Just worked on "30 Rock" Friday 9/4/09


So much fun! I got called by casting director Barbara McNamara to work on 30 Rock this past Friday..Sept. 4. A really nice, professional crew that knows exactly what they want and is very efficient about lighting, camera work, and getting what they need so nobody has to waste time bumbling around.

My "call time"...the time I had to be there was 4:30pm!! OMG...my last few call times for The Bounty and Law & Order were 6am and 7am!! 4:30pm was a dream...plus I got there just as they were serving dinner....a wonderful spread...absolutely yummy ribs and sushi, and all kinds of various meats and veggies, all served on the 4th floor with huge windows facing the Manhattan skyline and the 59th St. bridge. Oh yeah, 30 Rock films in Queens at Silvercup Studios (NOT in Rockefeller Center at the real 30 Rock, the NBC Studios bldg).

After a quick nosh, I played a game of chess with another actor (Gary Silberman) and then we reported to wardrobe, did a couple of quick camera rehearsals and started filming. My scene was with Jane Krakowski who plays flaky, self-obsessed actress "Jenna". Even though most of 30 Rock shoots down the hall at the infinitely more spacious Stage One, we were down the hall at the smaller Stage Five, the "green screen studio". The back wall is painted a very loud, offensive lime green so they can then do a neat CGI special effect in post-production and add a backdrop where the green wall is. It's called "green screen" effect. In this case, the backdrop would be the country of Iceland. By the way, to complete the effect, we are all in winter jackets with studio a/c turned up and wind machines blowing on us. It's hilarious. I can't wait to see the finished episode.

It's a funny scene where Jenna is in Iceland on a movie set for a movie called Night Stalkers (a werewolf movie) and I play her cameraman. Her entire crew is pissed at her diva antics and their inability to get the movie shot on time and wrapped. She's on set preparing when she gets a cellphone call from her boss Liz (Tina Fey on split screen) in New York, asking her why she isn't finished filming the movie and back in New York yet.

Of course the audience sees why...Jenna's hilarious diva-attitude even though she claims she's "in character and everything" is why the movie is way behind. Plus, the movie is called "Night Stalkers" and apparently they only have a few minutes of dark each night in Iceland and because of Jenna's clueless antics, these few minutes of actual "night" are wasted! Even the "werewolf" is pissed. It's really quite funny.

Silvercup Studios is right by the 59th Bridge from Manhattan to Queens. It's one of the busiest studios on the East coast. They film Ugly Betty there, The Sopranos and Sex and the City both shot there, years ago The Cosby Show, the new "Julie and Julia" film and much more. In fact, the Sex and the City 2 movie was filming across the hall in Stage Two and I just found out I'm working on that film this coming Tuesday! Stay tuned....

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