Murdoch Mysteries: An Extra's Tale (Part 3)

Where'd I leave off... dinner?  The torn dress?  I do believe we'd returned to Graydon Hall when we left off.

Alrighty, so whilst in hair and makeup, I was paired up with a dance partner for the evening's festivities.  However, this partnership was not to be.  Barely a minute later, we were called down to set whilst my partner was still stuck getting his mustache glued on :P  I was paired with a young girl (a family friend of the lead) and her dance partner, and we were designated 'wallflowers'.  Fine by me; I probably would have died dancing in those shoes anyway.
My situation with the young girl ended up securing me rather more camera time than I'd intended.  She had a 'special role' to make sure she made it on camera, so her and her dance partner were supposed to be followed by the camera as they walked across the room.  This meant I was in two separate shots (unfortunately)... and secured my presence in a few more.
Ironically, I have absolutely no interest in being seen on film.  I hate having my picture/video taken, unless I'm on a horse.  So why you might ask did I apply to be on a tv show?  Purely for the costumes, and the experience.  If I didn't even make it into the episode, I think I'd be just as pleased.
Anyhow, as my friend and her dance partner abandoned me to walk across the room, another gentleman (a 63 year old gentleman... we decided he was my grandfather : P ) was instructed to walk up and keep me company.  He was one of the 'regulars' on the show... one of the constables.  Back on topic.  We pretended to chat for a while (naturally, you can't actually talk during filming, you just have to mouth gibberish) and ended the scene in that matter.
During this scene, two more 'unfortunate events' occurred.  Firstly, a light I was standing next to exploded.  My ears hurt a little, but all in all it wasn't anything too disastrous.  The bigger disaster occurred when I knocked over a large pewter flower arrangement located on a pedestal near me.  I was so embarrassed!  Trust me to bring disaster in my wake.
The next one we shot was from the other side of the room (the left hand side).  My previous location was occupied by a camera, so I was placed on the other side and left to socialize/walk around.  This was the first angle of the fireworks shot.  Here, I simply walked to the back of the room, and returned to the front when we pretended to see fireworks.  Not particularly exciting.  I did have another 'unfortunate event' though, as the seam sealing the top part of my dress to the train and the skirt magically lost all of its stitching... time to head back to costumes!
After this, some more time was spent in holding, filling out forms and waiting for them to film a scene I wasn't needed in.  Then, my 'group' was called down, and we headed back.  My constable and I assumed our prior locations (where the young girl, her partner, and myself started off the evening) and spent a solid 10 minutes pretending to have a delightful conversation, while the cameras rolled some important dialogue between the leads.
Gah, WHY did I have to be in the back of THAT shot?  Do you have any idea how difficult it is to PRETEND to talk for 10 straight minutes?  You have no idea when the other person is about to stop/start, what the appropriate gestures would be, whether they're pretending to be pleased/upset/angry.  It's very frustrating.  Especially when they have to shoot the scene over and over again.  We ended up sniffing a lot of flowers, and looking around the room several times ;)
During this time (it was around 2:30am) one of the waiters complained (jokingly of course, as you aren't supposed to actually eat the props) that nobody was taking any of his truffles.  The next time he came around, my constable graciously accepted one, popped it into his mouth, and complemented the flavour... all the while with me giggling madly attempting to contain laughter.  Even better was when he did it again.  So their may be some insane giggling on camera too... Keep in mind that everything's funnier at 2am.
I had another disaster during this time, when my shoes sort of died on me.  All was fixed without another trip to costumes though.
Do not fear, the end is near.  We are now entering the final scene.
At this point in time, everyone was called back down to film the final scene.  Unfortunately, this is when my role as a constable's partner/granddaughter (no pedefiles in the Toronto Constabulary) became rather challenging.  In the final scene, everyone surrounds the doors leading out to the balcony to 'ring in the new year' by 'watching the fireworks.'  the two leads are in the center, just back from the doors, with the main supporting characters off to their left and right.  MY role was to walk past the two leads, and stand infront of the right hand door to watch the fireworks.  RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA!  Gahh.
To make matters even better, I managed to snag my train on the door, and nearly do a face plant when I attempted to move forward and was jerked back, in turn blocking the shot.  Cue the mortification.
Overall, it was a lot of fun.  My series of unfortunate events aside, everything went quite well.  All of the people were polite, kind, and welcoming.  Though I wouldn't do it again, It was a wonderful experience.  It did affirm that I have absolutely NO desire to become an actress though ;)

Murdoch Mysteries: An Extra's Tale (Part 2)

Continuing on from where we left off:

I had quite the hairdo (or so I was told... naturally I can't see the back of my head), which was completed by a nice little feather-and-ribbon thingy which was pinned in to complete the look.  I was also accessorized with a pearl choker, and a not all that period clutch.  Everything aside from the bag was beautiful, though I could have done without the shoes.  You know how most heels have some semblance of padding in them?  These did not.  11 hours in them, and your feet REALLY start to kill.  Oh, and I kept bumping into things with my sleeves.  More on that later though.

So after having my hair done, they quickly covered up the dark shadows beneath my eyes, and putting some pink on my lips I was done.  I was actually surprised they didn't do more with my makeup, but I wasn't about to complain.  I'd have enough of a headache attempting to take out my hair (apparently they did a lot of teasing in the 1890's and early 1900's....) I didn't need to add tons of makeup removal on top of that.  Next we were off to holding to wait out the minutes until we headed off to the lunch hall to eat.

I found it extremely entertaining that they call a meal eaten at 9:00pm lunch.  The food was actually delicious though, much to my surprise.  I guess I got lucky in the dress department, since two of the other ladies I was sitting with had to watch their food intake, since their dresses were so tight!  I had no such qualms :)

To be transported to 'lunch' we were all loaded into vans (with the women covered in plastic wrap [i kid you not] to protect from the rain) and driven five minutes down the road to some church hall.  Unfortunately, whilst loading into the van, the trim on my skirt caught and tore out a little.  Nothing major; it was fixed by a simple safety pin.  However, it marked a bit of a trend to come.

Once arrived home, I headed over to hair & makeup to get a stray lock fixed, and mentioned the hem issue to costumes on the way.  I discovered that this dress was apparently cursed, and was always falling apart. (I should note that in the mean time, even more of the hem had managed to come loose, and more safety-pinning was required). Itherefore claim no responsibility for any of the events that followed; after all, the dress was cursed... not me.

Murdoch Mysteries: An Extra's Tale (Part 1)

Though this may not does not pertain specifically to horses, as this is more like a personal journal than a blog (though I love the comments!) I figured I may as well chronicle it anyway.
On Monday we were told that the call time and other specific instructions would be emailed to us the next morning.  At 9:30 pm on Tuesday (keep in mind we`re supposed to be filming on Wednesday) we received word that the call time would be approx. 12:30pm the next day, but they wouldn`t know till they were done filming.  It wasn`t till about 11:30 that they said (in essence) that they`d notify us of a specific time the next morning.
So Wednesday morning, they emailed to say that the call time had been pushed back 4.5hours and was now 5:00.  So I went to the barn, rode Cadence, and then decided that I might as well go into school.  (I most definitely had my priorities straight:  horse first, then school) On the way into Toronto, we got caught in some major traffic, and ended up being .5h late (5:30) but it wasn`t much of an issue, as there was a back log of people in hair and makeup anyways.
Okay, so currently we`re sitting at about 5:30pm on Wednesday the 9th of October.  We (Laura and I) arrive, check in, and while Laura gets her makeup done, the costumes people set me up with a dress!  I had this beautiful purplish-grey gown with a massive lilac-ish coloured train.  A petticoat, a butt-pillow, and a pair of turn of the century heals rounded off the ensemble.  Once dressed, I headed off to wait for hair and makeup to complete the look.

Our location:  the beautiful Graydon Hall

Cheater Post

Filming wrapped at 3:45am today.  I got home at 5, and slept for 3 1/2h before getting up to go into school.  I skipped physics, but who can honestly handle physics on (what would have been) 1 1/2h (atm ost) of sleep?
The whole experience was wonderful.  Everybody was so kind and helpful, in spite of the late night!  Despite all that, it did affirm one thing: I have no desire to become an actress, lead or otherwise.  I also don't think I'd extra again, unless it was on a favourite TV show kind of thing.  While it was fun, its one of those things that's a bit more of a once in a life time's experience.
I wish I'd brought a camera to take pictures!  When my brain resumes its regular functions, I'll attempt to scrounge some off of other people, and write a slightly more detailed post equipped with tales of exploding lights, cursed dresses, and a turn of the century new years eve party.

The TV Industry

So my career as an extra has thus far proved to be... interesting?  (Much like the equine industry) everything seems to be last minute, constantly changing, and nobody's ever QUITE sure what's going on till under 24h before it happens.  My friend and I got our confirmed call time at 8:50 this morning, when the initial call time we'd received was 12 noon.  Keep in mind it takes 1 1/2h to drive to the filming location....
Anyhow, at 10:30 last night, they didn't know what today's call time would be since they hadn't finished filming.  So this morning we got our call time: 5pm.
Their estimated time for filming to be over for today?  Between 3 and 4 am.
The reason it had been bumped up by 4.5h?  They ended late last night.
Okay, if someone can help me understand why ending late last night means we should bump things back so we can end even later tonight, I'd love to know.

In other news, the concert was fantastic.  Noel was hilarious, and the music was superb.  Additionally, the drummer of the opening band had awesome shoes.

A Host of Updates

First off, I'm not sure if anyone read Sad News: For Sale, but if you did then you'll remember my comments about a show called Murdoch Mysteries.  Well, last night they emailed and they have space for my friend (Laura) and I on Wednesday's show!  So it looks like we'll make it on the show after all.  They may very well cut our scene, but alas I'm in it for the Victorian era clothing, not the fame and fortune that comes with being an extra ;)

Next, Cadence and I had a wonderful jumping lesson.  We worked on getting that nice round jump, something that we tend to lose since the Mare has enough ability to easily pop over anything we present her with.  As a result, she gets long and flat, and avoids building muscle.  We also came within millimeters of squishing my coach's dog, since she ran out into the middle of the grid we were jumping.  It effectively backed Cadence off though!  Something I'd been much less successful with.

Lastly, I'm off to see Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds!  My excitement levels have sky rocketed.  Ciao!