February 9, 2010

Today was my first studio day. Today was SO hectic!! I got there at 3pm, and as soon as I got there someone was coming up to me asking me if I had a minute to do something for them. I have a shiny NBC sticker that says INTERN, so I guess I might as well paint a gigantic target on my back. EVERYONE was like hey do you have a minute?!?.. but it was exciting though. Everyone there is so nice, and even if they don't know who you are they all say 'hey how are you!? Security guards stand backstage before the shows, and there are producers, associative producers, producers assistants, interns, and stage crew running amok everywhere. As soon as I got there, i had to put things in "lock-up".. which means we put their belongings away in a safe place. Also, the guests are required to stay in their green rooms, so we occasionally have to "babysit" them as they go for a smoke or to a bathroom break. Sometimes, it's all about keeping the story intact. So then right after I did lock up, i had to "pull" wardrobe.. which means they give me sizes, and I have to find good outfits for the certain guests to wear on the show. Oh and BY THE WAY there are about a billion rules to abide by for show days, pertaining to wardrobe and conduct in general. I CANNOT say guest's name out loud in the halls between green rooms, because sometimes we have secret guests! We call them by what green room they're in. For example, Monica is in Green Room 1, so we say, "hey can i bring the girl in g1 out for a smoke?" because guests cannot ever run into each other while backstage at the studio. And for wardrobe of the guests there are certain things we cannot put them in, like no white shirts, no stripes, no crazy patterns, spanks under ALL dresses and skirts, no jewelry for jerry springer show, heavy women MUST cover up their upper arms, boys must wear nice shoes/slack and look presentable, and girls must also look relatively dressed up with hair and make up also done. Picking wardrobe is nerve wracking! there's no one really telling you what to do, so I'm walking blindly into the wardrobe to pick out what I think is a good outfit. Luckily, one of the staff members that is in charge of wardrobe gave me a quick run-through of what I should know about wardrobe. I pulled outfits, and i was successful in the end - the guests liked what i put them in and the producers approved (which is the most important thing).

After running mundane errands like walking to get coffee/food or driving in a taxi or company car with a travel PA to go pick up guests, some sort of producer person (not entirely sure of his job title)walked up to me in the studio, handed me a company "petty cash" credit card and said "hey, you look like you know how to dress. I need wardrobe for my guest, she's super skinny but I want you to make her look HOT but young, but relatively tame. I want her to look like she jumps off of a magazine cover. Go to the mall, call me when you're done, we need it soon. Brian will drive you, he's outside right now." UMM, OKAY! I was pretty afraid but it ended up being fun. I spent the next hour or so in my favorite clothing store Forever 21 picking up any cute outfits I saw for wardrobe for this girl (with all of the wardrobe rules in mind). After all of the time contemplating the requirements with the cute and workable factor, I headed to the cash register. And then they told me they couldn't sell me any of the stuff because I didn't have a photo ID for the credit card i was using!!! Well, Obviously it's a company card it says Jerry Springer right on the damn card! and I thought my intern sticker would help, but nope. They refused, and I panicked and called the producer who had sent me out on this mission. I told him what happened, and he said "well then screw it and run to macys and get other stuff. But hurry we need it very soon like 10 minutes, call us when you're done kbye." I wanted to cry! Are you serious? I have like 10 minutes to do an hour's worth of work and macy's is 5 minutes away!! I ran to macys and threw some semi good looking things together from the tiny junior's section at macys. The saleslady here heard my story as I was on the phone getting ride back and definitely didn't refuse my sale! I ran out of there and into the cab as fast as i could with nearly $200 worth of girls clothes from macy's, and in the end the producers LOVED what I had bought, and we ended up saving the rest for the permanent wardrobe. Whew! For the rest of the night, I cleaned the green rooms and cleaned up wardobe. All in all, it was a very successful and tiring day. I think the key is not getting overwhelmed and focusing on the task at hand instead of freaking out. I will work every tuesday at the studio from 3-10 from now on, and it is definitely exhausting but yet very rewarding work.