Early Call

This will be short, succinct and sincere.  We had a 4:30 am call today which meant I got up at 2:30 am and my day took off from there.  Shortly after I got to the set (which was a real live hospital, which means it wasn’t really a set, but a bustling, teeming multi-storied, skybridged, sprawling, ever-growing complex of buildings fillled with working doctors, nurses, patients, and gift shop employees), I followed the director and first AD and camera through long hallways and across bridges and around corners to find the main “set” for the day.

Once there, we all watched the shots being laid out, our director walking through each one as if he was the camera and then the subjects, and then the camera, again.  I always learn so much about creating reality during these efforts, and kept mental notes which came in handy later.  The shooting crew then sped off to do a couple of small scenes on the other side of the hospital, leaving the main set to the art director, the assistant art director, the standby carpenter and myself.  We began preparing signage for hallways and doorways, of which there were approximately three to four thousand.  It felt like that many, anyway.

After little or no sleep, the mind (mine, anyway) slips into a different kind of waking state: work can be done efficiently and everything is relaxed and even kind of fun.  I think they call it feeling “punchy”.  That was me all morning and into the afternoon.  We worked and socialized, even, while getting everything just right for the camera moves to come.

The signs were just getting the finishing touches when the rest of the shooting crew started rolling in, bringing long lines of carts and equipment.  It worked out perfectly, timing-wise, which I know is not a coincidence after all these years of racing the clock.  However, there was one failure on my part, later.  The sound guys wanted to lay cable all the way down the hospital corridor, which was highly polished white mottled linoleum floor and beige rubber floor molding, and extremely well lit.  I tried to make a white tape which covered over the cable blend into the linoleum mottling, but the shadows of the cable were just too noticeable, and we all reluctantly agreed that it couldn’t be scenically hidden in the five minutes or so we had to do the deed.  The guys had to resort to some kind of horrible hand-carried antenna gymnastics instead.  Sorry guys!

But the day went well otherwise, and I hope I don’t have work nightmares about that sound cable thing tonight, because I really need to get some good dreamtime in.  The wrap went as well as possible, considering we all had to use one freight elevator to get our many departments’ gear down to the trucks and loaded aboard.

By 5:00 pm I was on the highway, yawning and trying not to fret about the huge day tomorrow, when we will be once again moving our gear in and out within twelve to fourteen hours after filming with 750 extras at a roller rink and outdoor carnival.  Tonight I will try to dream instead of Hawaii and my vacation plans, which include dolphins and humpback whales and no 4:30 am call times unless the dolphins request it.