just coming into the lobby, and then continue walking out the main doors. Pretty simple stuff. I tried not to look at him too much during takes because that wasn't my job. But between takes? You bet your ass I was looking at him. Like watching butter melt over a stack of pancakes. Like watching kittens laying on top of one another purring and sleeping. Like watching the sun sparkle on a lake in a forest. Sigh. Like watching pure sex walk and talk and joke and smile and melt everything around itself. SIGH. *reminds self to flock this post* :)
So will you actually see me in the final cut? If that scene makes it in [and in tv shows, the answer is normally yes, as opposed to movies where lots of stuff ends up on the cutting room floor] then yes. But only for a split second because the camera isn't on ME, nor should it be! I will have to wait for this ep to air to find out what he was saying on the phone. I couldn't hear most of it and besides, I was concentrating on doing my job well and Not Being Fired and not being distracted by His Hotness With Badge Near His Crotch.
After that final take the director said "Check the gate!" which means, in wonderful tv/movie talk, that they were making sure they had what they needed, and that there was actual film in the cameras that worked properly and caught the scene without a hitch. A couple minutes later they said they were moving onto the next scene, and that's when Joe disappeared again [likely to go to his trailer to rehearse and go over his lines for the next scene, and maybe to relax and snack or whatever] and all the crew started moving stuff.
For the second scene I was supposed to be in, they needed to move the cameras and gear up the stairs to the offices upstairs. The space was smaller than the lobby downstairs. The AD decided he didn't need all of us. He looked at me and said he was sorry, but he didn't need me for this scene, partly because I wasn't a cop or detective [and therefore wouldn't logically be in the office area] but also because my turquoise shirt was pretty recognizable [I now hate that fucking shirt more than ever] and in the last scene I had left the building so logically I wouldn't be around. Damn logic. So, yah, go relax he said [which means go back to the holding tent and wait to be called out again]. And thank you, you did a great job. *beams* Normally you only get to hear when you've fucked up or when they want you to do something different. So that was cool. But that meant I didn't get to work alongside Joe again. *pouty face*
When I got back to holding, a guy I had been sitting with in the tent asked me if I finally got my chance to lick Joe. I grinned SO WIDE. I said he needed to watch the ep when it airs to catch the part where I grabbed Joe and licked him head to toe. There was much giggling. :)
Two hours later, the girl who had been sitting next to me in the holding tent got back from set. She was playing a detective [she's in her mid-20s, long dark straight hair, suit and heels, very petite and pretty] and got to walk down a long hallway opposite Joe. By the time she got back to holding she was pretty starry-eyed. I had explained to her earlier who Joe and David were, and the gist of the show and the fangirly-ness of it all. And NOW SHE UNDERSTOOD. She wasn't very coherent when she got back to me. Just a lot of 'MMmmMMm'-ing. Heh. *IS JEALOUS OF HER* She promptly put her head down on a table and shut her eyes to nap, but her smile never disappeared. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Then we sat. And sat. And sat. I knew they wouldn't use us again. They shot a scene that they hadn't planned on doing until the next day because it was short and they wanted to get a 12 hour day so they wouldn't fall behind. The wrangler wrapped all the doctors/nurses/patients and sent them home and told them to come back tomorrow. Then the rest of us sat for a while.... waiting..... Finally the call came from the AD to the wrangler that we could go. Yay!
I was signed out at 7:30pm [so after 1/2 hour lunch, that means 10.5 hours of work, and when you calculate overtime, that's about 12 hours pay for the day. Not too shabby. But I would've done it for free *g*.] Shuttled back to my car, drove home with a big stupid grin on my face.
THE END. Thanks for reading!
And? If you made it to the end of this, you get a cookie! A virtual cookie, but a yummy cookie nonetheless! *g*
And yes I made a Shep icon. Because.