SAVING GRACE
These days, I define my television consumption by what's on my dvr, particularly what it's set to record as a series. Saving Grace is on my series-to-record list so I was excited to hear I'd been booked to work as a csi tech on the show.
I got to Griffith Park way too early because I misjudged the length of time it would take to drive up to the park. So I just took a little nap before it was time to check-in. The road I drove up is normally closed to vehicle traffic and there was a park attendant that made sure you were there for the shoot. By the time I got up the hill, everyone was parking along the side of the road.
We then boarded a van that took us further up the hill to where catering was set-up. We had breakfast then waited until it was time to shoot the scene. It was a typical crime scene. Dead guy on the ground, detectives working him over and background milling about. The only interesting thing about this scene was that the dead guy was an orthodox Jew. Otherwise, there wasn't really anything interesting about it.
What amazed me was that even though we ran out of light, the crew was able to use their lighting equipment to make it look close enough to daylight. I just love the technical aspects of lighting. It's so interesting to me. Another cool special effect were the giant fans they brought in to make it look like there was a storm brewing. They would take leaves and drop them in front of the fan to make it look like things were swirling around.
Time passed fairly quickly because there were a lot of good conversations going around. One guy who was a working actor talked about how hard it was to be an actor. You have to make sure you like what you're doing and if you do, it would be a hell of a ride. He suggested taking acting classes and joining an improv group to sharpen your skills.
We knew there was another scene still to be shot, but we weren't sure who would be kept around for it because there were cops, csi techs and lookie-loos. I suspected we would all be kept because Saving Grace is on its third season which means they've got a bigger budget now. Indeed, we were all kept for the last scene and none of us were actually used. We weren't complaining because we got a lot of meal penalties and overtime because of it.
Even though it was late getting home, I was glad to hop in the shower to get all that dust and sweat from humidity off of me. Then, of course, I played an online turbo poker tournament.
