from jeremy

Very Minor spoilers ahead...

I'm back in Utah, and here is the first part of my blog...

Our call was 6 am, which actually made me happy, because I figured we were in for a long day. I wasn't wrong. We decided to arrive very early at 5:15, in hopes it would give us a chance to wander a bit first. Which turned out to be a good thing because we ended up doing quite a bit of unexpected wandering. Sasha had told us to report to Stage 12, but Stage 12 didn't seem to have very many people around, but it did have a big door open with none other than the nose of Serenity lurking within. We peaked in... Wow - Serenity in all her glory.

Eventually we found everyone else gathered at Stage 6, and Sasha met us there and we got busy with the paperwork. They had breakfast for us, which was good, because nothing is open that early. I'm going to mess up some names, but as I remember Saxton, Gingi, Erin (DG), Jim and Conrad were all there. Sasha seemed frustrated that people were showing up late, but soon discovered there was a traffic jam at the gate, glad we got there early.

After I was done with my paperwork, I was shuffled off to wardrobe. A few jokes a couple of mosquito bites and I was back in the Stage 6 holding room with all of the other extras. It was fun to look around as the area slowly filled with extras dressed in all manner of "Carnivale-like" costumes. Everything from transvestites to zebra headed hookers.

I would give details on everybody's costumes, but it would be easier to look at all the pictures. Needless to say Saxton won't be hard to miss.

Soon I was called in for Makeup (?!). I was taken to a makeup trailer where a very nice guy named Jake proceeded to put a scar/tattoo on the back of my bald head. It was a bunch of chinese characters, so I had (and still have) no idea what they meant. Jake is an Academy Award nominated makeup artist. Recently did the makeup for the main character in Hellboy and many other movies. Prior to that he had done some work for Firefly, he did Kaylee's and Mal's bullet wounds. It was an honor to have this guy doing my "makeup".

As we were chatting, I suddenly realized I recognized a voice in the background. So I looked up in the mirror and there was Nathan chatting with another one of the makeup artists. I suppressed the urge to say hi and just listened in. A few minutes later he left, to be replaced by yet another familiar voice, it was none other than our doctor. The makeup was done all too soon, and I was back in the holding room. Everybody seemed pretty impressed with my tattoo, but I couldn't see it, so I just had to take their word for it.

For the next 2+ hours we all sat around chatting, waiting for our call. Eventually it came, we were all lined up against the wall for a final costume, hair, and makeup check. They then herded all of the 70 or so extras into the main Stage 12. They took us right past the nose of serenity, which looked to be the actual set inside, around a corner and onto the main stage.

The next few minutes were a blur of imagery, which took a little while to absorb. On our left were Serenity's cargo bay and doors. Standing just inside the cargo bay were several of our Big Damn Heros and none other than God...er Joss Himself was running around giving out directions. At this point I was floating. For those who were concerned about the look of the ship, she looks very very similar only more detailed and a bit smoother.

On the right were a series of brightly colored vendor stands, complete with live turtles, chickens, iguanas and other various overweight reptiles. Everything was heavy on the oriental flavor. Surprisingly it all actually felt kind of cramped, but Maria, the "background" wrangler and assistant DP, assured us it would look much larger on screen. There were blue screens all around the set, and we were told the whole scene would be digitally filled out.

Maria then started dividing us all up and giving us instructions. She sent me, my friend Brian, and two of the nicest prettiest background (and foreground) actresses in Hollywood (not counting Browncoats of course), Jenn and Katie, up this tall ramp surrounded by all manner of Chinese "stuff". Jenn and Brian were sent to the very top of the ramp and told to start walking once Jayne walked in. She then told Katie and me to start walking 3 beats after "action".

So for the next hour or so the four of us were stuck at the top of this ramp where we couldn't see much of anything. But we dutifully walked down that ramp and out to one of the vendor stands, take after take after take. Every-time I walked down the ramp, I saw Mal, Zoe, and Jayne walk past me to the right, often within inches of me, so I'm hoping I got a bit of camera time. Jayne never walked up the ramp so Brian and Jenn never managed to get out of the tunnel of doom.

I was really surprised the by slow/methodic pace of movie-making. What little Hollywood experience I've had has been TV related, and this was SO much slower. It's no wonder movies cost so much. But you get great results. Our BDM is going to look soo amazing!

At this point I hadn't really had much of a chance to see Joss doing any directing other than "action" every 5-10 minutes. Eventually we got the "check the gate" which means they got a good take and they were checking the camera's "gate" for hairs or dirt. (Thanks Katie for that insider lingo tip. On a related note, congratulations Katie, this was her final voucher and she's now officially SAG.)

We were then herded back to the holding room for a while. We took this opportunity to snap pictures of each other's costumes, and soon we were herded back to the set for the next 5 seconds of film. This time we were to count back 3 counts from where Joss kept saying "cut" on the last shot and start our new scene. Like I said, slow and methodical. But this was much better for me, because I was out of the tube of doom, and could actually see what was going on.

I was able to see that many of our fellow Browncoats had great positions, either in or near the vendor booths. And I could actually watch Joss direct, which was my number one goal of the whole experience. Most of the time Joss was behind his monitor, over between the cargo bay doors and Serenity's starboard engine. As soon as he yelled "cut" he would usually come running over to the area being filmed, talk to the DP. Cup his hands into the famous "film frame" shape and make minor tweaks and changes and run back to his chair for the shot. Pretty much what you'd expect from a Hollywood director. But very cool to actually experience. Sadly, Joss didn't seem to require as many takes on this shot and all too quickly Maria was herding us all back to the holding area for lunch.

Lunch was very tasty. All of us Browncoats gathered around our Browncoat tables away from the cool people tables, and talked about our experiences so far. Gingi and boyfriend had some interesting stories about getting in Adam's way. Suddenly we notice that Summer and a few friends are sitting at a table about just a few feet from our Browncoat table. So DammitGirlie screws up the courage and walks over and points out all of us Browncoats. Summer is so nice about the whole thing. She thanks us all for coming and being a part of it all. My memory fails me on any specifics, but she seems genuinely pleased to have us all there. I bit more chit chat between our tables, and we let her get back to her lunch.

A few minutes later, we all notice that Nathan and Jewel are chowing down on their lunches, just a few tables down from River. So I gather up a few of my firefly movie posters, screw up some courage and walk over to them and introduce myself. I showed them the posters, they took them gladly, I pointed to all of the browncoats at the table, which started a bit of a cross room exchange. They were both more than friendly. I'm not one to usually get very star-struck, but I felt myself tripping over words, so I just thanked them, and let them return to their lunches. I then walked over to Summer again and offered her a poster. Sadly I was still a bit tongue-tied, so I just thanked her and moved on. In hind site it seemed like she wanted to talk some more, but my brain was foggy and it's probably good I didn't push my luck. Later, when Jewel and Nathan got up to leave, Nathan hollered over to our table and thanked us again.

Summer remained for quite a while after that, chatting with her friends, the entire time keeping the poster in her lap and even using it as a megaphone a couple of times. Eventually as she was getting up to leave, Saxton asked for a few autographs and Summer seemed more than happy to oblige. Several others got autographs, but I asked for a picture with her instead.

Original post @ SerenityMovie.Net...