THE ADVENTURES OF DAN:
Season 2 Episode 6 - "Harvest" Air Date - 11/06/2000
09/22/2000 -
Oh where to begin..... Everything always seems to start out simple enough on the surface but you can never truly expect what is going to happen.
On Thursday I ran across a call from Kevin to work on Roswell as a "townie". I had wanted to get on the show for awhile but I was a little reluctant because it sounded like a random walking in the background kind of thing which aren't horribly interesting. Granted this wasn't the normal Friday I would take off but that can be easily remedied. What the hell. It's difficult to get on the show in the first place I better not pass up the opportunity. I got booked with a call time of 9AM and little to no other information.
In the evening I got the lowdown on wardrobe etc. It turns out it is going to be a small town funeral type scene being shot in the Universal back lot. Cool. I have yet to make it onto Universal yet and it means I can pick a pretty broad range of wardrobe going from a suit down to black jeans.
Later in the evening I got a call saying the time had changed from 9 to 10AM. Even better. The next day I opted to start out in the suit and I was confident I wasn't going to have to change. Yeah right. For once I cut down on the getting early factor and showed up only about 45 minutes before I needed to be there. It wasn't difficult to manage because it's pretty close (about a mile from warner brothers) and it was more or less after rush hour traffic.
Upon entering one of the back entrance roads to Universal I immediately saw signs for "Area 15" crew parking. Area 15 can only be a joke playing off of Area 51...name of the show is Roswell....get it?
The parking lot was pretty full which made me wonder when the crew call was and if this may actually turn out to be a really short day. I sat in my car briefly until I saw other extras milling about. I asked a crew guy if there was going to be a van or was it walkable. He said you could walk it but it's easier to take the van. Yeah it helps with that whole "getting through the security gate" thing.
Soon after a van showed up and we all piled in. The last one to get in was this squirrelly guy who I thought was one of those dick extras who just wouldn't shut up. I eventually realized it must be Kenny the PA we are supposed to check in with. He was an odd one. Lots of repressed anger.
As soon as we went through the security gate we were immediately in the Universal back lot. A lot of strange buildings as well as the tourist tram from the Universal Studios tourist thing. It felt very odd being on the other end of the tour.
We got dropped off at base camp where there was the standard honeywagon and trailers. Kenny had us group together near the wardrobe truck and then disappeared. This other random guy came by and sent us up the road and down another road to get to catering. We were in a very western style / Mexican revolution set of buildings.
Catering was setup outside of this really old fake church/barn thing. You look around and it felt like you were in the middle of an old school Zorro set. Very cool. There were a bunch of tables and chairs setup outside across from the catering truck and it looked like the crew call was the same as ours due to the fact they were just starting to prepare breakfast.
Wow I've really been fucking the dog on this story. I didn't start it until almost a week after the adventure and now it's taken me another week to get back to it. Fortunately last night was the Roswell Season Premiere and now things make much more sense regarding what happens story wise.
Ok where the hell was I.......oh yeah...so I dumped all my crap on one of the chairs across from the catering truck. I opted to get some apple juice while I investigated if we could hit the food. Eventually Kenny came by and told us to eat breakfast and he would be back in a little while to hand out vouchers. I as usual opted for the french toast which they always make extremely well.
After I got done Kenny came by and herded us all into the little church looking building where there was also a bunch of tables setup. My impression of Kenny....I'm sticking with my repressed rage observation. He was a PA instead of an AD and he didn't seem very thrilled to have to deal with the extras. Not that they gave him any reason to be thrilled. People had a thumb up their butt and were not listening to what he was saying.
He had us line up to get our vouchers and it soon became painful. I don't know what the people in front of me were doing but it sounded like they had a mouthful of shit and couldn't enunciate their names. It was very sad and pretty much brought Kenny to the edge. I followed one of the other guys' leads and just gave him the number next to my name on his list..... which he appreciated.
Next step was down the road once again to wardrobe. This one random guy directed us down a different road which seemed shorter and seemed to be the hub of activity. Not sure if we were going to be filming outside or in one of the little buildings (those that aren't just fake fronts of buildings that is). Hopefully inside because it looks like it is about to start raining any second.
I had fear about the suit because others had them on as well and they fit more of the townie funeral whereas I looked like a g-man ready to take a bullet for the president. As expected supergirl (she had a shirt with the superman "S" on it) wardrobe girl wanted to see what else I had because she wanted some more downscale people. I was instructed to keep the blue button down shirt but to throw on black jeans. Whatever.
Next stop was the honeywagon.....or not. All of the doors had names on them except the bathroom. Usually there is an "atmosphere male" but not this time. Contemplating changing in the bathroom was not a pleasant thought. Trust me on that one. Fortunately random guy (very large guy from before) directed us up the hill a little where there was other changing rooms. Fortunately it was one of the hardcore older trailers where the changing rooms are HUGE and I had it all to myself. Quite nice for once.
So I de-suited and headed back to the wardrobe truck. She gave me the eye like "hmmmmm not quite but it will have to do". I guess I just don't look hick enough. She asked if I would button the top button on set so I look like the feed store clerk who can't afford a tie kind of thing. Um....no. I gave her the "ok but I really really really think it will look stupid face". After that I headed once again up the street toward holding.
On the way I was assaulted by one of the tourist trams and got the video camera treatment. Upon returning to holding I dumped all my crap by this old random guy that was in a postal outfit. It didn't look like we would be moving anytime soon so I whipped out magazines to entertain myself.
After awhile I noticed Kenny and this other random guy come in and start looking everyone over. Lots of pointing....whisper talk....hmmm....they must be looking for people to be in a feature part or something. At one point Kenny points to me and it looked like I passed for whatever they were doing. More time passes and Kenny comes in to send some of the people to hair and makeup. Basically people with longer hair which included this freaky looking guy.
Speaking of freaky looking guys there was this one guy who looked like he was trying out to be a vampire. Your typical Goth type with extremely long fingernails and huge sideburns. Very odd. More time passes......
Kenny comes back once again and reads a bunch of names off of his list. Of course I got the shaft. Standard. He whisks them all off and I can only assume they are going to the set. Bummer. Much more time passes.
Getting sick of reading the magazines. At this point I was halfway through the second one. This one random extra guy came back carrying a beta cam and told his girlfriend how the people that got called out were getting prosthetics. DAMNIT!!! Kenny mentioned something about the scene involving people scratching skin off. Soon after he left to join the prosthetic clan. More reading......
Finally at around 1PM they led us all down toward one of the buildings down the street. A sign outside the building read "The Friendly League"....um ok. At the foot of the building Gary the AD started grabbing people in groups of three and sending them in. I made it into the second group even though I looked like a tool with the top button done.
Upon entering it was your typical funeral scene. Aisle down the middle with a casket setup at the end. It looked like the camera was going to be pointing out from behind the casket (pointing toward the door). Placement is key.....doah. I got stuck in the second row on the left (facing the casket) the third seat in (there were in rows of only three seats). So basically off camera anyway you look at it. Lots of getting fucked today.
Next to me was this older lady and we talked a little bit about prosthetics while other people filtered in. Apparently one time she worked on the TV show Alien Nation and got to do the whole prosthetic head thing. Cool.
The room was very interesting. It wasn't a church but with the right camera angles it could pass for an out in the middle of nowhere funeral parlor. On one side of the room (behind the giant lights) was a bar and on the left was a staircase leading up to nowhere. Well at least I don't think it was anywhere because all I could see was a giant filtered light. The ceiling was also fake with more filtered lights. How the hell did they get those up there?
Once most of the people had been placed they wheeled in the prosthetic people and strategically placed them in the crowd. Most of them had large flaky patches on the side of their face or on their hands. We weren't sure what the hell the story was about or what was going on. Something about we are all a bunch of "skins" and we were going to be scratching and putting on lotion. Umm....yeah. If you saw the season premiere you know that the "skins" have already been introduced and I won't fully tell exactly what they are until the second story.
Speaking of....while they were handing out little bottles of lotion random lady next to me asked me in horror if I had been booked for two days. That's pretty much when I got the "oh shit" face. Damnit. They are supposed to tell us if there is a possibility of two days. I was hoping she was wrong because I had to fucking work. Maybe it would be on the weekend. Anyway it was going to have to wait.
While I sat and stewed I noticed there was a picture of the deceased, which turns out to be a rather attractive female...."Congresswoman Whitaker" is at the bottom. Well it turns out (by way of the premiere) that Whitaker is a senator that Shiri's character starts working for and is determined to prove that there are aliens in Roswell. Well don't get too attached to her because by episode 6 she is a post-toastie. At the time, I had heard Shiri was working for a congress person and assumed as much.
In the meantime most of the stand-ins were sitting on the steps to my left. You could just tell. This one girl vaguely looked like Shiri (Liz) and this other guy looked vaguely like Jason B (Max). I couldn't tell who the other three were supposed to be.
Anyway after awhile Gretchen Egolf (Whitaker) comes in and they prep putting her in the casket. Boy that's a rough job...looking like your dead. They brought out a little crate for her to stand on. She is actually one REALLY tall girl...probably around 5'11". Quite attractive of course. She just BARELY fit into the casket as long as she wasn't wearing shoes. It was kind of funny because she brought her book into the coffin and was reading while they were setting up. Very odd sight to see.
The first regular star of the show that I saw was my little Aussie Fireball Tess played by Emilie deRavin. My main QT's that I wanted to see were Shiri and Katherine Heigl but I was quite surprised to see that in person Emilie is a jaw dropping QT (granted I thought she was cute already...I just never appreciated of HOW extremely cute!). That and she has a rack like you would not believe (now highlighted nicely in the opening credits for the show this season). I wasn't expecting this pleasant surprise. Granted she was a little on the short side (5'1") but the day was not going to be a loss.
I had fear that we wouldn't see any of the main characters and it was going to be a random scene. Anyway Emilie went over to say hi to Gretchen. Soon after Shiri popped in as well as Jason Behr. And yes Shiri's big beautiful brown eyes are just as impressive in person. Looks like it's going to be a rough day. It would be even better if I hadn't gotten fucked and had to basically sit off camera.
Eventually they setup to do a little rehearsal. OH ...in the meantime either the head wardrobe lady or someone to that effect came by and asked me if I had a tie or a jacket with me. I said I had the whole suit thing but supergirl wanted me more downscale. She had me undo the top button thankfully.
The scene starts with the trio (Shiri, Jason, and Emilie) walking down the aisle talking to each other quietly, look in the casket, Shiri sees something odd with Gretchen's hands and covers them with flowers, they start to head out, the pastor guy has a few lines and when the trio get toward the door he screams "LEAVING SO SOON", does a little hand motion and the doors slam shut.
Oh yeah. Forgot to add that some special FX guys from Optic Nerve were rigging up the doors to slam shut off screen. It looked ok but it was obvious one door was closing faster than the other one. OH ....and the actor playing the pastor was VERY familiar (Chris Ellis). He was one of the flight director's in Armageddon as well as played Deke Slayton in Apollo 13. If you saw him you would recognize him instantly.
Anyway they decided to shoot one. Gary the AD told us to scratch a little bit while they walk down the aisle and when they are leaving to scratch a lot. Then the first AD (this older lady who was ....I wouldn't say bitchy but she knew what she wanted) was telling us not to scratch at all until they walked out the aisle. Nothing like conflicting information.
Before they started, they grabbed some of the random people out of the crowd to start at the body and heading back to their seas. The random lady next to me got a prime spot right in front of the casket. After the first take I really got the shaft.
Supergirl came by with a new more sketchy checkered button down shirt. Apparently I was still looking too high class. It's a curse. ha ha. The best part was due to it being in between takes I pretty much just whipped off the shirt right there in the middle of everyone. I wouldn't normally mind but with everyone sitting around your like the focal point. So I once again settled in after that.
We probably did three or four takes before they decided to change the camera angle a little. Through all this Kenny was coming around writing down everyone's name on a seating chart. When they decided to adjust things they sent us all outside and we hit the little craft service stand.
Soon after Kenny made the grand announcement that we were all booked knowing that it would be a two day shoot. Shit. Of course he basically told us we were all liars for saying we weren't told. Regardless it doesn't matter because our voucher (which we sign) explicitly says that if we are recalled we agree to come. I knew I would get fucked eventually and it looks like it's my time. Kenny went on to say, call whoever they need to call because they is no choice in the matter. I was pretty much dazed and confused trying to figure out how I was going to swing this.
This other guy (the beta cam guy) said he absolutely could not make it due to a school commitment. Kenny told him to talk to Gary the AD about it. I followed him just to hear what Gary had to say about it. Gary was none to pleased and said they would have to find somebody that looks like him because he has a rather featured part. Then he looks at me behind him and says "hell we don't have to call anyone you look just like him". Doah shit! So much for trying to get out of it.
Ok granted we have the same hair color and basically the same height but this guy was about 8 years older and had at least 40 more pounds on him. Didn't matter. I was in too deep. That is about the definition of standing in the right place at the right time. At the time I thought this sucked but my attitude will later change.
Supergirl took a photo of camera guy and then she took my sizes. The problem was that it was his shirt (a long sleeved maroon number) and they couldn't legally get me to wear it. So they were shooting for something close.
After that I headed over to drown my sorrows by eating a banana. I suppose I'll just call in sick. Our sick days and vacation days are combined so it's not being that deceptive. I'm definitely sick....sick of work that is, so it applies.
By the time I had faced the reality of having to take Monday off Kenny was making the rounds asking people if they managed to get things mastered for Monday. I think everyone except the camera guy had it taken care of. When he got in my neighborhood I ran in fear because I didn't want to answer him.
Eventually they called us all in once again and we did another take. You know I wasn't sure if we were really supposed to apply the lotion or what. I'll pass. I opted for scratching my face even though I didn't have a prosthetic. It's not like I was going to be on camera anyway.
The prosthetic people were told not to tear off their stuff yet but to just mildly scratch. After the first take supergirl came by with a bundle of clothes in her hand and said that when there was a break she would switch us out. I didn't quite grasp that they were literally going to switch us in the scene even though we had been filming already.
After the second take she said screw it and grabbed us to go change quick. She led us around the corner where there was another bathroom. I got a pair of button fly jeans that actually fit quite well and a short sleeved polo type shirt. Hmmmm not quite a match but from where the camera had been I don't foresee it being a big deal.
I gave up my sketchy checkered shirt to which he had to wear another shirt under it (once again due to their rules because I had already been wearing it). Don't want to pass the cooties.
It took me a little longer to change because I had to do the pants as well. Ok you know this is wrong. Now I've got black socks and shoes with jeans. It just doesn't look right but whatever. Not my call.
When I exited the bathroom supergirl was waiting for me to hurry me back to the set. It was a good thing too because in the rush I wasn't sure which way was which. On the way back to the set I decide to bond with supergirl and mention how I got into being switched when I was attempting to say I had to work on Monday but I'll just call in sick blah blah blah. It cracks me up because she says something about having your priorities. Hmmm let's see. My main source of income where I fucking work at fucking NASA and write Interplanetary Navigation software or being paid minimum wage on a TV show. Yeah .....actually the TV show pretty much wins out.
Upon entering the building I threw my jeans behind one of the pillars in the room and grabbed the beta cam. Ok this thing weighs a fucking ton. Well not a ton but it's rather heavy.
This is when I met Eric the news guy. A bald fellow who apparently has several layers of latex strips on his head that he will be ripping off later. I try to get the lowdown on what the hell I'm supposed to be doing from him. He mentions that there is some switch that turns on the little red light to make it look like I'm taping. Eric had to ask the guy I switched with because we couldn't come up with it.
Anyway we were apparently a GWN news crew (Global World News of course). I immediately noticed the advantage of my new found position by the fact that the two QT's (Shiri and Emilie) started about a foot in front of me. I attempted to refrain from drooling but I'm not sure if I was successful. It didn't help that Emilie was wearing an exceptionally tight shirt for the scene.........anyway.
So we do a take and it was rather interesting to be about a foot away from the doors when they slam shut. Oh yeah I forgot to add that when Chris enters the camera frame he rips off a giant hunk of skin from his face. More details of the scene has the trio looking around at all of the people on the way out recognizing that something isn't quite right. And even more gratuitous detail has Shiri saying something that it doesn't make sense for Whitaker's body to be there because she had been blown up.
Anyway I do believe we did another take before moving on. It's starting to all get fuzzy because we spent the entire 15 hour day in this damn room. I made an outline but even a few days after it...it all runs together. Well I'm going to go with this because I think it's right.
Ok I'm going with the next setup had them lay tracks down the aisle for the camera. This was going to be the skin removal scene where everyone rips their prosthetics and whatnot. I forgot to add that in the crowd there was three real actors that are also in the show. They had stand-ins so I can only assume that they have lines at some point and have some purpose.
Anyway the DP (Director of Photography) doubled as the cameraman for all this stuff. I'm guessing he was of the type that he likes everything done just right so he does it himself. He begins to rehearse the move by swinging the camera to the different people while going down the aisle and ending on Eric and myself moving onto the doors that blow open. The theory is that the camera is of the viewpoint of the main characters.
They kept working out which of the people start ripping and when. All I know is we were going to get some good screen time at the end for Eric to rip off the strip from his head. Of course with my luck it will just be a close-up of him but I doubt it.
Lady AD told me when the camera got close to put down the camera and start to scratch my arm. Simple enough. Other than the eight billion times I keep putting the camera on my shoulder and taking it off. It's not bad when it's up there it just starts to hurt from the repetitive action.
I was debating whether I should switch off the red light when I'm putting down the camera but they decided to shoot. It seemed like a good idea at the time but the amount of time I have to react isn't all that much.
Just from my perspective the scene looked pretty cool. The main actors had the major prosthetics with a whole lot of ripping as well as Eric. Apparently the look on my face as well as Eric's when he whipped off the strip was classic because Jason made a comment to us later about it.
At this point it was pushing 4:30PM and we were hoping that they would be breaking for lunch ASAP. Although we are incurring meal penalties which is never a bad thing in the money department. They quickly pulled out the camera tracks and had us all come in.
The next setup had the actors laying facedown on the ground. Yeah it seemed a little odd to me as well. The best we could figure is that after the doors are blown shut they are blasted to the ground. What is really bizarre is that Emilie and Shiri are on the ground in front of us while Jason is about halfway down the aisle. It didn't make much sense at the time.
The scene involves all the actors getting up and backing away as Chris's character comes around and starts walking down the aisle. I do believe they cut soon after that so it was only part of the scene. The really rough part is that Eric and I had Shiri and Emilie laying on the ground right in front of us.....and let's just say I didn't realize how tight Emilie's pants were......oh my.
Shiri was feeling a little on the modest side and had her backpack on her butt. On the other hand Emilie was more than happy to show her amazing tush. You know it's rough having the job of staring at these ladies in this scene while they get up....especially when Emilie's shirt is a tad low cut. I love this job.
Actually I lied, they don't cut right away. Jason backs up to the ladies as Chris comes down the aisle spouting some dialogue. The thing is what the dialogue reveals.....
Chris comments about how this is the future king and his bride (Max & Tess) which can only mean that A) we are all aliens like them or B) something else non-human entirely. Once again it's all very confusing but by the second day I have it all down giving away all the major plot points up to the episode.
Anyway during the dialogue Chris apparently whips out a laser beam with his hand which is blocked by Jason putting up a shield. In reality it's two guys pointing their palms at each other but it's my first exposure to seeing visual effects in the making.
Once that goes down Emilie has some REALLY cheesy line about letting her energy flow into his and she intertwines her hand with his. In the meantime the rest of the crowd are instructed to give Jason the palm. What really blows is that I had the mindset to slide in at the front of the crowd but random lady AD told us to circle around to the BACK of everyone. That sucks.....big time.
They pretty much froze things with Chris and Jason palming each other while the visual effects guy had some comments. They told them not to have their hands on the same level and moved them around a little. Well they still had to do the lighting and all that crap so they FINALLY broke for lunch at around 5PM.
I keep forgetting to add that it had been randomly sprinkling all day long. You know it figures. It hasn't rained in about four months but when I'm outside doing extra work in a short sleeved shirt freezing my butt off it decides it's a good time to let loose. Fortunately the really heavy stuff didn't happen until after lunch.
I forgot to add a new fucked up set term to our vocabulary. Haven't heard this one: "On the day". Basically when they were telling everyone whenever you do rip off your skin do this but saying it like "On the day" this is what you do. It was just odd and I heard it a couple more times. Of course it's probably a common term and I'm just an idiot.
Before I vacated the building and headed to lunch I confiscated a copy of the sides that someone misplaced. Hey it's not like there isn't a billion other copies laying around.
After the day was over I went back and read the scene. It's funny how what is filmed differs from the script. If they did it by the script I would have had a featured part! Specifically it says how the main characters aren't worried that anything is going to happen because the news crew is reporting live. They realize their predicament when the cameraman rips the chord out of the wall.....which differs significantly from what we see in the episode. Damnit. Always the screw.
We took our time heading to lunch so that the crew could get through the line. In actuality though they made a second line specifically for the extras. Pretty much the same stuff but I'm not sure why they felt the need to separate us into classes. I recall getting chicken but I blanked out the rest. I was going to try and find Eric but it was crowded and I decided to sit by Kenny and kiss some ass.
I asked him how things were going and he in turned asked how the filming was going. One might thing he would be better informed of such things but apparently not. Lunch went smoothly and Kenny went around to tell everyone to record it as 5:10-5:40PM. Of course he huffed and puffed because he had to repeat himself for a few people.
I then entered a precarious situation. I had the distinct problem of having a rather LARGE fellow on my left and I was already invading this girls space on my right who had to share with a pole. The problem comes in when I tried to get out and scooted back my chair to realize I was on a hill. Fortunately due to excessive use of Nintendo as a child I quickly caught myself before there was an incident. It was still pretty damn funny nonetheless.
While I dumped my stuff I ran across Jason piling up on the food with a cigarette in his mouth. Mmmmm....nothing better than combining smoking with eating.
For lack of anything better to do I started to wander around and ended up in the little barn holding building. It had just crossed my mind that I was a little bummed because it didn't look like I was going to get to see Katherine Heigl when I realized she was sitting in the exact seat I was in earlier in the day eating lunch with a couple of random people. Doah! Shiri and Emilie are EXTREMELY cute but Katherine is absolutely Gorgeous. I noted that Eric was in a prime spot where I could get a good view of her so I went over and talked to him for awhile.
I make a comment on how we are getting the shaft in the next scene for having to go to the back of the crowd. More random talk.....the crew went back to the set. I knew it was going to be awhile due to having to setup lighting, etc....
In the meantime they came by to touch up the skin people and you know what? Most of them did NOT have prosthetics but they just slapped on some glue (looked like a variation of elmer's glue) and let it dry to give it that flaky skin look. Sketchy.
Eventually they called us back to the set. Upon entering I saw that things for us had improved greatly. There now was a giant light and silk screen setup where we would have walked to the back of the crowd. The only alternative was to stick to the front which we eventually got the ok from the Lady AD.
The scene is basically the same as before with the camera pointing from behind us out the door. This time they go a little further with Jason and Emilie collapsing, Shiri helps them get up as Chris and the others scream in pain, Emilie blows the door open, and they run out.
The first rehearsal was almost a tad tragic when Shiri tripped over one of the door cables and fell on her ass. It was a little funny though and hard not to laugh at. The next rehearsal was even funnier because Jason and Shiri went to the right while Emilie kept running straight down the street. Finally they got it organized on what to do.
It was really rough because I had to watch Shiri and Emilie get up time after time ....after time.... after time after time......Shiri had overcome her shyness and displayed her cute butt proudly through the whole thing. Have I said I love this job?
We did a bunch of takes and now is a good time to point out farmer Bob. There is this freaky larger older guy wearing overhauls that was just plain odd. Of course where I had to stand was right next to this freaky guy. He just couldn't master the concept of visual effects and just whined about how this was the dumbest thing he has ever done. I really doubt that. It's not hard. You put your hand out palm facing the trio. But no....even after they told us multiple times he just couldn't master it.
At the moment it didn't matter due to the camera not being on us but that would change later. We finally finished that up and it became a race for daylight. When they turn the camera around for all of the scenes it would be no big deal at night but if they wanted to film with the street as a backdrop they were in trouble.
The next scene was going to involve Katherine who was wondering around in jeans and a T-shirt not even close to being ready. I'm guessing there was a communication problem because they rushed her off to go change. The lady AD wasn't thrilled about the whole thing commenting for them to just get her in the right clothes and not to worry about her makeup because it will only be her back they will get.
The theory for the scene is that it will be when everyone is heading into the "church" for the arrival. They grab about half of the people and put them outside. Eric and myself were instructed to take up a position by the door and pretend like we are filming people arriving.
At the door there is this really tall young guy looking guard as well as this random young kid in a suit walking in and standing in the doorway. When Katherine sees the kid she follows him outside and down the street.
When Katherine showed up they were able to crank the scene out in only a couple of takes. I'm not sure the passage of time because I was drooling too much over Katherine. She had on these knee high leather boots and ........it was just good. I'll leave it at that.
What's interesting is to watch the dynamic of the actors while they are not on camera. Jason and Katherine seemed "close" and talked a lot joking around with each other while Jason and Shiri (the couple on the show) didn't interact that much. Shiri and Emilie interacted a little bit but Emilie still seemed abandoned out in "the new girl" category.
Anyway what the hell happened next......hmmm...I'm going with the next shot involved the casket. They mounted two cameras pointing down into the coffin. Apparently this has to do with whatever happens with the corpse's hand.
From the back of the room we couldn't tell what the hell was going on. All I know is I saw them bring in a fake arm. Later I heard from the guy that I switched with that when Shiri touched the hand it shrivels up and sucks in or something to that effect.
Big clue here is that they refer to us all as "the skins". Again more on that in the next story. So they cranked that out and it was time to switch the camera around.
Of course now it was raining quite nicely and they shipped us all outside while they prepare for the next scene. Fortunately there was a bunch of overhangs but it was a tad on the cold side. At this point I really wished I still had the suit on instead of a short sleeved shirt.
Kenny was running around finding umbrellas for us but nobody wanted the responsibility of dragging it around. They eventually moved us under a different overhang to get us out of the way so that we were packed in like wet rats. Highly unpleasant.
After awhile they called us all back in by groups. We were about to enter when Eric and I saw a giant stunt cushion bag thing piled up right where we were going to stand in the scene. A random PA said to head back outside but to stick close.
While outside Kenny directed us around the corner to the few chairs that were around. Of course not two minutes later we heard the PA freaking out at Kenny asking where the hell the news crew went and that he told us to stick close. We are close you moron, get your head out of your ass. We didn't realize when you said close you wanted us so close we could give you a reach around. Idiot.
Once we got inside the bag was moved off to the side a little. They were preparing to do the scene where the trio are blown onto the floor. Basically the camera is pulled back, at some point they push in the stunt bag, and the trio fall forward at the appropriate time. I was impressed with how well they got the timing down. I was also impressed with how much Emilie was arching her back and pushing out her boobs when she did the fall. I was even more impressed that I got to watch it over and over and over again.
Actually they managed to do it in only a few takes but I still vividly remember it...... I can't remember if we were even on camera or if we just stood off to the side. I think we just stood off to the side. All of the monitors and random crew had been relocated to our side of the room (crammed into the corner) so our odds of making it on camera were small.
After they got that shot down they did the scene with them after they were already on the ground, get up, and do the whole force field thing ending with Chris screaming "oh the HUSKS" and falling to the ground in pain. By the monitor we could tell the angle was REALLY tight so there was no point for Eric and I to enter the side.
They tweaked the timing of things a whole lot as well as when the other extras would rise and ending with timing all of the extras falling down in pain. It was absolutely hilarious. It looked like people were having forced enemas. The entire crew kept cracking up after every take. At one point the director turns to somebody laughing saying "What the hell are we doing?" meaning how fucked up is this.
This whole scene took an extraordinarily long time to get down so Eric and I merged with the crew in the corner and stayed out of the way. What was really bizarre was being so up close and personal with Shiri and Emilie between takes. It was difficult not to stare considering how beautiful they both were.
Emilie kept breaking me because once in awhile if she got talking to someone, her Aussie accent would slip in. Nothing more sexy than accents, especially Australian and ones from the UK.
Other random things while standing around was Shiri doing some knitting and Emilie talking on her cell phone. At one pointShiri was talking to the random kid from before and his mom. She was saying something about she was invited to something at the Rosebowl over the weekend and that they should go. Later I found out (after my apartment thundered with the sounds of fireworks) that they had the movie premiere of Remember the Titans at the Rosebowl.
Eventually they threw in a wider angle lens which meant that Eric and I were thrown into the front to the side. I had hopes that we wouldn't be on camera due to having to do the whole in pain enema thing falling to the floor but my fears were filled in when the DP told Eric and I that it was our big moment now with the angle. Great.
I think we mastered it in only two takes but I'm trying to block it out. So now is your perfect chance to see me on film writhing in agony on the floor. After that they once again kicked us out into the rain.
It was coming down in such a way with the lights that it almost looked like it was snowing. I somewhat miss the first day of snow. The only problem is that after the first day it doesn't go away and become summer again. I think I'll stick with the Southern California weather.
I do believe at this point they had setup a table across the street with approximately 50+ pizzas but I'm not sure. It happened at some point so now is just as good as any.
It was an LA brand pizza place that I didn't recognize. I'd love to call a place up sometime and say ....yeah I need 50 pizzas. So we all feasted while things got setup for whatever is up next.
They called us back in and I instantly knew what we were doing because they had Jason fitted in this elaborate harness (so that they could drag him across the floor). Sweet.
Let's recap, doors blowing shut, visual effects laser beams, and now some dragging action. I've pretty much seen it all on one day of the set. This rather large stunt type guy was overseeing the laying of the wires and getting everything set.
At this point Eric and I realized we were going to be needing the beta cam as well as his microphone. Of course where we had set down such items is the same place that all of the crew had relocated too. After a brief search Eric found it on the total opposite side of the room sitting on a stool behind the bar.
We were pretty much set after that. There was a camera on the ground pointing at the trio on an angle (and also my feet) and another one on the ground halfway down the aisle. They decided to do a minor test to get the feel for the whole thing and drug Jason slowly down the aisle. The director asked if that was as fast as it could go and the stunt guy chuckled saying when it was time it would be MUCH faster. Cool.
When the time was near the wardrobe ladies gave Jason one of the "clean" shirts (they had several, some were clean, some for dragging on the ground). The shot starts with the trio on their knees with them about to fall onto the ground.
Emilie and Shiri did a couple of practice runs. Damn Emilie is flexible. Anyway on the first take Jason whipped down the aisle and they overshot the mark. And then on the second take they nailed it. By the response of the director I can only assume it looked pretty cool. They also made a comment that they weren't going to do any wire removal (use visual effects to manually remove the wires dragging him down the aisle).
Next they setup to set a camera directly shooting down the aisle looking at Jason while he gets pulled. While they got ready,Shiri did some more practicing off to the side. She was trying to get over the fear factor of falling on her face and going directly down instead of landing on her elbows. I didn't see it as very pivotal but whatever. Considering how "well" Emilie was taking care of it she probably wanted to raise the bar on her performance.
At one point when she was wandering by I locked eyes with her. Doah...must stop checking her out. On the first take I was watching the monitor and it looked really damn cool with that perspective. They reset to do it again but in the meantime it looked like Shiri may have pulled something. Lots of sympathy and worry when the star may have injured themselves. It was a minor incident really and actually not that much of a big deal unless you were paying attention.
On the second take the director said that she could start on the ground but she said she could do it. Give her points for doing it and not being a diva. On the last take the director strongly encouraged her to start down so as not to injure it more. She relented and that was it for that scene.
After that we took another break. You know actually this may be when the pizza showed up. Anyway after awhile we were led back inside.
Katherine entered the picture once again. This time it was going to be a reverse angle of her following the kid outside. The trio plus Katherine are talking at the back of the church and then she walks toward the camera out the door. What rules is it's time for the camera crews featured moment.
Lady AD is jones'n for us and places us up by the casket. So we have Gary who tells us to do some filming by the casket and then make our way out the door. Then Lady AD tells us something different and Gary comes back and tells us something else and THEN Lady AD pulls us off to the side and says go up a few rows, cut over, and head out the door with the camera on my shoulder.
In the meantime I had the prop guys all worked up because with all the friggin walking around I wanted to purge myself of this long microphone wire they had attached to the camera. I wanted to point out that my newsman had a wireless mike why would I have a wire for a boom mike? That would make to much sense. I convinced them it was going to be in the way and they took it off.
In the rehearsal things went awry when Eric had to veer off due to people coming down the aisle. I told him to hug the left side and force them out because they REALLY want us featured coming down the aisle. My sentiments were mirrored about two seconds later by Lady AD. She also made an announcement to everyone else to let the CNN guys through and that they have priority. We rule. And it's GWN not CNN goddamnit!
On the first take things went better but not great. The DP told us to REALLY hug the chairs and head directly into the camera. On the second take I was all over it. Eric goes by and due to me hauling the camera I have to brush past Shiri to which she gives me a dirty look (as part of the script). I master the camera and swear to god my face had to have taken up the whole lens before I veered off to the side.
After the cut the DP told Eric he still needed to head more toward the camera but told me I did it perfectly. Well that's because I rule. On the last take everything worked flawlessly and the DP even came out to shake our hands. Which was a little difficult while toting the camera.
Speaking of between all the takes I kept putting down and picking up the camera. I was in pain. Not a repetitive motion you want to repeat. Regardless if you don't see me in this episode you are blind and busy smoking a crack pipe because I should have been featured at LEAST twice at this point (and this is just the first day). One minor note is I spotted Emilie smoking. Major minus. Kids these days. I'd be willing to deal with it though.....
Anyway after that we were FINALLY done at around midnight. Once we got back to holding I ran to the bathroom quick to change. Fortunately my voucher was not with wardrobe forcing me to run back there in the rain.
Upon returning to holding we found out from Kenny that the call time for Monday was going to be noon. SWEET! Now I can work a half day and makeup the rest. Things are actually turning out quite nicely after all. Of course I was a dumb ass and forgot to write "wet" on my voucher to get an extra five bucks but what can you do.
Kenny told us our out time was something like 12:18AM. Cheap asswipe it was already almost 12:30AM. On the way back to wardrobe and where we pick up the van we were assaulted by Gary telling us to take home the extra pizza. They had a good 10+ full pizzas sitting around. Far be it from me to refuse free food.
It was a little difficult to haul my wardrobe bag, backpack, wardrobe clothes, ANDa pizza box but what can you do. Upon returning to wardrobe supergirl told me to wait a sec but one of the other random wardrobe ladies took care of me. Fortunately I remembered to get my blue shirt back because supergirl had stolen it earlier when I switched into sketchy checkered shirt.
Next stop was the van to my car and then home. All in all a good time combined with eternal images of the QT's on the cast. I wonder what Monday will bring.
09/25/2000 -
Remember how I was all happy because the call time for Monday was noon. Oh don't worry I got fucked and it was changed to 9AM. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later so I just ended up taking a day of vacation. This better be good.
Due to the earlier time I thought for sure I would hit traffic so I left a little earlier (7:30AM). Oh of course there wasn't and I got to the parking lot at a little before 8. So I commenced playing blackjack on my Handspring for the next half hour.
Eventually I saw a few of the other random extras massing and I stepped out in hopes of a van coming by. It looked like the crew had already arrived and when I think about it I recall Kenny saying the extras that had their cars in the shot needed to be there at 7AM. Well at least we didn't need to be THAT early. But that also means we were probably going to get fucked out of breakfast.
Eventually a van came and took us all the way to holding instead of dropping us off by the wardrobe trailer. Well actually this wardrobe guy got dropped off at holding but we also received the door to door treatment.
This random old lady extra in front of me couldn't quite grasp that the wardrobe guy was a wardrobe guy and thought he was a new extra or something. She was rambling about how he must be new and she didn't remember seeing him previously. Very random.
After we got dropped on the way past catering I saw that they were cleaning up. Which means we got the shaft. I also saw the beautiful Miss Emilie sitting by herself eating breakfast. Unfortunately I'm not near a pretty boy enough to pull off the "How you doin'?" so I kept on going and dumped my stuff in the little building.
After a few minutes I figured I would get another glimpse of Emilie as I made my way down to the wardrobe trailer / bathroom area. I could have went to the closer bathroom but it looked like they were doing some filming. So I went the long way and got another glimpse of E and eventually ended up at the bathroom.
Upon completion of that task I stepped out of the honeywagon to be greeted by a tourist tram with all of their video cameras trained on me exiting the bathroom. How nice.
I once again went the long way so I could pass by Emilie again but we managed to come around the corner at the same time. She did some avoidance and crossed the street. Actually I think she was headed across the street toward her trailer so it wasn't really avoidance.....that or she thought I was some freaky stalker guy who stares too much.....
Time passed and more and more people showed up. I was talking with the girlfriend of the guy that I switched with when we spotted somebody with a voucher. We found out Kenny was down by wardrobe handing out vouchers. I think he is trying to make things difficult.
So we headed once again down the road to the wardrobe trailer and got our vouchers. I was pretty much the only one that needed wardrobe so I got stuck waiting at the trailer. The wardrobe guy was extremely busy getting the wardrobe out to Chris. I was extremely low priority.
At one point Kenny actually went to the effort of going in and telling him that I was there. Apparently it was supergirl's day off and this guy was new. Eventually Eric showed up and stood waiting for Kenny to come back around but he ended up heading to holding.
After a good 10 minutes I finally got serviced and fortunately I didn't have to explain much. They had what I was wearing set aside. This time I had to cough up my voucher and I once again headed over to the changing rooms.
Oh I forgot to mention. It was REALLY fucking HOT for some reason. The main problem was that there was ZERO cloud cover with some seriously intense sunlight. I was now VERY happy that I was wearing the short sleeved shirt as opposed to the suit.
Things were going well until when I tried to put on the pants and they were a size 42!!!! A tad big. My guess is they screwed up the measurements and had the pants from the other guy.
So I once again had to go back to wardrobe, track down the guy, and get the right pants. By the time I finally got it all done and I was heading back to holding, I ran into Eric halfway. He said everyone had already been called down to the set and he was going the REALLY long way because they were filming something.
I quickly returned to holding to dump my crap and managed to take a short cut around some buildings and go in the back entrance to the "Friendly League". I found Eric and we tried to figure out what was going on.
We saw up the street that they were rehearsing doing something. Both Max's jeep and Maria's little Jetta was parked there and pretty much the whole cast was walking about. Including this extremely cute blonde (Sarah Downing) who I had no idea who she was. It turns out she is some new waitress in the stock restaurant on the show. But apparently her role in the show is about to be expanded.
Anyway it went something like the trio was running up from down the street where we were, then Brendan runs out of a building carrying a fake body, throws it into the trunk of the Jetta, and then they all hop into their respective vehicles. Well when the trunk was closed the entire mass of extras made a break out the door. What the fuck is going on? They all kind of meandered outside and kind of walked toward the car. Eric and I didn't know what the hell was going on so we just kind of joined in. Eventually I finally wrenched out of people what we were supposed to be doing.
When the trunk is closed we are supposed to wander outside in pursuit. Very random. We did the same thing one more time to add to the confusion. It looks like they were just trying to guess at setting up the shot for later use. After that they started moving things around.
The plan was that they were going to do a shot with the camera on the street pointing inside. They wanted to get that angle for right after the force field "battle" when Emilie blows open the door and they run off. The first thing I saw was the lighting guy walking around with a light meter and a disgruntled look on his face. The direct sunlight was INTENSE. I was curious to see how they were going to handle it.
While they were doing that the special fx guys once again started working on the doors. Lots of standing around. That's about when I noticed the dog. Ok for some bizarre reason Farmer Bob decided to bring his dog to the set. Granted he didn't seem much of a bother but I can't even conceive of much of a bigger no-no then bring your fucking dog to the set. It baffles the mind. That takes balls.... actually it was probably more about stupidity.
Anyway the solution to the lighting problem was to construct a GIANT diffuser above the entrance to the building. Throw in a crane with a bunch of branches to simulate a trees shadow and they were golden. The time for filming was rapidly approaching and I still didn't have my press badge.
As usual I had to take it upon myself to track down one of the prop guys. I finally spotted one of them outside and made my way through the guys rigging the doors.
Which reminds me I managed to skip a few things from the last story. When I got the feature walking out the door with Eric I eventually got doinked by the prop guys. Since I had the camera on my shoulder when I was walking they insisted that the long audio wire that goes to nowhere needed to be attached. It made no sense but I also had to haul that around with the end of it being tucked into my back pocket.
Speaking of.... there was also the little part where when the trio was falling down and Jason was getting dragged. Well Emilie lingered a great deal on the floor and kept striking a couple of nice Playboy poses. I don't think it was on purpose but it was pure torture to witness. Anyway getting back to topic.
I talked to the lowly prop guy and he was able to retrieve my press pass. It didn't look like I needed the camera anytime soon which was a very good thing.
Finally after awhile they approached readiness and wheeled out the stars. Shiri was looking exceptionally cute probably due to the fact she wasn't wearing the bulky sweater from the previous day. That would soon change due to matching the shot. I felt bad for her because it was REALLY damn hot. Then again considering how much she probably gets paid sympathy has left the building.
She did look a tad on the less than happy side. Not sure if it was the weather or something else. Oh I forgot to add that Majandra and Brendan were running around the set hand in hand. Looks like the rumors of being a couple off screen as well as on are true. Gee isn't that cute and an absolutely horrible idea.....nothing like having to work with someone if you break up.
Eventually we all got into positions and did a rehearsal. I was in super assertive mode and commanded a point behind the main actors when coming out the door. It's Dan time.
Our instructions were to look dazed walking out the door and heading out slowly in pursuit. I think we did about three takes and we were good. They told us we could all take a break and grab a sandwich. In the craft service area by the set they had setup two 10 foot long subs. Not sure why. I doubt they did it solely for the extras because we got doinked out of breakfast but you never know.
That got cut short though because about a minute later they called us back in. I went under the assumption that we were going to be used for something right away. Severe mistake. Everyone else managed to grab what they needed before heading back in.
My guess is they didn't want all the extras taking all the food but then again since lunch for the crew was only a matter of a few hours away that didn't make any sense. Eric was one of the smart ones and it was only a matter of time before I caved.
It seemed like we were about to do something but in reality we were most definitely not. Kenny came in raging as usual and was putting us into groups of four and snapping a polaroid. I thought we were special until he did it to another group as well before running off. In addition he gave us a pen (under warning of punishment if we lost it) to write our name and phone number on the pictures. Hardcore. I REALLY hoped I wasn't going to get ANOTHER recall. I suppose they are just being thorough but actually with the full story of what is going on in the episode it's possible that I might get a call a few months down the road to see if we want to come back. More on that later.
Anyway in my group of four was Eric, guy I switched with's girlfriend, this really random old guy named Bob, and myself. Well for some reason I didn't take control of the situation (mainly because I wasn't given the pen, Kenny's mistake) and Bob ended up getting it first. He returns with his completed work which consisted of him writing his name and phone number under MY picture. Is it really that hard?
I brought up the point of gee it may be a little hard to tell who is who to which he drew an arrow across the bottom pointing to him. In the face of this stupidity I exited the rear of the building and stocked up on a sandwich and some gatorade. At this point no matter what.... we look like fucking morons. It breaks me.
When I got back and finally got the picture it got even worse. Eric managed to master the situation but the girl (I think her name was Emily) wrote SUPER small with a pen that doesn't allow you to write super small. Trying to make some effort at repair I wrote on the side (I was all the way on the left). It pains me. Of course now I was stuck with keeping track of the pen and then presenting the POS to Kenny when the time came.
After awhile I saw Kenny running around outside and I went out there to present him with it warning him of the stupidity. Of course he went off but more about the other people than myself. He went back inside with everyone made a grand announcement holding it up, calling it crap, and then throwing it on the ground. He took the picture again and talked to us like we were in kindergarten on how to do it. It pains me.
This time I took control of the situation and supervised the whole thing. I didn't sign it until third but I made them sign it line by line and after turning it over to Bob (LAST) I even numbered them with numbers above our heads. Of course in the meantime I heard Kenny freaking out at another group because they did a crappy job as well.
Upon presenting my masterpiece he hosted it for the masses and said "LIKE THIS!!". It is not hard. But on a side note I commandeered the hastily tossed first attempt and can share that with you now that I have a scanner. I hacked off the pathetic attempts and just put the picture. So now you see Bob and can understand. He has a butt pack on for the love of god!
Eric says he was in the process of sucking something out of his teeth from his sandwich but I don't buy it. I ....I just look annoyed in general but you can see what I'm wearing in the scene.
What followed was a lot of standing around for no reason. I eventually ate some of the sandwich which was on the level of ok. It was a tad on the messy side and just didn't work out.
After awhile the lighting crew came in to start taking down the lights that they had suspended on the ceiling. As a result we moved all of the chairs out of the way and entered a comatose state.
This is when I noticed this girl that somehow managed to fall under the radar on Friday. I must have been paying too much attention to Emilie and Shiri. Anyway her name was Lani (?) and she was quite a QT. The usual...tall brunette with beautiful eyes and a little on the tan side. Throw in some random freckles and it was all good.
Anyway after awhile they started to come in and grab random people. I wasn't quite sure what was going on but I got yanked out in the second group. In front of the building was the jeep holding Shiri, Jason, Emilie, and Katherine sitting and idling. I was grouped with two other older people and told to walk down the sidewalk when they called action.
Somebody also bitched at me to take off my press badge but the friggin camera was a good 150 feet away and I had my back to it. The scene was the jeep going down the street and parking. Pretty intense.
On the first take Jason completely BUSTED ASS down the street. Of course we were out of earshot of when they said cut so we just kept on walking. I noticed down the hill was where the Universal tourist tram does the parting of the sea that has been in a ton of movies. At that moment one of the trams was in the process of going through it. Fortunately Gary was nearby and told us when they cut and when to head back.
They relayed to Jason to slow down and do it again. One last take and that was it. So we once again returned to the boredom of the "Friendly League".
I was going to wait to explain this but it makes more sense to finally tell what the hell this episode is about as well as the season so far. Ok here it is.
The basis of the show has Max, Isabel, Emilie, and Michael as half human half alien hybrids that have been sitting in stasis since the Roswell crash in the 50's. About ten years ago they came out of the stasis and started aging normally. Somehow they all got adopted and...ok that's not important. So they're all in high school now. Due to poor ratings last season they have moved away from the high school angst story lines to concentrate on the sci fi part of things including that the four have actually been reborn in hybrid bodies to help fight to free their world with Max being the leader. Introduce the skins. Well it turns out everyone inside of the church.....well we're all aliens. All of the original 100% aliens that crashed with the four in the Roswell crash. In order to blend in we had to "grow" some bodies that we can hop into. The problem is they only last 50 years hence why we are having some viscosity breakdown with all the skin falling off. These skins that we wear are called husks. The point of the episode is that our new bodies are almost ripe (hence the title "Harvest"). Get all that?
Well get this then. Apparently Senator Whittaker who Liz is working for and who is trying to find out about the Roswell alien is actually one of the aliens herself. So when Shiri was a little surprised to see her body because it was blown up is because she really was blown up. The thing in the casket is just her empty husk shell (hence why when she touched it the thing sucked in). Ok that pretty much hits it.
The really cool part is that I am now FULLY established as one of the bad guy Roswell aliens. Which would be my guess as to why they wanted our phone numbers because down the line if they want to wheel us out again they will want to try to get the same people. How cool is that?
Anyway getting back to the story. Eventually they had things setup and wanted to do more rehearsals. It was going back to the beginning of the day when everyone is running out of the building and there is an explosion. I don't think I mentioned it yet mainly because I didn't know what the hell was going on.
We were told that when we walked out the door that we couldn't go past the front door on this one car due to an explosion. Pyrotechnics......cool. That pretty much hits all of the moviemaking magic.
The cast starts to mill about in preparation for the rehearsal. Shiri shows up and looks visibly upset. It's just a feeling I got when I saw the look on her face. In the room she just kind of stood looking at the wall ..... that seemed odd. Two seconds later Gary showed up with a cell phone talking to someone and turned it over to her and she went off to talk. Something was definitely wrong.
Eventually the entire cast showed up and we did a rehearsal. I was in assertive mode once again and was out the door right behind the main actors. When it was time for the explosion they just screamed bang. I wasn't quite sure what to expect so I followed along with the pros.
They were taking it as a rather large explosion. We rehearsed MANY times. In between the rehearsals there was some downtime as they adjusted. On one of the rehearsals Shiri was off talking on the phone again and her stand-in came in for her. Jason was like "where is Shiri". When told he rolled his eyes and was about to bitch except that was right when they called action.
Basically we all stood lined up until we were cued to go. The problem was getting all of the timing down. Finally we ended up starting to film the scene without the explosion. On the first take everything seemed ok. Then Gary came over and said "Ok the explosion is not nuclear!" Apparently we were being a little too hardcore. It was fucking hilarious though when and how he said it. Since we had no idea where the explosion was or how big it was it's not exactly our fault. He said to take it as a minor explosion and that we just kind of take notice of it. Um ok.
So we did the second take. Now we weren't bunched up enough coming out of the building so we packed in really tight. Next they wanted us to not all come out the front but some of us (me) to take the side steps. That's what ruled. Because now with the timing the front of the pack consisted of Chris and myself with the 30+ people behind us. How much does that rule?
Of course I'll probably be a pixel but you never know. I think we did it AT LEAST six more times. I'm not sure what they were looking for and then we took a break. My guess is they were rigging up the pyrotechnics. Sweet.
On all of the takes Chris was cracking me up. He got sick of having to do so many takes with so much downtime in between so he would be kicked back reading his book until about five seconds of them saying "action". It was impressive.
Crap I keep remembering more things about all of the takes. They were really big fans of having the street wet. I'm not sure if it was because they were trying to match it with the previous day's rain or what, but after about every two takes a truck would come by spraying water all over the place. Which made things interesting because then we would have to step through giant puddles on the way out. Gary was being hardcore and trying to sweep out the puddles but it just wasn't working out.
And also..... I found out what Shiri was upset about. She got to talking to one of the minor actors about what was going on. Apparently somebody sold her phone number over the net and she got a TON of prank/harassing/fucked up phone calls over the weekend. Now she is freaked that they know where she lives and may have to end up moving. Apparently some of the phone calls were extremely fucked up. What would possess you to do that? It just pisses me off. Knowing the number of screwed up people out there it is no surprise she was a little on edge.
The worst part is her poor roommate who has to put up with this as well. That would suck. She needs to be introduced to Mr. 9mm to increase her comfort level at home. Regardless after that I didn't even attempt any interaction with her or to catch her gaze. She definitely needed some space.
What was really odd was at one point I was in a comatose state just staring out the door and I just happened to glance over her way and she was staring right at me. I just kind of looked down wondering why the hell is she looking at me. Of course that's probably what she has been thinking about me the one time I caught her gaze the previous day.
Anyway after forever and a day we were ready to go. Or so we thought. They had us do a few MORE takes of what we did before. What really gives me the red ass is that on the last take one of the minor actors managed to get in front of me and block me. Figures. On a new note this is the same guy who keeps playing the President of the United States on Seven Days (UPN).
After that it wasn't long before they decided to do the fireworks show. Before that they brought everyone together to have a "safety" meeting. It basically consisted of, that there is going to be an explosion which means there may be some large debris... so look out. Cool.
He started saying what they had setup with something about a mortar behind one of the windows......um wait a sec. When I hear the word "mortar" a small controlled explosion does not come to my mind. What the deal was is that the building from which Michael and Maria run out of with the fake body is where we are growing our husks. I'm guessing Michael is stealing a husk for some reason.
Anyway the place is about to be blown. The reason we all fall to the ground in pain is because Michael fucks with our husks before the explosion. So we all got setup to do the same thing except this time it was definitely only going to be one take. Which probably explains why we did so many takes before to get the timing all down.
The take started and I managed to regain my pole position again and then ....it happens. Holy Shit. This was no minor fucking explosion. Basically the entire SIDE of this barn building was blown out. Let's just say I didn't act to produce the thermo-nuclear duck and cover. I do believe I muttered an "Oh Shit" afterward. But the best part is they kept rolling so we just kind of went with it.
Chris and I led them up the road right in front of the barn and kind of started toward it. Finally they called cut and we just looked at each other in a daze. Holy Shit! That was pretty fucking cool. There was a ton of smoke floating around still and there was debris everywhere.
After that they sent us all back to holding and then to lunch. On the way I snagged a small piece of the barn debris as a memento of my first explosion.
When I headed back to holding I kind of went an oddball way and started to hear the telltale supersonic speak of an upset female. I walked past a doorway and saw Shiri sitting on a chair about ten feet past the doorway absolutely crying her brains out on a cell phone. That sucks. And that was the last time I saw her that day. Talk about a downer. I feel extremely bad for her and wish a hex upon those who mader her feel this way.
Lunch was uneventful. I do believe it was steak and other assorted treats. For dessert I got a nice cool chocolate shake thing which was quite refreshing considering how fucking hot it was outside.
Post lunch was extremely boring. Lots of sitting around. They started filming close-ups: Maria, Michael, and Courtney piling into the Jetta with the body. Oh yeah lunch was around 1:00PM.
I spent most of the time checking out Lani and briefly talking to her. Eventually Kenny came by and called us all into the holding building. We had high hopes they were going to let us go. Umm no. Apparently there was at least one more scene they needed us for.
In the meantime this is when Kenny filled us in on the story for the episode. The reason was is that they needed some people to come back the NEXT day to be pod people (Husks). Basically they were going to stick you in a glass case. Sweet. Of course there was no way in hell I could even try. As it is I took one day of vacation and the next day was when my first class for the new quarter started at UCLA.
He went through the list to see who would be interested. After that he led them all down to the director to take a look at them. The problem was that they didn't exactly know how many people they needed. I'd say about 60% of the people went down to try, with the rest either too busy the next day or claustrophobic. Lani was in the pack to try out but she wasn't thrilled about it. She returned after she got the shaft.
Actually it seemed everyone got the shaft. I guess the director picked out a few people but it was very confusing. They wanted the vampire guy but in the end it turns out he was too tall for the pod. Sweet. Even if I had tried I wouldn't have been able to do it. In the end I'm pretty sure no decision was made.
After that the caterer started breaking down all the tables. Kenny said that he made a deal with them to leave 30 chairs but bitched at us to clean up our garbage because he spent an extra hour cleaning up crap on Friday.
I keep forgetting to add how irritating Farmer Bob's dog was. Half the time it would bark randomly and that mainly came because he would just leave the poor dog leashed up somewhere and go smoke or do whatever. The guy was a fucking idiot.
Eventually they finally wheeled us all out to do the next scene. It seems we are going to pickup right after the explosion. The deal is that we all walk into the barn as they survey the damage. In detail: there is a camera in the barn, starts on the random little kid in the suit who has been blown up (i.e. very dirty), we all walk in behind him, the actors and minor actors have some lines, the camera pulls back.
Absolutely the last shot of the episode with the theme of "we'll be back". So they start us partway down the street so that we can make our approach. Chris is on the left closest to the barn while I'm to his right. My plan was to bolt out in front of him before I start to make my way into the barn, thus getting some extra screen time (hopefully).
The first rehearsal went well especially when I saw that I could pull up right off the shoulder of the minor actors insuring a good shot of myself. I rule.
When they decided to start filming they got some of the special fx going, little smoke bombs in the rubble as well as blowing smoke and debris around. The first take seemed to go pretty well but apparently there wasn't enough crap flying around. So on the next take there was an absolute sandstorm of crap so that you couldn't even see the camera.
I was trying not to gag/laugh but it was difficult especially when you see the camera crew wearing gas masks basically and they are still waving at all the crap flying around.
The third take they adjusted once again. Before the fourth take Farmer Bob's fucking dog got loose and he was running around. Idiot. Also the wardrobe people started to get hardcore. They made Chris a little dirty as well as coating the old guy mailman.
I keep forgetting the old guy mailman. He really had a prime spot. They liked his look so much they pretty much included him into the minor actor group.
Anyway they also decided to turn there attention to me because I was so prominently placed (aka I rule) and the fact that they own all the clothes. So they dusted me down (a couple of times) and also placed wood chips all over me. On the first rev it was a little too much so they brushed off some of it. Eric was cracking up because it looked hilarious.
While I was getting coated I caught Emilie running around in a skirt and a different shirt hanging out with some of the stand-ins. mmmm....skirt......
On the Fourth take Farmer Bob decided to upstage me by hopping over some debris and almost knocking over things they didn't want knocked over. Idiot. Plus he doesn't know who he is dealing with. I still managed to attain my position. Idiot.
On the fifth and final take I cut him off at the pass and it was a non-issue. What was an issue is that they had a LOT of feathery stuff floating in the air. Lots of nose itching as well as coughing behind me...I was trying to get a stone cold angry face that my husk got blown up but I couldn't hold back a half smirk and by the time they called cut I was cracking up.
It was soooo bad you could barely breath. There is NO WAY they could refuse a smoke bump off of this. I also heard we should get a hazard bump due to the explosion but I had no idea about that one.
After we walked out of the barn we found out we were wrapped. Woohoo. Less than an 8 hour day thankfully.
Mailman got the shaft and had to stay but the rest of us were released. I quickly grabbed my other clothes and headed to the changing trailer and then eventually hit wardrobe. They had me throw the clothes in the dirty clothes bin and I got my voucher back.
I rushed back to holding thinking the line would be done. Oh no ..... still a huge line.
Eventually I made my way through it and hopped in a van that was sitting waiting for us. A lot of people got the shaft because Kenny wanted the possible pod people to stick around so he could take pictures. Sucks to be them. Especially when he pulled the old "sign out time of ten minutes ago" but since it was under 8 hours it really didn't matter.
In reality I got out of there around 4:30PM. All in all a cool experience as well as if you don't see me in this episode then you need to lay off the crack pipe. It could rival my X screen time but I'll hold my judgment until this airs in November.
On a side note of what you can expect in the future: I'm working on the King of Queens tomorrow (Sat Oct. 7th) and next week I'll be reporting from the set of Jurassic Park 3. Cool.