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Tuesday November 04, 2008
Tentatively booked
Whilst home, believing I would get the call I was booked as principal on a
national commercial,
my calling service called, albeit aware being On Avail for the commercial, I was unavailable Friday, I was told Central wanted me for an episode of
The Office
for Friday.
We agreed my being On Avail would negate that, but we also agreed we had no idea if I would be needed for the commercial Friday or Saturday or even Thursday.
Lou put me down as "tentative" for The Office, in case it become clear that Friday becomes available...
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Wednesday November 05, 2008
Guy Fawkes Day
Instead of skipping another day's work, I went to work, planning after 9am to check my messages every hour or so.
At 2:13pm the call had come in that I was booked for the commercial, shooting the next day/Thursday.
I also got a call from my calling service; seeing if I "could be" available Thursday as I was picture-picked for something.
I neglected to ask for what, but did let them know that I was booked and working the commercial Thursday, and that Friday seemed still to be a go for The Office.
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Friday November 07, 2008
The end of a good week
I was still a bit achey from the day before; for the national commercial I got to do lots of running.
But it was a good and thankfully easy shoot.
Crew parking was easy enough, considering held at a hotel which formerly hosted the annual Doctor Who convention GallifreyOne.
I arrived a half hour early and had breakfast.
Our wrangler
Greg
had the challenge of juggling two locations from a distant basecamp and another distant crew parking.
The lot of us went through wardrobe and such, and were shuttled to set, ironically very close to where I worked for eighteen months years ago.
Essentially, at first, we just stood and looked out a window at departing
Steve Carell
as Michael Scott
and
Jenna Fischer
as Pam.
Later we filmed a scene where Steve as Michael, holds a presentation that doesn't go quite as well as he planned
(remember that I do not believe in providing storyline spoilers myself [such generally being readily available Elsewhere notwithstanding], only indications of where I can be seen).
I sit in the front row of a small conference room, next to a girl eventually referred to as "Freckles."
Between set-ups, she and I got to talking, and I learned she was friends with enough of the production that when they came up with her role, they figured, hey, why not Claire...?
It turned out
Claire Scanlon
is a producer/editor,
having worked such shows as
Last Comic Standing
(season six),
and
The Apprentice,
the latter of which was created by her husband
Mark Burnett,
who also created
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?,
and
Survivor,
among others.
It was awesome to watch Steve Carell act.
He got every beat and even when he added to it, he did not detract from the spirit of the scene or the script.
Close to the end of the day he came into holding as craft services was there.
He got to chatting with me and two others.
The lovely and talented Jenna Fischer also wandered about, but at the time I wasn't aware she was Jenna Fischer, or I would have mentioned to her I'd worked on
Blades of Glory.
We filmed one more segment where the background were in cubicles as Michael and Pam arrive at the branch office.
Greg had us shuttled back to wardrobe and then to crew parking after signing us out.
Aware I was heading to the eastbound bus, the driver offered to take me as far as Sherman Way and Woodman.
As we got closer to Van Nuys Boulevard the traffic had gotten even heavier.
I suggested he could turn north onto Van Nuys Boulevard, drop me off and make a right onto Valerio.
I used to live on Valerio just east of Woodman, so I knew he could avoid much of the traffic with the same short cut I used to use.
From there I caught the bus south to the Orange Line to the NoHo station Red Line back to home...
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