Week five started off with a busy schedule, which I was hoping to have a good night sleep for, but I didn’t find out until 11 p.m. Sunday that I was going to have to be downtown Monday morning at 6:30 a.m. This means that I was going to have to be up at 4:45 Monday morning to catch an early train. Thank you Greg. Fortunately for me, I can take an hour nap on the ride up, so I shouldn’t complain too much.

Man I sure was tired on the train ride into the office.
Man I sure was tired on the train ride into the office.

As soon as I arrived at the office, Ed and I started to unload equipment to bring up to the office. We had a young actress, Whitney, coming in to the office to be our talent for a video. I’m pretty used to loading and unloading the truck by now, but I did have a unique experience while bringing equipment up to the building.

Instead of using the front door and the main elevators, we had to bring the equipment down the side of the building and up through the service elevator. Ok, that doesn’t sound too unique, but it gets better. As Ed and I got to the ramp up to the building, we had a tough time getting to the ramp. There is scaffolding on the side of the building for God knows what. (All I’ve heard about it is that there are workers drilling into the building.) They have little rooftops built so if anything falls, it will not hit anyone down below. Ed and I worked and worked to squeeze the fully loaded carts of equipment through this tight space to get to the ramp. We were pushing and turning and lifting over and over. It was very cramped. Ed decided to go to the front of the cart and pull while I was at the other and of the cart to push. We start to move everything up the ramp and I slip, almost falling back to the ground. Somehow I caught myself, but that wasn’t even the worst part of it. I look down to see what I slipped on, and there was some dog poop there looking up at me. I look at Ed and say, “Wow, who the heck walks their dog way back here in the alley?” Ed was quick to respond, telling me that there aren’t any dogs that come back here. I’m sure you can put two and two together…it wasn’t pretty.

I dont think that anyone ever walks their dog here...
I dont think that anyone ever walks their dog here…

Once we were inside, we got back to work. We set up a green screen and camera upstairs, and got to work fast. Once again, other than setting up the equipment, I handled some business on the slate, and I also took notes. I’m telling you, if someone were looking to hire a person to slate everything, I would be the man for the job.

Slating is a very tough, and important job.
Slating is a very tough, and important job.

 

Whitney did a great job on her scenes against the green screen we set up in the office. She said it looked like I was a good slate operator too, which made me blush a bit.
Whitney did a great job on her scenes against the green screen we set up in the office. She said it looked like I was a good slate operator too, which made me blush a bit.

Our talent worked out great. We finished the shoot with her fairly quickly, packed the equipment up, and then we were off to UIC Medical Center once again to finish shooting for the Transparent Health Project. Ed and I shipped off to UIC right away and got all the equipment into the hospital. We had asked Tim, one of the doctors working with us, where we should stage all the equipment. All of the hallways are pretty tight, and we didn’t want to leave our equipment in a place where it would be in the way. Tim found us a hallway that he thought wasn’t going to be used, so we staged everything there. Tim ran off to a meeting, and Ed and I waited for Michael and Greg to show up. While waiting, I think everyone in the hospital came through that hallway. And many people came through wondering what movie we were filming. As much as I wanted to tell them we were shooting some important scene for some big film, I didn’t. I still want to do that before the summer is over though…I will.

Scrubs just make you look smarter in my opinion.
Scrubs just make you look smarter in my opinion.

We initially set up for scenes in the operating room. This time, our entire crew was wearing scrubs. We were all able to make cameos as extras in the project, but I think Kromm had the best cameo. During a staged operating scene, Michael was in the background creeping through a tiny window. He really isn’t that easy to spot, but it gave me a good laugh to see him in the background.

Getting ready to film in the operating room at UIC.
Getting ready to film in the operating room at UIC.

 

Reviewing a scene. I had to read the narration out loud to make sure the scene timing was correct.
Reviewing a scene. I had to read the narration out loud to make sure the scene timing was correct.

 

We finished up shooting there, and Greg, Michael and I hitched a ride with the other doctor we worked with, David. David drove a beautiful Mercedes Benz, which I think Greg partially broke. As soon as we got into the car, the dome light would stay on, and nobody could figure out what was wrong. Greg seemed pretty worried about it, so I thought it would be easiest to blame it on him.

Loading up at 11pm after a 17 hour day of filming
Loading up at 11pm after a 17 hour day of filming

The long day ended late, so instead of heading home to New Lenox for the night, I ended up staying with Michael and Greg downtown. We got back and immediately had a drink to celebrate the end of a long, successful day. We were all starving, so we threw out ideas for food. I don’t think I’m too picky, but I did make sure that they were not planning on having any sort of seafood. Pizza was the first choice, but instead we ordered some Chinese. We all made a giant plate of food, and all talking ceased. We turned on an episode of Deadliest Catch, and just demolished our plates. It was like none of us had eaten anything in weeks. I don’t know if any of us were even breathing. As soon as I finished eating, I had to lie down before I fell into a coma on the couch.
The next morning we took the train into town, and we had a much more relaxed day. I did make sure to grab my McDonalds breakfast to start the day off right. I was busy uploading production photos and videos on to the SolidLine Media Facebook page. I know it sounds like it is a quick task, but when there are roughly 20-30 picture albums, and 15-25 videos to upload, it can take some time.  Plus, Mike Petrik kept bugging me with his silly faces.

Mike Petrik can be really distracting.
Mike Petrik can be really distracting.

Also, I did get somewhat sidetracked watching some of the Michael Jackson memorial on television, which was ridiculous. I uploaded as many albums and videos until it was time to go, and then I was off to New Lenox and back to cutting grass.  I’ve gotta make some money somehow! All in all, the two days flew by, and the SolidLine crew was able to get a lot accomplished.

cb

You can contact summer intern Mike Radostits (aka “Cornbread”) at [email protected].

For more information about SolidLine Media, visit us online at www.solidlinemedia.smartwebsitedesign.com.  Or call 312-939-8600.

Copyright 2009 SolidLine Media, a division of KV Media Group, Inc.

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