So we had no idea what we were about to get into...
I woke up before the alarm at about 4:55am. I jumped in the shower immediately, making sure I had ample time to get ready. We were supposed to arrive to the set all ready and the car would be there at 7:15.
After the shower I loaded up on the makeup, styled my hair and threw on some clothes. I went to Dharia's and checked on her progress. I gave her a little extra makup on her eyes and ironed her hair a little straight.
We had to bring projects AND clothes to the studio so we looked like were moving out.
Vince the production assistant picked us up and we jammed all our stuff in the car.
We relaxed for probably the last time on our 3 mile trip to the studio.
We pulled into what looked like a loading dock or a distribution center; a one story warehouse type of building.
We walked into the building which was just a big garage, essentially.
We met Nichelle, who was super nice and she showed us to our changing room, a throwback to the late 80's, early 90's.
So we moved into the dressing room and tried to relax. There was a group already on the set shooting - LOOM WEAVING of all difficult things!!! Lorelei came and sat with us, trying to get us acclimated and comfortable. We were being filmed right at the beginning of the shooting schedule, so there were some changes happening already. Evidently the prop guy quit and I believe one or 2 other staff. I had no idea what that meant to the production, but she was just giving us a heads up if things seemed awry.
We missed online friends, MonsterCrochet and Briana and their shoot, as they are local to CA and left Monday night. Lorelei said their shoot ran perfectly, which meant to me the only way to go for us would be down...lol! (little did I know).
We practiced a run-through of Starry Night which went OK - I think Lorelei would have liked it to run smoother. After that we were allowed to sit in on the weaving episode taping. Dharia remembers their group name - check her blog in the next few days and I'm sure she'll mention the name of the group. There were 4 of them from San Fran and were filming 4 episodes...UGH!
Here's a pic of their set:
So we watched the taping for awhile trying to be as quiet as possible (Dharia survivied a coughing fit). It was time for us to get dressed and gather all our stuff for the shoot.
Dharia hung out in the sitting room - note the monitor that showed the 3 cameras and what they were shooting.
Dharia trying to eek out a smile - more like a look of being stunned. I felt a little responsible for getting her into this in the first place...lol!
So it was time to go - we were wired with microphones, primped by the wardrobe lady, Allesandra, and dusted with powder by the make-up lady.
We met Allison Whitlock, who was really nice and has the most gorgeous skin and teeth! AND the biggest smile.
We arranged ourselves around the living room set and the rest is a blur to me. I tried to remember to not slouch and keep smiling, but I wish someone had told me NOT to wear that green shirt that made me look rather vast...
Again - the rest is kind of a blur, so I will post some pics and a basic outline.
From the intro, Dharia's segment was dyeing the wool, which was a concept no one could grasp AT ALL.
The man in the grey shirt is Gordon, the director. He was very polite in directing - no one ever said we were doing anything "wrong", just gentle direction to get us to do it they way they wanted. Again - it wasn't easy that no one really understoon crafting principles.
They had to buy a microwave so Dharia could demo putting the wool in the micro to "cook" and when the segment was done, the micro went back in the box and back to Target! Funny!
All the props and items to be used for each segment are laid out on these huge trays and brought out for hooting. Here is the tray for Segment 3 of Starry Night:
This segment was filmed over at the Dining Room set:
Because our project only filled 3 segments, Allison made a project that was related: a small handbag made from a canvas panel that she couched in the Starry Night pattern. Unbelieveable, she is expected to create about 2 or 3 new projects every week, having to develop an idea, come up with all the instructions AND make all the step outs. She is definately calm, cool, collected AND able to ad-lib the entire episode.
Here we are "riveted" to Allison, a common word from the Director..."Allison is sewing...act like you are riveted to her..." Dharia's Mom came to visit and after watching us watch Allison she commented that we looked like Allison INVENTED sewing and we were just taken aback...
I can't even explain how comical the whole thing is...there is usually a few minutes between takes so all of us would chit chat. Allison would run through what she was going to say and who/what she was going to direct questions to. In the 15-20 seconds or so leading up to the directing telling us to go ahead, there was TONS of eye contact, over the top smiling and head tilting and the funniest of all, the pretend talking. When filming the opening scenes from each commercial break, we would pretend to have an enthralling conversation, which usually consisted of Allison saying, "and we are smiling and laughing, chatting...and...(turn to camera) Hi, I'm Alllisonn Wittlawke here with the Arrrrrtisenn Weeeemennn of Wusssstarrrrr" in the cutest Australian accent. So funny!!!
I can't explain enough how she basically IS the show...yes, there are lots of crafters who demo their cool projects, but she is kind of the go-between for the crafters and the crew. And on top of that she is a genuinely nice and gracious person.
So thank goodness we got through our filming unscathed.
After changing, it was time to run through the next day's projects. It was about 5:30 and we had to clear out by 7pm.
Now we had planned to demo two projects on day 2 - the felted, chalkboard messenger bag and Dayna's recycled messenger bag. It took awhile to get through my wet-felting segment and when I was done Dharia and Dayna were to run through their segments. I ran around getting my things ready on the segment board. I kind of sensed there was some tension with Lorelei and it was about how much time the whole project would take to film. When Dayna started to take out her step outs, Lorelei saw they weren't exactly identical and made the decision that there would be no time to film the recycled bag segment. It sucked that that's how it worked out, but I couldn't see the episode getting filmed in less than 4 hours (when it is only scheduled for 2 and a half).
It was a difficult decision but when the dust settled, we rearranged the script to have Dayna demo the 4th segment.
Disaster averted.
So Vince drove us home and we went to the brew pub restaurant with Dharia's Mom. It was a good dinner - I think were all kind of in a state of shock.
Back at the hotel we all had trouble sleeping - I watched TV until about 11:30 and finally passed out.
4 comments:
Don't feel bad about having something cut. I too had a whole project cut from our third show and I had the second one chopped to disclude a portion of the project (which was fine in this case). I just think they weren't prepared to deal with how long crafting takes. That's what happens when producers are not crafters or have any crafting experience. What can ya do?
Oh, and we lost our producer and assistant producer. We had already pitched and gotten approved for all our projects easily and began working with Melody and Erin. Then I get a call that Melody is gone and now we have Judy. Then last week Erin left. She was in charge of all the business stuff...getting us yarn, reservations, etc. I got the distinct impression from Molly, our new assistant producer, that it happens all the time in t.v. People are always looking for new jobs or get fired. It'll be a miracle if the people we saw there are still there a the end of the month (season shooting).
I thought the director was named Gordon! I couldn't keep track. Like I really wanted to know and not refer to people as make-up lady and wardrome person (Jane). Anyway, I'm digging your write-up. I've only done my day 1 so far (pre-taping). OK, still reading. . .
his name could have been anything - you're right it was Gordon...
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