Our little foray into the world of TV began late Wednesday night. I drove my pimp mobile (a rental Chevy Impala since some b*tch hit and ran into my 6 months old hybrid car!) to pick up Zona and Aubrey. We stopped by to do some last minute shopping. You know, we all have full time jobs on top of all this stuff.
Screen Door Entertainment, who is producing the show for DIY, was awesome enough that they realized how far the girls and I would be driving. Technically, we're "local" but the drive to Burbank from North and Central Orange County is not that "local," especially since they wanted us at the studios at 7:00 a.m. BOTH days. So...they got us a hotel room literally nearly steps from the studio. YAY!
Above: We are such dorks and just HAD to pose with Buttons the giant sock monkey made of burlap!
Aubrey and I shared a room, since we're both night owls. I realized that there were more step-outs than I thought I needed to do. (Hey, in my defense, I was very busy doing my friend's veil and wedding, had multiple visitors for like 2 months straight, including in-laws from Jakarta that stayed 1 month.) Anyway, Aubrey was sweet enough to stay up late to help and I think she finally fell asleep at 2am, whereas I slept at 4am, partly due to the excitement. Zona got lucky she didn't end up rooming with us and go the room to herself (Rachel decided drive in on Thursday) or otherwise, Zona may have cursed me for any ugly undereyebags that she got.
We were told to arrive at our 7am call time, dressed and made up, although we were slated to be the 3rd show to be taped on Sept. 5. Sonya, the associate producer, was very nice, but she made us rehearse like 5 times. Alana, with whom I mainly corresponded from the beginning, was taping a show in the morning, so she didn't meet with us until late morning.
Above Left: Morning rehearsals with Alana. Notice that we stripped off our clothes that we were going to wear based on the instructions to "come dressed and made-up at 7am"
Above, Left to Right: Rachel, Me, Aubrey, Zona, & producer Alana. Umm, if their eyes look funny its because white people tend to have eyes that turn red in photos and I suck as correcting the bunny eyes.
Apparently the film crew and producers had been experiencing everything taking longer than they had thought, they had to cut some projects. I think the time factor has to do with the network's request for things to be done more "real-time" like, instead like those older craft or cooking shows, where they don't even hide that they have something pre-finished or pre-started. I guess they want viewers to feel a true "magic of television" that things were all shot in real time, but they editted down to 30 minutes per episode. Oh well.
So, they decided to make my Shelly Tortoise project the whole show and they cut out Aubrey's cool slipper project, the sweater lampshade project that Zona and Rachel were going to demo, and my magazine file cozy. The cut projects ended up being a show and tell.
Above: The set. The woman in the right photo is the stunningly beautiful (and tall!) host, Allison.
Aside from the slight frustration that most of the step-outs weren't used and we had to sew a brand new tortoise, which we dubbed Shelby, on the spot, it was really fun. It was such a loooong day. Because we had to create a new one (and not use 2 whole step-outs I had made), we didn't finish taping until 7:30pm. Oh, step-outs are what they called all they separate steps that we had to pre-make during pertinent parts of the construction of the project.
Oh yeah - the sweater fuzz flying around wasn't too fun either. The entire crew, including the host Allison Whitlock, was super friendly and amiable. Dave, the art director/master prop dude was really funny and personable as well. I owe several apologies to the sound guy (AJ?) because I coughed several times, which apparently sounds really really sharp and loud with the mike on. It was those damned sweater fibers! I swear, if anyone had to do an autopsy on me they would have to wonder why I have so many weird multi-colored felted wool fibers nestled in my lungs. I don't need any more respiratory problems -- I've already got terrible allergies and asthma!
See Aubrey's account of the experience here (and ignore my cross-post).
I took one of the unfinished step-outs home and look at Whitey Coyote -- instant love! I don't think this floor pillow will ever get used by my house guests.
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