Livin' the Suite Life

So I spent last week working in the production office of the Disney Channel show "The Suite Life on Deck."  The show was on hiatus, which means that they weren't producing an episode that week although the writers were still in and the production office stayed open.  Since The Suite Life was on hiatus, the Disney Channel was producing a pilot for a potential new show on the lot.  One of the regular production assistants from The Suite Life went to work for the pilot, so I took her place for the week.

Day 1 - I was pretty terrified, not gonna lie, considering how young I am and how scary Disney seems from the outside, all giant and corporate and terrifying.  I had similar thoughts about The Public on day one there, though, although minus the corporate thing.  But I soon found everyone I was working with to be pretty welcoming and friendly.  During hiatus week there isn't much frantic activity in the production office, so my duties were mostly going on a few runs and answering phones ("Production, how may I help you?").  I went to Best Buy to get something they needed on the pilot, and to Starbucks to get something (I'm sure you can guess what) they needed in the Suite Life office.

Day 2 - It was actually remarkable how soon I started feeling comfortable at The Suite Life.  I wasn't totally at home by day two, or even by the end of the week, but the learning/comfort curve was WAY steeper here than at The Public (also since at The Public most of what I was doing I did on my own, whereas at The Suite Life all the PAs are in an area together).  On Tuesday I made a run to Smart & Final and Ralph's to restock the kitchen in the production office.  They feed people awfully well on these Disney shows (well... at least on The Suite Life and the pilot they shot last week.  Since The Suite Life wasn't in production we'd all go get the catered breakfast from the set of the pilot and it was AMAZING.)

Day 3 - Ok, honestly, I'm trying to remember everything specific that happened on each day and it's kinda blending together.  But I'll do the best I can.  Yet another reason for why I should get better about keeping an actual journal.  Anyway, Wednesday night I was sent to a postproduction studio and I put the address into my GPS wrong (substituting an 8 for a 6 as the first digit of the address) and ended up in the completely wrong place.  It's funny, because I'd written the address on a postit so I'd know it, then in some brain fart moment threw the postit away.  And when I was inputting the address, I was certain the first digit was 6, then second guessed myself and put 8 instead.  Silly me.  But I found it eventually and dropped off what needed to get there, so it was all OK.  Also, as I was leaving the lot for the day, I'm pretty sure I saw a Jonas brother leaving the stage (more like a fortress, with all the security necessitated by who they are) where they shoot their show, which wasn't super exciting to me but I know it is to a lot of people so I thought I'd share.  I didn't meet a whole lot of "disney channel stars" since it was hiatus week on The Suite Life, but I saw pretty much the whole cast of "Wizards of Waverly Place" since I walked by their stage on my way from my car to the office, I saw one Jonas brother (possibly more, but only one recognizably... the youngest band one, I think that's Nick), and Debby Ryan from "The Suite Life" was in all week for school with the set teacher, so she had lunch with us and although I didn't talk to her a whole lot, she was pretty nice in the few interactions we did have, as was her family.

Day 4 - This was a VERY busy day for me.  I went to the Director's Guild, Starbucks, two postproduction facilities (I picked something up at one and dropped it off at another), a restaurant (to pick up lunch), the post office, and to a far-away parking lot to get this important woman's car and drive it up to the front of the building since the front gate had sent her to a really far away lot.  Oh, and it was raining.

Day 5 - last day.  Not many runs -- I'm pretty sure maybe just one to the post office and then one at the very end of the day to take mail to one of the producers/writers at his house.  There were some interesting/sad phone calls though.  This one kid (a boy) kept calling and asking to talk to Cole Sprouse and hanging up.  He called back one more time asking to talk to Dylan Sprouse.  I happened to pick up on that call (the PAs kinda race for the phones whenever they ring) and I just stayed silent until he hung up.  I also picked up on a call from this little southern girl with SUCH an adorable voice.  She said "Hi, I'm calling about a role for me on the show," to which I responded, "Uh..." She insisted, "I'm very talented," and I said, "I'm sorry, we don't take cold calls about casting, but we do all our casting through central casting so you can look there."  (centralcasting.org, if anyone is super interested.  Also, tickets to the show are released the week of taping at tvtickets.com, if you're interested in that.)

I don't have anything specific on the radar right now, although I'm looking in to a few options.  Well, I do have Biology tutoring for a few of my sister's friends on the horizon, but nothing entertainment industry or travel-wise exciting going on.  Yep.  If you want to read something interested check out blogs by my high school classmates Becca (who's in rural Thailand) and Zack (who just had a ridiculous adventure in China that makes my NYC money issues seem like delicious, delicious angel food cake).  (Zack's link is to his livejournal, not the blog linked to on the side of this page)

Enjoy!