BEHIND THE SCENES: AT THE HOSPITAL

This entry was posted on 9/14/2006 9:37 PM and is filed under production.

Filming in an operational hospital this Saturday with real patients in the adjacent rooms is not as easy as it sounds. That meant eliminating the noise of production by keeping the number of people down to the absolute minimum so we wouldn't disturb anyone. By now, it's probably obvious that we had a very small crew consisting of Gabriele Andres, my Producer/Continuity (taking all the photos), me and my Assistant Director Justin Mashouf with Alison Radei playing a secondary role as our on-set Makeup Artist.

Our FX Makeup Team consisted of Makeup FX Supervisor Frank Guerra, Assistant Makeup FX Supervisor Danny Hernandez and Makeup Artist Alison Radei who had the challenge of handling an entire slate of prosthetics applications in assembly line mode so all three were working at full speed to keep up with the aggressive shooting schedule for this weekend's shoot.

The following day on Sunday, we were joined by Assistant Director Paul Adkins and Production Specialist Will Turner who helped get us through the Cafeteria, Shower Room and Running Montage scenes throughout the hospital.

The many weeks of rehearsal and development that went into this weekend's shoot paid off high dividends in tuned, compelling performances that the Talent were able to repeat consistently for all of the many angles of coverage and the high number of camera setups we filmed.

The setups may not look very impressive, there is no huge, lumbering crew to drag around from setup to setup, my crew is just Gabi, me, Justin and Frank's Makeup Team for the most part so our mobility and setup time was fantastic. Besides extensive rehearsals, that's how we can film more in one day than most productions can manage to film in a week.

Having fewer people with more advanced cross-training, who can think on their feet and handle anything on-set offers more mobility and quickens production several times more than having an entire army for a crew. Everything goes faster but it's up to the Director to know exactly what needs to be done at every moment. That also makes the job a lot tougher on a tiny crew but with high motivation to accomplish their mission, they never drop the ball when the responsibility is their's - they always come through. Look at just some of what we were able to accomplish in just one weekend in THE PANDEMIC REACHES THE HOSPITAL production stills.

Following are some more behind the scenes photographs of the Cast and Crew at work:

Director James Arnett thanks Sarah Frost of Kino Hospital for all of their above and beyond help.	James Arnett frames Actress Teresa Shade playing Evadne for her scene in the hospital locker room.
Assistant Directors Justin Mashouf and Paul Adkins set white balance on the Canon XL-2.	Assistant Directors Justin Mashouf and Paul Adkins pickup camera coverage in the locker room.
Assistant Director Justin Mashouf sets lighting in the corridor using the chinese lantern.	Assistant Director Justin Mashouf pushes the camera dolly for the high speed running shots in the corridor.
Makeup Artist Alison Radei puts the finishing touches on the makeup of Actress Renate Caspers.	Alison Radei sets glycerine on the eruptive small pox sores of Renate Casper's arms.
Actors Donovan Baker and Renate Caspers in makeup between scenes. The reactions Renate got walking past hospital staff were priceless.	Makeup Artist Alison Radei and FX Makeup Supervisor Frank Guerra put Actor Donovan Baker into full makeup.
Asst. Makeup Supervisor Danny Hernandez and Makeup Artist Alison Radei with FX Supervisor Frank Guerra apply makeup to Actress Christina Haro.	Asst. Makeup Supervisor Danny Hernandez and Makeup Artist Alison Radei with FX Supervisor Frank Guerra apply makeup to Actress Christina Haro.
Makeup Artist Alison Radei installs the hypodermic needle into the arm of Actress Denise Blum.	Continuity photo of Actress Denise Blum in her "suicide" scene in the hospital.
Setting up the chinese lantern in the hospital room.	And placing gels on the lights.
James Arnett films day-for-night in Actress Denise Blum's death scene.	Actress Denise Blum in the makeup chair, about to have a hairdoo to die for.
Makeup Artist Alison Radei works on Denise Blum.	Denise Blum gets her hair distressed.
Actress Teresa Shade about to film the scene where her character discovers she's infected.	Assistant Director Justin Mashouf monitors filming from the flat screen outside of the room.
Assistant Director Paul Adkins shows Production Specialist Will Turner how our rig the chinese lantern.	Production Specialist Will Turner picks up on everything fast and makes it look easy.

For this day's meal, we made hummus, kabobs and Mediterranean rice with pine nuts.	Assistant Director Paul Adkins opaques an unwanted light source in the morgue.
Director James Arnett asks for a tweaking of the lighting silk.	Assistant Director Paul Adkins watches over our "Corpse" Actors.
Actress Maxine Gillespie is given her eyeline for the closeup shot.	Actress Maxine Gillespie given blocking instructions for when Santiago Craig enters frame.
Assistant Director Paul Adkins isn't stealing that corpse's socks, he's prepping the Actors.	Actor Santiago Craig and Assistant Director Paul Adkins coordinating their camera cues.
James Arnett and Santiago Craig blocking out the camera move.	James Arnett, Santiago Craig and Maxine Gillespie blocking out the camera move.
Santiago and Maxine running their lines.	Sandy Distel playing dead outside the morgue.
Mike Distel playing dead outside the morgue.	Marlena Holman playing dead outside the morgue.
Lincoln Koester playing dead outside the morgue with his Mom, Jennifer Koester watching nearby.	Maxine Gillespie wearing "Stage 1" FX makeup, about to be transformed into "Stage 2" of the plague.
FX Makeup Supervisor Frank Guerra starts work transforming Maxine into a Stage 2 victim.	FX Makeup Supervisor Frank Guerra applies raised prosthetics to Maxine.
Makeup is applied under what will soon be the final pass of Maxine's transformation.	Frank Guerra leads the FX makeup Team of Specialist Danny Hernandez and Alison Radei.
Frank Guerra rigs the costume of Actress Maxine Gillespie with the pressure tubing.	Frank Guerra fastens the pressure tube nozzle to the inside wrist of Actress Maxine Gillespie.
Frank Guerra rigs the costume of Actress Maxine Gillespie with the pressure tubing.	Frank Guerra conceals the pressure tubing underneath the costume of Actress Maxine Gillespie.
Alison Radei (in back) charges the pneumatics for propelling the effect.	James Arnett doing a verbal walk-thru of the FX cues prior to actual filming of the vomiting effect.
Actress Maxine Gillespie in the traumatic moments following the eruptive vomiting effect operated through a single tube from behind the morgue door.	The effect propelled bile colored matter followed by blood to underscore the painful manner of her character's death.
Actress Maxine Gillespie considering a career change, juding by the expression on her face.	Marlena Holman, Mellissa Distel, Mike Distel and Sandy Distel jump from corpses into Hospital Staff.
Marlena Holman, Sandy Distel, Melissa Distel briefed by A.D. Paul Adkins.	A.D. Justin Mashouf waiting to call out the shot while James Arnett.sets the order of background actions.
Melissa Distel, Marlena Holman, Mike Distel, Sandy Distel ready for ACTION!	Marlena Holman, Melissa Distel, Mike Distel, Sandy Distel and Steve Adelson back into corpse mode.
Our Hospital Staff pulling double duty again as corpses left outside of the hospital rooms.	With their shoes removed and pants rolled up, our Hospital Staff Players played convincing corpses.


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