Episode #52, The Case of the Dragon's Breath, is the final episode of the series. It centers around a game that Bo has been roped into playing, involving clues that Bo must solve and follow, or he will be punished. I play Heather, and it's on Bo and Heather's first date that the game begins when they find a dangerous toy dragon on the front seat of Bo's car.
Day 1 - October 18th, 1999 - Pan Am Building (formerly the Manitoba School for the Deaf)
My call time was for 7:15, which meant I was up at 5:30 since I live out of town. I arrived on the set, and waited in my trailor (which was right beside Blair Slater's and across from John's) until the wardrobe assistant brought me my clothes for the day, which consisted of a Sussex uniform. The first jacket she brought was too small, so I had to get another one. I was still missing my tie and shoes when I was ushered off to hair and make-up.
Katerina is the hair lady, and she brushed my hair, put a cream-stuff on to get rid of fly-aways, and put a headband on me. Then I moved over into the make-up chair and Joyce did my make-up. Half way through, Blair Slater walked in. He introduced himself to my mom, who was sitting by the door, then he said Hi to me, but it was tough to respond 'cause Joyce was putting lipstick on me. Blair is such a funny, super nice guy. I'd never gotten to meet him before, so it was cool to finally get introduced to him.
Once my hair and make-up was all done, I went and got my tie and shoes. Then I had to wait until I got called to set to block (figure out the movements for) the scene. By this time it was 8:00, which is when Meredith and John were supposed to be arriving. I poked my head out of my dressing room door to see if she was around, and sure enough, the two of them were just getting out of the studio van. I said I nervous hi to John (I wasn't quite sure what he thought of me playing his girlfriend) and gave Meredith a big hug. Then we were taken straight to the set to for blocking.
We were shooting in one of the hallways, so that's where we did the blocking. In the original script, I was supposed to walk by and say 'hi' to Bo, but the latest copy I had gotten (they do re-writes even at the last minute) had cut my line and I was just supposed to "bump Bo flirtateously" as I walk by. I asked the director, Richard O'Brien-Moran, how I was supposed to do that, and he told me he was putting my "Hi Bo" back in, so I was very happy about that. :o) It's so much easier than trying to figure out how you "flirtatously bump" someone.
After we figured out how the scene would go, Meredith went to hair and make-up and I went to talk to Wanda, the wardrobe lady, about what I'd be wearing for my scenes with Bo on Wednesday. Once I was finished, I went to say hi to Meredith and I delivered more of the e-mails you guys sent her personally in her trailor. :o) Then Tiffany (aka Tiff), the assistant director (AD) knocked on the door to tell us to head over to the set.
We had to shoot the scene over and over because John kept messing up his lines (I just want to take this opportunity to let you know that I'm not trying to make John look bad - he's a talented actor and others were messing up too - it's just that his mistakes happened to be the most obvious for that scene). Either that, or the little dragon we were using wouldn't work properly - the claws were supposed to spring out when Meredith wound the crank, but it didn't always work. I would either bug Meredith or talk to Blair between takes to kill time. I discovered that Blair is quite the accomplished actor - he has 23 films under his belt, plus Shirley Holmes. Pretty impressive.
The scene took a couple of hours to shoot. I thought I was finished after that, but no one told me to leave, so I went to the school room and did some work with Blair and the tutor, Dana. Meredith joined us soon after to do some work. She had a laptop and was showing me this little dancing paper clip in her word processing program. :o) Then John wandered in and worked on a crossword puzzle. It sounds like a pretty boring time, but it was actually very entertaining being in a room with all of them. :o)
Almost an hour later, we were called back to set to shoot the scene from a different angle - the camera was on me. Ack! We did a few rehearsals first, then we had to shoot it repeatedly again. During one take, I walked by and said "Hi, Bo" like I was supposed to, but John said "Hi Ashley" instead of "Hi Heather" for some reason. Everyone burst out laughing. Why he called me Ashley, I have no idea. And, the very next take, John called Blair by his real name instead of by his character, Bart. It was pretty entertaining, to say the least.
Once shooting on that angle was complete, I went back to the school room. Meredith was needed to film another scene, so it was my mom, Dana the tutor, me and Blair in the room and we had so much fun! We kept talking and laughing too loud, so Tiff, the AD, had to tell us to be quiet, and we'd blame the noise on Blair. She believed us, too. :o)
After a little while, Tiff came back to tell Blair and I that we were both wrapped (finished) for the day. I went back to my trailor, changed, and signed out. Before I left, I tried on my pants for Wednesday's scenes to make sure they fit. They did, but they had to be shortened a little.
After that I headed home, looking forward to getting back on set in a couple of days....
Day 2 - October 20, 1999 - Old Market Square, on King St.
My call time wasn't until 5:30 in the afternoon, so I had to kill a lot of time before I finally got to go to the set.
When the time finally came, I was early, so we were just hanging around "Winnie Land", which is where all the trailers are. I saw Meredith walking towards her trailer, so I went over to say hi. She said they were going out for "lunch" (it was actually supper, but since they started shooting later and it was the first meal of the day, they called it "lunch") because it was John's sister's birthday, and would I like to come? I, of course, said sure and after Meredith and Blair did half an hour of school, we headed out for lunch.
We went to a place called Johnny G's. I sat with Meredith and Blair and we had a very interesting conversation about dreams. Meredith ordered chicken fingers and Blair had a cheeseburger. (In case anyone's interested, I had French Onion soup. :o) ) Before I had a chance to finish my meal, one of the crew members we were with got a call on her walkie-talkie, saying that they needed me on set for blocking. So, everyone headed off, and before I got in the van, I had Blair's dad take a picture of me, Meredith, and Blair. If it turns out okay, I'll put it up on my site. :o)
I was taken to the set, and brought over for blocking. The set was really cool - the shot has me and Bo walking down the sidewalk at night with trees full of little whie lights all around us. We did a couple of run-throughs, then I was whisked back to Winnie Land to get changed and go to hair and make-up.
My wardrobe was sitting in my trailer waiting for me, and it consisted of grey pants from the Gap, a green shirt, my own navy blue jacket, and a grey purse. I quickly changed, then headed over to hair and make-up.
Joyce did my make-up, but they needed me on set right away, so instead of fussing with my hair, they just brushed it and sent me on my way. Then I hopped in the van to go over to the set.
It took us quite a few takes to film the scene. John and I killed time by chatting and insulting each other. I got pretty good at dealing out low blows. :o) They had to stop the traffic from driving by every time we shot the scene - I felt very important stopping traffic. *grin*
After we finished the scene from that angle, they moved the camera to do my close-up. (another ACK!) I ended up messing up one of the takes 'cause I laughed when John started to fall of the curb. :o) John faked being mad at me, so I just reminded him of who ruined the scene on Monday by calling me by the wrong name.
John's close up was next, and he was standing on the street this time, so he couldn't fall. :o) The director wanted leaves sprinkled on the street, so Speedy (aka Ryan, one of the crew) became the Props Fairy and danced around, throwing leaves into the air. It was rather amusing, and my mom got a picture of it. I really hope it turns out. :o)
Next, the camera was moved across the street so we could shoot the scenes in Bo's car. We did John's close-up first, then mine. Kat (the hair lady) and Joyce (the make-up lady) would come and fix me up between each take.
In this scene, we find a dragon on Bo's dashboard. I pick it up, wind the crank, and the claws shoot out and scratch my hand. The last shot we did was a close up of the dragon scratching me. I got to have fake blood on my hand. :o) I had to work it out so that I hid the blood before I was scratched, then reveal it once the claws popped out. It was cool. :o) The dragon had to be re-set with a pair of plyers after each time we did the scene.
We were wrapped after that and I was so sad to leave - I had had SO much fun. It was probably the most fun I'd ever had shooting Shirley Holmes. :o)
*Day 3 - January 10th, 2000 - Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR)
ADR is when you record lines that either are a voice over (such as when Shirley is reading from her journal) or are too quiet in the final cut. I had to do ADR for the first scene in Dragon's Breath.
I went into a soundproof room, where I had my lines on a music
stand, a microphone, headphones, and a TV. There was a big window through
which I could see the sound guys, Mike and John, sitting in the other room. We
could speak to each other through the microphone and headphones.
My scene was played for me once so I could see how it goes. Then, I recorded
each of my lines. The scene was played, and right before the line I was to
record came up, there were 3 bleeps - on the fourth, imaginary bleep, I said my
line and tried to match it up with what I saw on screen.
I ended up with three extra lines, which is good, because it makes more sense that way. :o)
That was about it for ADR - it was a very quick, half-hour proceedure, but it was definitely cool!
