|
Friday March 26, 2009
More new friends
The day before while working on an episode of the new Fox TV fall-2009 series
Glee,
I befriended the very pleasant
Norma Jean Riddick,
with whom I share the love and fascination for
the paranormal.
She had been delighted to learn about my working on the award-winning feature documetary
Strictly Background,
and declared her intention of attending its
May 5th screening at the
Los Angeles United Film Festival,
and that its $20 ticket would not only be for the screening but also receiving a copy of its
DVD.
In the late afternoon, my calling service contacted me, having booked me the next day on a project called
Spring Break '83,
the information for which was already on its hotline.
Learning it was in Sylmar, and not getting home until after midnight
(the shoot ended with 14 hours and 4 meal penalties),
I quickly sought out the bus routes and found the
Hansen Dam Recreation Area
was at the end of the 223
(Van Nuys Boulevard)
bus line, so that was easy enough.
I arrived at 8:35 for my 9:15am calltime, to find the caterers refusing to provide anything resembling breakfast to the background actors who arrived.
Had we known the production would not provide breakfast
(or least if it was just rogue caterers, which has also happened before),
we certainly could have eaten something first.
I never got a look at a callsheet, so I was still unclear if this was a feature film, a TV movie, or a TV series episode, the latter of which its imdb entry seems to imply.
While I met a pleasant young fellow named John who resembled a very young
Kyle MacLachlan, I also met a stunningly pretty woman named
Brooke Heatley,
relatively new to the business.
As she lives relatively near me in Hollywood, at the end of the day she was kind enough to give me a lift, during which she indicating having learned about
Strictly Background
when when was researching about it, but had not yet seen it.
She was very pleased to learning of the May 5th screening and in attending she would receive a copy of its DVD.
Meanwhile earlier at the filming, the scene has an out of control jeep zoom through on the park grass.
Break-away park tables had been set up prior to our being brought to set after lunch ended around 1pm
(and with our having received no notice, warning, nor was there any Keep Off signage on any of them),
one of the tables was damaged by a backgrounder who didn't realize they were not to be used.
On my arrival I suspected they were break-away tables due to their colour and the fact they sagged.
We were placed, the stunt driver walked the course a couple of times, for our benefit, and again for camera rehearsals
(as they only had one go at this),
then picture was up, and he plowed through.
I had been paired with an Icelandian girl named Ediss [sp?]; after the first table is hit we high-tail it to the curb.
That was it: we were wrapped and had the rest of the day to ourselves.
The AD or PA who'd signed us in and was signing us out refused to ask about mileage due to there being nothing about mileage on the skins
(aka, paperwork).
Thankfully the SAG rep literally just then showed up, and he clarified that even the production's location manager had written up the mileage to be 32,
what with the production office being in Lincoln Heights.
So the mileage bump will be added, which has happened before.
At the time of this entry
Spring Break '83
has no scheduled release date.
|
