"Grimm", Take 4

One thing about this extras casting company I belong to... First they send you an email telling you you're being considered for a role on a date in the near future (usually within the week). You declare if you are available, yes or no.

If you get another email that evening or early the next day, it will usually be "You got the job!" and you'll get more details on the booking. If you haven't heard back within 24 hours, you can assume you didn't get it; the email telling you "sorry" typically won't come as quickly (as if you had gotten the job.)

In early December I got one of those sadder emails, telling me the roles had been booked and I could move on with my life. But then, that evening, I got another email, asking if I could be on-call as a backup for the same shoot, the following day. It said I might get a phone call at any time, even at 5 or 6 in the morning.

At 7am I got the call. Could I come in at 10:30? Of course I could!

You may recall how, when I worked on my first Grimm ep, back in 2013, that I wasn't really into the show... I'd only seen a few episodes. That has changed, though... I've now seen many episodes, and I really do enjoy the show. I especially enjoy David Giuntoli. He's so dreamy!

The bad news about THIS particular shoot was that (as I quickly discovered) David and the other regular castmembers were not on set and had nothing to do with the scenes being filmed. Instead, we got a couple of guest stars... one of whom I'm sure is wesen. Er, playing a wesen.

We convened in Northish Portland and were bused (on school buses, no less) to the filming location, at the University of Portland. They had huge white tents set up, with generators and heaters to keep us warm (and keep us slightly meh, thanks to the diesel smell.) They'd laid some kind of material, like a carpet made of artificial turf, on the ground. Since it had been raining (and still was) the ground was wet, which made the carpet wet, and mud seeped in through the gaps. Still, we stayed warm and mostly dry.

The scenes we shot that day (two wrestling matches) required around 200 extras to fill the stands and act as fans. Since we were all packed into one holding tent, it was pretty crowded and difficult to move around. After going through wardrobe, passing hair and makeup ("you look fine" -- that's a new one), and changing clothes, I managed to snag an empty chair and found myself at a table of snobby girls straight out of a junior high cafeteria. The things I heard escape their lips that day, I'm surprised they didn't straight up tell me I couldn't sit at their table. Instead they mostly ignored me, and I read the novel I'd brought and tried to ignore them. (I could have moved, but that place was so crowded... and pack o' Bingley Sisters aside, it was a nice spot.)

Apologies if I can never keep Catering and Craft Services straight, but... one of them... had set up a nice table full of fruits and cheeses and other snacks, which they kept stocked and tidy throughout the day. One thing I've learned (and I'm not even beginning to suggest I know a lot, but I've learned some) is that if they feed you? You should eat. Hunger leads to crankiness. Long and repetitive takes lead to crankiness. Eat whenever you can.

While we were waiting to go on set, nearly everyone was given props to take into the "wrestling match." Some people were handed bags of popcorn; others, drink cups; others, pompoms or those giant hands. I got 2 skinny, red balloon-like things, which could be waved or banged together. They had to be inflated, and between the time they handed those balloon things out to people and the time walked on set, several people had managed to pop theirs. One of mine deflated.

The wrestling match scenes took many hours to film... but luckily, most of us got to sit in bleachers. Some people had to stand though, and that would've sucked. There were a couple ladies who had to play dancers, and their outfits were "bathing-suit" levels of revealing... again, glad that wasn't me.

So what did we do all day? We listened for our cues, and then we cheered. We had to react to the "wrestling match"(es) we were seeing. Sometimes we had to act surprised. Or happy. Or ecstatic. We had to wave our props around and act like we were having the time of our lives.

Around 6:30pm, they gave us dinner... catered lunch boxes....

Not too long afterward, we wrapped the scenes in the wrestling arena. They did some close-up shots of one of the bleacher sections (not mine), and, soon after, sent about half of the extras home for the night.

I got to stay for one more scene, an outdoor establishing shot, where the wrestling fans are waiting to go into the venue. One of the extras pointed out (and I'd been thinking this too) that this scene was going to look unrealistic, because nobody was holding their phones or looking at their phones, as people would do in real life. Oh well!

It was all over about 10:45pm. We got checked out, piled back on the yellow school buses, and were taken back to our cars.

A fun day. Lots of sitting, so not too exhausting. It was nice getting to do a couple of long scenes, but a little disappointing to not see any main cast members. Oh well.

The episode in should air sometime in early 2016 and is titled "Silence Of The Slams."

(ETA: The episode aired March 18, 2016, and even though both of the wrestling scenes were in the episode, I couldn't find myself anywhere. Too many people, not-ideal lighting, etc.)

Grimm III

At the beginning of April, I got a call to work on the second-to-last episode of the fourth season of Grimm. I had already worked on one of the earlier episodes this season (well, "worked" is an overstatement; mostly I sat), and I did an episode back in season two where I got to drive a bit. 

This was going to be a night shoot, on a Thursday night, but as luck would have it, Friday was a non-school day, so I didn't have to worry about zombieing through the next day, or worse, having to call in "sick" (read: tired.) 

I showed up on set around 6:00pm. Just like last time, we sat around, got our hair done, then had a delicious dinner. After about two hours, they handed us maps to drive to a downtown filming location, and we all departed.

Annnnd then I got lost.

I was supposed to turn onto Front Ave./Naito Parkway, but I got on the 405 instead, which put me about 12 blocks from my goal destination. Ugh! Downtown Portland is an absolute maze. A bunch of streets are one-way. Other streets have "no turns" signs. Even more are blocked by construction or Max (train) tracks. It's bad enough during the daytime. In the dark? Time to panic!

Luckily, I knew where I was going, it was just a matter of navigating the labyrinth and getting there. Finally, after some fervent prayers, I made it. As it happened, out of the seven or so drivers, I was the last to arrive. They told me where to park. Then I went to Extras Holding, which was a coffee shop. I settled at a table, took a few deep breaths, and proceeded to try to relax while I awaited further instructions.

My first instruction was to move my car forward about thirty feet. So I did. I was now parked just outside the coffee shop. Several times, a big truck came by and sprayed down the street (and my car!) to make it look like it had recently rained (how Portlandesque!) 

Back inside, I sat, read Harry Potter, and sipped chai and drank coffee for the next eight hours. I was never asked to be on camera. All they ever wanted was my car.

Hey, I'm not complaining. It's fun to get paid to sit around and veg, even if it is the middle of the night and you're already exhausted from working a regular 8-hour day. Especially fun (well, interesting!) when you get to share a coffee shop with a half a dozen other extras, three ladies dressed like Pretty Woman, and actors David Giuntoli, Reggie Lee, Russell Hornsby, and Sasha Roiz.

Yes, those four handsome gentlemen were all there, coming in and out of the coffee shop throughout the night. Not knocking the others, but David G. is especially attractive, and this is the first time I've gotten to see his face IRL (as opposed to the back of his head, which isn't half bad either.)

Towards the end of the shoot, I asked a PA if I could go out and watch some of the filming, and was given the OK. It was freezing outside, but I did watch part of the scene where Nick & the others stop Captain Renard from doing a very bad deed. (I guess should be all "spoiler alert," but the episode ("Headache") aired this past Friday, so whatever.)

OMG this episode. Wow. The other episodes I participated in ("Nameless" and "Dyin' On A Prayer") were pretty benign compared to this one. "Headache" was totally gruesome! PG-14V indeed!)

 That's my car on the right... just in front of the silver car. You can see it better in this next pic, there on the left...

That gray building is the coffee shop we were all in. Floyd's Coffee Shop in Old Town! Go visit and buy some chai!

My last instruction of the night? "Leave." At 4am, the episode wrapped, and we all go to go home and sleep for a very long time.

Grimm Again

Recently I got called to be an extra on Grimm again. After the last time, I was determined to make an effort to watch the show regularly, and what happened?

I... forgot to watch the show regularly. Or... ever.

I'd like to tell you that it's because I spend my precious time doing more important things than, psshh, watching television. Why, I read thick, great novels, donate plasma to orphans, and feed stray raccoons. Baby raccoons.

But the truth is that by the time Grimm airs on Friday nights, my brain is fried from the work week, and if I'm going to watch anything, it has to be something I don't have to concentrate on. So I usually end up putting in the Colin Firth Pride & Prejudice for the 73rd time.

Sorry, Grimm.

As usual, I can't tell you anything about the episode I worked on, not that I have much to tell, since I only had one scene, and my part (involving the arduous task of walking out of the room) lasted three, possibly four entire seconds.

But I can tell you that I was actually on set this time, a real set, on a real sound stage. I think that's a first for me. My other extra jobs have all been outside... streets, sidewalks, parks. Even just walking onto this sound stage, I felt a jolt of excitement run through me as I tried to take everything in.

The first thing I noticed was the wonderful (to me) smell of lumber, which is used to frame some of the sets. As I walked toward the "police headquarters" set, where the filming was taking place, I was greeted by the smell of old wood. (Hmm, that sounds unpleasant. But have you ever been inside an old, old house built in the 1800s or early 1900s? Assuming that house is in nice shape (as in it doesn't smell like mothballs or wet dog or something), there's just this certain woodsy smell. I'm guessing they used salvaged wood when building this particular set.) Oh hey, here's a picture:

(from grimm.wikia.com)

Another first for me -- I got to stick around while they did a few shots I wasn't in, and I ended up being just steps away from the director and the monitors and a bunch of the equipment. I got to watch a scene being filmed from the vantage point of the director, practically. (Okay, ten feet away, but still.) That was really fun! It made me almost want to get back into filmmaking again.

In other news, Sasha Roiz bumped into me on set (literally) and didn't even say anything. I still have never laid eyes on Silas Weir Mitchell IRL. (This is now going on my bucket list. Meet the wolf guy.)

I did get to see David Giuntoli as he left the set for the day.

The food: They had a salad bar, some steak, baked potatoes, rice, ziti, a few other main dish things, cookies, and cake. Not quite as elaborate as the buffet they had last time (read: no pudding) but I'm not complaining.

So two episodes down, and very little chance at screen time on either. But third time's the charm, right?

The episode in question, Episode 4 of season 4, should air sometime in November. I'll update here when I know more.

UPDATE! The episode aired on November 14th. It was called Dyin' On A Prayer, and it involved bad guys being smothered by a demon thing made out of mud. MUD. Only the love (hate?) of a child can save the day. 

I believe all of the precinct shots that were in that episode were filmed that afternoon. The scene where Captain Renard comes in and everyone claps? I was not in that scene, but nearly every other Extra that day was. A P.A. came to us and described what would be happening in the scene, then selected those that would be present for it. Alas, I was not chosen. Later in the afternoon, we did a scene where they're at Sgt. Wu's desk (I think? Sheesh, it aired two weeks ago and even I don't remember). I was there, but I didn't see myself in the finished episode (but honestly, I didn't expect to.)

The scene I got to watch from the background is the one where Sgt. Wu goes into Captain Renard's office and speaks with him, and shows him a photo of Trubel. The coolest thing about this? Captain Renard's office has a wall that can be moved (raised?). So when you're viewing his from the main part of the precinct it looks like a small office with all its walls, but if a scene needs to be shot IN it, a wall can be removed. I know this is typical Hollywood stuff, but it was cool, darnit!

That is all.

Grimm Shoot

I've only seen two episodes, but I'll embrace it, sure!

So I got a call to do some nighttime background extraing on the Portland-filmed fantasy series Grimm. And my first thought was, Shoot, I've barely watched the show. Which, while true, was also sad, because Grimm has been on the air for a year and a half, and it's one of the "Big 3" Portland shows (the others being the series Portlandia and the lately-gonered Leverage.) So just about everyone knows about Grimm. Even my mother has witnessed its filming. My mother. My mother who doesn't even recognize Colin Firth if he's got a mustache. 

Despite this sad fact, I knew I wanted to do it.

Now, if anyone came here hoping to find out what's going to happen in the episode, I can not say. You'll have to wait till March to find out, or go view the wiki for the episode. I don't want to spoil anyone, I don't want to get in trouble for blogging about what I saw, and moreover, what I "saw" is probably nothing resembling what we'll actually see on screen. On March 29. On NBC. Watch it.

So in lieu of that, I'll just do what I do best -- compare the experience to my other ones. Starting with the two most important factors of any extra job: Food Situation and Bathroom Situation.

What? I'm a practical woman!

Food: They fed us a delightful, catered buffet, with all manner of good things. It was like a fancy church potluck. And they were thoughtful enough to provide us with vanilla pudding. Mmmm. It was like I'd died and gone to Sizzler. We ate in this big, kind of dark, industrial-mod looking place. I didn't see any actors from the show, not that I would have recognized anyone in the dark anyway.

Bathrooms: No "First Class Port-a-potties" to write about this time, I'm afraid. In fact, no port-a-potties at all. Just regular bathrooms in Extras Holding. A fact about which one should never complain.

Extras Holding itself was a big improvement over the one we got in Walk In My Shoes, because we got CHAIRS. And coffee. And they did our hair and stuff, which is not a given on these things.

The main scene of the day was shooting across the street from E.H., and I will be the first to (sadly) admit that I was not a part of the cool group of extras who got to be in this important, action-packed scene. But then, they had to endure a 12-hour day in suits and/or high heels and I didn't, so more power to them.

Instead, I got to be a driver, wearing my regular old clothes, and I got to go forward and backward along a usually-busy downtown street for about 3 rehearsals and maybe 2 actual takes. They gave us walkies as radios, so at least we were given instructions and could hear them call "action", but it was still just... ack. Especially having to "reset" which means going back to where you started after a rehearsal or take. Which meant, in this instance, driving in reverse. In the dark. In the rain. Trying not to hit a P.A. or the car behind me or a parking meter or a homeless person. Especially since, if I did, I'd have about a hundred witnesses. And be ruined forever.

The driving scene took about 45 minutes, and the rest of the time was spent waiting. We (the other drivers and myself) were allowed to leave our vehicles and go to E.H. if we took our walkies along. I did watch some of the filming, from a street corner. There comes a point where you wish you'd brought your binoculars, but you also know that if you did, you would look like a freaking stalker psycho thing. So... no. Try to look casual. Cool. Professional. (Fail, usually.)

The other "drivers" and I were expecting to be called again, but we never were. I guess the crew got their shot. They filmed other scenes until about 11, then they wrapped, and everyone got to go home. I felt pity-mingled-with-jealously of/for the people who'd been there all day and had gotten to be in the important scene. I felt like, hmmm, I barely did anything. (Sad face.) But then, when I considered all things, I decided... you know what? Even though my role -- and I mean role as in my  duty -- was very small, they wouldn't have hired drivers unless they needed them, and so even though what I did was very small, I'm glad to have been of service to their cause and their endeavor and their show.

A show that I really ought to get caught up on.

Before March 29.

On NBC.

(ETA 5/3/13: The episode was called Nameless. The scene I was present for was the one outside the Lotus (restaurant) toward the end. I re-watched the scene a couple of times... didn't see my car, though... the camera was just never at the right angle. But that's okay. I enjoyed watching the ep.)