Michelle Osorio

Um, yeah. So I’ve been working an average of 15 to 16 hours per day and sometimes running errands before and after too, so my posts will be sparse from now on.I got heat stroke the first day of shooting and still worked 16 hours. I got a fever that night and then for a week the most painful, burning sore thrroat of my life. Then I had a cough, but that’s going away. I am woman, hear me roar. I got yelled at a few times for things that weren’t my fault and I seem to have become the unofficial Office P.A. I was also helping the 2nd 2nd AD with cast wrangling for about a day until he realized I keep getting called away to work in the office.

I’ve been driving off campus less and I don’t mind the office work since it keeps me out of the sun, although the production coordinator loves it insanesly cold in here so I wear a sweater when he’s around since he leaves the AC on. So this movie is tough work, but I’m learning so much and getting paid for it so I don’t mind the short turnaround time before returning to set and it’s cool seeing how it gets done on a bigger budget, although it seems like this movie is a half million dollar budget maybe and of course, that’s super low budget by Hollywood standards. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re the lowest budget film on the lot Normally, I guess films with this budget can’t afford to shoot here, but Mr. Rami Rank, production Coordinator extraordinaire, worked out a good deal with Universal since he’s worked on this lot before.

Random thought… Driving the cart is so much fun. It’s like when you were a kid and you went to Disneyland and you wished you could take control of the ride and go wherever you wanted.

Pablo (my friend, and probably the only writer/production assistant ever to exist on a movie set) and I have decided after all this laboring that this definitely inspires us to direct more because it’s a lot more fun being a creative force than picking up trash/cigarette butts on set and being the last to eat at lunch.

Oh, the best moment this week was when we shot at the Chicken Ranch (those of you familiar with the Universal Studios tour know it as the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas house), which we are still at, and some crew people staged a little entertainment for the tourists driving by on the tram rides. The script supervisor stood on the lawn yelling into her cell phone and throwing her coffee cup at one of the camera crew and screaming that she wanted her agent. The tram people seemed pretty shocked as they were driven past the scene. It was hilarious.

Another thing is, when we shot down the street a little ways on Elm Street, it took alot of coordination to pause the Jaws ride so we could shoot (as well as keeping two P.A.s up on Wisteria Lane to hold construction on the Desperate Housewives set). However, yesterday Crossing Jordan was shooting on Elm Street (just below the Chicken Ranch) and they shut down Jaws entirely for them! Wassup wit dat?! It took forever to get in or out of that area in a car(t) because there were three different things shooting at once. Crossing Jordan was shooting something with cops and dogs and gun shots.

Blah blah blah. I need to get back to work and file the release forms for all the extras. Fun!

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Today I worked about 12.5 hours from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. I started out by getting lost trying to get to the front entrance of Universal because I got directions from three different people. No big deal though. The place was cool and so spread out. First we carpooled off the lot to rent a cargo van and a huge passenger van, which I was put in charge of. Then I drove the streets of L.A. alone in this white tank over to the costume designer’s house to pick up her kit and tons of boxes. Drove them to the studio and picked up the production manager, his assistant and a production intern over to Elm Street, where we’re shooting. A quaint curving street where the art department was painting the interior and prepping it for shooting.

Dropped off people here and there and then waited to be called to bring all the wardrobe stuff over when the street was clear enough. Took a long time so I bought a cheeseburger at the Backlot Cafe across from our office for $2.75 (didn’t know when lunch was and didn’t wanna wait). Finally, I actually got sent in my own car to go buy two cases of water (70 bottles). Didn’t want to call the PM and tell him I was lost so I called my Divx pal, David who navigated me to the Smart and Final. Thanks, David. Came back and got clearance to enter the lot with the car (instead of just parking it in the structure at the front). Drove down to Elm and delivered the water bottles and I forget what I did next. Got a ride with the production intern on his nifty golf cart back to the office and we picked up Pablo (another p.a. and my friend). Dropped off all the wardrobe stuff in the wardrobe trailer just past Elm Street and then drove down back to James Stewart Road and continued to the Costume Department.

Made several trips there bringing racks of clothes down the 4 story elevator and loading them in the van. Took them to the wardrobe trailer where we hung them. Ate some pizza at some point too. Can’t remember when. Was working off two hours of sleep. They went to do some other stuff and I set up the walkie talkies, charging them and making an inventory of them. 2nd AD instructed me that on the set I should always carry a couple of charged batteries so when someone’s walkie dies I can switch it immediately and go charge the dead one….Then went back to wardrobe, this time by myself. Finally got to talk to the producer on my way back. He was really great, telling me I did a great job on the last film and that is why I was back and being paid. That felt good. Maneuvered the van a few times, drove around some more.

Dropped off a check worth more than my car to Fotokem for processing cost deposit and then drove down to the company’s main office down in Hollywood helping the p.a.’s prepare the updated script, inserting the pink sheets. Hope we didn’t mess up considering how sleepy I was. Gotta eat, shower and sleep now. Getting up at 4:30 a.m. All exterior shoot tomorrow.

Wow. Gonna be a scorcher, but looking forward to our first day of shooting! Universal Studios is fun. It’s so funny to see the kids wave at you from their tour tram and to hear the Jaws part of the ride going on behind our set. Hehe. Oh yeah and I almost drove into the road where the pond parts like the red sea, in the wrong direction. Luckily someone yelled at me I was going the wrong way. Whose idea was it to combine a theme park with a movie studio anyway?

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First of all. For those of you wondering: no I did not get the Dolphin Show host gig. . Bums me out since I really did such a good job at the audition. Much better than last time when I got a callback even. At least it motivated me to learn the guitar, which is pretty cool. And you know what? Life is funny. Not long after the disheartening news, my friend at Taurus Entertainment said that the producer I worked under for one day at the Day of the Dead 2 reshoots asked for me to return and help on their next production starting next week.

I’ll be on the Universal lot as a production assistant on Creepshow 3. This is my first paying gig for a feature film where I am there the entire time (not just a one-day intern type thing). I’m pretty excited. I am also amazed that Sea World Audio-Video is letting me leave for three weeks (although on my one day off each week, I’ll be driving three hours south back to San Diego to work one shift here at the World). I feel pretty blessed, and if I had gotten the Dolphin gig, I probably wouldn’t have been able to take so much time off already.

It’s pretty cool too that I was remembered from just one day of work back in January. Just goes to show, even in Hollywood, you really can be appreciated if you practice hard work and an above-and-beyond attitude. I thought that would be common up in L.A., but in my experience, a good work ethic is rare in any field. So I’m glad someone up there likes me, and it was a good reminder that, though performing is fun, my true calling is behind the camera.

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