I also got on the 'obscure' white bus in the middle of the city which brought me to set. Mercy's studios is in Secaucaus, NJ. The studio is pretty much a really HUGE garage. Outside of the unmarked building (which is the studio) you will find trailers for the main actors and tents with a lot of food under them. When we went inside the studio, there was every type of tea, coffee, and soft drink you could imagine all out on display. (Really the food display was like at a wedding. A huge catering service does it everyday for the cast and crew) I immediately went to wardrobe where I showed them a few options for my 'bar attire'. They approved of my outfit and then gave me some scrubs to wear as a nurse. If they don't like what someone has brought to wear, then they give you something to wear from their plethora of outfits hanging neatly behind them. I was glad because I got pink scrubs! Also...I looked inside them to see what size they were and I surprisingly saw this:
Inside the MERCY studio you will see about 20 different sets. If you walk through it, you will see the inside of a house, a porch, a camping tent, a bar, a hospital, an outdoor scene, etc. It was pretty amazing!
I got lucky today because the director of background actors seemed to like me, or like my look at least. (It probably helped that I kept smiling at him as well, ha!) I was used all day and was on set from 11am to 4:30pm. In the bar scene I was originally right in the viewpoint of the camera and then I got moved because I was wearing a similar colored shirt as the girl next to me and that was distracting to the camera. However, the background director said to me, "Don't worry...I have something better for you to do." I was then told at the top of the scene to cross infront of the camera. So, when the director said 'action' I was supposed to walk from one side of the bar to the next. Hopefully, when this bar scene is seen on TV, the first thing you will see will be me walking across the screen. (or maybe my shirt, or something, haha) It was very fun to shoot and I met a lot of great people. It was very challenging because we were supposed to be pretty lively however we had to pantomime it all. We couldn't make a sound! It was quite hard having a 'conversation' with someone when you really had no idea what you were saying to eachother cause you couldn't say a word. It was a lot of reading lips!
We shot this scene about 20 different times. In the scene, the main character, Veronica is signing her divorce papers in front of her husband, who is the bartender. After each 'take' (time the scene was filmed), a prop master gave 'Veronica' a new stack of divorce papers so she could have a fresh line to sign. To set the atmosphere, they were blowing smoke in the room and gave each actor an alcoholic beverage that was filled with apple juice or water.
After this scene we were told to go change into our hospital attire. We were then 'propped' which is where we were given stethoscopes, clipboards, etc. I was placed behind a computer and desk for this scene. I'm not sure if I will be seen, but there is always a possibility. I thought it was so interesting how everything was in such detail. At my desk, I had a real computer that worked that had all these different patient files on it. On my desk I had papers with patient info, tons of pens, paperclips, frames, etc. It was just as if you walked into an actual hospital.
Today was a blast, and even if I'm not seen in either of these scenes, the experience was amazing! I'm looking forward to doing it again, hopefully.
On another note:
MATT DAMON came into Nathan's painting pottery studio today! He painted with his daughter and mother. He painted a little dog figurine.
I'm so jealous of Nathan. :)
Wow...no big deal.
4 comments:
How exciting!! for both of you today!! Wow, you've only been in nyc a few weeks and you already have seen and done more than a lot of people get to do in years! I cant wait to come up and see you!
That is sooo cool! I never would have thought it would have been that percise on little details like that. I guess you and Nate must have good style considering they liked both of your outfits :) This is really good stuff keep it up!!!
I'm loving the action you guys are getting lately (no pun intended)! :) As always, thanks for sharing!
I love hearing about dreams! I wonder if your tongue was choking you or something in the middle of the night, Nathan?
So the suit I got you for your graduation gift, got you a part on 30 Rock to dance with a guy....wow!
Whitney and Nathan, keep up the wonderful blogging and auditioning and loving each other!!...and also packing your lunches and weathering the rain! Love, Mom/Beth
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