The Yankles Day 9 (and 10): "Wanna Bet?!"

(Originall Written on August 24, 2007)
Current mood:artistic


Hello Sports fans! I guess I should never say never! I am bringing you two blogs in one again, but this time due to technical difficulties. I had blogged for Day 9, but somehow when I went to post, it didn't post, and all was lost!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! That was a long blog too. So I will try to remember what happened on Day 9 as much as I can, while still bringing you the fresh Day 10 as well.

Day 9:
We had an extremely early call time to the set...6:30 AM. I pushed myself to go to bed by 9:00 PM the night before so I could be well rested. Well, I am not used to going to bed that early, so my body woke up at about 2:00AM and couldn't sleep. So I got up, and did some laundry (very productive eh?) played around on the computer a little, and watched some TV. By the time 3:15AM rolled around I could tell I was pretty tired, and went back to sleep for another hour and a half. At 4:45 I woke up (for real this time) and got ready and took care of the dog. The car pool met at the Smith's at 5:45 AM!!!!!!! It was WAY too early to even think.

As we drove down it was still pretty dark. We noticed it was stormy also (cloudy, with lightning)...this wasn't a good sign. If it rained on us today (the day we had SOOOO many baseball shots to get out of the way) it would mean we might have to add a day like a saturday (which I have no days to add!!!). So I was starting to stress out a little about that. But the rain seemed to hold off (THANK GOODNESS!)

I finally started feeling like an actor in the movie hehe. Today was the day that we shot my scenes with most of my dialogue in it. Everyone even commented on how great my accent sounded. I was always worried that it sounded...Russian...hehe.

**THIS JUST IN: It was discovered today that Mark (The Catcher) went to the doctor to get an official exam and such from the doctor, and turns out that he has a TORN ACL!!!!!! That's a big time injury. It means surgery and even a lifetime complication for the knee. So I guess we'll wait to hear about his fate in the production. There really isn't much he can do, because there is a lot of physical activity in the movie....Stay tuned to the News at 11 for more details.**

One of my scenes today was me being up at bat, and hitting the ball and running to the bases. The "A" Camera was located right in front of me on the Pitchers Mound...scary!! The first throw I missed, but the second throw I hit and it went straight at the $500 Gazillion Dollar camera. EEK!! Luckily there was a great catcher by the camera and he saved the day haha. I hear the shot looked great though....it made David (the Director) kind of duck in his chair as he watched on the monitor haha.

So today the production staff finally noticed that there weren't enough seats for all of us Yankles, so they had set up a little tent/lounge for us to sit in while we waited to shoot. It was much more comfortable than the ground. At some point I laughed and made a funny face while doing so, and the guys were saying I looked like an old man, and they took a picture lol. I don't think it was THAT bad haha.

We also played some more Bocce Ball in our down time. We tried getting a little more challenging today, by throwing the ball into complicated places like over fences and such. It was fun.

We didn't end up actually finishing all the games we had scheduled to shoot that day...in fact, we only got through one game. I surely thought that since we didn't finish, and that was a lot to cover that we would come back to the field and shoot again tomorrow....so Jared and I made a bet (me in favor of coming back tomorrow)...well, I lost. At least it was only $5.00. DAMN!!!!! haha I guess they will have to make it up by adding another day somewhere in the next week, or cutting the scenes all together. We'll see I guess!!


Day 10:
Today was a fairly easy, and simple day! (Which is great especially after such a tiring week at the baseball field.)

We we back in Provo and shooting the Vietnamese Restaurant Scene. We were shooting at the China Town Restaurant. Our basecamp was actually a ways away from the scene. So we met there, ate breakfast, and then they had a shuttle that took us over to the location where we were shooting.

Surprisingly enough, Mark was there ready to shoot. All of us were wondering what he could possibly do with being injured and all, but who knew. So he got shuttled over to the set with everyone, but then soon after I guess they excused him for the remainder of the shoot. That's right....he got "let go." I'm assuming because he was a big liability for the production. If he were to get hurt more on set, it could put the production in a real bind.

Today, again, they had a little Cast lounge set up (Behind the Restaurant) with chairs for us all. The restaurant was a little too small for us to just hang out inside. The shoot went pretty well (no lines for me today). And they let us go early so we ended up being done around 1:00 PM. We went back to basecamp and ate some lunch. The gang thought it would be fun to go see a movie, so we had made plans to go see Rush Hour 3. Well, before we left, rumor had it that the Producer had checks for some of the Non-Speaking Yankles, but he wouldn't get them until he finished lunch, so we all hung around waiting. Turns out he actually didn't have their checks. There was some confusion about who was doing them or something. So he promised they would have them on Monday. I feel bad for them!!

Here are some more fun pictures from the day (or our "lounge" area outside of the restaurant)

Anyway, that's it for this blog, bringing us to the end of Week 2! One more week left...CRAZY!!!

Have a good weekend!!!

The Yankles Day 7 (and 8): "Bad attitudes are not conducive to a creative environment!"

(Originally Written on August 22, 2007)
Current mood:exhausted

Ok, ok, I'm sorry! I am sorry I missed out on blogging. I had to play "hookie." It was a long day, and by the time I got home I was in bed and out!!!

So today, never fear, because we bring you 2 days in 1! Yesterday we arrived at our new shooting location.....Springville High School...in Springville of course. It really isn't very far from Payson actually, so the commute is still a little "fun." The scenes being shot here are most of our baseball action shots. So everything is outside.

We arrived yesterday noticing that "base camp" where all of our trailers are located, was a significant distance from our actual set for the shoot. So there was a shuttle bus that was taking people back and forth, or you could choose to walk over. Walking is pretty good for you, so we decided to just walk over. Luckily I brought a big blanket, so I found some nice shade, and put the blanket down to lay on when we had a break.

The whole atmosphere of the cast and crew seemed somewhat altered yesterday. A lot of changes had to be made since Mark hurt his knee, and in turn that made everything very tense and stressful. Especially with how hot it was it just was not a good day. We go done at about 7:00 PM last night which is nice.

Today, our call time was a little earlier (7:30 AM), so meeting for carpool wasn't as exciting as we all pretty much rolled out of bed right before we got there. It just wasn't my morning....I hit snooze a little too much and woke up late...the dog got out of the yard this morning, so I had to chase her down, I ran out of gas on the way, and then on the way to Smith's in Draper (to meet the Carpool) I was pulled over for speeding!!! EEK!!!!!! I haven't been pulled over in such a LONG time, I almost didn't know what to do. Needless to say, I was about 10-15 minutes late this morning, but weird enough, Tyler was even more late than me, so I didn't feel as bad.

So we got down to Springville, I had just about 6 minutes to grab some really gross, mass-cooked eggs and bacon, and headed back to my trailer to get in wardrobe. Today, they trimmed my beard so that it doesn't seem like it has grown for a week on the film, even though it really has. Having a beard is weird!! I am not really used to it.

When we got to the set (after getting in wardrobe) it was decorated and dressed to look like the Yankles field -vs- the Springville Field. However, pretty much EVERYWHERE was declared a "safe zone" (meaning we couldn't sit there because the camera would see that spot). So shade was EXTREMELY limited!! GRRRRR! We seemed to be doing a lot more today, however, we stood in the SUN a lot, and that is just really REALLY exhausting.

Like usualy while we waited, we continued our daily talk show "Talking Shit." The ultimate quote of the day was a screwed up line, "Thanks Coach! Now I don't have to spend all day on my knees!" haha The correct line was suppose to be "Thanks Coach! Now I don't have to squat all day!" haha Later in the show, the definition of SMEGMA was revealed...quite the description hahaha. A few of the guys played Bocce Ball while we were just hanging out. Michael proved to have quite the technique and was very fun to watch!!

Today Matt and I caught Jared sleeping. It was pretty funny/cute haha. He seemed soooo comfortable, and was probably having great dreams! Our favorite part was that his hand was so pleasantly placed in the cupholder of the chair he was sitting in!

Overall it was a pretty easy day. They even let us go pretty early (6pm!!!) It was pretty awesome...(wow, I think it's time for a new adjective lol) However, guess what time our call time is for tomorrow (Day 9)....? 6:30 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EEK!!!! So yeah, we got to go early, but that just means they get to claim us earlier and get away with it. We have to, by SAG regulations have a straight 12 hour down time between days. So tomorrow will definitely be a long day with a LOT to get through. But staying busy is definitely much more preferred!

Anwyay, I've got about 30 minutes before bedtime since I have to be up at the BUTT CRACK of dawn (5am!!!)

The Yankles Day 6: "Have it Your Way!" **NOW WITH PHOTOS!!**

(Originally Written on August 20, 2007)

And the fun begins again! Welcome to Week 2 (Day 6) of "The Yankles!" We have an exciting, new, and upgraded blog for you complete with photos and.... SPONSORS!!. This week's blog is brought to you in part by:

BURGER KING!
HAVE IT YOUR WAY!

So today was our final day of shooting in good old Payson. It was also just "one of those days" where somehow things just don't work out as planned. Mark, one our fellow Yankles Team Members, fell and sprained his knee over the weekend so people were dealing with that, and then just the stress of getting everything done within 12 hours today was definitely getting to the directors.

We were shooting the big party scene where we play dress up and get drunk! Funny though, how when Peter Pressure Penis Wipe Matt dresses up, he looks like none other than THE Burger King! It was one of the most entertaining things of the day.

THE REAL THING!!

For the party scene, we had a real "Jewish Band" come and perform for the shot. They are called, "Joshua Nelson and the Kosher Band!" AWESOME!!!! They sing Jewish music with a nice gospel flare to it. It was a true blast to just sit and watch them perform this morning.

As usual we waited about 7 hours before we were actually used today!!! So the gang and I did our normal thing by sitting and producing our TV Show "Talking Shit!" Here are the stars of the show:

  (pictured from left to right, top to bottom) Matt, Garet, Nicholas, Jared, Trevor

We discussed how sitting around is actually VERY tiring, so we all had a couple of "Energy Shots" and got really wired up before we finally shot the scene. Matt had so many, he actually didn't feel very well towards the end of the night haha

DUSTY-ism FOR THE DAY: "Hey! Keep this clean....this isn't a...uh....rest home." (Referring to the Table/set piece we were sitting and waiting at).

On the way home Matt made me and Garet laugh really really REALLY hard, and so I was pretty exhausted by the time we got back to Smith's in Draper. Overall it was just a long/tiring day.

A LOOK AT TOMORROW: Tomorrow we have a company move to Springville High School, where we will be shooting a bunch of the actual baseball sequences for the next few days. It should be pretty hot and uncomfortable. YAY!!! hehe

As usual, thanks for reading. Stay tuned for the next update.

Sir Ian McKellan, as Trevor Jerome!

Special Edition Yankles Video Blog: "How did I know what to say....?"

So throughout the week, we found ourselves discussing and quoting various videos. I've provided a central location for you to see what we were laughing about so much...


EXTRAS: Sir Ian McKellan Discusses his Method
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKDbu3grA0Q

Doo Dah Doo Doo: The Dance Instruction Tape for Children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=todQtQrOUZs

Richard Simmons on Who's Line is it Anyway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTxkxG3DF4k

The Yankles Day 5: "Who the Hell is Lynch?"

Current mood:energetic

Today marks the completion of Day 5...Week 1...Dollar Days! It's amazing how much work has been put into this week already. I barely remember what happened on Monday. It seems like soooo long ago.

So back to Dollar Days, which will also explain my title for the day. Each Friday is "Dollar Day." We have a giant bucket, which in this case was an old bubble gum bucket. P.A.Tony, who is the one that always get to yell out, "Rrrrrrolling! Quietpleeeeaasseeee?!?" was running the bucket around. Everyone puts in a dollar bill...or 2 or 3 if they wish....with their name on it. After the final shot of the day, a dollar bill is drawn out, and the person who's name is on the bill, gets the entire bucket of money. So the anticipation was growing...we were all anticipating the final shot so we could have the drawing, and all I kept thinking was, "I should have put a freaking dollar in the bucket!" So finally, the time had come...David (our director) had the honor of drawing the name. The suspense was killing me...and Daivd called out the name "Lynch!" And all of the sudden you hear Dusty (1st A.D.) yell out, "Lynch? Who the hell is Lynch?" haha no one knew who this guy was, until finally a P.A. yelled out, he is in the Transportation Department. haha David thought..."Let's re-draw...he's not even here," but it was too late. P.A. Hailey had already jumped on her trusty radio and ruined everything by announcing that Lynch had one. So all of us gave a big "cheer" for Lynch and that was the end of our day.

But back to the beginning of our day. I was happy because I actually got to sleep in today. Call was at 1:30 PM which was awesome. I went by the eye doctor to pick up some more contacts, and then met the carpool at 12:15 to head down. We actually didn't end up leaving Smith's until like 12:45 because again we were waiting for "Peter Pressure Penis Wipe" (inside joke) Matt, and his trusty sidekick "Peter Pressure Penis Wipe" (inside joke) Jr. Nick. I volunteered to drive down today, and so Garet and Matt jumped into my car. We all knew that Matt wasn't actually in the scene we were shooting today, but for some reason they called him anyway. So as we were leaving the smith's parking lot we were thinking "Well, maybe you should drive just in case you DON'T have to stay, and then that way you won't be stuck sitting around." He thought that was smart so he drove himself down. He got a little jealous when Garet and I escaped traffic by using the carpool lane. He wasn't allowed....HAHA!

So all afternoon the big joke was, "I bet money that Matt won't be used today." We all arrived to the set right at 1:30 PM. There were no extras today so it was really quiet and deserted. We got dressed, and ended up sitting around until...oh about 7pm or so. We did the usual, sat at a table and just talked and laughed. We decided we should start a T.V. show with all of us called "Talking Shit!" haha cause it seems to be all that we do haha.

Even though I managed to sleep in, I ended up taking a couple hour nap in the trailer, and came out all disorientated. After the nap, we waited maybe 45 more minutes, and we finally got the good news that we were up to shoot. I learned the new term of "Martini Shot." That means the LAST shot of the day. We ended up finishing at about 9:00 tonight which wasn't too bad. Garet and I drove home and there was lots and lots of traffic.

We have the weekend off...YAY...and we'll be in Payson one more day, on Monday. Call time is early (7:45 AM). Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Peace Out!

P.S. I've created a new photo album in my pictures with shots on the set. Enjoy!

The Yankles Day 4: "Hi David! I’m your cinematographer. Remember me?"

Current mood:exhausted

There is such a good story behind that title, let me tell you. But first..."DOO DAH DOO DOO!" we have come to the end of Day 4!!!!! haha Is it weird if it seems to be going by fast, but at the same time you think, "It's only day 4?!"

Well, today was a crazy long day. I met the carpool at the Smiths in Draper (12300 South). We lounged on the cool picnic chairs on display out front while waiting for freaking "Peter Pressure Penis Wipe" (inside joke) Matt! So he drove up, and the same folks that drove down yesterday together were going to hop in the same car that Matt was driving. Well, I ran to my car to get my stuff out of my car, and all of the sudden I see them driving off into the distance!!!!! Yeah thanks alot jerks!! So I rode down with my real friends, Tyler and Mark. As usual we arrived early (this time about a half hour) so that we could enjoy a nice breakfast cooked for us by Pig Boys...well for some reason, they thought, "Well, they are here, we are not going to let them eat, and make them get ready a half hour early!!" WTF!?!?!? I am never going early again. I had fixed myself this nice plate, and it was all wasted....WASTED I TELL YA!

So...needless to say, my day started out a little rough. lol But they managed to put us right to work, which was nice not having to sit around doing nothing. So we began to film a few scenes using an old classroom in the Peteetneet Academy. (oh yeah, by the way...we are STILL in Payson!) haha Garet and I sat by each other most of the day. The classroom we were in was pretty warm, and he taught me a trick to keep myself cool using my hands as a sort of vent. So I was pretty excited about that. Also during this time...Garet, Boris (The Director of Photography, and myself) all decided that Dusty really just likes to yell....almost like it is a fetish of his haha. For those of you just joining us, Dusty is our 1st Assistant Director/Line Producer on the show. He says funny things like "Roll sound for god's sake!" He's great. The really cool thing is he has a lot of connections, and invited us all to give him our headshots/resumes & e-mails so we can all stay in touch and he can hopefully hook us up down the road.

They wouldn't let us go back to Base Camp (Where our Trailers were located) if we weren't being used, so in between shots and what not, we found ourselves across the hall in another room. It was much cooler in that room (they had A/C piping in). Speaking of A/C...they use those really cool temporary silver tubes to pipe it in...they almost look like slinkys. haha So during the break we played around with it a bit...discovered that I can actually fit inside the tube, so we put it over me, and it was like a walking slinky. Look for it on the behind the scenes takes on the Yankles DVD. It was pretty funny.

Also while we were waiting we ended up on the subject of 80's bands. It basically came down to the point that we felt like most of the 80's bands were pretty "Gay" haha...Erasure, Wham, Queen, etc. haha It was a funny conversation that seemed to keep us singing constantly. haha I love the 80s and there is no changing that.

We then had a nice long break and they decided to let most of us head back to our Trailers if we would like. So we did!!!! It was much cooler over there for sure. So Garet and I went and chilled on the grassy hill, and Susanne (the lead female) and her little dog blue, came over to visit and we all just talked for a while. It was nice, and fun to get to know her a little more. Then of course after maybe an hour, our time was up, and they took us back over to set.

Here we started filming a scene that takes place in the Jewish Synagogue (sp.) haha Garet and I headed straight for the front pew so that we were sure to be in the shot!! hehe Now, I get to tell you the story behind the title...I can't remember if I have mentioned it before, but David (The great Director) and Boris (The Director of Photography) always have cute little arguments on set. It seems pretty typical to have differences of opinions, and we all just laugh when it happens because it is just so silly. Well, today...David mentions something, and then all of the sudden you see him walking somewhere, and Boris is running after him and you hear Boris say, "Hi, David? I'm your cinematographer. Remember me?" It was sooooo funny and we couldn't stop laughing about it. Then of course Dusty chimes in later on with one of his "Dusty-isms": "Make no mistake...I - AM - THE BOSS!" haha He kills me.

So we're filming this sequence, and we are all suppose to be singing this Jewish Prayer out of our Prayer Books, but they didn't bother teaching us the song, and were just planning to dub the voices over later. Well, it seemed funny to me that if we were all mouthing our own version of the song, we weren't going to look together, so I hope it turns out well. We finally wrap on this big scene for the day. It involved a ton of extras and what not...and got out of there at like 9:30 or so.

It was a long day, but thankfully we have some really fun people in our little circle, and we just keep each other etertained! Only two more days of shooting in Payson (Friday, and Monday!) So not too bad. Tomorrow I don't have to be there untile 1:30 PM!!!!!! It's a miracle!

Anywho as always, thank you for reading, and be on the look-out for some pictures and even video coming soon!!!!

Much Love To Ya!

The Yankles Day 3: "Just Like a Real Movie"

Current mood:bouncy

Good evening Ladies and Gents! So the pressure's on...the Yankles Blog has climbed to a whole new level...*drum roll*...we're on Google! That's right, if you search for "The Yankles" guess what's first on the results...none other than Trevor Jerome's Yankles blog. CONGRATS TO ME!!!!!! hehe Thanks to Dusty our 1st A.D. for discovering that last night. He was trying to see if we had made it onto the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) yet, and came across it hehe. Now, Dusty has to be the coolest guy ever. He's good at what he does, and he's freaking hilarious as well. He's the guy that usually calls action and gets everything set up for the shot. Each time we get ready to shoot a scene he says something along the lines of, "Alright, let's do this baby! Just like a real movie!" hehe it makes us laugh everytime. So much, it made it on as today's title.

We just finished filming Day 3 (out of 15 for me). What a day. We took ourselves down to BFE...the middle of no where...to a land where no man seems to go anymore...the lovely town of Payson, UT and the old Peteetneet Academy (now a museum). I'm not sure that this town has seen this much action before. We had worked out a carpool and it made the drive much more fun. It actually didn't take us very long at all to get there (maybe 40-45 minutes)...we got there over an hour before our call-time hehe.  So we just hung out and had some awesome breakfast (Thanks Pig Boys)...they're our caterer!! YUM YUM!!!

For the first little while we Yankles got to just hang tight at our Trailers as they filmed "Gus the Bus Driver" (who actually isn't Black like the script says) painting new lettering on the school bus. I was able to get some really fun shots while they filmed that scene

After they shot that, we moved over to the Exterior of the School to get shots of everyone arriving for School, etc. This was particularly cool because of the fancy equipment such as the camera crane. Nicholas was pretty excited about it actually. He pretty much wet himself over all the cool stuff. He's way into that!! I was one of the "lucky" ones chosen to be seated on the bus. As it pulls up, me and a few others step off of the bus and walk down the walkway into the school. And I say "lucky" because I seem to be put in the most hot and steamy of places. The extra's kept complaining about how it was really hot outside, and we kept saying "Well, it's worse on the bus so you have it easy!" But then they naievely stated, "Well, if the bus was on, I would be jealous." What they didn't know that the bus didn't have A/C, so turning it on would....oh, make no difference what-so-ever...in fact, it would probably make it worse with the heat from the engine. I was getting much better at the accent, when I remembered to use it, so that was good. I need to practice as much as I can before my close up shots with the lines I have hehe.

Once we were done with that shot, we made our way over to the eating/lounging area/shade while we waited for them to film some other things. This was the beginning of a lovely 4.5 hour wait. A few of us managed to sit and talk and laugh about a lot of stuff during this time. Britt the P.A. who just happens to be Dusty's daughter is sooooo great. She caught on that we LOVED the Twizzler's Nibs that craft services made available to us, so she packed a bunch in her little pouch, and was constantly asking us if we needed some. SHE ROCKS!!!

So...we waited and waited....and waited. It was finally like 12:30 and we asked "When's lunch?" they said..."3:00 PM!!!" YIKES!!! That was too far away, so Britt took orders of what types of Sandwhiches we wanted, and had them make some for us. Again...she ROCKS!! :)

As we sat there and talked, and laughed many funny things came up....We tried picturing Sir Ian McKellan as Eddie Murphy and how it would come across. It had us laughing really hard. Then Michael Buster (Who plays one of our leads...Elliot) came to the table with a freaking HUGE pickle!! I was sooo jealous of his Pickle. It was much better than mine on set yesterday...just a nice, big, juicy pickle, and he just kept rubbing it in my face!!!

Soon after that, I can't even remember what we were talking about, but all of the sudden Nicholas said something (pretty much out of nowhere) that would end up being my favorite quote of the day: "Rape is Fun *cricket*cricket*" LOL it's one of those situations where you just had to be there, but it was hilarious.

Lunch FINALLY came at 3:00 PM, after we had still been waiting to do something. It was a good lunch. I had Lasagna and Chicken and Salad, but seemed to put WAY too much food on my plate. They gave us 30 minutes for lunch and then we had to change into our Baseball Uniforms to take a "Team Photo" for the movie. After the 30 minute photo, we had to change back into our school outfits, and continued waiting for another couple of hours again. As we were waiting, the dark storm clouds were rolling in and it started to rain...so we ran for cover and 4 of us piled into my trailer to wait it out. There we discovered that old people have dust farts, and we sang to Matt's wife on the phone. He called her mom by accident and we laughed pretty hard.

The time finally came for them to shoot one final scene for the day (a shot of me, Malasa, Eliezer, and Elliot coming up the stairs and walking in the hall. haha piece of cake. After that we were wrapped...THANK GOODNESS! No more sitting around and waiting. And we made our way home. It was a really fun day, and I'll upload some pictures to show you how crazy it was. This blog got really long, and it's way past my bed time. Tomorrow, we'll be down in Payson AGAIN, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

CIAO!