What happens in Vegas...and/or Santa Clarita

Sometimes the best thing about this internship are the wonderful surprises from Liz that grace our email inboxes at 1am. Most recently we received word that we would be visiting Liz's mentor and friend, Gary Fleder, as he directed Episode 101 for the upcoming show, Vegas (starring Michael Chiklis and Dennis Quaid...yes, we were excited too).  After a busy day in the Min we hopped in the car and drove into the desert wasteland that is Santa Clarita where many shows are and have been shot including Liz's episodes of Franklin and Bash.


When we arrived at the set, we were thoroughly impressed with the magnitude and detail of the whole operation. The production design was amazing, complete with a Vegas strip from the 60's and a fleet of antique prop cars. Additionally there was an extensive Craft services table we took full advantage of.
We arrived on set and Liz went to go say hi to Gary and producer Cathy Konrad who was Liz's former boss a while back, while we tried to remain out of everyone's way during the shoot and still absorb as much as we could. The casino set was absolutely beautiful and watching the whole production team work like a well-oiled machine was both inspiring and daunting as we compared them to our own shoots in our heads. We saw AD's managing hundreds of extras, CameraOps working out shots and ironing out kinks, we saw color-correction working as the shot occurred, and we saw Gary keeping his cool throughout the whole thing, getting the exact performance and shot he wanted throughout all the madness that somehow also made sense.


Gary was so collected that he even made time to speak with us and show us stills on his iPad of color-corrected shots from previous shoot days, which looked awesome and telling us about what it has taken and will take to polish the episode up to his very high standards.
Oh and we forgot to mention in this set, because it is a casino in Vegas in the 60's, there is more hazy "cigarette smoke" than should ever be allowed to exist, and because they were shooting, the air conditioning was off for the most part...with roughly 200 people in a relatively small room in the middle of the desert. Somehow, nobody seemed too fazed. It was actually remarkable how everyone kept pushing through with their jobs at a highly professional level, a state of mind which Gary clearly creates and maintains on set.

Eventually we snuck up the fake stairs of the casino to get a better view of the whole production and who do we see waiting on the side? Our good friend Dennis Quaid, studying lines and just kind of being awesome.

After watching a few more takes and feeling the heat get the better of us, Liz took us to go explore the other sets including the casino office and the 

county jail where we all took mugshots and answered pop quiz questions about what we just saw regarding the procedure for communication for each take in a shoot, the details that are taken into account, and understanding the general movement and flow of a shoot. After another trip to Craft services (read: dinner), we concluded our expedition and said thanks to Gary and got back just in time for our final Maxwellton Workshop meeting. 

                 
                  The Minmates

               

                        Chief Minmate Allen--Arrested for owning a sweatshop of interns in the back of her house

Minmate Hayes--Arrested for indecent exposure and sass

                            (PICTURE REMOVED FOR DECENCY)

                             Minmate Davis--Arrested for possession of illegal substances and microphones

                      

               Minmate Turk--Arrested for violently snarky behavior in a crowded area and disturbing the peace

All in all it was a fantastic opportunity as per the norm with this internship and obviously a lot of fun, but nevertheless, it was still not taken for granted and a great expedition.

Huge thanks to Gary and the Vegas Team! Can't wait to see the episode!


--Jesse