Most of me is back...
...and the rest of me has simply vanished. Luckily, it wasn't all in one area of my body...it disappeared relatively slowly and from all over. I don't know why but I've lost at least 10 pounds in the past two weeks.
I need to have that MRI taken care of soon. I don't know why I feel so badly. I haven't gone this long without posting ANYTHING in a very long time. I just felt so badly that I could barely get up off the couch. But, as you see, I'm up now! I feel a little bit better but no hungrier.
Anyway, I never really did tell you about the pilot that I shot the other day. It was Drop Dead Diva and it's a Lifetime production. It's about a skinny, airhead model who dies and ends up in the body of a heavy-set chick with brains. I guess they had to come up with something to explain why this entity had control over 2 nervous systems even though she only had one brain...less if you count the negative gray matter that most skinny models have.
Our job...me and the other people who work on "background", is to make the place we're at look real. The set was an old hospital that was closed down about 2 years ago. It looked like they took most of the stuff and left in the middle of the night. Just like when I worked in the movie The Gospel, they cleaned up the parts of the hospital that they needed and left the rest like it was. So, in most of those hospital scenes that you see on TV and in movies, the set is an old hospital somewhere. I would think if it was a long time show, they would have a set on a sound stage, but a pilot doesn't have access to that kind of stuff.
The rest is done with camera angles and extras. In this shoot, the extras were either technical people, doctors, patients or visitors. This is the second such shoot that I've done in a medical setting and with my years as a nurse, I was a quasi-medical technician on the set. I had to tell them things like the side rails would be up on a gurney rolling down the hall and when the director asked me, "Who would a nurse pass a chart to?" I told him, "The Unit Secretary."
He asked me, "What would she wear?" and I told him, whatever she wanted. Street clothes is customary unless you're in an Intensive Care Unit. I was having quite a bit of fun with that job because I HATE it when I watch medical stuff that is WRONG. It drives me insane. So, I got to stop those stupid mistakes...for one day anyway.
In the first scene, we all had to freeze. I don't know why, but we did. The camera came in from another room and walked through the nurses station and then down the hall of the Emergency Room. I'm not sure what they were up to with that shot, I guess I'll find out when the show comes on TV.
I imagine that it all had something to do with the "Angel" that came in to explain it all to the fat chick when she woke up all fat. The girl's name who played the chubby chick was Brook Elliot. I had never heard of her and I couldn't tell you anything else she's been in.
Anyway, then we did a scene where the angel is in the hospital room talking to the chubby chick and we were all just walking back and forth in the hallway so that you could see people walking down the hallway outside of the room. They had us stand on either side of the room and walk back and forth in the same order. I waited until the line where I was supposed to walk past the room. If they had told us what they were doing, I would have walked the same way each and every time. Instead, I had my arms across my chest in one scene and then they were down in another. Oh well, so maybe I'll make a boo-boo in the movie anyway.
The last scene that I worked in was one where we were all sitting in the background or walking, whatever...to make it a busy hospital. Most of the people changed clothes so that they weren't always a patient or a visitor, that way it looked like more people than there really were.
You have no idea how much trouble they go to in order to make the hospitals look real. It took two hours to get the people to walk aback and forth down the hall. And the principles both had to say their lines over and over again every time we walked down the hall. It was a LOT of work for everyone concerned. I spent most of my time watching the camera guys set up the shot. I was back watching the monitors. That all looked like so much fun to me!
And odd thing that has actually happened before...the hair gay guy took my pony tail out and replaced it with a rubber band. I guess that even a brown pony tail on a red head stands out too much. They don't want the background people to stand out...it might distract you from the principles. I don't see that my pony's were a problem, but what do I know. I eventually switched my pony back to another one because the rubber band was either too tight and it grabbed all of my hair or it was too loose and my hair fell out of it.
A couple of months ago, a friend of mine asked me if I knew of any set that someone could come out and use to film a hospital scene. I wonder if this was that same production?
Anyway, I have a location for a show doing a scene in a sports bar...it's the restaurant at which my roommate works. It's called The Corner bar and it's in Dunwoody on 5500 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd. They open before lunch and they don't close until the wee, wee hours. And remember my roommates huge ta-ta's! They're everything that a guy would want...big, real and round. That girl is falling out of her uniform!
...and the rest of me has simply vanished. Luckily, it wasn't all in one area of my body...it disappeared relatively slowly and from all over. I don't know why but I've lost at least 10 pounds in the past two weeks.
I need to have that MRI taken care of soon. I don't know why I feel so badly. I haven't gone this long without posting ANYTHING in a very long time. I just felt so badly that I could barely get up off the couch. But, as you see, I'm up now! I feel a little bit better but no hungrier.
Anyway, I never really did tell you about the pilot that I shot the other day. It was Drop Dead Diva and it's a Lifetime production. It's about a skinny, airhead model who dies and ends up in the body of a heavy-set chick with brains. I guess they had to come up with something to explain why this entity had control over 2 nervous systems even though she only had one brain...less if you count the negative gray matter that most skinny models have.
Our job...me and the other people who work on "background", is to make the place we're at look real. The set was an old hospital that was closed down about 2 years ago. It looked like they took most of the stuff and left in the middle of the night. Just like when I worked in the movie The Gospel, they cleaned up the parts of the hospital that they needed and left the rest like it was. So, in most of those hospital scenes that you see on TV and in movies, the set is an old hospital somewhere. I would think if it was a long time show, they would have a set on a sound stage, but a pilot doesn't have access to that kind of stuff.
The rest is done with camera angles and extras. In this shoot, the extras were either technical people, doctors, patients or visitors. This is the second such shoot that I've done in a medical setting and with my years as a nurse, I was a quasi-medical technician on the set. I had to tell them things like the side rails would be up on a gurney rolling down the hall and when the director asked me, "Who would a nurse pass a chart to?" I told him, "The Unit Secretary."
He asked me, "What would she wear?" and I told him, whatever she wanted. Street clothes is customary unless you're in an Intensive Care Unit. I was having quite a bit of fun with that job because I HATE it when I watch medical stuff that is WRONG. It drives me insane. So, I got to stop those stupid mistakes...for one day anyway.
In the first scene, we all had to freeze. I don't know why, but we did. The camera came in from another room and walked through the nurses station and then down the hall of the Emergency Room. I'm not sure what they were up to with that shot, I guess I'll find out when the show comes on TV.
I imagine that it all had something to do with the "Angel" that came in to explain it all to the fat chick when she woke up all fat. The girl's name who played the chubby chick was Brook Elliot. I had never heard of her and I couldn't tell you anything else she's been in.
Anyway, then we did a scene where the angel is in the hospital room talking to the chubby chick and we were all just walking back and forth in the hallway so that you could see people walking down the hallway outside of the room. They had us stand on either side of the room and walk back and forth in the same order. I waited until the line where I was supposed to walk past the room. If they had told us what they were doing, I would have walked the same way each and every time. Instead, I had my arms across my chest in one scene and then they were down in another. Oh well, so maybe I'll make a boo-boo in the movie anyway.
The last scene that I worked in was one where we were all sitting in the background or walking, whatever...to make it a busy hospital. Most of the people changed clothes so that they weren't always a patient or a visitor, that way it looked like more people than there really were.
You have no idea how much trouble they go to in order to make the hospitals look real. It took two hours to get the people to walk aback and forth down the hall. And the principles both had to say their lines over and over again every time we walked down the hall. It was a LOT of work for everyone concerned. I spent most of my time watching the camera guys set up the shot. I was back watching the monitors. That all looked like so much fun to me!
And odd thing that has actually happened before...the hair gay guy took my pony tail out and replaced it with a rubber band. I guess that even a brown pony tail on a red head stands out too much. They don't want the background people to stand out...it might distract you from the principles. I don't see that my pony's were a problem, but what do I know. I eventually switched my pony back to another one because the rubber band was either too tight and it grabbed all of my hair or it was too loose and my hair fell out of it.
A couple of months ago, a friend of mine asked me if I knew of any set that someone could come out and use to film a hospital scene. I wonder if this was that same production?
Anyway, I have a location for a show doing a scene in a sports bar...it's the restaurant at which my roommate works. It's called The Corner bar and it's in Dunwoody on 5500 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd. They open before lunch and they don't close until the wee, wee hours. And remember my roommates huge ta-ta's! They're everything that a guy would want...big, real and round. That girl is falling out of her uniform!
posted by Meg Kelso | 2:30 PM
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