I am going to be omitting some things from this post about things that occurred on set, for the sake of the production and the company I'm representing. I had to sign a waiver saying that I wouldn't blah blah... I didn't really read it. Moving on.
In other words, don't be upset if I decide not to include certain details about the production. Please understand that it is truly only because I don't like you. Okay, but quite seriously, the blog might be short because I'm getting up early again tomorrow and doing the whole tay-tay-day all over again. I need to sleep, but if I didn't write now I definitely never would I ever would have.
Here is the only picture I'm including in this post.
from left to right: trees, mansion, not taylor's tour bus, legal obligations.
I rode the metro downtown to 23rd street and walked to a place called Gemini Deli where I was to meet a guy named Matt, in a van, at 5:45am. Just like in movies when banks get robbed. The crew van, fully loaded, departed through Queens and onward into Long Island, to a cozy coastal town called "Glen Cove". In Glen Cove there is a mansion, and in that mansion, we executed the commercial shoot.
There are so many things that happened over the course of the day, so I will list them and describe them briefly. But not too briefly. A satisfying briefly, like boxer brieflys.
1. walkie talkies
2. Rob
3. Taylor
4. Agency PA
5. cord wrapping
6. picture (proof)
1. Walkie Talkies
The Taylor Swift commercial shoot is my 3rd job as a PA, and the first one where I've gotten to wear a hands-free walkie talkie that snakes its way down my back from shoulder to belt loop like some parasitic spectre, whispering voices into my ear with echoes of "we need more tall directors chairs" and "can we get some PAs on set" and "copy that." The response to every walkie-talkie request is "copy that". It's fun speaking a space language even when you're not in space.
However unpleasant the analogy, having a walkie talkie was awesome because I was never sitting around. There was always something that needed to be done, and even if it was something as small as making sure somebody else was doing something requested via walkie-talkie, it was still great just being involved. Also, you can hear what's going on with the big picture constantly, just from hearing the production team communicating. It'd be like peering over Alex Trebek's shoulder during a game of Jeopardy. And secretly laughing at the incompetent contestants who don't know the answers.
Only joking, I wasn't laughing at anyone.
2. Rob
Rob is an awesome guy. Rob is the literal voice of the production. He talks on the walkies all the time. He is hilarious. And today he liked me, and always had me do cool stuff. Hands-on stuff, like helping transport gear and... and.... well, I'll get to that later.
3. Taylor
I was looking around for a working bathroom in this huge mansion (I later found out there wasn't even one), and I started walking upstairs. It was early in the day, and Taylor wasn't supposed to be out for quite some time. At least a couple of hours, until the set was ready. I peeked around corners for a room of rest, and I hear someone on the walkie go "no, she's not there. she wanted to have a look around the house." I passed a bedroom on the second floor and there she is (with a few other people in the room) looking around, admiring the architecture and intricately crafted crown molding and century-old paint. For the record, she's not just pretty on her album covers, or on SNL.
It is strange seeing a person you have seen many times before but have never met, and immediately recognizing them. Taylor immediately struck me as very down-to-earth, and human. Not as some fame-crazed country popstar. Can't really describe it. Maybe tomorrow I will come up with a good word for it.
4. Agency PA
The Elizabeth Arden people seemed really excited that I decided to come to the shoot. I honestly thought it should have been the other way around: me being really excited, and them - the creative team - thinking oh cool, another intern. Let's send him to Starbucks. That didn't happen, because they are great people in addition to being skilled professionals (not that anything is wrong with coffee runs. We all need our java juice.)
The EA people decided early on in the day to assign me to Taylor's agency people, to be the agency PA, which was pretty cool. Anytime they needed me, I'd be there to get them anything/accommodate their stay at Woo...sh..eh...kip Mansion. In the meantime, that meant I'd be able to hang around on set. Because they had to be there, I technically was supposed to be there (I could've very easily been booted to the other room.)
I won't tell you much at all about the set other than the fact that the first set of shots were indoors, and there was a mirror. And 2 or 3 times, Taylor stared straight intently at me in the reflection of the mirror during the takes. On a side note, I will no longer be accepting applications for... wives.
Cord Wrapping:
After lunch, we started up again at 2:00. I was nearly dosing off when in a span of 3 minutes, I was invited to come back to the second shoot (tomorrow) by the EA people, and was also recruited by Rob to do legitimate crew work on set. To date, it is the most fun I've had on a North 6/whitelabelproduct production set. It was a blast.
We were inside still, and Rob wanted to see me do some actual crew work. So he swapped out one guy with me, in the middle of run-through takes, and had me grab a bundle of 3 cables that run from the video camera to some magical place - a box, a computer, maybe a whale's belly, I don't know - where it gets stored so that they can make a commercial.
Considering they carry the video and audio signals from the camera, they are the most important cables on a set. It was my responsibility to make sure that when the camera dolly was being moved (which it did, a lot), the cables didn't get caught underneath and people didn't trip on them. Not only was I near the camera and talent on set, but I was doing a job that was crucially important for the production. It was awesome. This is not a brief blog posting at all.... oh well.
6. Picture (Proof)
You want to see proof that I was actually there, doing all of this? Well, I don't have one. I mislead you. But Taylor Swift has a picture of me, so I'm not lying. Let me explain, oh captive captivated readers...
During the outdoor takes, we had just finished one set of shots and were setting up in a different area. Taylor pulled out a camera from somewhere, and started taking pictures of the set (which looked really really cool). I saw another one of my PA compadres helping set up for the next scene - taking leaves from a garbage bag, and scattering them all over the ground. I noticed Taylor walking sort-of in that direction, camera in hand. I seized the opportunity and went over to help scatter the leaves with the other PA.
OTHER PA: "Mike, I'd be careful... If a prop guy saw you do this he might get mad."
MIKE: "Yeah."
I took a handful of leaves and let it scatter down to the ground. From behind me I saw a quick camera flash. Then I heard Taylor show her agent the picture and say "Oh wow, this one looks pretty cool."
I will never, ever see that photo, and I don't care. Taylor Swift took a picture of me - just me - playing in the leaves.
Goodnight.
Bravo! excellent work and excellent writing. Keep them coming son!
ReplyDeleteSo proud of you!
<3