First of all, hip hip hooray (as Sonia likes to say) for Costco's photo center: 50 free 4x6 prints if you send in your order online. Go people, go upload!
Second, hip hip hooray for the best day on set ever. I should have kept track of the schedule all day, but I was too lazy, so hopefully I'll remember all the fun here.
(All times are approximate.)
7:00am: Katelyn and I leave the apartment and head for Imperial Beach, making sure to stay LEFT on Palm Avenue, as noted about seven times on the directions.
7:15am: We pull into the specified parking lot; it's already filled with all the trailers and kitchen crew, so we're directed to another lot six or seven blocks away and bused back to base camp.
7:45am: We wait in the LONGEST WARDROBE LINE EVER while simultaneously trying to finish our breakfasts; Andy calls to ask if I can bring him a breakfast burrito; he didn't get to stop long enough for breakfast.
8:30am: We're bused to the beach and almost immediately set up for the first scene. We're on episode #3 guy, who is shorter and not quite as cute as episode #2 guy, but I did notice that he slowed down to check out what book I was reading, so I give him an 8 for not being a self-absorbed, see-straight-through-the-extras kind of actor.
10am: It's chillax time. We've set up camp on the big grassy area above the beach. Gene even lugged over a canopy for us. We decided he's like our camp counselor, always keeping track of us and answering our questions and telling us to put on sunscreen. It's cute.
10:30am: There's a call for extras and Katelyn and I are among the 10 or so who don't make it in. Which is fine with us. We lay out and work on our tans and books with a few other girls while the leftover guys nap in their beach chairs. What a peaceful morning it was.
11:30am: New scene! We are so there this time! This is where we are first introduced to Scott, who is apparently trying to commit all the extras' names to memory, which we think is awesome. Scott's job is to set us all up, direct us where to go, give us actions to do while we're going there, etc. Katelyn gets set up with another girl on a couple of towels right behind the main actors. Scott directed me to walk behind the actors and join Katelyn and Other Girl. If ever there was a shot we were shoe-ins for, this is it, people.
1:30pm: We sit around while Gene picks off people a few at a time to send home; they only need about half the group for the remaining scenes. Luckily, since we missed being in the one earlier scene, we're good to go for the rest of the day.
2pm: Lunch! And it was the bestest set lunch I've ever had! Whatever they put in that chicken... yu-um. And cheesecake! And Andy got to eat with us!
2:30pm: Wardrobe change and back on the bus, this time headed to a street setting a couple blocks away. This time we set up camp on corner down the street from where the scene was taking place. Here are Katelyn and me, with the remaining extras, "working that street corner" as one of the girls jokingly put it.
3pm: Gene sends us back to Scott and we're off for another scene. Katelyn and I ended up being last ones used, and I assumed we'd be set somewhere in the far background, but Scott points me just to the right of the camera guy and tells me to
walk straight across the camera in front of the actors on action. Whoa! Foreground! Never done that before. It was really awkward, trying to make my face look like I wasn't absolutely terrified to parade two feet from the cameras on my left and two feet from the actors on my right. Pretty sure I have no future career as an actress. Over and over again we did this. And everytime we reset, I had to get back to my spot and stand there awkwardly amidst all the crew and important people and lighting equipment. It's hard to stay out of their way when they're moving so fast.
Note: Part of the reason the day was so great was the background who were there. Generally you have quite a mix of normal people, quiet people, divas, and sleezy guys (ahem, boy who practically groped me last week). Somehow only the normal people got left behind, and it was awesome. We were having a blast joking around, and fighting for the best hiding spots out of the camera's range when we'd finished our walk. One of the guys and I started racing to see who could get to one of the storefronts first. I totally had him beat until we started the scene at halfway marks and he totally fudged his spot to be further along in his walk than me. Good times.
4:30pm: Gene calls for another wardrobe change; we all look at each other blankly because a) we'd already gone through all the set clothes wardrobe had assigned us, and b) most of us had used up all of the clothes we had at that point. So we start mixing and matching and sharing shirts until we come up with things that look different than what we'd previously worn. Then we secretly basked in pulling one over on wardrobe. (We do not care for the wardrobe people on this show. They take too long to pick our outfits and then stick us in things we don't like. Or set us in the outfit we show up in for the second scene, so we have to change twice. Plus the one girl lurks around to make sure we're all wearing exactly what she told us to, and somehow she remembers all of it.)
4:45pm: That blasted wardrobe girl comes around with extra shirts for us all to wear. Darn her. We do a fun scene where the cameras are getting a wide angle of the street and we're all just walking anywhere, having fun. During one of the stalls we talked with Sound Mic guy about how he only gets tired holding the mic when he has to stretch it all the way out... like so.... Poor Sound Mic guy. During another stall one of the crew guys invited us to hang out when filming was over. Seeing as how the crew don't talk to us mere background, this was of course a flattering proposal, but, if you'll remember, the remaining background did not consist of any divas or sleezy guys, so I'm pretty sure the crew ended up partying by themselves. But it's still nice to be asked.
5:30pm: Andy asks if he can sneak us anything from the special cart (read: mere extrs can't touch). I ask for a coke; Katelyn asks for a cookie. Andy brings back both the coke and the mother of all chocolate chip cookies. Maybe SAG is something to look into....
6:30pm: Wrap time! We collect our vouchers, give back our unwanted wardrobe choices, and head out. Katelyn and I choose to walk back to the lot rather than wait for the bus to fill, and by the time we pull back out onto Palm, the bus is still waiting off base camp. It's only been about half an hour since the director called for checking the gate, and already the street has no signs of ever having a camera crew set up for half the day.
And that's my long and detailed day yesterday. Great fun on set. Sad that Brittany missed it :( but she's got a real job now :) and couldn't make it. Maybe Friday....?
It really is a brilliant musical, despite the few, ahem, unnecessary scenes that up the awkward level way past anything else. But surprisingly, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be in real life. And for the most part, the actors and actresses kept in line with the way it was originally done in New York. Except for the second to last song, which cannot even compare to the original. It was like they forgot all about effects to add to the emotional tension of the number.
Britt gets her new camera = I get to be in pictures now!
