The Changeling

This is a first for me. I’m writing this a couple days after this shoot actually happened, but not posting it until after I’m supposed to be back on the show. There were very strict rules and a lot of paparazzi on this show and rightfully so. I don’t want to jeopardize my returning for the second part of this gig. There’s always a significant chance that I won’t be recalled, but since I really want to come back, I’m not taking any chances! This was an awesome day for me.

It took an eternity to get to the set because the freeway by my house lost a few lanes in a tunnel fire and it hasn’t been repaired yet. But I did get where I needed to be on time at least. I’d left early enough.

I parked. I was shuttled. I got my wardrobe (1928…I’d been fitted a few weeks earlier). I got into my clothes. The costumers let me use my only 1920s purse (YippieYay!). I was shuttled to holding. I had my hair done (well, the lady made it look appropriately yucky and messed up for the role). I walked to make-up and something interesting happened.

Normally, I don’t wear make-up. I might put on eyeliner twice a month for the fun of it, but I’m really inexperienced when it comes to putting on make-up and for this show, there was a whole list of instructions on how to do it. I was terrified and didn’t feel comfortable doing it myself, so I packed a few things into a little bag and brought it with me to show that I wasn’t trying to be difficult, I just suck at make-up. Well, when I sat down in the make-up lady’s chair, she didn’t say a thing about me not wearing any make-up. I silently yelped for joy.

I’ve got a red spot on the bridge of my nose which make-up artists usually spackle over immediately, so I wasn’t surprised when the make-up lady went right for it with a brush… Except the palate she was working from had all these crazy colors like blue and purple and dark green and various shades of red.

She wasn’t covering my red spot, she was using it! I was now the proud owner of a slightly bloody nose!

Then, she darkened the circles under my eyes a little and made my cheek look like someone had punched it a day or two ago. Woohoo!!!!!! Best make-up experience I’ve had in a very long time. First blood since Angel, too.

I then walked back to holding while getting many a strange look. Yay!

I sat in holding for what felt like eternity but was perhaps a couple hours. It was a pretty nice day. Not too hot, not too cold. Same holding I’d been in when I worked on the Ring II, except the set wasn’t a women’s home in present day, it was a loony bin in 1928. I was what was called a Code 12 patient which means that I probably wasn’t crazy, but I was perhaps having a bad PMS day and my husband called the asylum to take me away because I was being rowdy.

Clint Eastwood is directing and has a different, much quieter style than every other set I’ve been on. Usually, there’s a lot of yelling of commands and such. On his set, there’s a peaceful respect and serenity that comes from speaking rather than yelling. I wish more sets were like that. It was because of that lack of yelling that I hadn’t even realized they’d started filming for about an hour into the time.

When I was finally brought to set, Mr. Eastwood watched us all go up the stairs and then as we awaited further instructions, picked me to be in the front. I was, after all, the only one with blood on my face. I really looked like I’d seen better days. There was a principle actress fourth in line behind myself and two other extras. Our action was simply to walk down the stairs because we’d been freed. Angelina Jolie’s character had gotten us outta there and she was at the base of the stairs, but we weren’t instructed to react to her, so we guessed that we didn’t know it was by her doing that we got out of there.

Some sort of moment between the principle actress and Angelina happened, but that was the extent of the whole thing. We were all just supposed to keep on walking past her and down the sidewalk.

This was the first set I’ve been on where a rather large group of paparazzi showed up–complete with rocket-launcher-sized lenses on their cameras. They were seriously slimy and had no consideration for anyone who was working there. They didn’t even get out of the way when locals with strollers were trying to use the sidewalk. How very rude.

I suppose some of the tight security rules were because of those people, but I’m not sure. I’d just never been on a set with so many specific rules about things we could do, couldn’t do, identification regulations, all sorts of stuff. I was okay with it all, but I also found it a bit tiresome and annoying. I mean, why can’t people just be good so we don’t have one or two spoiling everything for the rest of us?

Anyhow, I spent a few hours or so leading the group of extras down the stairs in each take. It was great. I got within about three feet of Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich and about a foot away from Mr. Eastwood–whom I can now also add to the list of celebrities who have spoken to me. Yay!

If this scene makes it into the final picture, there’s a great chance that at least one frame of me will, too. That’d be nice.

The Original Design of Cancan Leeloo

Found amid the wreckage that is my craft room (affectionately dubbed the “Crap Room” by my husband–and rightfully so. The room is always a pig sty because ‘creative messiness is better than tidy idleness’.) is the original design for my Cancan Leeloo costume as drawn by Shawn Crosby.

As soon as it came out of the printer, we decided that the black ruffle hanging out of the bottom had to go. Other than that, the stylized elements we’d talked about worked great. In the movie, Leeloo’s wearing a shirt and baring her midriff. With my corset, that wasn’t possible, so we figured we’d try the opposite–bare my shoulders as much as possible and hide my midriff (and corset).

In the drawing, the skirt’s a little long, too. Oops. The pattern we had for it was the correct length. If it was too long, I wouldn’t be able to easily lean over and grab it to hold it up…well…as easy as it can be while wearing in a corset!

From here, I considered fabrics and colors. The shirt was going to be white. the suspenders, wrist bands and skirt accents were to be orange vinyl. The skirt itself needed to be more of a champagne than yellow. I was on my own for the bloomers and stockings underneath. I chose more orange satin and some black and white fun stuff for trim.

The stockings…well…I’d never done anything like those before. I knew I needed something super stretchy. Hmmm…How about this $1/yard stuff I’d gotten 10 yards of ’cause I thought it was kinda neat but was now collecting dust and getting in the way? (I do that a lot…hence one of the many reasons the craft room is the crap room.)

So, that was my game plan. I also had some white, ribbed cotton knit (also purchased in a $1/yard binge and collecting dust while getting the way) to use on the shirt.

But what I needed in order to really do it right was a coverlock machine… Best investment ever in my sewing hobby. Yeah, I was a very happy girl once that thing arrived and after I spent the eon figuring out how to thread it for what I needed it to do.

I think I’ll stop here on this journey and break it up a little. There’s still many more posts to be done from wig to boots on this costume!

Superhero

This was the second time I was called to Universal Studios for a car call. I’ve driven on the lot before (Desperate Housewives, Serenity), but when I’m booked with a car, for some reason strange things happen. For instance, on Where The Truth Lies, I almost drove through the stretch of road where the Red Sea parts!

On this movie, I was booked with my ‘06 Mustang just like on G-Force. Yeah, lots of car calls lately. I dunno why, either. It seems to go in waves.

I ended up following a production truck onto the lot, so I didn’t accidentally drive to the Red Sea again. And to be honest, after parking on New York Street, checking in, going through wardrobe, I was still bummed that I missed the Red Sea! ‘Cause this time, if I’d've accidentally landed at that path again, I’d've totally driven through. That’s one of the things I wished I’d done. Oh well. Better luck next time. This was only a 1-day call.

I’m honestly not sure how it happened, but I didn’t work the whole day. I missed the first setup because I was in my car. I tried to be in the next one, but the camera guys said not to bother with the foreground crosses because the camera couldn’t see them. After that, I stayed near the AD, but somehow never got used. Yeah, I was sitting in doorways, up steps, but not because I was hiding. I was just trying to stay out of the sun. If I’d've been asked to jump in the scene, I’d've so totally done it.

Anyway, I ended up finishing Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives and starting another called Medieval Times. Sensing a theme perhaps? Terry Jones is an amazing writer. I love his stuff. It’s the best non-fiction to have on set because I don’t think he could write dryly even if he tried!

The other book is also well done. I got almost half way through! Off the top of my head, though, I can’t remember the author. The book was first printed in 1968 and surprisingly isn’t dry. There’s not much worse than trying to read dry non-fiction while on set. It makes staring off into boredom space preferable to reading the words.

My car might’ve actually made it in frame. At the top of the day, they had me pull it out because that was where they wanted the camera. It wasn’t until after lunch that they wanted my car back on the street.

Speaking of lunch… I dunno why, but it was really, really good! Herbed potatoes, breadsticks with baked-on cheese and my favorite rare steak with chimichuri. I think mostly, it was just that everything was cooked how I like it, using ingredients I like over most others, etc. that kind of thing. Everything was food I’d already had, just not on set. I didn’t even touch the salad bar or the dessert bar because I was enjoying the steak and potatoes so much. There was also fish and chicken available, but I wanted steak. The chimichuri was so good I looked up a recipe on my iPhone so I can make some at home.

Strange little day I had… From the not hardly working, to so much reading, to the awesome lunch…

What? You say I mentioned having an odd driving experience at the beginning of this and then never got back to it?

Well… The whole day, I was bummed that I’d missed the Red Sea, but it wasn’t like I was going to go try and drive through it at the end of the day. The trams were running and plus, there was still a lot of light and I didn’t want to get in trouble.

In fact, I was parked on a small block that the trams passed right by as they went in and out of the King Kong stage. After studying the map, I planned out the best way to get off the lot.

And at the first intersection screwed up which right turn I was supposed to take.

I drove past more stages…offices…shops…through the golf cart depot tunnel thingie…and eventually, the asphalt became reddish cement. And there was a trashcan–the kind you push the swinging door open and then put your tray on top of. And there was a maze of metal pipes.

Like the kind for standing in line for a ride!

OH SHIT! I was about to drive into the theme park itself! Gah!

I threw the car into reverse and backed outta there so fast! I didn’t get in trouble because only one preoccupied guy in a golf cart saw me, but I was terrified.

I did, finally, find the road I was supposed to’ve taken and then got myself off the lot. Whew!

There’s just something about the Universal Lot and me having car calls on it. I can’t even begin to imagine what’s gonnna happen next time…

Oh! And… More Leeloo

I’ve noticed that there are many people coming here to see my Leeloo costume. Perhaps its creation as well as me wearing it and dancing the Cancan in it, I dunno.

Well, I’ve decided to make a series of posts about it. I didn’t take pictures when I built it. In retrospect, I should’ve. I had no idea it’d be such an ambitious undertaking. One I’d do again, but not so enthusiastically because that dress practically owned me for a month and a half. It was totally worth it, but it was also a lot of work.

From design to finished product, it wasn’t a picnic. First came the screen shots to see what Leeloo was actually wearing and what her hair looked like with those long, weird, gummed-up, not-traffic-cone-orange, just-bright-orange twists. The hardest part was seeing what her shoes looked like. The only times her shoes were onscreen where when she was kicking ass and most of the freeze frames were too blurry to make out the detail on her shoes. Granted, I was doing a different rendition of her costume, so I could vary a little, but I wanted a good base to start with.

It was a combined effort between me and Shawn Crosby. He did a wonderful drawing of the design. I have it somewhere. I’ll post it if I can find it.

In the end, the costume cost me hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours. I really stepped up to the plate on this one and I’m amazed that it turned out like it did. I’d never worked with vinyl or stretch netting or even some simpler things like snaps and interfacing and decorative elastic and iron-on bonding. Okay, so some of those things aren’t as common, but you get the picture. This wasn’t an easy job, but I did learn a lot. Not only did I learn how to physically do stuff, I learned something more important: That I could do just about anything I set my mind to…yes, just about anything.

Yes, I really did dance the Cancan on a stage while dressed as Leeloo!

Okay, so you saw my previous posts about my adventures as Cancan Leeloo for the Lux After Dark halftime show of the 2006 WorldCon Costume Masquerade. (dress rehearsal, before the show, in the audience, backstage) But did you notice that one kind of picture is absent from the line-up? The kind of picture that proves I did what I said I did:

I danced the Cancan on a stage in front of people. I believe thousands were in the audience.

Well, thanks to Essentialsaltes posting these pics on Flickr, I have visual proof of my escapade.

Notice how I’m leaning over further than the rest of the girls? My wig was falling off and I was frantically trying to get the bobby pins back in order to keep the darn thing on! It already cut off my peripheral vision, so I never knew whether I was on step with the rest of the girls. The last thing I needed was for the darn thing to launch off my head. It didn’t, thank goodness!

There you have it. My complete Cancan adventure complete with photographic proof…
Even a year later, I still look back fondly at this experience. It was definitely one of my more odd ones, but what’s life for if not to live it and love it?

G-Force

I just got off of a movie called G-Force. I saw some awesome driving stunts, a simulated hamster and got to spend a few days overlooking the Port of Los Angeles. Not half bad, but it felt very, very long. I mean, like, super long. Sure, 12 hour days are never short, but I think I prefer a day or two rather than four in a row on any show to break up the monotony.

It took an hour to get to the location for a 6AM call time. Going in, I knew it’d make for a long ride home because when I’m on a car call, that means we only work during daylight hours if we’re called in that early. I was working with my ‘06 Mustang on this one.

The first day, I spent many hours in holding. Over the course of this gig, I read an entire book about Medieval Seige Warfare. Not half bad, but also a little dry–which makes any book the wrong book to have on set. But it was what I had in my bag, so I did enjoy it between conversations with other extras.

Something odd about this gig was that the set was about 5 blocks long and holding was on one end rather than in the middle. And we were on a rather steep hill…one of the blocks reminded me of a non-crooked version of Lombard St. in San Francisco. It wasn’t quite that steep, but after the third time walking up it…you get the picture. Thankfully, when I did have to walk up and down it during the shot, I didn’t have to go far. The SUVs in were hauling ass, doing stunts in the street, so the most I could travel was about 20-30 feet during any given take.

I got to drive a little on one of the days. That was nice. I always enjoy driving.

Watching the stunts was fun, too. One had an SUV coming down the hill, going around a car, as another SUV came around a corner, cutting off the car and following the first SUV as it swerved around another SUV while yet another SUV came around another corner and joined the fray. Lots of squealing tires and good, fun automotive mayhem. I heard the drivers came within inches of a few of the vehicles…cool! I dig that shit.

I missed the big stunt on one of the other days because I was forgotten in holding. I heard it didn’t go off as planned, though. A little too much ramp and the SUV exchanged the intended target for an unintended target. There wasn’t any massive carnage or anything and it looked great on camera, but it wasn’t what the script required so they had to do it again.

That one I got to see. The SUV went up the ramps and landed on an old RV, shattering it. Awesome shit for me. I’ve seen a few other similar stunts, but it had been quite awhile. I’m always amazed at the prep time before and after a shot like that, too. It seemed to take forever, but was, of course warranted. I mean, if I was anywhere involved in the action, I’d want to make sure everything was right, wouldn’t you?

I just realized that I mentioned the hamster in the beginning and never got back to it. Well, I’d snuck a peek at the story board on the first day. Apparently, we were filming some sort of car chase between a CG hamster in a giant motor-propelled (I think…it was hard to tell how it was propelled because it looked like the hamster was driving it, not running in it) ball. It looked really bitchin’ on the story board. I definitely want to see this movie when it comes out just so I can put together all the pieces of the shots I was part of and see what we were actually doing. I had my back to the action on several occasions.

Sometimes, to simulate the hamster, they used this weird home-made-looking car-like contraption that I can’t even begin to describe and do it justice. It was kinda like a go-cart, kinda like a dirt track car, kinda like a “hey guys, I got some metal and an engine, let’s build a kickass-fast race-buggy” sort of thing. It was really nifty and I’ve never seen anything like it.

I’ve never worked in a scene where heavy CG stuff was going to be added later. (I didn’t work with Doc Oc when I was on Spiderman II.) So, when they brought out the sort of camera tester balls of various materials plus the ones with various furs on them, at first I didn’t make the connection. That was what made me try to steal a glance at the story board. The weird car, the groups of balls, just what the hell kind of show was I on? Then, everything made sense and I started really diggin’ it and wondering what it’d be like from the CG animators point of view when the footage landed in the queue. I’ve never been on that side of it, nor had I thought about it before. Fascinatin’ shit to me…

The weather was odd. The first two days had hot sun (thank goodness for the sunblock in my generic survival kit in my gig bag) with icy cold sea breeze. The next day was miserable hot sun with no breeze…and then rain. We went home “early”–about an hour earlier than the previous days–and it took me two-and-a-half hours to crawl home because it was Friday night, too. That sucked. The last day was perfect. Warm, but not hot. The breeze was cool, but not freezing. I wish more shoots could be like that.

I doubt I made it into the movie. Us extras were mostly just little blurs of movement on the sidewalks. When I rent the DVD, I’ll have to freeze-frame it to maybe see myself. There’s a pretty good chance of seeing my car, though. The camera was right next to it in one of the shots, so maybe they were using the row of cars parked there. That’d be good enough for me.

More Cancan Leeloo!

I found some more pics of me and the rest of us Cancan girls from the Lux After Dark halftime show of the 2006 WorldCon Costume Masquerade.

The following pics were on a website with Danny Low’s photography of all the costumes. Thanks a million, Danny!!!!

This was definitely an experience I will never, ever forget. First, just being in the room with so much talent. I learned a lot about sewing and costuming throughout the whole adventure.

Gotta have a shot of the girls with the legs, of course. We’re wearing cancan dresses for goodness sake! It’s virtually impossible to resist holding them up.

This was the final tableau of our big dance number recreated backstage for the photographers. You can’t really see, but yeah, I stretched out so much that I could sit with my chin on my hands, elbows on the floor between my outstretched legs. This took months. Granted, I was pretty heavily into yoga by this time, so it was an extension of something I was already working toward. However, yoga is not done in a corset, but Cancan dancing is and it was a whole new ballgame to get that flexible despite my innards being compressed.

Once again, yes, I know I look nothing like Mila Jovovich and this pic is proof! But I did have a wonderful time and I did keep my costume. Leeloo will be returning someday. I don’t know if she’ll be doing another Cancan, but she’ll definitely cruise through a few conventions over the years. So much time and effort went into that costume, I’d hate to let it languish in my closet.

Booth 59 on Publisher Island

In Second Life, I go by the name Twyla Briggs. I’m still learning the ropes, but I just set up a booth on Publisher Island. #59 to be exact. It’s in view of Book Island, too. I put a phantom castle on the front. You can’t miss it.

Beyond the castle is Tayna’s Chronicle Room from Otherness: Rift. How nifty is it that anyone can write a book and then create its world in Second Life? And, like, walk around in that world? Good golly, the possibilities are endless and I look forward to doing Ashleigh Raine books there, too.

I had tons of fun scouring SL for props and scanning various things in my Real Life repertoire (aka stashes of precious junk) for correct textures. The castle image on the front of my booth is actually 3 photos from various vacations in England. Yay! For re-purposing vacation pictures!

My favorites from the whole experience were seeing the big ol’ book laying on Tayna’s table, Tayna’s tea cup and Twyla’s crystal ball.

In Otherness: Rift, the book is called the Rede. Right now, in SL, the Rede is just a simple object. I have much planned for it in the future. Much more than what’s in the novel I wrote…because, well, I can play with it more in Second Life!

While Tayna’s tea cup isn’t exactly like any of the ones she drinks out of in Otherness: Rift, it’s close. Plus, it was the first thing that was given to me (thank you, Weasel Gough), so to modify it was also kind of special. It started as a very simple, white cup of black tea. I transformed it into a celtic-patterned cup of green tea. Feel free to stop by my booth and copy one for yourself. I left the drinking script in it, so your avatar can enjoy!

And finally, Twyla’s crystal ball. Well, that’s a sort of funny thing. I’d gotten a box of miscellaneous lights that included some particle balls. None of them were quite right for my idea of the ball Tayna was using to scry in Otherness: Rift, so I opened up the script to see if I could figure out how to modify it. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I kept changing numbers until I got the right colors, the right movement and the right speed. My husband was so shocked, he helped me build a base for it from scratch. What a fantastic learning experience.

I look forward to many more builds and such in Second Life. Say hi if you see Twyla Briggs!!!!

Virtually Living

I enjoy exploring Second Life as Twyla Briggs, but for some reason I hadn’t considered having a presence there until recently. Sure, I always figured I’d collaborate with some of my friends (they’ve already got a lot going on), but I hadn’t dreamed of doing something on my own…y’know, like figuring out how to build stuff.

Well, the time has come. I have booth #59 on Publisher Island and I gotta do something really cool with it. I mean, like, really, really cool. ‘Cause with the quality of what my friends do and have done, I gotta present something at least respectable. I’m married to Fallon Winnfield, for goodness sake. Visit Manoa. You’ll see why I’m feelin’ pressure!

And I don’t want his help, either. Advice, yes, but I wanna learn this myself. My goal is to have him come to me asking how to do stuff, not always the other way around. I want my friends to be surprised that I did so well first time out.

When physical light is introduced in Second Life, well, I’ll be even more motivated than I am now. Once upon a time, I was a theatrical lighting designer. I still read books on the history of stage lighting just for the fun of it even though I haven’t done a real stage show in several years. I miss lighting. A lot. So, to have the opportunity to do it in Second Life without renting fixtures, dimmers, miles of cable, a light board and then having to load, hang and focus it all myself using a ladder that’s probably too wobbly and short…well, you get the picture.

Right now, SL lighting isn’t physical. There are no shadows unless you manufacture them yourself. I’m too lazy. I wanna point a light at something and have the shadows happen naturally like they’re supposed to. To me, that’s one of the things that makes light so beautiful: the give and take between what is seen in the light and what is unseen in the shadows.

Can’t get enough of Cancan Leeloo?

The other day, my husband asked if I’d posted any pics about my adventures doing the Cancan while dressed as Leeloo from the Fifth Element…which turned into an internet expedition to see if anyone had posted other since last I looked. We’d had a camera meltdown and couldn’t take pictures of our own, so we’re depending on the great ‘net to provide what would’ve been otherwise lost to us.

I’d already posted some pics from Hazel (here and here). But I’ve found more since then.

For the record, yes, I know I look nothing like Mila Jovovich. She’s awesome. I, however, am not so much. I might someday get to be as awesome as she is, but I was certainly not while at WorldCon 2006 dancing the Cancan in an outfit I’d built which had been inspired by the one she’d worn in The Fifth Element. I’m not a dancer and likely never will be. But there was still much awesomeness in the experience I had. If nothing else, it serves well as a conversation piece.

Now for a new pic…

I found this one posted on Flickr by dragondawn. I don’t know you, but I thank you!

While wearing a cancan dress, I just had this strange compulsion to flip it up. I dunno why. It’s just one of those things, I guess. It’s a dress that’s made to be held up, so why not? Life’s too short not to live a little…