Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2007 - 13

Special effects crews prepare the
pyrotechnics...

for an all-night shoot at NBC Universal
Studios involving a ﬁery car crash.

PHOTOS FROM THE TELEVISION SERIES , PASSIONS , COURTESY NBC UNIVERSAL .

on stage when they are taping (ﬁlming), go shopping with me
or my assistant, attend production and wardrobe meetings, and
learn all the different roles of costumers. Our department has
very nice people who are always very helpful to our interns."
Several months later I was making my way to Hollywood to
observe and learn how Diana Eden and her wardrobe team operate. Immediately, I felt very welcome at CBS Radford Studios,
becoming part of a busy and highly organized process: daytime
television. "Is it real?" I wondered, while standing on the sound
stage and observing a taping on my ﬁrst day. With precision and
speed the group of approximately 30 on-set workers moved
from episode to episode, from location to location set up on
two separate sound stages. "That is a buy, we are moving on,"
announced the director after each successful episode of shooting. Then a loud voice would boom over their PA, calling out
what was needed for the next scene, "Passions, we're moving
on to item 18. Emily and Galen, please join us on stage ﬁve."
Next, Diana escorted me to the wardrobe department
conveniently located right across the sound stages. "This twoﬂoor building is speciﬁcally designed to accommodate a full
service costume department," she explained. "As you can see
there is a substantial physical space for accumulating character and general stock costumes, as well as an abundance of all
necessary equipment, ﬁxtures, and amenities, including laundry and dying room, kitchen, large workroom, ofﬁces, and an
area for meetings and lounging." As we moved from room to
room, I was impressed by their movement sensitive lighting
system, numerous computers, as well as TV Monitors located
throughout the building, displaying the taping activity on the
sound stage.
My time ﬂew by for the next eight weeks of my internship.
Occasionally overwhelming, the world of Passions spun around
me with its beautiful sets and an endless array of people, from

THEATRE

DESIGN

stage managers, to electricians, to cameramen, to costumers, to
actors. One day in June, they even brought in lions for a shoot!
I kept seeing photographs of an orangutan hanging throughout
the department. I must confess, I was disappointed to learn that
this orangutan, named Precious, one of the main cast members, had already left the show. I have heard many amusing
stories from the entire crew of Passions about Precious. How
much fun it would have been to work with him!
In the end, my internship exceeded my expectations.
While trying to adjust to the ﬁnely tuned process of daytime
television, I have been a part of a wide range of engaging activities, from participating in an all night on location shoot, to
going shopping with Diana and her shopper, to sitting through
a production meeting.
The all night shoot at NBC Universal Studios during my
ﬁrst week in Hollywood was most memorable. While working
on their back lot, I got to see the operation of the wardrobe
crew from the moment they distributed costumes to the dressing rooms up until the ﬁnal wrap. Trailers for the cast, stuntmen, and extras were located right next a large grouping of
monitors and cables (I came to learn this was called the video
village). Watching them shoot was no less exciting. It involved
taping of the car chase, the use of ﬁre and pyrotechnics during
the car crash, as well as having a man put on ﬁre. The stunts
were truly inspiring, as they raced cars and motorcycles and
jumped in and out of the car enshrouded in ﬂames. The stuntman to be covered in ﬁre ﬂames wore a special ﬁreproofed
suit underneath his costume, as well a wig and a protective
mask with a tube for breathing. To my amazement, in the process of burning the stuntman's costume and his mask has been
partially destroyed and his wig has began to melt, but the actor
survived unscathed! So did the Passions crew after working
the whole night.
Copyright 2007 United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc.

TECHNOLOGY
WINTER

2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2007