sunshine_queen | Prima donna

Okay, I'm trying to remember as much as my filming day as possible, but I was there for hours, and then when I got home I went to sleep, so excuse my incoherency, or whatever.

Okay. I wound up going to bed around 2:30, but 3:00 rolled around and I was lying in bed, mantra-ing, "You have to sleep. Madi, you need to sleep. Goddammit, Madeline, SLEEP."

The alarm went off at six. "Oh, fudge," thinketh I, "I actually have to get up at six on a sunday morning AND BE A PRODUCTIVE HUMAN BEING. Eff." Got up, woke Ma, got dressed. We were out of the house around 6:30, and we drove down scenic Old Cutler forever and a day 'cause Tracey lives waaaaay down past the school in a weird neighborhood and yeah.

I was the third person at Tracey's house, after Tay Tay and Jessica Menasche. Che and Doralys were supposed to be there already with breakfast, but they weren't, so I chatted with the girls and showed off my new phone. Philly and Janelle came next, and then everyone started coming. Che and Doralys, it turned out, overslept, and then they had a flat tire, and THEN they didn't have a cooler, but when they got there, they had a hella lot of food. I had a giant muffin for breakfast and a Sunny D.

I got in costume- a maroon nurse's uniform- and into makeup, and I sat around forever.

Let me explain something to all of you who have never had the joy of being on a movie set:

IT'S BORING AS ALL HELL.

See, when you watch the bloopers on Alias, or you watch the interviews that take place on-set, it looks like so much fun. People meander, people act, laugh, joke, have a good time.

On a real set? They have these giant LIGHTS. And those LIGHTS? Freaking amazingly hot. They take ninety seven shots of you doing the same thing over and over again: in my case, getting up and walking around and crossing a room.

To start with, Tracey's house was really weird. Downstairs, where we were shooting, was like, set up for a party. There was a DJ booth, I kid you not. They decided to make my office the DJ booth. Why, I don't know. I think people don't really visit hospitals and retain details about the nurses, because no nurses sit in a box with a glass window. They don't have dispensaries like that in real hospitals. Not all nurses wear GREEN O.R. scrubs, and they don't all wear buns.

But I digress.

Anyway, after I got into costume, they filmed Zack walking down a hallway for a million years. Meanwhile, I sat, all hot and uncomfortable, waiting for them to finally film me.

Then they but me in my little box with one of those giant LIGHTS in the box, trained on me, and another one outside the box, trained on me, placing me in the crosshairs of two really hot LIGHTS. See, Zack was supposed to walk by, I was supposed to see him, look up, shoot him a "bitch, please," look, get up, and cross over to him. Or something.

First time, the light outside the box was too bright and looked like I spotlight. I obediantly went back to try again.

Second time, they had me walk at a different angle, but some guy's shadow wound up in the shot, so back I went.

Third time I tripped a little on a loose wire.

Fourth time we got it.

Michelle and Yuny attacked me with make-up while they prepared for the hallway shot.

Hallway shots are hell.

Tracey's house was not well-ventilated, therefore, the hallway was small and unventilated and hot. Add to that GIANT LIGHTS and I wanted to die.

First, they shot Zack going to the doorknob. Then they did our entire scene from behind my shoulder. Then Michelle and Yuny fixed us up again, and then they did the entire shot again from behind Zack's shoulder, closing up on my face.

OUR SCENE:

[Zack walks down a hall. He stops at a corner and sees a sign for Kaira Thomson, room 505. Continues to room 505, and starts to open the door.

At the same time, I am sitting in my little box. I see Zack and give him a "bitch, please" look; get up to stop him.

Zack turns the doorknob and opens the door. Out of nowhere, I grab his wrist and shut the door.]

Me: [smarmy] I'm sorry- can I help you?

Zack: [heh, whoops!] Oh, yeah, right. I guess I should've talked to one of the nurses before barging in. [sticks out hand] Detective Baker.

Me: [upping the smarm to snark] Nurse. [waits] Go on.

Zack: Right. [ Zack says something about coming from downtown and needing to interview Leyla, aka Kaira.]

Me: [I'm supposed to think Zack's cute, but still am slightly bitchy.] Well, I'm waiting over this patient, and no one informed me of any investigation-

[Zack starts to stutter]

Me: [talking over him] But I'm sure it'll be alright if I let you ask her a few questions. She's just waking up.

[Zack smiles]

Zack: Why, thanks... Nurse.

Me: [flirty, but in an "aww" way] It's Michelle. [Zack assimilates, and I bounce a little] Well, here she is, and if you need anything, you just... give me a ring.

[Zack thanks me, and I walk off.]

This took over two hours to film. We did like, a bunch of rehearsals, and sound checks, checks on the monitor, proper lighting, etc. We did the entire scene from behind me with no problem. When we switched the camera to behind Zack, it got times hotter and more complicated because of the small hallway, compounded with the fact that we were filming our hands and everything.

I walk into the shot and grab Zack's wrist. The rehearsal went fine, but when I went to do it the first time we were filming, Zack didn't open the door on time, so it was still closed by the time I got there. I had no idea what to do- should I keep going and pretend? Or not? I wound up going, "Zack, you did it wrong. We have to start again."

Third shot, we did okay, so I was finished. Miriam got permission for me to leave, but I wound up staying for lunch.

One of the main things I noticed was how they treated the talent. We got [yelled at] by doing anything- we were only there to act. Even tucking in a napkin so powder wouldn't get on our costumes was verboten. Between takes, we were supposed to be make comfortable and beautiful. If we wanted to eat, people were supposed to come to us and make sure we didn't drop or need anything. If we had a problem, our needs were to be tended to. When it came time for lunch, we were to eat first. No wonder actors become divas! With that kind of prefential treatment, who wouldn't?

The other thing was how "quiet on the set" means QUIET ON THE SET. You do not talk. You do not move. You don't breathe out of line because they will hear you and EAT YOU. Poor Michelle had to hold in coughs.

The food came and we had to wait for forever to eat because they were still filming. After we were done eating, there was still a lot of food left because Che and Doralys ordered a lot of food for the amount of people who were supposed to come and some didn't. After lunch, I got picked up, which was a glorious thing, because we were three hours behind schedule. When I was walking out, the producer lady in charge demanded that I get applauded and thanked, which was weird. I got home around 1:30, changed, washed my face, took out my contacts, and went to sleep until four because I was exhausted.

In my dream, I was not sleeping, still exhausted, and still on the set.

I had fun with the people, though- I made a new drama friend, Tania; I got to hang out with Philly; the actors were all hysterical; Taylor's a doll.

I have my world lit paper to do. Woe.