4thWall

On Set with Asylum Entertainment-

Though the agreed upon internship time had ended, it seemed that both Rob and I were interested in working together longer. I had always offered to do anything I could to help, which I’d inherently learn from, in trying to be the best intern I could be. After Rob and I had our pow-wow on a Thursday, about the internship and my goals, I got a call from him that Sunday. Rob expressed how he’d really like to give me a complete view of how things work for my internship and that he hadn’t had something in LA that I could be on set for and see in post. He offered a chance for me to go on set that week and I extended my internship to work on a project with LaPlanet and Asylum Entertainment. That Tuesday I pulled up to the Director’s Guild of America, early as always, and stood on Sunset Boulevard.

At the DGA- Morning on Sunset.

The day began just as you see it, I entered the DGA and was reunited with Rob LaPlante and both Frank, development for LaPlanet Ent., and Lauren, the story producer from the last project. I then met those on the Asylum side of things, the development company that Rob was partnered with through his representation by CAA. I got my first industry call sheet and was off for the day to shoot around LA, shadowing the story producer.

Lauren, Frank, Rob with monitors and notes.

In that extra week I was able to be on set for pilot, driving around LA to different locations, and had a chance to learn the job of a story producer with the story producer that I had worked with on the previous project. The whole day Lauren provided asides as to how things normally work on a production from her experience and examples of how they’ve worked differently as well. She provided a comparison to the last production we had worked on, filling me in on what happened once my work on that pilot had ended and the cross-country shoot began. I found her notes to me really helpful, in that as she would make these comments and I’d take notes that I could see things happening right in front of me opposed to reading or hearing about them and trying to undertand. Though I found some things to be similar to my experience in school and on shoots, there were logistics that I could run by Lauren and get a direct answer which with I was not familiar.

After a day of shooting, I found myself back at the DGA with Lauren to continue the work of the story producer. In the Asylum offices, I was able to sit down with Lauren and go over the footage that was uploaded to their Avid system. I had learned Avid with in grad school with the amazing Neal Coffey and prior had cut 16mm films in undergrad in VPA, Syracuse University’s art school. However seeing an Avid system, and touching for the second time in my life, was a little different. I didn’t understand exactly how the footage was logged and organized but figured it out. I had also never worked with grouped footage and almost wet my pants when I discovered the F5 key’s function, it switches between cameras in the viewer. Lauren saw geeky Avid ♥ and showed me how she uses the program to go through footage and create strings, good bits of footage that tell the story. As I sat with Lauren for the next few days, I watched as she juggled the incoming daily footage with her notes as well as the outline of how she and Rob had dived the it into acts. I picked up some slang and was able to put my two cents in and really understand the saying, “That is so good… but it isn’t this show.” When Lauren had strung something together with a good vibe she would know exactly what was missing and, because the production was on going, was able to contact Frank and Rob to tell them what audio bytes she really needed for the story to be most effective and make sense. I found Lauren’s focus to be impressive, reminding me of Lucy on the assembly line of that famous episode of “I Love Lucy.” I started to get it and she let me give it a go with some footage as well.

Lauren going over her strings with Brad, the editor.

After a few sessions learning from the story producer, I was back on set Saturday for a thirteen hour shoot day. This time on location, Rob had me on both a walkie and listening in on the wireless audio while I watched the monitor. I got to see Rob, the executive producer, in action again and I took furious notes for Lauren from the set. I got to experience the moment when you know you got it and what you just witnessed on the monitor is exactly what your show is about. I got to chat with the crew on set and during lunch, finding that the production manager is from Philly like me and hearing stories from the field.

My very own DGA parking pass!

Sitting in for the subject on set.

In the end, I came away with a pretty good understanding of what it takes to make a reality/docu-drama program, the players involved, and came away with a nice little cut I didn’t notice until someone pointed out that I was bleeding. I mean, what’s a day’s work without a little blood?

Now onto the real world… Wish me luck!