So for those of you who didn't know, I'm in Toronto, visiting the set of the show! How cool is that!
Today I showed up for "processing" at 7 am. But first things first. Locate the craft services truck and get breakfast. Then, off to my trailer. I had a trailer! With my name on the door and everything! Inside the trailer, there was my costume--scrubs, a T-shirt, a new pair of white leather Adidas. Then they take my picture, for to manufacture my very own fake Chicago Forensics Unit ID. Then its off to hair and makeup, where they pull my hair back and smooth down the Wookie look I usually have. Then, bam, the set.
So I'm standing there, with Butters and Murphy and Harry, only EVERYBODY ELSE CAN SEE THEM TOO. Which is surreal.
Me and some other extras are playing minions of the Forensics Institute. So we help Butters carry Justin's coffin into the lab for an autopsy. I help Butters open it, while he tries to convince Murphy to use the menthol stuff for her nose so she doesn't puke. Butters and Murphy start talking about the stiff, while I start filing things on my Blackberry, only Dresden busts in, all upset about them digging up the coffin. Murphy talks him down and leads him out, while I try to figure out what happened to the freaking Blackberry.
And the extra of the year award goes to . . . the guy next to me, who didn't drop the coffin on my stupid feet.
Repeat, in various amounts, from various angles, about twenty jillion times, until we're done.
After that, I got to go get out of the scrubs, though I was tempted to walk out with the shoes. But I went back to my old generic sneakers. Oh, and I somehow managed to get one of the white lab coat's pockets filled with coffin dirt. I have no idea how.
Then a camera crew guided me more or less without trouble to the set of Dresden's apartment/office/lab. I got to go through it saying "wow, neat!" and variations thereof. The sets were really cool and incredibly detailed. I made sure to stop by and visit the art folks who had done such a great job, and thank them.
They did an interview, in which they asked me questions and I babbled until they said "Okay, that's enough," and I shut up. After that, lunch! Then off to the director/production corner, where we all crouched about five feet away from the actual set, listening to what was happening through headphones and watching it on tiny TV screens. Very neat stuff. Lots and lots of being introduced to people whose jobs had acryonyms I did not understand. I just hope I didn't get anyone's name wrong.
I staggered off after that and crashed on a couch for a while--I'd only had about 3 hours of sleep the night before, and the events of the day were kinda intense. Dinner with Robert Wolfe, after that, then back here to the hotel to pound out wordage on the next Furies book and write this set report for you guys.
Tomorrow, we're off to an actual castle! Someone evidently imported it stone-by-stone from England. There's some scenes to shoot there, and since I won't be inflicting my acting abilities on anyone, I'll get to loiter around in the background and mooch snacks and drinks and ask total noob questions.
More, as I experience it!
Jim
