THREE RIVERS - DAY TWO
It's only taking me a week to get this up, lol.
Aaaall right. So! Wednesday.
I get up at quarter after 6, knowing full-well that I am getting up earlier than necessary, but I thought that would be okay. Lissa had called me sometime around midnight, but I was dead asleep, so I don't even think I heard the phone ring - I do remember looking at my phone and seeing that there was a message, but I decided it was definitely not important enough to wake up for. So, in the morning, it was Lissa telling me I didn't need to go to set until 10:30. So I had some time to kill.
I had heard from Carol Ann at some point on Tuesday that she heard Alex O saying he had to do some sort of CBS stuff on Wednesday, so I was fully expecting NOT to see him. This was doubly confirmed when I returned my scrubs and Ginnie said that I wouldn't need my green Pgh scrubs again. So, alas, I felt that I was doomed to two days of no Alex O.
Wanted to get my work laptop and aircard to bring with me to set, but, after talking to Crystal online, she said Renee had the aircard, so I was out of luck. This was the ONE time I wished that I had a blackberry or something, with which I cound pass my time. I DID pack a bunch of snacks, though. I was going to be prepared.
When I arrived, there were new people I didn't know, and no sign of Carol Ann or Kelly. It would seem, despite Carol Ann saying she was coming back, she didn't - maybe because she worked until midnight the night before?
I met new people - Leo, who is a dead ringer for Tom Cavanaugh (and, thus, was cute, lol) Brian and Patrice.
Bruce was there, too - which reminds me, I have to write back to him! He showed up to get my e-mail so he could find out how the rest of filming went. I still haven't written back :x Bad me.
Alejandra, who was there on Tuesday, came back. She was from Fox Chapel and originally from Mexico, so she had a cute accent.
Also three other girls, one named Danielle, and... I don't remember the other two.
It was a smaller group on Wednesday, and since I didn't have my pink nurses from the day before to chat with, I got to meet this whole bunch of new people.
All right, soooo. Once I get myself into pink scrubs and all the rest of us are dressed, we go to get propped up... but then Dan is still walking around, saying how a bunch of unexpected stuff was going on. He then stops us, like, three people into getting props (right after I got mine - my new name: Kathy Susko) and asks everyone "if we could come back."
I told him that I would be back Thursday, but I wasn't sure about any other day. He proceded to kinda ignore me after that and work on other people.
So Patrice, Alejandra and I ended up being the only ones sitting in holding while everyone else got to wear brown scrubs (ew, South Carolina has an ugly color pallette, lol) and they got to be "Featured Extras" in the South Carolina scenes. I was like, aaaaaw, man! I was super bummed for a while - though, at the same time, kiiinda okay with it, because I was thinking, well, I don't want to be a SC nurse. I want to be a Pgh nurse!
So we sit around for a while by ourselves, then Dan comes back and gets us and takes us down to the dialysis building. If you saw on my ER floor plan, there is a door to the outside. We got walked through there (... it was a little surreal seeing the ER with all the lights off and nobody in there, as opposed to yesterday, where it was bright and bustling with set activity!) outside to the dialysis building. This was... oooh... 50 yards away, something like that. The problem with this was that Wednesday was CLOUDY and COLD and we were wearing light cotton scrubs and it was *COLD.* I wanted a coat.
So Alejandra, Patrice and I are told to wait right inside the door - which didn't close all day - where people were walking around... and... it was cold. But we were only there maybe 10 minutes before Dan took us back up to holding.
The three of us were waiting around for an hour, at least. There were no snacks in holding this time. I was sitting there kicking myself, being like, man, why didn't you say you could come back any day? But, eventually, we got taken down to the building again.
This is MOST of the dialysis building - it wasn't super big. We were standing around by the "outside" door when we were brought down earlier.
So we are told to sit down in some chairs across from the nurse's station. The space between the chairs and the station is really only wide enough for one person to walk through at a time - to give you a size idea (though the whole thing isn't really to scale. lol)
So while we were sitting in the chairs, we got to watch lots of setup. The actors -- Katherine "Kate" Moennig, Christopher J. Hanke who was playing "Ryan" Daniel Henney, an Indian guy whose name I do not know, a big, tall older dude, whose character name was "Yorn," and a black guy whose real name was, I believe, William.
While we were sitting in the chairs, all the cast members went over into the nurse's station at #2 in this tight little circle -- Alejandra commented it looked like they were going to pray, which I totally thought, as well, lol -- but they were rehearsing the scene. Meanwhile, a lady came over and combed my hair. lol.
Anyway. Dan had me stand at #1, which was in an extremely narrow little... hallway area. They had camera equipment carts in there, so it was *really* only one-person wide. However, Dan and I were in there, along with a few camera people that came in sometimes to get stuff out of bags... store their coffee... etc.
So, scene:
Kate and all the other doctors were lined up by the nurse's station, and they were going through the doors into the room with the gurney. Kate was at the head of the group, carrying a cooler with "Three Rivers" on it. Doctors burst into the ER
Kate: [something about harvesting the organs]
William, the South Carolina surgeon: I'm splitting the liver, it will take about two hours
Kate: No no no, I'm not making my patient wait that long. You can take the liver out and cut it on the table.
William: I'm old-fashioned, I prefer to do it in the body.
Yorn, coming from... the side, somewhere: Oh, no, it's you again [addressing Kate]
Kate: Yorn. Great. This guy wants to split the liver in the body.
Yorn: Great, I could use lunch.
Kate: No, I'm not waiting. Ryan, start the slush.
Ryan: ... what?
Daniel Henney: [3 bags... something like that...]
Ryan, speaking quickly and nervously: I... I ... I dunno what that is.
Kate: What?
Ryan: I'm supposed to assist the person with medical training. I was a stringer for the paper in Cleveland.
Kate: So you don't have medical training?
Ryan: No, I did the news.
Yorn: Will you two clear out of here so people with real medical training can work?
Kate: [something about not leaving]
Yorn: Someone get this woman out of here, she's clearly unstable!
Nurse enters: Stop what you're doing, everybody, this girl's mother didn't approve the donation. Everything's on hold.
Kate; Can't you talk to her and ger her to change her mind?
Nurse: I can't do that.
Kate: Well, I'm not letting my patient die where there are perfectly good organs right there!
So that was a fairly long scene. They had to do a LOT of takes.
WHILE that was going on, Dan had me walking from #1, over to the nurse's station, #2, then I would meander over to #3, where there was a little coffee area, microwave, sink, over to #4, which was a glassed-in room, and then sometimes right next to the doors to the OR, where they had a big shelf of scrubs. Patrice and Alejandra were doing this, too. He had to cue the nurse to go in toward the end of the scene, so Dan just told us to do stuff on our own and look busy.
Well, the first time I went over to #2, I picked up a manila envelope on the desk and pulled out whatever was inside. Turns out, it was THE SCRIPT!!! It wasn't the whole script, but it was about eight pages worth. So, every take, I would open up the manila envelope and flip through more of the script.
Stand-out part:
INT: Three Rivers
CLOSE-UP: Andy's gloved, skilled hands, suturing a valve...
I might have blushed, lol, daydreaming about Alex's skilled hands for the rest of the shot, and every time I read the sentence thereafter ;)
Otherwise, I spent pretty much that whole scene SNOOPING. I would go over to the kitchenette at #3, look through drawers, pour pretend coffee, take mugs back to the nurse's station; pick up scrubs and take them into the room at #4; stand around and talk to Alejandra and Patrice. It was entertaining.
Some random observations during this period:
- Kate Moennig, while flat, really should wear a bra. It was cold in there. You could tell.
- William was super sweet. He introduced himself and asked if it was my first day filming and if I was having fun. He also offered to steal us some food from catering, but got scared when we told him about the forks-in-eyes thng. He did eventually steal us a pack of gum. Aw. lol.
- Christopher was also very nice - he talked to us twice, asking how we heard about the filming and if we got paid.
- They had an excellent mix of skin tones, between pale me, hispanic Alejandra and very dark-skinned Patrice.
- There was a lot of weird crap still at that hospital. We found a drug booklet from the late 80s.
- Dan was pretty cute.
So I have no idea what time it was when we finished this scene. My watch was up in holding, as were *my snacks.* There was a catering table near the outside door, but we weren't allowed to go to it. Everyone kept getting water bottles - except us. They brought a plate of cheese slices to Christopher. Between takes, Kate would sit around in a big puffy coat. We didn't have the luxury of coats or chairs.
At *some* point, they heaved a fake dead body up onto the gurney. When they picked it up, as if from some sort of amazingly freakish, gory story, the hand from the fake body dropped down, dead weight, from beneath the draped cloth over the body, and dragged on the floor as they picked it up. I won't lie, I squealed girlishly. It was amazingy cinematic - it was a shame they didn't get *that* on camera. lol.
We're going to get into the period here where I preeeeetty much do nothing for a long time. At some point, Alejandra, Patrice and I were considering snuggling together for warmth. (I should note, it wasn't THAT cold, it's just that the building didn't seem to have the heat on, the door was open and a draft was coming down that narrow hallway, and we were wearing scrubs. It was chilly.)
I know we had "lunch" at 7 or 7:30. We went back to holding before that and talked to Dan - I asked if what I heard was true -- if filming was going to run until THREE or FOUR in the MORNING. Dan said yes, that was true. Alejandra, Patrice and I were all very concerned about this - because we had to drive back to our respective homes, an hour to an hour and a half away, and we'd been up since 6, it would be us being up for almost 24 hours with only one meal, and, you know, that was not cool.
But we went to "lunch" at dinnertime - I got a stuffed pepper, some rice, probably some veggies - I forget what all was there. I know I ate all of it.
When we were back in holding, Dan asked me to come with him back to the dialysis building - I brought my phone, my book, my coat and a protein bar with me this time. He told me that one of the real nurses was leaving, so he asked if I would be okay learning some technical stuff. I said that would be fine. So he took me to the other side of the OR, close to #6, but there was an open door on the other side of the OR where I could watch. Kate, Christopher, Daniel and the nurse were in there blocking out the scene with the director.
... I'm not sure if I have mentioned the director as yet, Dan Attias, who wore a Steelers hat the whole time and, due to him, I am now 1 degree away from a great many TV stars! He directed Hurley's original flashback episode about winning the lottery b/c of The Numbers, some eps of Alias (the ep post-Badenweiler; I think the first Sark ep; the ep where Will and Vaughn meet; the ep where Syd pretends to kill Sloane while posing as a Geisha - basically, he worked with Sark a lot! lol) The CONTACT episode of L&C!!! - where Lois got her hair cut for the first time!
... okay, so anyway, enough of my new "one degree" game. lol
Scene blocking, which was interesting to watch. New scene:
10 pm or so in the show; camera pan over to a fake body cavity, where Yorn and Kate are removing organs. In bursts...!
Ryan, in one GIANT breath: The liver's going to a guy in Detroit, the lungs are going to a lady in Philly; we've got 48 hours to harvest those organs, both patients are being flown to Three Rivers, we can do the transplant there, and I've got a farmer named (first and last name) who can fly us out of here in his Cherokee. *deep breath for getting that all out!*
Kate: Perfect.
Daniel Henney: You know farmers?
Ryan: I did a story on a group called Angel Flight [or something like that], they're people that offer their planes for use in medical emergencies.
This is during a Hurricane!! The lights flicker and go out!!
Nurse, entering: Everybody okay?
Yorn: Damn, I think I nicked the aorta.
Kate: Get Yablonski on speakerphone!
Ryan gets Andy on the speakerphone in the OR
Kate: We have a perfectly good heart here, but there might be some damage to the aorta. Can you use it?
Voice from crewmember: Yes, bring as much as the aorta as you can with you, I'll try to repair it.
So, they go on blocking a little more, but I wandered back around to the nurse's station, because I was in the way over at #6. I watched the lighting guys do some work on the overhead lights - they put black mesh over them to make it look darker. They covered the windows that faced outside -- so everything was very dim inside. It DID look like it was late at night and they might have been running on emergency lighting. BECAUSE, as mentioned, this was all taking place during a hurricane! o_O
I experessed my concern to Dan one more time about being there so late. He told me that Patrice had left, so he really needed me to stay. He also said there would probably be a second meal. I said okay and sat down at the nurse's station (the one chair that was available, which I could use since Patrice left.)
So they said I would be in the background of that shot, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't. I could see the camera, and it wasn't pointed at me, like it had been in the first shot.
Without a watch and with the lights dimmed like that, it was really hard to tell what time it was. At some point, the other extras came out of the OR. Leo told me they hadn't used him all day - he sat down near me.
They were then focusing on shooting just the lights-going-out part of the scene, where Yorn nicks the aorta. They were going to have me walk by in the background in the dark, and Leo stand there and read a chart (not caring that the lights went out, apparently.) but they decided they didn't like that. So we weren't used.
So the crew started getting chatty somewhere around here, because we'd been there for hours and hours, and everyone was getting bored.
At this point, I talked to Ginny, and she filled in the gaps I had in the story.
So here, ladies and gentleman, is the plot of the pilot of Three Rivers -- I don't know how it will be edited together, so here is the best I can make of it.
Donor: Bride in South Carolina
In South Carolina, a girl is getting married. Some crazy guy comes in and shoots up the church on her wedding day.
She gets shot, eventually is dying, and gets taken to this backwater hospital in SC... and then a hurricane comes. [scenes being shot Wednesday]
They go to harvest her organs, dad signs the papers, but mom doesn't.
Eventually changes her mind (not sure how/why) and Kate and the other doctors get the organs
Recipient: Anton, Basketball player for Duquesne
Collapses during a game (filmed at the Palumbo Center) and is rushed to Three Rivers.
[insert Tuesday's scene]
Dr. Andy (and his skilled, gloved hands) repair a valve problem, but when they go to take him off machines, it's not working. The heart isn't strong enough on it's own. Anton is going to need a new heart.
Anton freaks out over this, doesn't want the new heart - he's about to be signed, and a heart replacement will ruin his basketball career. Dr. Andy explains that he's going to die if he doesn't take the heart. So Anton does.
In the end, apparently the SC mom comes and hears her daughter's heart beating away in Anton.
...
So I don't know that much about the doctors themselves, though. I know Lauren shot a board room scene in the convention center, where Alex said he needed the heart for his patient, Kate I guess was arguing about... something... maybe how her surgery had precedence?
And I've also seen a little online tidbit that, apparently, Dr. Andy is separated from his wife and living in a hotel somewhere. ... Dr. Andy was not wearing a wedding ring.
So that's what I gleaned.
I ALSO got a look at the Call Sheet and found more interesting info. I did get to see all the character names, but, unfortunately, I didn't write them down, and I don't remember. I also found out all the principal actors were staying at the Omni downtown and that they were picked up each day.
I found out that Alex was NOT going to be there Thursday, but he WOULD be there on Friday and Monday - but there weren't extras scheduled for Monday, just Friday.
And it was getting later... and later... and later.
Was chatting with the other extras more. Brian casually dropped reference to his boyfriend earlier, which was awesome. I exchanged e-mail addys with Alejandra - and hen promptly left her card in my nurse's notebook :/ Brian got into a really long convo with the prop mistress, who kept running around with gloves covered in fake blood. We all got to kinda huddling together around 10 at night - even with coats, it was *still* cold.
It around around this time that the catering lady came around with tiny chicken nuggets - didn't offer any to us. A bit later, she came around with a tray of "poppers" - which she DID offer to us! I didn't know what it was, but I took it. I didn't care what it was. lol. I found out it was a jalepeno popper, and even though it was kinda spicy, I ate it anyway. We also got brave and raided the catering table juuuuust a little - I took a cookie and a bottle of water.
Around midnight, they kicked us out of the hallway and moved us into the room next door to the door to the outside -- so, just above my word "outside," we were in that room. Dan got us chairs, sweet guy that he was.
They were filming in the hallway then, so we couldn't be there anymore. At some point, they were filming the mother looking at her dead daughter. We were treated to three "OH MY GOD!"s. ... it was a little funny at the time - hopefully it will be a bit more dramatic on TV.
Around midnight, they were cooking burgers and hotdogs outside. I snuck a cheeseburger.
And then the LAST scene, filmed at 1 am, they had Kate and the other doctors walking down that upper hallway, toward the camera on the right.
They had me walk from #5 to #6 as the doctors passed. The nurse was saying "Dad signed the release, but mom hasn't. Just letting you know. It's a small hospital, you might bump into her." As soon as they passed me, I walked across the hall. So I will *probably* be in that shot, I am the only other person in there.
And so it wasn't in vain that I stayed so late! I was in the LAST shot, and I've got a good chance of being seen on camera in that one.
I did get home amazingly awake - for 3 am. I send an e-mail to Lissa, telling her that if filming was going to go late again, I probably couldn't do it.
Then I went to bed! And I am POSTING this! ... I'll do a wrap-up tomorrow :)