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Lights, camera, action! Don’t cha just love those words? I sure do. It means the production is a go, people are at work, and we’re making movies. Thanks to Wenhwa Tsao, the Director of Graduate Study in Film and Video, I got that opportunity.

Last Saturday the MFA Film and Video Writer/Directors participated in a “production in action” where we served as crew on a scene directed by Wenhwa on the MPC sound stage. It was scheduled to be a three and a half hour shoot, and we (writer/directors) rotated to different departments.

The day started with us meeting in the green room to get our initial briefings and partake in the tasty craft service. In film and television, craft service is the department which provides food and beverages to the other departments. This is arguably the most important department on set. If your stomach isn’t happy, then you aren’t happy. And if you aren’t happy, you probably won’t work particularly hard.

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There is nothing more impressive than seeing the directors step out of the classroom and get their hands calloused doing some crew work. I started off with the art department building walls. We hooked flats to giraffes and secured everything together with c-clamps and sandbags. Did you get that? When I first heard it, I didn’t. I thought they were speaking that 1984 double plus good gibberish. (I can never resist an Orwell reference) I digress.

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A flat is a thin wooden platform that can double as a wall. A giraffe is a strange wooden support beam. It has an elongated end that hooks over the top of the flat. The “hook” gives the support a crude giraffe shape.

C-clamps are clamps that look like the letter “C.” They hold the back edges of the flats together. And finally, sandbags are just what they sound like–bags full of sand. They are placed on the giraffes and hold them in place. You need to take a Rosetta Stone course to keep up with all the verbiage.

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After working with the art department, I switched over to lights. We set up a huge spotlight to shine on the image of a few brownstones. When this is viewed from the camera, it will appear as a suburban background. This is what we call movie magic.

After trying to plug in the big lights, I got to observe Wenhwa discuss character with actors. This was a very directory experience. I enjoyed watching how she allowed the actors define their character. She was masterful in guiding the conversation back to their emotional state. I was a 6’1 fly on the wall. That was until I got rotated to set design.

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Set design is just what it sounds like…or maybe not. You do need a designer’s eye for this job. Here is where we decorated the set to make it look like an apartment. But here’s the rub…there were only two walls. Crazy, right? My favorite part was hanging kitchen fixtures. My secret obsession with all that is HGTV finally paid off. (Let’s keep that HGTV thing between us OK?)

My day ended with the script supervisor. This job was incredibly intense. The script supe, as he/she is called, is responsible for continuity. This person follows the script dialogue during every take. They make sure the actors say the right lines and make sure all their actions are consistent.

Wait! That was not how the day ended. It ended with us eating an American Flag cake. What do you expect? It was a prop. I’m a broke grad student. A match made in heaven. The sugary punctuation was a perfect ending for an intense day.