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NEWS : STORIES
MONDAY, MARCH 6. Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas 7:45 A.M. The day begins in the lobby of the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Great hotel. Fantastic spa. Nice big rooms. Lovin' it! The
Trust me, as tempting as it is to go to out when you're on location, It's a much better option to take a Tylenol PM or two and call it a night. That way you're sharp the next morning. It's a lesson that, if learned the hard way, stays with you forever. 'Nuff said. There's quick general chit-chat among us about last evening's Academy Awards broadcast. We agree Dolly Parton was a highlight -- and we all felt for Lauren Bacall. "Why?" was all we kept wondering, "Why?!?!?" Of course, being good corporate synergy-types, we cheered the win for "Best Original Song" for "It's Hard Out There For A Pimp" from Hustle and Flow -- which MTV Films produced. Tracy, today's Producer, shares how she used her bathroom sink to clean her lamb shank bone from last night's dinner. The shank bone is an integral part of today's Seder taping. Don't let anyone tell ya life in TV is glamorous! She also made the Haroseth in her room -- a combo of apples, cinnamon, walnuts, red wine and sugar. Technically I think this stuff is supposed to be cooked before it's served, but we'll warn the guys ahead of time not to eat anything. 8:15 A.M. The various members of today's extended crew begin to gather in one of the hotel's many large conference rooms, which serves as our location. Right now the room doesn't look like much. But that's where some of the "magic" begins to come into play. The size of this crew is already close to being 10x the number of people usually on-site at the VH1 Classic studio! There's the generous beginnings of a breakfast spread -- bagels, coffee, Hershey's Miniatures, Twix and Starburst! That's when you know you're on a shoot -- when there's a ton of sugar around to keep ya going! Everyone is on auto-mode -- the camera guys setting up their tripods and setting their cameras; the audio guys laying their cables and arranging their cases. Being on location is a bit weird. At the VH1 Classic studio, it's the same team working together week after week -- so there's a bit of "family" dynamic going on during each shoot, which helps immensely when it comes to communication, egos, etc. Initially today, it's a kind of getting-to-know-each-other Brady Bunch thing happening. The Vegas crew guys have all clearly worked together before numerous times, so they're one side of the family and those of us from the Classic Team -- including a photographer we work with in NYC -- are the other. The secret I've found is to give everyone time to get into their spaces before you start peppering them with a boat load of questions. We've built five hours of set-up time into our schedule today, which is very generous. So there's no need to start getting worried about how things are going to look, etc. Yet. We've got miles to go before we matzo. Check the Matzo + Metal page tomorrow for journal updates on sipping the Manischewitz and digging the Haggadahs. And tune in to watch the show premiere Thursday, April 13 at 10PM, on VH1 Classic! TUESDAY, MARCH 7. Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas 8:45am The equipment keeps coming in on cart after cart. The breakfast spread is slowly growing with the arrival of not one, but three coffee urns. There are smiles all around! Our Production Assistant (PA) has dropped a case of bottled water - just the kind of thing that when you're young and on a shoot just makes you want to die! Hopefully, that'll be the most dramatic blunder of the day. 9:00am: 4 hours to lunch Kassandra, our Associate Producer on site, has begun laying out the Seder dinner props -- boxes of Matzos, Manischewitz wine, Kedem Grape Juice, the Haggadahs, the Kiddush cup the yarlmukas; the Shabbat candles, you name it. There are a few of the crew members who are Jewish are digging we actually have many elements of the real deal here. It's fun to watch Kassandra -- this is her first trip to Las Vegas and her first "big" technical on-location shoot. She had traveled last year to Maui for VH1's "All Request Weekend" stunt, but that was basically a one-camera deal. Today, we have five. Plus nearly an equal number for lighting and an equal number for audio. All to shoot in a conference room. Her eyes are wide with excitement. It's fun to see. 9:10am The questions begin -- someone wonders about the chairs we're using around the table. They're not ideal because of how wide they are -- which could potentially make getting the isolated (or ISO) shots of the guests we need difficult. But the chairs need to stay because they have arms -- and at a Sedar dinner it's traditional that guests lean on the left arm of the chair to signify that they're relaxed. This is one of things I love about the job. Not being Jewish, I've had to do a great deal of research to understand what's going on today. And it's the same on any shoot you do -- whether you're interviewing an artist and reading up on them or doing something like this -- it's all about the research. 9:15am Four of the conference room's ceiling panels are being removed to accommodate lights. So glad our Mandalay Bay rep has temporarily left the room. While conference rooms are great for the space they provide, if you've ever spent any time in one you know the lighting leaves a little to be desired. So it's all going and we'll be setting up our own. 9:30am Black pipe and drape has started to go up to cover the conference room walls. I count four ladders. Tracy and I are laughing. It's so far from being "just another day at the office" for us. But we love it. Just talked with our main DP (Director of Photography) about where to hang the Star of David we have. It's small, but metal, so it's heavy. Not something that'll easily hang on fabric. These are things that are best brought up early. He has a great idea -- he can hang the Star of David from the conference room's ceiling and then use what's called a jib camera -- basically a camera on an extended-mechanical arm, to pan down from and over the table at the start of each of the show's four segments. There will be an additional cost, of course, but he has the jib cam in his truck. It's "just sittin' there" so he'll give to us for the day at 60% off the normal cost. I jump on it. The room is potentially lacking in visuals and it'll be a sweet visual addition. 10:00am: 3 hours to lunch One of the vital benefits of building in plenty of set-up time? The vibe in the room is well in the neighborhood of calm. There's nothing worse than jamming to set-up a shoot because you're crunched for time. Everyone on shoots wants their part of the equation to look/be the best it can, so no one likes to rush. Which isn't the case today. There will be plenty of time to tweak and fine-tune. We're up to fifteen ceiling panels that've been removed. These guys are pro, though, and it's all good. It's impossible to overstate the importance of lighting and while the background visuals of room won't "Wow!" anyone, I can tell the overall lighting for the guests is gonna rock. Which the guys will appreciate -- as will Lynn. No one wants to be on TV with crappy lighting. It can age a person fifty years. Or make them look like they've been out all night and just come from praying to the porcelain God. Which, considering this is Vegas, is always a possibility. 10:30am Found out not everyone from the Production Team stayed in their rooms all night. That explains a certain sleepy-eyed look, but it's all good. As what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, I can reveal nothing more. The "cross-pollinization" amongst the Vegas and NYC camps is in full-force. The extra time has helped immensely. The lack of panic or stress has negated any miscommunication or disputes. Maybe I'm pushing our luck by bringing it up again and again. 10:40am They've just hung what's called a "space light" above where the table will go. It's enormous but will make everyone look terrific. It's not a light weight item though and there was some concern how to hang it from the ceiling. One of the lighting guys just raced up a ladder that wasn't properly set-up to adjust it and the thing nearly tipped over with him on it. First near heart attack of the day. 10:45 a.m. The hotel catering crew has arrived to begin setting up the table. They wanted to use a black tablecloth as the bottom layer, white as top. We explained it needs to be reversed. The pure white of the tablecloth would create a sort of glare-effect on the cameras. So it's white on bottom, black on top. With the silver Seder plate in the center, it's starting to come together. The space light is on -- and boy, does it ever cast a sweet light! It's officially begun to start looking like a set. Decision is made to go with one set of salt/pepper shakers vs. two on the table. Yup, this is what we do. The jib cam is set up and it's huge. Love it, love it, love it. In addition to the huge space light, the crew has hung four floating tracks around the perimeter of the room -- much like the tracks used for lighting in homes, just much thinner and sleeker. From these they're hanging back lighting for each of the guests. This lighting is used to visually separate the guests from the background, which is more difficult concept to explain in writing than it is to see on screen. The crew has this kind of lighting set-up down pat -- it's the same one they use when shooting various poker tournaments in town. We'd put out an offer to the Mayor of Los Angeles, Oscar Goodman, who's Jewish, to be a guest at the table today for the last of the four segments. We just heard from his office that his schedule is very busy and he may or may not be able to make it. But we're ready to go if he does show up. Honestly? It'd be better if he didn't. The table will have a dynamic going by that point. 11:00 a.m. - Two hours to lunch Tracy has begun setting up the Seder plate, doling out some scoops of horseradish, which represents the bitter herb. The parsley is being set out. As is the egg, which is supposed to be roasted, but ours isn't. But everything has to be placed specifically according to the Haggadah. There are a number of crew members who are paying acute attention to the set-up, which is good. This isn't the kind of thing you want to get wrong. Catering crew is back with the flatware for the table, but they forgot charger plates, so a call goes out. The silver is being hand-shined, as are the plates, glasses, you name it. There's a question as to how we want the napkins folded. Tracy goes the "fan" fold, vs. the "bishop's hat" fold we had last year -- which in retrospect - - is a bit ironic. I notice they have water glasses set out that are filled, including ice. They'll never last until we start taping, but it's an easy switch out later. Checked with Lynn Hoffman, our host. The make-up artist, a woman we've worked with in the past, has arrived in her room to start make-up. All systems are going as planned. 11:30 a.m. Catering crew has set the table using white napkins -- DP nixes them for reasons explained earlier. It'll be black curtains. Catering crew goes off in search of black napkins --which will help tie in the black back drop anyway, so it's all good. The crew is trying to hang the Star of David. Reminds me of the joke, "How many does it take to....?" But it has to be positioned just right, of course, because it'll need to be lit and the jib cam needs room to maneuver around it and down to the table. Plus, it's surprisingly heavy. One drawback to having a jib is that we're going to see a lot of the room's floor, which not something we planned as it's covered in that lovely conference room type of carpet. I'm going to wait and see how the rest of the set-up goes before I see if we can light the floor with some kind of patterns to help make it a bit more visual. Right now lighting is focusing on the guest's lighting, which is the most vital. 11:45 a.m. The Star of David has been successfully hung -- I know there's a joke in there, but I'm not going for it. Now the crew is focusing on the color accent lighting on the black drapes. As everything is going so well, chances are we'll order lunch order. Which is great -- because a fed crew is a happy crew. Noon We're into the tweaking stage of the set-up, which is a fantastic place to be at this stage of the game. Doesn't even feel like we've been here four hours. Our DP is playing around with red gels for the backdrop lights. There's a brief concern/discussion on whether the coloring is too reminiscent of being in "hell." Yes, it's a heavy metal dinner, but there's always the religious aspect to keep in mind and everyone's sensitivity is heightened because of it. So we go for a mixture of red, blue and gold gels. The color mix is much better and the brimstone-feel disappears. There seems to be some drama about where certain members of the crew have parked their trucks in the garage. They need to be moved to accommodate something the hotel has going on and there's a bit of vocal discord as crew members leave our set-up. It's just this kind of interruption that were we crunched for time, would have the potential of becoming a full-blown crisis if key members of the crew were having to leave for any length of time. 12:30 p.m. Crew has broken for lunch. Turns out the Vegas idea of sandwiches is more along the lines of finger-food, so there's not enough initially to go around. The Vegas based crew will eat first and the rest of us will wait until the 2nd round of sandwiches shows up. Again, we want -- and need -- these guys happy, so it's the only way to go. Four and a half hours into the day and we're still two hours away from rolling tape. Checked in with Lynn to see how the make-up is coming. They're done and getting ready to get into wardrobe -- so they're on track to be down here for 1pm. That'll give Lynn a solid hour with Tracy to go over scripts, prep, etc. prior to the scheduled arrival time of 2pm for Scott, Josh and Evan. There's laughter from the conference room where the crew is eating. I smile. 1:00 p.m. -- Talent is due to arrive in one hour Tracy is going to start the b-roll portion of our shoot now -- with Kassandra over-seeing. What happens here is that one camera gets extreme close-ups of different elements on the table that we use during the edit process. 1:30 p.m. End of b-roll shoot. It's amazing at times how a simple table can look so cool when shot overhead with a jib cam. You know you're supposed to be in TV when it's those kind of shots that make you get goose bumps. Its kind scary, actually. Lynn has just arrived -- looking fantastic as always. She's such an amazing pro -- always together -- always smiling. It was fun watching the crew guys react to her. 1:50 p.m. As of 20 mins ago, Scott Ian was supposed to be picked up from the Hard Rock Hotel and be on route. Same for Evan. We're taking it as a sign that no news is good news and everything is going ahead. We're almost set technically -- a few tweaks on the back lighting that hasn't shown up as dramatically on air as planned. But that's not unusual and is easily fixed. Now it's up to the alchemy that happens when talent arrives -- which is truly out of our control. But the great thing about VH1 Classic? We work with seasoned pros -- they know how to deliver whether it's on stage or on a much smaller set. I just hope that everyone had a good night last night and even better morning. We really need the guys to be up for this and deliver. It's especially critical given the very personal nature of the topic we're dealing with today. What's that old expression? Things never to talk about with strangers -- money and religion. And here we are in Vegas -- mosh-pitt diving into the Jewish faith. 2:00 p.m. It's 5 p.m. back in NYC and I know the rest of the team back at the offices are going, "Wonder how it's going???" In these situations, it can be equally as frustrating to not be on the scene as it is to be here. So now we wait, wondering who will be the first of our metal guys to arrive. I'm betting Josh Silver. By all accounts he was very, very excited to be taking part in the taping and he's staying here at the Mandalay Bay. Lynn is intently studying her script under the make-up light. 2:15 p.m. Not bad! Talent has arrived! And I was wrong -- it was Josh, its Evan. Fifteen minutes after their call time is a great sign that everything is going to be fine. Evan is here, hanging out on the couch, looking totally chilled and relaxed. 2:30 p.m. Word is Security is now escorting Scott, and Josh is also on his way. The great part about shooting with a bunch of guys? No one generally wants make-up -- so when they're here, they're ready to go. So we're still on schedule and looking good. Evan has a car picking him up at 5:45 -- so time it is a' tickin. Lynn and Evan are chatting up a storm, making friends while we wait for the other guys to arrive. Which is a good thing -- the more comfortable they get with other before going on camera, the better. 2:35 p.m. Tick, tick, tick.... No word on the Mayor of Las Vegas, so we're guessing his schedule couldn't work out. 2:40 p.m. There's an undercurrent of anxiety now. 40 mins past a call time, in our world, ain't honestly much. But there are a lot of elements to this Seder we need to shoot -- and Evan has what's called a "hard out" of 5:45 p.m., so it's a tighter situation than we'd prefer. But still far from being any kind of crisis, but ideally, we'd be having the guys settle in their chairs at this point, getting miked up and getting into start mode. Lynn and Evan have been chatting a while -- which could be a bad thing if there's no chemistry and they eventually run out of things to say to each other. But that doesn't seem to be the case with the two of them. 2:42 p.m. Josh Silver is here. Evan greets him with a huge, "SHALOM" and a big smile. Scott has just walked in. He asks for a black coffee. We have some here in the hospitality area we've set up, but it's lukewarm and I don't blame him -- lukewarm coffee sucks. He's wearing a Kiss t-shirt -- which if you know Scott, fits perfectly. He's such a huge KISS fan. 2:49 p.m. Tracy is spending time going over the taping with Josh, who's getting a little powder put on his face in the make-up chair. Scott and Lynn are chatting it up on the couch. Josh and Evan join. I'm half-tempted to say, "Wait, save it for the taping!" But when I listen closer, um, let's just say it's not conversation we'd be putting on TV. 2:50 p.m. Tracy has given word we're going to roll in 10 minutes. Right on time. 2:56 p.m. Lynn's getting final touches on her make-up. Scott's grabbing a quick sandwich. Tracy has hid the Afikomon -- in Lynn's jacket. I thought it was good idea when suggesting it, now I'm wondering -- there's probably a 150% chance she's going to inadvertently smash it while talking and give it away. Oh well, it'll make for funny TV at least. 3:04 p.m. Talent is coming on set. Evan is asking if there's a "fluffer." Josh jokes that he's his fluffer today, it's why he grew a beard. Lots of "f-bombs" being tossed around. We'll be bleeping this show in edit for days. 3:05 p.m. John has just taken off his shirt and he has tats for years!! He's wearing a tank top -- this certainly isn't going to be any kind of traditional Seder, that's for sure. Scott jokes, "Where's Leslie West?" referring to last year's taping. "We need him to sing the prayer again." Leslie was great last year. 3:11 p.m. Josh just lit a stream of hairspray on fire at the table, creating a defacto blowtorch. Tracy did a small-scale freak out, which I don't blame her for. Not a good sign, already. Josh feels a little chastised and is vocal about it. Lynn is practicing her opening prayer. 3:13 p.m. Evan just got off the phone with his wife. Josh wants to light the Star of David on fire. Oy. Now even I'm getting nervous. Evan is putting on a bandana. Josh is already starting to sip the wine. The Jewish jokes flying fast and furious. 3:16 p.m. Tracy is walking them through how the taping is going to go. 3:18 p.m. We start rolling. We slate with the world's smallest slate. The first take is a bust -- we're going to re-slate and...we start again. To see how it all turned out -- watch "Matzo & Metal 2: Back to the Desert" on VH1 Classic -- Thursday, April 13 at 10 p.m. EST.
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