Hello Smallville, Goodbye

Two months ago, my classmates and I went to Smallville for a little fieldtrip since our instructor’s friend was the director-slash-cinematographer of the show. We sat with the actors and set design crew before being toured to the different sets. The place is a series of huge studios, and the sets are all amazingly detailed. The last time I watched the series I was in high school so I’m not familiar with the set locations (and actors). My classmate uploaded just a few photos. But here’s a gist of the tour:

Carpooled over to the set (and raced just a teeny bit).

This is the set they use when they have to pretend they’re in some other country or for outdoor street scenes. That’s the thing about set design, camera angles and shooting, it’s all about the tricks.

Going inside where they were shooting, we passed by the craft table. I don’t know how actors restrain themselves from eating everything in sight.

Sitting with the cast and crew while waiting for our tour to start. We had some Q & A and a little chitchat with Tom Welling and Cassidy Freeman. 

So this is a machine I am not familiar with.

One of my favorite sets (and the only photo we have of it)

The ice thinggy… 

Because this is the Hollywood of the North we’ve had the opportunity to watch shows and look at sets from series such as Supernatural and Mr. Young. It was a good experience, the atmosphere was laidback and the people were very friendly save for that one woman who probably woke on the other side of the bed. You would expect the actors to put on an attitude but no, the actress with us gamely asked about film school and our main focus. When it was my turn I told her I wanted to pursue animation and she asked me if I've done any. I told her I would draw on paper and animate them using Final Cut but before I could finish, this lady sitting in front of me said "Sure, everyone can draw and move the pictures on paper, we've done that when we were kids". I was taken aback mainly by how rude she was and how sarcastically she said it but the actress brushed her off and told me that she thought it was amazing what I could do. She had a sister-in-law who was an animator and she went on to ask me if I had a pen tablet too. The other time, my classmate jokingly pointed at the green screen and said "Ooh, what's that?" the same lady looked up from her knitting and rolled her eyes "It's a green screen." there was no mistaking the tone of her voice.  Good thing my friend was quick to respond "I know. I was just joking." That should have shut her up. Other than that incident, the tour went without a hitch and the rest of the crew including Superman... were nice.

People who've been part of a crew know how to value all the work that happens behind the scenes. The crew is the most valuable group of people you could have yet they sometimes get treated like crap and even treat each other like crap,  the wage isn’t even that good. I guess that's what made me think twice about entering the film industry. Hopefully though the industry could slowly change the way things are. Yeah I'd want to change that. I used to dream about being the dictator of the entire industry and how they all had to abide by my moral codes. I doubt that's ever gonna happen but still...