Saxon's BDM Extra-vaganza!

BDM Memories Part One

Home | Serenity Photo | Photo Page | Saxon's Story Part One | Saxon's Story Part Two | More Pix! | Contact Me | Ewok's Story | More Memories | Links | San Diego Con

Thanks to Rosie for this picture!
saxon2.jpg
Think I'll get noticed onscreen?

*sigh*
I don't know where to begin...I feel like Dorothy being swept up into the clouds, landing in OZ and then suddenly sent back to Kansas!

Got up at 4 am (at a motel right next to Universal). We (me, Gingi aka Coffeewench & Ewok aka Jessi & Jim) got up and around in time for Rosie to call and say she would be there in a few minutes. 5 am, Rosie and Carol arrive at our room...hugs, goodmornings and last minute details, and the 'extras' (oh, sorry, Background) are off!

I send us to the wrong gate, and we have to cut back to the right one, just to see that a BUNCH of cars are backed up at the entrance. We give our IDs to the gal at the gate, she says Jim's and Gingi's are on the list , but mine is not! We have to pull off to the side of the road and use a special phone to get someone to vouch for me. They do, and I get my pass. We park, and are off to find Stage 12. We find it and are told to go to Stage 6 for check-in. I meet Audrey and Sasha. This is the 'holding area' that we will come back to off and on all day. They are serving breakfast and it smelled GREAT! There are other 'background people' there (Gingi was told not to use the "E" word, as 'extra' is somewhat insulting...Background is more 'professional'!!). Most of the guys are eating already. I was told to go to Wardrobe first to get dressed. I do. Then, I'm told to go to Make up, but the line is very long. So I am then to told to go get my hair readied for my wig. I go into a trailer and the gal starts pin curling my hair to my scalp. Then she puts a tiny little nylon cap over all and pins that to my head/hair. VERY ATTRACTIVE!! *right* I sure don't wanna meet up with anyone I know...or anyone I'd like to know...right? So, of course I see DVD guy Jeremy walk by!! lol! I remind of of who I am, and get back into the make up line. Gingi is there, in her costume talking to other BG (background), one cute gal is a fan/extra, she's doing BG work but is also a fan of the show! It was funny how most of the folks had no idea what the show was, and most didn't care. A few who had heard of it were asking questions though, so that was cool.

The line is really long for Make up, so Gingi says she's going to go see where Jim is, and goes off into the holding area. Just then, who should walk up, all unshaven, bed headed, wiping the sleep from his eyes? ALAN!! He is walking right toward me, looks up after rubbing is face and makes eye contact with me! I say "Hi Alan", and babble something about being a fan, and how great it is to be there, he is very nice and shakes my hand. I mention another fan/extra  named Rosie that he might remember from a couple of weeks ago, that he also met her at the LA Comic Con...and he cuts me off and say, 'Oh yes, we took a picture together!', I say, that she says "hi" and that she wanted me to give him some copies of the pix. I say I'll try to find him later and he says 'great' and tells me how nice it is for us to come down and all...so nice...he shakes my hand and says "nice to meet you Saxon" (I guess I introduced myself that way...I keep forgetting I have a REAL name!!). He walked up to the wagon/trailer where they were making omelettes, while I was all giddy...even with the wig cap on my head!!

Gingi comes back and I tell her all about it...then, since the line is still long, I am sent to get my wig on. I go into the trailer and I am sent to Randy's chair. He was really nice and funny...he checks my wig cap, while I look around...the trailer is full of pix of images that are defining the 'look' they want the different characters to have. There are bits of hair in little baggies on the wall behind me. Braids, ponytails, odds and ends of all sorts. All of a sudden I see the wig Randy has for me!! OMIGOSH!! Now, I'm dressed in a karate type burnt orange gi, with a beige kimono over it, so I'm figuring I'm gonna get a little black short cropped number right? Well, it's the extact style I imagined, the 'asian' cut...but it is NEON ELECTRIC BLUE!! He secures is to my head, making jokes about it not hurting, 'yet', saying to let him know if anything is bothering me, since I'll be in it all day. He says, 'they said we'd have a little blue haired lady, but I didn't envision this!' Now I have this short little blue thing on my head, and I'm thinking well, it could be worse...and before the thought can gel in my head, he starts to 'tease' the hair, making it stand up in spikey points! He 'rats' it all over, and gathers sections up and puts bright orange pipe cleaners on the ends of the spikes! He takes a necklace with bright orange plastic flowers on it and fastens it to my head like a headband of sorts...oh yeah, there go my plans of blending into the background! Randy tells me that the last picture he worked on for Universal was "The Grinch" so he was tryin' not to give me "Who" hair...uh-oh...I told him it was sort of 'Wilma Flintstone meets Jane Jetson", and he says, "yes, if Wilma Flintstone and Jane Jetson had a love child, you'd be it!!". I thank Randy, and all the other hair dressers go on and on about how cute it is.

Then I go back to make up. After all the wait for make up, all they do is give me 'lips'! Oh well. They tell me I'm done, and can get some breakfast now. *yeah right, I got these dark red 'I Love Lucy' lips goin' on!*  I didn't want to get a full omelette, so I look to see what else they had and ended up with a slice of watermelon and about a teaspoon of oatmeal that wasn't very liquidy at that point! I'm sure most of the women there did not get breakfast unless they did so before they went off to all the stops!

Things start getting fuzzy here...so I'm sure I'm gonna report out of order...I can't remember when I saw Gingi's hair....I think it was before I got mine done...ack...I'll have to ask her. I just remember her face when she saw mine!! OMIGOSH! It was hi-larious! I think she was still waiting in the make up line at that point. Yeah, she hadn't gotten her hair done yet either...so she was sent off to get her hair done. I walked into the 'holding area' and Jim caught site of me...it was funny, the looks are priceless...when I passed Jeremy, I just said, 'keep walkin' mister'...he was grinning from ear to ear!

Anyway, I saw a lady with one of the pointy asain hats on, so I figured it must be Erin (DG), so I asked, it was, we hugged, and I met her husband and also Conrad and Brian (Jeremy's friend who came with him from Utah). We all visited while I carefully ate my melon.

There was a gal there from DC who'd won an auction for a 'walk on'! Some of the professional BG people were sitting with us at the 'fan' table! Gingi came in and wow'ed everyone with her hair!! She got her make up done and it was awesome too! My kid dyes her hair red, and has just done it, so it was kind of a bright dark red...it's cut short, in layers...when she walked in, I thought for sure they'd added hair! They teased it and spiked it straight UP! They added silk flowers in the front across the top like a head band...it was soooo cute!!

Jim was in his 'space biker' stuff, and we all just visited for a while. Erin and her hubby and I took some pix.

I went over to thank Sasha for all her help...she is very sweet and YOUNG! She gave me a big hug! I took some pix of her. She had on a cord Zoe-type necklace (except it was longer) on and I commented on it...she didn't know anything about it! She said she just liked it! I took a pic of that! I also told her about the cakes being delievered at 2, she didn't know about those either!

Just as I was discussing the show with a guy who was sitting there, Erin came up and said we should walk out past the smokers and see who we might see...so, we started out...just as Audrey came in and said we were gonna have some announcements! *drat*

We are told that we are going over to Stage 12, and that we need to have our costumes and stuff 'checked'. So we get into a 'line up' of sorts. One gal motions to another and she comes and tells me to take off the outer kimono. So now my costume is just just the orange and black pants with the burnt orange karate gi. AND the hair!! Some of the people have been assigned definate 'roles' and they are pulled out. The rest of us go on over to Stage 12. We walk past the trailers/dressing rooms...seeing names like 'Inara', 'Mal'...on them!!

NOW, I gotta say, I'm pretty much confused and befuddle from here on...too much too see...and my brain is small, or possibly missing!

Hopefully others will report better than I am at this point. We went into the studio, were given our props (I got a purse), gave our names (we would be checked for all props before we left) *they are on to us!* And then we had to all gather in the huge stage area...Erin and I get behind, and don't know where to go...we thought they went to the left....but we start that way and can't see anyone...so we go back...and they aren't that way...we go back and forth, giggling like school girls and then are told to go the other way, where we find them. Apparently we did go the wrong way...we took a short cut. *darn it* and missed seeing some stuff!

Oh well...

We walk around in front of the 'nose' of Serenity! (Gingi keeps calling it the Melennium Falcon!). We walk into a very 'busy' area. Lot's of stuff in a very tight space. I don't want to go into to any detail that might be considered spoilerish, but I will say that everything is taking place at the 'front door' of Serenity. We all mill around while one of the 'helpers' (sorry, can't remember her name or title), tells each person where to be, what they will be doing. I'm tapped on my arm, and told, "here, I got you a husband"! I'm introduced to Marv. He is a regular BG guy, been doing it since February and was very funny and nice. I'm told what I will be doing, and see that Conrad is gonna be there with me! Yay, two Browncoats in one 'set/scene'! Right next to us is DG and her hubby! I look around to see if I can see Gingi and Jim and I see her RIGHT AT the door of Serenity! She grins and mimes "we're a couple!!". She was so worried that she and Jim would be seperated. We stand around and every time one of us Browncoats caught sight of one of the BDHs we'd pass the word along...trying to be quiet and discrete! Gingi and Jim were RIGHT there, were they all were at, since they were going to be exiting the ship! Everyone was there except Morena and Ron. Gingi keeps trying to motion over to everyone, you know, with her eyes and face...not wanting to point and yell at me, "Mom! There's Adam! or Nathan"...I couldn't see where she was looking most of the time!

Any way, they do a 'safety' annoucement, warning everyone of an incline that has gravel and is very slippery. Then they tell us that they will rehearse the scene, and then shoot. It was all a blur to me, thank goodness we had Marv, who explained what to listen for! He knew just where the camera was and told me to get 'as much face time as possible without looking at the camera'...I told him I didn't even know WHERE the camera was!!

When they had us waiting to watch how the scene would be played, I saw that Gingi and Jim were being told to walk right out across the paths of the 'stars'!! Oh man! That was freakin' awesome! They practiced a bunch of times. I've told Gingi she needs to write up here memories...cuz most of the stuff she did I didn't see, since it was going on in a different area than me. I do know that she within arms reach of Adam and Nathan!

We rehearsed and shot our scenes, and Marv, Conrad and me had fun saying silly stuff under our breath! Conrad said he was glad his wasn't a mime...it was annoying not being able to speak out loud, yet try to fake a conversation. I noticed that we got pretty good of just repeating our movements over and over.

The ONLY down side to the experience was the smoke! They had lots of smoke, coming from three sides of us! It didn't smell bad, I thought it was incense, but the guys who came and lit it and replaced it said it was walnut shells. It was literally in Marv's and Conrad's faces...I kept stepping away...I was worried Gingi might need an inhaler, but she wasn't that close to it.

Things went on in a blur...rehearse, then shoot, change a bit, rehearse shoot.

It really is shiny that I can honestly say that as to plot and script, I'm still pretty much spoiler free! I know what the scene is, but don't know for sure what the story line is around it, ya know? Watching Joss work was awesome! You can see that he 'sees' this whole story in his head. And it's all being broken down into tiny little puzzle pieces, and he gives out each piece to his troop of crew, and they do their thing and each piece gets made. Awesome!

I think we all went outside then...I think...I can't be sure, cuz I saw Adam walk by and my brain left.

All the Browncoats told me to talk to him, but he was walking toward the trailer/dressing rooms fairly briskly and I didn't want to bother him. Everyone said I'd regret not speaking up...but none of them made a move to talk to him either!! We saw him twice...and I didn't speak up either time...yeah, I do regret it, we didn't get another chance the rest of the day!

One of the times when we (the BG) were all walking out, I noticed a really pretty girl walking next to me...it was Jewel! She walked out with our group...and I thought, I better say something this time! I turned to see if anyone else in our group saw her and no one had, I told the guys to say something, and they wouldn't! I looked and she was pretty far ahead, so I figured I'd blown it, but she stopped to fiddle with her boot, so I said something about her "waving to the fans to confuse them" in reference to her blog entry. And she cracked up. I told her I was from the 'green board', and introduced myself. She was very nice and thanked all of us for coming out! These folks are awesome. As I walked away, Conrad taps me on the shoulder, like 'shame on you!', I told him 'well, where were you? You guys are supposed to keep me from accosting....*just as Alan walks past me*...the TALENT" *as I motion at Alan, he turns and grins!

Okay...I think this is where we had lunch. It was fantastic! We were told to please sit on 'that' side of the room and get our food from 'that' side (two stations were set up, one for BG, one for Cast/crew). I said it was like high school, and we weren't allowed to sit at the 'cool kid's' table! All of the Browncoats sat together, and as I sat down, Gingi said, 'mom, there's Summer'. She came and sat right across from us, on the 'cool kids' side. It was funny letting the guys know she was there...I think Jeremy's brain went off line for a couple of seconds there! :P

Erin told me to speak to her...since I let Adam 'slip by'...I told her I'd spoken to Jewel, so it was her turn! She went over and very nicely told Summer who she and we were...Summer was so nice! I'll let DG fill in these blanks. We also saw that Jewel and Nathan came in to eat, but none of the others did.

Well, we had a really long lunch break, and I was waiting for a chance to get Summer to autograph my t-shirt and the drawing I'd gotten at the LA con, I'd told her about it and said she was jealous cuz she thought it was such a beautiful drawing!

I took the time to call Rosie to check on Ewok, and they told me they were right near where we walk up to Stage 12, so I walked out to see them. They were right at the corner, behind/between some bushes! They went crazy over my blue hair! I told them what was going on with us. I'm not sure if Rosie gave me the info about getting backstage then or not...too blurry headed again. I went ahead and went back inside, cuz I wanted to be sure to get Summer's autograph. She finally finished lunch and I pulled out the drawing and t-shirt. She was very sweet! My camera would not work, but DG got a shot of me and her together. As we were finishing up, I saw that Summer was waiting for a guy that she was supposed to be going back with, I decided to call Ewok...just as I got Rosie, and asked for Jessi, Summer smiled at me, and I said, "Summer can you do me a favor and say hi to my daughter?" *I had told her that Ewok was over at the park with Rosie and her sister*...well, she just didn't say 'hi'...she started a conversation! It was awesome! The guy with her said they had to go, but she kept talking, so he said, 'walk and talk at the same time'...so we both started walking back toward Stage 12, she was telling Jessi how blue and cool my hair was, she asked her where she was, just as we turned the corner I said, 'she's right there', and she told Jessi to wave so she'd know which one was her'. (it was funny, cuz Ewok said when Summer asked 'where are you', she said, "if I say I'm in the bushes will it freak you out?"...Too funny!!

Anyway, she was so great...beyond great! The guy kept telling her she had to go, so I thanked her and she went off...Ewok was flyin' higher than Serenity!!

**I have to stop for awhile...my hubby is home and I haven't seen him since Sunday!**

more later!