hells_half_acre | BEST NIGHT EVER! Listen for my giggle on the gag reel?

So, basically for the past two hours I've been standing with the Supernatural crew watching filming!

That's right. You just read that correctly.

I GOT TO STAND DIRECTLY BEHIND THE CAMERAS next to Jim Michaels!

I'm not going to spoil you all by describing the scene though - or the basic plot, which a crew member told me. They were filming 7x07 though.

So, yeah, tonight I had to go out to this meeting...it was a sort of networking thing to try to find work, only I'm really horrible at networking. And there was a cute boy there and I'm horrible at talking to cute boys too (it doesn't matter, he was probably too young for me...still in school and everything.) Anyway, I left the meeting feeling pretty depressed, but then on my way home, I saw MOVIE LIGHTS....

I knew Supernatural was in the neighbourhood, but their circus was about 15-20 blocks to the north, so I was confused...but I figured I would check it out.

I arrived and asked what was filming - Supernatural! Yay! I was told to stand further down the street if I was going to watch...so I did. (I realized when I got back down the street that the PA I had talked to was standing RIGHT behind Jared (how I missed Jared, I don't know...it's like that time I drove right by the Impala)...so he might have overheard me say "Supernatural! My favourite!")

I watched a scene with Jensen and a guest star, and then Jensen and Jared - it was really hard to see though, because I was down the street and behind a very bright light. Between takes, I chatted with the set painter who was there...he was really nice, and I told him all about my horrible networking skills, and he cheered me up by saying that I was very pleasant to talk to and not at all bad at socializing. He also said my name really lovely. I have to say, I love the way continental Europeans say my name.

Then they yelled wrap for that scene. Everyone started packing up and walking away up the street. I figured they were done for the night, so I would go home - but I decided that I might as well walk the long way home and see them packing everything into the trucks. As I was walking up, I saw the painter again, and he said "It was great to talk to you - oh wait, are you going to watch the next scene too?" And I said, "there's more?" and he pointed me up the road....where everyone was setting everything back up again to film at a different house.

So I wandered there, and as I was wandering there, I fell into step beside Jim Michaels. We got there, and I realized that I had basically just walked right onto "set" - so I said "Where do I stand to be out of the way with this shot?" and Jim said "I don't know, we haven't really worked it out yet." So I just stayed next to Jim Michaels...you know, about 7 feet behind the cameras with the rest of the crew.

They were setting things up with a stand-in....of course, I didn't know that at the time. The Impala wasn't around, so I figured maybe I was going to watch some guest stars filming...so for all I knew, that was a guest star. It's not like I'm super movie-industry savvy. So, there I was, just chatting to Jim Michaels while we waited for everything to be set up.

We talked about last season, the French Mistake, and how Jim is enjoying Vancouver weather (hint: he is not...he basically feels like I do about it, so we had that in common.), then we talked about dating (not each other, just in general...haha...I told him I sucked at it. He didn't believe me. But I do, I really do.) He told me about the hours they work, and how it's really hard to have a social life - he got a call from said social-life while we chatted and had to tell his social-life that he wouldn't be seeing them tonight.

Anyway, Jim said they killed Kripke the way they did in the French Mistake because Kripke HATES slow motion shots - so it was to annoy him. I thought that was hilarious.

A girl walked by and asked Jim what was shooting - Jim said it was a Tampon commercial. She laughed and wandered away, not bothing to ferret out the real answer, though she must have guessed it wasn't a tampon commercial...as I said to Jim, I'm not sure I've ever seen a tampon commercial that is shot at night with fog machines.

Also, HE SHOWED ME THE TITLE SEQUENCE FOR S7!!! He told me I got a 48 hour exclusive sneak peak! I promised to keep it secret for those 48 hours! But guys....IT IS AWESOME. I LOVE IT. Very gorgeous!

I told Jim that I was on the location tour when the backlot burned down - he groaned and said that they lost two days because of that. Ouch.

Then another crew member came up, and he was Serge's driver. Also, he probably went to High School with my Dad!! Guys...I'm starting to think that everyone in Canada actually DOES know each other. I certainly don't think me and Ted did anything to dispell that stereotype for Jim in any case.

Then Jared showed up! So there I was, about 10 feet away from the action, while Jared ran through what would inevitably be 3 different "scenes."

I won't tell you what he said in the dialogue, because it gives away the villain of the piece, but he did each scene in about three or four takes.

I'm going to tell you a funny Jared story though and I'm going to try to be as non-spoilery as possible.

START
Because Sam and Dean were split up in the episode at this point, Sam was driving another car. Jim explained that the car they were using actually belonged to Kevin Parks. Jim said as soon as Jared found that out, he started fucking with it for fun...not caring if he ran over curbs, or whatever. Apparently, he slammed the door so hard yesterday that he broke it and it wouldn't open. And the crew had to fix it...

Only, the crew apparently hadn't fixed it, because Jared (while filming) couldn't get out of the car. The scene was that he pulled up to the house, was supposed to open the door, get out of the car, and then to the house (all in a big rush)....so

Take 1: He pulls up to the house, and can't get out of the car. Cut.

The crew look at the car, he backs it up again...we can't see if they figured out the door or not.

Take 2: He pulls up to the house, frantically rolls down the window, then throws himself headfirst out of the car window!

The entire crew has their hands on their mouths trying not to laugh. It was hilarious. His gun fell out of it's place in the waistband of his pants too and hit the pavement, and...yeah, if you can picture 6'5'' Jared throwing himself out a car window very ungracefully... still they didn't call cut, so he grabs the gun, and runs up to the house...and cut! and much laughter was openly had. My laugh is so weird, I actually think at one point Jared looked directly at me and smiled - especially since it was a smile and a slight 'who the heck is that?" look.
END.

So, while we were laughing at that, Jim slipped away into the night, and it was just me and Ted. We watched as they worked it out that Jared would pretend he had just closed the car door and then pick up the scene from there, since they couldn't get the car door to open.

Ted told me he drove Serge around, so we talked about how awesome Serge was for a bit...then we talked about acting, because Ted used to act too...and I told him about the Shakespeare play I did when I was 13.

Ted's been working on Supernatural since day 1. He said that it's really rare for a crew to be as tight and as happy as the Supernatural crew. He said that EVERYONE is happy, including "the boys" and that they were all really excited already for a possible Season 8 - that Smallville set a precedent, and they were all really positive about the future because of it. He said that the fanbase is so solid and amazing, that there's no reason for the network to cancel it - and the only other reason shows get cancelled is because the actors want to leave...but he said that "the boys" are really happy with the show and, "as the boys say, why would we get off a winning racehorse?"

I was really happy to hear that - and I have to say, the crew REALLY was the happiest people I've ever seen stuck in the rain for hours in Vancouver. There were a bunch of them doing gorilla impressions at one point (some of them were quite good) and everywhere I looked people were chatting and laughing. I don't think I saw one sour face. Even the PAs whose only job was to stand there and gradually freeze to death were all smiles when they wrapped, waving goodbye to everyone happily and telling each other when they'd be in the next day.

Jared disappeared as soon as his scene wrapped. I actually didn't see him go, I was too busy chatting with Ted about the community back where my Dad and Ted grew up. (Seriously, small world!)

Then I watched them do a Sam-POV steady cam shot (that they didn't need Jared for) as their final shot of the night, and then someone said "Check the gate!" which is the signal that they have the shot they want and are done, so Ted suddenly said "Check the gate? Oh! I have to go get the car!" So we shook hands, and hopefully he remembers to tell Serge how awesome he is for me (I asked him to) and he took off running down the street. I have to say, for someone 3 years older than my dad, Ted looks AMAZING. I couldn't believe how old he was when he told me. He's a GREAT-grandfather, and he looks like he's maybe all 50 at most, not nearly 70.

Anyway, I took off home then, Jim was busy, so I couldn't say goodbye to him, and the set painter I talked to earlier was no where to be seen either - so, I just slipped quietly off into the night.

Amazing. I can't believe I actually got to stand in with the crew and chat. I think it helped that I WAS just chatty and interested in what was going on - not obsessively asking about Jensen or Jared, or focusing all my attention on them like a stalkery fangirl (Thank goodness I'm not a stalkery fangirl.)

It was their last night in my neighbourhood. Tomorrow and Friday they are in the studio, and then they start 7x08 on Monday.
I found out that they get 10 days off at Christmas, and they try to give Jared and Jensen American Thanksgiving by scheduling the Canadian guest actors to shoot that day if possible. Other than that, it's just work work work.
So, yeah...that was my evening. It went from kind of crappy to the BEST THING EVER! I can't wait for the episode to air, then I can tell you guys exactly the scenes I saw being shot. I had my camera with me, but I did not take it out - again, I was REALLY close the action, and it would have been quite obvious and possibly disruptive to Jared if I had taken pictures. Plus, when they weren't filming, I was chatting with either Jim or Ted about the show, so even if I did want to be rude and take pictures, I didn't have the time.

Current Mood: giddy

Page 1 of 2 << [1] [2] >>

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

raloria.livejournal.com

Aw, lucky you! Standing right with the crew and next to Jim and all that. :D

I totally printed this out for further reference (and saved it as a PDF). ;) Looks like my filming schedule info. is right on! Yay! Thanks for all the valuable information and the plain old fun trivia. Can't wait to see that title sequence!

I'm sure you got to stay for so long because A) you were by yourself and B) because you didn't bring out a camera. I know from reports from friends in the past that one or a few fans will get to see a lot more than a large-ish group. Easier to control, more low-key so they can get their work done...it's better for their work environment.

Anyway, this is very cool! And to think all I knew before was the address of where they were for the day/night. This certainly fills a lot in! Thanks Alix! :D

From:

I think it's 'cause we're so awesome

BEST NIGHT EVER! Listen for my giggle on the gag reel?

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags