Favourite Thing About Working in Production - #1

Alrighty then -- so planning some fashion of orderly delivery of some of my favourite things about working in television production has resulted in radio silence on my blog. You know you noticed. Don't pretend you didn't notice. So... I shall heretofore endeavour to share my faves in no particular order, starting with:

EAVESDROPPING IN ON THE SET WALKIE

It's pretty quiet here today. Writers are writing. Or sitting in meetings. Or eating. There's lots of eating around here. Then there's the cast and crew, who are shooting in the studio today.

On days that there's shooting in the studio, the writers room gets a walkie-talkie so we can hear when they're rolling (ostensibly so that we don't burst out of our room into the shot... which has happened... kind of... at least enough so that they've given us a walkie to try to curb such oopsies...).

Basically, it's like listening in on someone else's baby monitor, or getting your cordless phone's signal mixed up with your neighbours'. People are working and talking and you just sit and listen in like an auditorial voyeur on their business. It all feels very naughty -- and yet is completely on the up and up. It also helps on those quiet days -- like today -- where but for the grace of the opportunity to eavesdrop on others, I'd be having an indepth conversation with myself.

Production Fave #1: Eavesdropping in on the Set Walkie.

Really? Are you sure?

Well, okay. If you say I haven't posted anything on my blog in months, I'll believe you. There is still that whole "what I love about working in production" thing I intend to post... but a reality of working in production (I've been back at it for season three for the last couple of weeks) is the general feeling of not wanting to do anything but sit on my couch and watch tv when I come home from work. I know: shockingly similar to the not wanting to do anything but sit on my couch and watch tv when I'm unemployed.

Actually that's not true. I did quite a bit off my couch and away from my tv when I was unemployed. So there. It's not similar at all. You thought you got me, but I in turn got you. Fool.

Yeah?! Wanna make somethin' of it?!

Last week I made arrangements with my brother to sell my baby KITT. It needed to be done. I just don't see driving in Toronto often enough to warrant the cost of parking and insurance and gas associated with my love. And, if I do get to a place where I want my own vehicle -- well, who knows how old KITT will be by then... and is letting him just sit until I may want him again really prudent? And let's face it: gas and insurance costs would not be kind to KITT here.

And yet I'm most saddened that I never said goodbye. Not that I never got the chance to say goodbye -- that I never took it. Three years ago when I knew the company that was going to take KITT down to MH was due, I just cleaned out him out and handed over the keys. And now, after sitting on a lot for almost three years (and having his butt flap -- otherwise known as spare tire cover -- pilfered), he's going to be sold to someone else thinking I don't care.

Okay... have I really flipped my rocker over into believing a vehicle has feelings? Don't be idiotic. But *I* have feelings -- and I loved my KITT.

Goodbye 1987 Luggage Set

You'll no doubt give many more years of enjoyment to whomever bought you from the goodwill store where I donated you today. The fact you've had only one owner for the past 25 years is Mom and Dad's fault for buying you so durable in the first place.

The fact you're the colour of bloody Pepto-Bismal, well that's Mom and Dad's fault too. But hey, at least Dad never ran you over before you got a chance to go anywhere more interesting than the garage.

Happy Travels!

Happy New Year

Well well well ... long time no post, eh? Well I was thinking of you all when I took the following picture titled "Xmas Shopping in the Rain"

It was December 19, and rain was the only precipitation Toronto was to see this Christmas season.

Which made me even more excited about my return home for the holidays. The map was my attempt to explain to our American executive producer my travel plans. (the fireside scene, alcohol and snowflakes was one of the writers' contributions to complete the mise en scene)

Note the computer with the universal sign for "Don't". I had told the writers that I wasn't going to be bringing my computer home with me, so they would have to format things themselves. Luckily, the writer who was writing the episode that was being prepared over the holidays is the one writer who seems to need little of my assistance in properly formatting his script.

Finally, Alberta! My first Alberta sunset in almost two years (location: Lethbridge, outside my friend Tracy's office)

It was cold and dark and snowy... and I loved it!

So, I have about one more week on the job. This season ends on the 23rd. I'm not sure when the next season starts, thus not sure how long I'll be able to lounge happily on my couch. How lazy am I? I just got off a three week Christmas vacation, and I'm already looking forward to couch-time. Oh well. Gotta be me.

Stay tuned: this week I intend to post My Favourite Things About Working in Production...

Day's Tiny Heart Attack:

I nodded off on the subway today.

Woke up to the recording announcing we were pulling into a station two stops away from my home. I looked around - crap! My heart seized -- I must have slept all the way to the station where I should have gotten off to catch a bus to work, and continued to sleep almost all the way back home! I looked at my watch -- how late am I going to be for work? -- it's 7:43. Crap! My watch must have stopped! Dammit, no way to know how late I'm going to ... wait. 7:43?

...I had nodded off on my way home from work today.

Day's Tiny Joy:

-- Getting home early enough to watch Judge Judy.

Forgot to add:

... while on hiatus, I wasn't walking past the outside of sets all day. (watch the show? this is what The Ash's Throne Room looks like to me everyday I walk past it to get to my office)

So, we're shooting episode 19 of 22 ... when I had been hired for only 13. Now, on the one hand, that is 69% more employment. But on the other hand, around episode 15 you start wanting to raid the prop department's stash of weapons and go medieval on your coworkers' butts. It's like you had prepared yourself for 13 episodes of people sticking their noses in where they don't belong, people "forgetting" to keep you in the loop of things you need to know in order to do your job, holier-than-thou people looking down on you, condescending people patting you on the head telling you that you wouldn't understand because you're not [insert whatever professional] and people who are just simply jerks -- only to be told that you have to figure out how to summon the strength to keep doing it even longer. You manage to hold out for a little while more... then you find yourself whispering with coworkers in the hallways or congregating in the kitchen to share your fantasies about the demise of certain other coworkers.

Then around episode 17, you remember that you're working on this really cool show with pretty damn creative people, and if some of them are so nasty that they can't get into the spirit of the ridiculous fun of being paid to create a pretend world for a Succubus and have to screw you over to make their day mean something... well those people probably also scrutinized the toys from Santa in their Christmas stockings and thought the Easter Bunny was in cahoots with their dentist -- and really, are those the kind of people you want setting the emotional benchmark for your workday?

Thank you, but I'm a little busy making up names for a strip club that can spell out naughty words when certain letters of its neon sign burns out. :)

Three of my favourite syllables:

Hiatus: [pron: hi-AY-tuss] When television productions shut down for a week to prevent cast and crew from ripping apart one another's flesh due to the work-related stress and frustration of television production.

So I have the week off again, and this time I'm just lounging in my newly clean apartment (thanks Denise, for visiting two weekends ago thus forcing me to clean up for your stay!). With the down time, I thought I'd share with you what I am not doing this week:

I am not going into the writer's room:


There's the pin-board for sticking up index cards to plot out the stories. The large flat screen tv to watch the previous day's footage. The table to gather around and "work". You can't see the whiteboard that we use to... well, play Pictionary. (after taking the picture, I realized some important story beats were on the back of the easel -- whoops! Can't let those out prematurely!)

I am not going into my office, scanning all the schedules and call sheets and calendars to see what I need to do immediately and what can wait for ... oh, five minutes:


I am not admiring my door, complete with name plate:


Can you see my nameplate? Go ahead, take a step closer:


(Steph from the Art Department has a need to insert hyphens between o's... I keep asking her to point out to me the other "Ordinator" on the production, but she refuses)

This isn't in the office -- but on Friday we got little "thank you" gifts from the Executive Producer:


It came wrapped in a sticker that said "I work on the highest rated show on Showcase and all I got is this lousy T-shirt!"

[p.s. After 29 months without cable, I finally got it hooked up yesterday. I positively could not pull myself away from all the channels to go to bed last night. Is there a Cable Television Watchers Anonymous? I'm willing to admit I have a problem.]

"In the unlikely event of a water landing..."

"...please ensure your safety vest is securely fastened, and proceed to the subway doors in an orderly fashion."


(I guess some people are just afraid of drowning where ever they go)