Jericho (2)

First gig of the year, can you believe it? I barely can.

Anyway, I was booked as a ‘prisoner’ on Jericho. When I got there, I discovered I had a new distinction as one of the ‘new’ prisoners. I figured whatever that meant was more likely that I wouldn’t be recalled. No big deal. I rarely ever am.

I parked. I was shuttled. I ate breakfast. I got my voucher. I went to wardrobe.

The wardrobe girl was awesome. Lots of energy and way cool. She like what I was wearing, but needed to give me a coat because us prisoners were supposed to be dirty and she’d have to dirty up the coat. As soon as she said dirty, a million red flags went off in my tiny little brain as I flashed back to the head-to-toe fake dirt dusting I got whenever I was on Carnivale. It was always so bad that I was blowing it out of my nose for, like, three days after the shoot. ‘Course on Carnivale there was fake dirt and tons of real dirt, too, because we were usually shooting on dirt lots or on stages with dirt dirt covering the floor.

I was given a leather coat and instructed to go stand in the hair and make-up line. (There were about thirty of us there. Not a huge call.) While I was in the line, a sweet girl came running up saying I needed to go back to wardrobe because they accidentally gave me her coat. Whoops! They were all apologetic and I really didn’t care. I kinda thought it was funny. Plus, I didn’t really like the leather coat. It was stiff compared to the ratty one they gave me instead–which was already pre-dirtied. That was nice.

In the hair trailer, the lady put some goo in my hair to make it look oily and dirty. Then, the make-up guy dusted me with dirt-looking powder. Face, neck and hands.

I was now ready to go.

And I was brought onto the set almost immediately. I grabbed my book (I’m still working my way through a book about the Wars of the Roses. I haven’t had much time to read lately.) and headed through the mini-backlot and onto a soundstage where the prison was set up. Following instructions, I parked my ass on a bench in a cell…and started reading while I waited for the festivities to begin.

I’m pretty sure the camera couldn’t see me at all during those takes. Whatever. I just kept reading until we were instructed to go back to holding.

I read some more.

Finally, I was called back to the set and as a ‘new’ prisoner, I got to be in motion down the hallway.

And then the plot thickened… I was to be walking with one of the principals. I got to follow ‘Maggie’ for the next few hours. And if I don’t actually make it into episode 20, I’m definitely all over the cutting room floor because there were only about five of us in that part of the scene.

The gal playing Maggie, I believe her name is Erin, is way cool. She talked to us like we were real people, not scummy extras. A few of the high points were her excitement about how she got the fake blood that was on her shoe…squibs. It was her first time getting “shot” and she was so excited her enthusiasm was easy to share! And at one point, Skeet and her goofed off between takes and she said something along the lines of “We have lots of fun here.” I had to agree that it showed. Everyone on the crew was awesome.

The special effects guy, Tom, even introduced himself to various extras and laughed along. The A.D.’s and even the director were very laid back, but also down-to-business. These are the best kind of shoots because it makes everyone feel like part of a team even if only for a day.

During one of the tighter shots, I was even given a mark I had to hit and the A.D. treated me great. I was so glad. Sometimes, extras get totally talked down to. I hit my mark spot on every take. I hope I didn’t suck so hard that they intentionally edit me out. Whatever. I was just glad to be there and have the opportunity.

After that scene, I didn’t work the rest of the day. I just read my book or talked to other extras in holding. When I was wrapped, it had been eleven and a half hours since I’d arrived. I was glad to be leaving and glad I’d spent the day.

Ironically, as I left, the traffic sucked so hard I turned right instead of left, which sent me down the road where Blaina and Jay from Driven To Distraction met. That was a very nice ending to a long, but good day.

Comments are closed.