WHEN WILL IT STOP?

It doesn't seem to work for people in Canada, but for my American readers, you can go here to see a trailer for Smoke Screen (now I can tell you the title!), one of the movies I worked on this summer starring Jaime Pressly and Currie Graham, based on a book by Sandra Brown. It premieres Sunday, Nov. 21 at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on Lifetime Movie Network. Please watch it!

I have been kept very busy working on my new show, Mr. Young. What was supposed to be four day weeks with 10 hour days and every Monday off, has turned into four day weeks except for the pilot episode, which we shot last week, and was 5 days, and more like 12 to 15 hour days (not that I am complaining about the extra hours - being a union show, it means a much fatter paycheque). And any time there's a stat holiday, like the recently passed Remembrance Day, then we work the Monday to make up for it. So I have only had about two long weekends so far. Good news is, we are on hiatus this week so I get nine glorious days to recover before we start banking an episode.

Yep, banking an episode. I had to ask what that meant when I first read it on the shooting schedule.

It means that, in addition to our already packed four days, we will now start to shoot one third of another episode per week so that we can cram 26 episodes into 22 weeks. I have no idea how we are going to do this. What's worse, nor does the director who has been doing this for a decade. He says that he's never heard of such a thing and what probably looked like a good idea on paper to someone in an office is going to be next to impossible to accomplish. I say lets not accomplish it.

I remember when MOW's (movies of the week) were shot in 21 days. Then they dropped it to 18 and we all freaked out at first but managed to get it done quite nicely. So the next thing we know, they dropped it to 15 days. We really freaked out at that and yet somehow still managed to get it done. Then I got a call to work on a show that was going to be shot in 12 days - two 6 day weeks. I wasn't looking forward to that schedule but needed the work so took it. It was a total grind but we got it done and, suddenly, what was supposed to be a 'one off' ended up being the norm for that production manager. Then, a year later, I got a call to work on two shows shooting back to back, each in 10 days. Yep - two MOW's in one day less than it first took us to do one. If it wasn't for the fact that we had an incredible director who not only knew how to be very efficient with his shots, but had a fabulous sense of humour that kept the whole crew happy, I don't think it could have been done. Or, maybe it could have but the end product would have been total crap and we would have been a miserable bunch doing it.

***Let me just say here that two of the movies I worked on this summer, the above mentioned Smoke Screen, and On Strike for Christmas were shot in 15 days each. MUCH more civilized and you can actually make a good MOW in that time. Thank you Jim and Damian!!! (I love those guys.)

So now here we are, once again attempting to accomplish the impossible and, if we do manage it, I can just see season two being two episodes per week. We HAVE to stop keeping up with everything producers throw at us or we will all be in an early grave with the stress and lack of sleep... not that it isn't happening anyway. I am shocked at the amount of 'In Memoriam' notices I get from the union and at the ages of those who have passed. No wonder we have a healthy retirement fund - no one lives long enough to collect! I was mentioning it to someone on set and they said that IATSE members have the shortest lifespan of members of any union in North America. That's sobering.

On a much lighter note, look at these awesome candy apples I saw in Vancouver when I was out for lunch with my daughter and her hubby right before Halloween. I didn't buy one but I thought they were great.










And here's three guys from work filling in for cheerleaders while a shot is being rehearsed. Bob - your pom poms are backwards!

FIRST THREE IN THE CAN

Let me say right off the top that I am sorry the formatting of this post is such a mess. It used to look great, when I first posted it, but something has happened to my formatting since and it has screwed up the layout of a lot of my postings. I started to work through them all to fix it but after hours of working and not getting half way through, I gave up. I don't know that many people are reading these older posts and certainly not enough to warrant such a huge amount of my time dedicated to repairing them so - sorry - but it is what it is and I am sure there will be more as you work your way through the blog entirely. They get back on track by fall of 2011 when I worked with the new formatting. (Dec 31,2011)

I am loving working on this new show. Not the least of why is because we are indoors, relatively warm and very dry. Last week, Stargate SG1 was filming outside on the backlot beside us well into the night and it was a cold night. I tried not to feel smug as I got into my car at the reasonable hour of 9:30pm knowing I'd be fast asleep long before those guys wrapped.

I said relatively warm because on Tuesday and Wednesday we are blocking all day and not shooting and the guys leave the big bay doors open so that they can move in and out of the studio freely with supplies. It makes it kind of cold on the stage. So on those days I wear a warm sweater or turtle-neck. On Thursday and Friday we are shooting so the doors are closed and it gets really hot under the lights, then I wear light clothing - basically my summer tops.

We have three shows 'in the can', as it were - although it's more like 'on the disk' as it's recorded to a chip similar to the one in a digital camera. All of the cast are great and so are the writers and producers and most all of the crew. It makes for a very pleasant and even fun environment. Our director for the first four episodes is Adam Weissman and he has been wonderful. He is very patient with all of us as we learn this new format and I haven't seen him lose his temper or yell once. Well, that's not entirely true. He surprised me and yelled for everyone to be quiet one day while he was trying to sort out the blocking of a scene. The set was full of background actors - all kids as it was in the high school cafeteria - and they were having a grand time yakking. But, other than that one time, he's never once yelled or lost it.

Shooting in front of a live audience is great. It brings an energy to the process that you just don't get making a movie. It's very satisfying when they laugh at all the right places without being prompted. Although, last week most of the jokes were falling flat. There was a bit of laughter but nothing like we had experienced from the other two audiences in the preceding weeks. I was a bit worried that maybe the jokes just weren't all that funny. Then we were informed that the whole center section of the audience was comprised of a group of students from an ESL school. That explained a lot. Even if their English was good enough to understand the language, humour often does not translate well from one culture to another. They did laugh at the sight gags, however. So all was not lost. But I don't think the audience coordinator will be making that mistake twice.









1)Dueling Booms.
2)The Audience.
3)Actors on Set.
4)Daria our very talented Editor
































Last week we had visitors to the set. A really gorgeous teen-age girl and a set of teen twin boys. I had no idea who they were, but the producer/head writer seemed to know them well. I had to ask someone who they were and it turns out the guys were Zach and Cody and the girl was Debby Ryan. I had no idea. I'd never even heard of the show until this show came my way... the 1st AD gave me the paperwork from a show so I could see how it was done and it was from Suite Life on Deck, and it meant nothing to me. My daughter who works for Disney was disgusted to hear it. Oh well!


A set of blackboards that I came up with and wrote for a series of scenes set in a detention room that was also an English classroom. And a tease for a GREAT scene.

This week we are on hiatus as the writers get caught up with scripts for our next three episodes. So I have been taking advantage of living close to downtown Vancouver (I am cat/apartment-sitting for a month for my friend who lives at the Athlete's Village) by taking the Aqua Bus from Science World, which is right next to where I am living, over to Granville Island and downtown. It has been miserable weather though and so not as much fun as it could be in the sunshine - until today! We had a gorgeous day today and I had plans to have lunch with my daughter who works at a daycare just across the way. I picked up sandwiches at Quiznos and we sat on a bench overlooking the water and had a lovely visit. I cherish those sorts of moments with my kids as they just don't happen very often anymore. We used to pack a lunch and head to the beach a lot when they lived at home. I really miss those days.

1.A Grey Day to Start
2.A Pretty Courtyard Downtown Vancouver
3.The View While I Wait Outside the Daycare for Ashleigh


I walked for HOURS between yesterday and today. All thanks to a tailor who has no concept of time. I bought a dress that I wanted shortening and he was highly recommended to me. It takes 20 minutes to walk from Yale Town, where I get off of the Aqua Bus, to where he is. Yesterday I had an appointment in Yale Town to get my hair cut so I left early enough to walk up to the tailors and drop off the dress. Only, when I got there at 11:00, there was a note on the door saying that he would return at 1:00. I couldn't wait so I walked back down to Yale Town and had my hair done. I walked back up when I was all cut and colored, and dropped off the dress. He said I could pick it up the next day at 1:00. So today, I left early so I could pick it up before my daughter got her lunch break at 2:00. I climbed the two flights of stairs to his little workshop, and the door was closed with the same note on it. Only this time it was 1:05. I waited until 1:20 and he still hadn't showed up so I walked all the way back to Yale Town to the daycare center, stopping to buy lunch on the way. When lunch was over and Ashleigh had to be back at work, I walked the 20 minutes back to the tailor and picked up the dress. By my calculations, that is 2 hours and 40 minutes of walking just to get the dress hemmed. He did a great job, but I won't ever go back there. I need to know that people will be punctual and be where they say they will be.








The ride back on the AquaBus was at twilight and was lovely. It's great to be on the water, even if that's the only way I can do it. At the Yale Town dock, there's a huge boat called After Eight that is almost always at the dock. It has a full-time crew of eight and all they do all day is clean and polish. It looks gorgeous. And it's a crying shame that it never gets to go any further than B.C. If it was mine, we'd be on our way to the Caribbean by now.


1)After Eight-The Boat I Wish I Boarded. 2)The Boat I Boarded. 3)Science World and The Athletes Village on the Right. 4)Science World and The City

LETS START AT THE VERY BEGINNING...

...A very good place to start. Or so sang Maria Von Trapp.

I have noticed that new people have come to this blog from other sites (mostly Zero to Cruising) expecting, I assume, to read a sailing blog. Instead they land on the latest blog and it's about working on a movie or some triviality that is currently occupying my time, and they don't venture any farther before signing out. (I know this because I have a tracker on the site that lets me know where my readers are from, which pages they went to, and how long they stayed on the site).

So let me tell you this... the best reading in this blog is to be had at the beginning; I started out on what was supposed to be a grand sailing adventure and it all went terribly wrong. I have been told by some readers that it's an incredible story and hugely entertaining, and other readers have told me it needs to be a book or a movie script. I am not sure about any of those claims but I DO know that the best reading to be had is in the first 60 or so posts. Like the one about hearing something growling outside my bedroom window in Tarpon Springs, Florida; driving Alligator Alley with a crotchety old man; working at a dog boarding and grooming place in the Florida Keys; taking a 80 foot houseboat around Key Largo with an alcoholic at the helm; house-sitting at a place that was on evacuation alert near a forest fire in the Okanagan; getting a job at the 2010 Olympic Games, to name just a few.

If you just landed here, I am pleading with you to start at the beginning. You don't have to read it all in one day, it isn't going anywhere. So go grab a coffee, a cup of tea or a glass of wine, find the page titled Ticket Purchased, and sit back and enjoy my misadventures. I promise, you will laugh at my foibles and shake your head at my chutzpah. And... if you stay with me... I do plan to try sailing again in the future. (Meanwhile, I plan to blog soon about working on a new show in town called Mr.Young). Let me know what you think of what you read... I always love getting comments. And maybe those of you who have been with me from the beginning can comment here and let the newbies know what you think of this blog.

Thanks for reading!!

ANNOYED. REALLY ANNOYED

Yesterday I went shopping for some work clothes. Now that I am to work on a sound stage, in winter, I needed some extra things to accommodate that environment. Usually in winter I am bundled up to the eyeballs in layers and never get below the polar fleece jacket so it doesn't really matter what I am wearing underneath. Now it will be somewhat warmer on stage under all of the lights and I just didn't have any work appropriate shirts, and I needed some more of the pants I bought at Wal-Mart for $13 and LOVE. They are black knit legging sort of pants that are meant for exercising in but I think they look great with a long loose top. I have thin legs so it works for me. And they're uber comfortable.

I bought several of the exact same black t-shirt at Wal-Mart as well, as they have the low scoop neck and 3/4 sleeves that I like and were only $10 each. Then I went over to Winners to see if they had any nice vests to pair with the pants and t-shirts. I found one I liked but I also found a lovely grey top that looked great on me and is of a high quality jersey knit fabric. Long and a bit flowy it will look great with the legging pants. When I tried it on, the tag got caught somehow and came off. So when I took it to the cashier, I handed her the tag with an explanation. She took the tag and proceeded to reattach it with a tag gun. Not sure why as it was coming right back off as soon as I got home. She went to stick the needle part of the gun through the fabric. "OH! Please don't do that," I said, "it will make a hole and it will run." "I'm putting it through the seam. It'll be fine." She replied. She was young and obviously didn't know what she was talking about. "My experience has been that it will run. Please put it through the label." She totally ignored me and put it through the seam at the neckline. When I got it home and clipped the tag off, there was a hole. And when I tugged on it gently, it ran. I was so annoyed. Really annoyed. Before I gave my sewing machine and serger, and all the supplies to my daughter, I had a small bottle of 'Fray Check', which needs no explanation. I no longer have it so I took a bottle of clear nail polish and dotted it on the hole to keep it from running more. I'd take it back but this was the only one they had and I really like it.

I called them this morning and talked to the manager about it. She wants me to bring it down and they will give me a discount. I will go but I am still really annoyed at that sales girl.