COMMANDER'S LOG

Stardate 200906.15

A week or so after the Orange County Choppers car show I got a phone message from somebody named Terry Morgan. He said that he had been given the brochure for the Zhang Heng by the fellow I had met at the car show. He had shown it to James Cawley the man behind (and in front of, since he plays Captain Kirk) Star Trek Phase II, and said that James was inviting me to come up and visit the shoot that was scheduled for the first two weeks of June.

Wow. The man has a full scale reproduction of the bridge of the original Enterprise, and a film production company that has already released 3 1/2 episodes of Star Trek, original style. I called him back, and three weeks of attempted communications were unsuccessful in reaching anyone connected with Phase II. Phone calls were not answered, emails were not acknowledged, and who knows what happened to my online volunteer application. As June rolled around, I finally reached Terry Morgan, who said I should go up there. But I still had not heard from anyone else, so I had no idea whether he had the authority to invite me. News from the set of the shoot trickled out as June got underway, and I finally decided to go up there. I figured either I would be welcomed and get involved somehow, or I would not, in which case I would spend a few days camping in the Adirondacks.

So I packed up my camping gear and headed up. I drove around town for a few minutes, trying to find the place, which was in an old used car dealership building. I passed by a place with a sign RFS on the way out of town. On the way back I could see that the sign said Retro Film Studios. I figured a town that size would not have two film studios, and there were a bunch of nerdy looking people walking around. I pulled in and asked the first one "Am I in the right place?" He took one look at the car and said, "You are SO-O-O-o-o-o in the right place." I parked and people immediately started gathering round the car. I went inside, explained who I was, and was taken to the Line Producer, known as "Sarge." He said that he had just gotten my email 5 minutes ago (I think the last link in the Internet up there is carried on horseback.). He immediately signed me in (including a multi-paragraph non-disclosure agreement, so I cannot tell you anything about the episode that is not already online, or unfortunately show you any pictures. See the Star Trek Phase 2 site for what is available), and assigned me to "G and E," movie parlance for Grip and Electric. In 30 seconds I had gone from visitor to crew. The irony of becoming a techie, having just graduated Irene from Emerson in theater tech and design hit me immediately.

I left to set up my campsite, and returned a couple hours later, gloves and Leatherman in hand . I got a brief tour of the set, including the awesome re-creation of the bridge of the Enterprise in every detail, recently updated with LCD panels on the consoles. The tour was combined with a crash course in grip, lighting, and electric lingo: lights from 350s to 2Ks, filter colors and names, parts, hardware, and the ever popular "C-47" clamp, known in civilian life as a clothespin.

For the next few days I led the life of a grip, which meant sitting around waiting at least 90% of the time.

Then something would need to be done between shots. If minor, one or two grips would do it, if major, several would swarm in as the key grip and gaffer called out orders for this or that. Now was the hurry up part of hurry up and wait, as everyone else on the set was now waiting while we did our thing. The pace and techniques were quite different from Irene's theater experience. In addition to the pacing, the temporary nature of everything meant different techniques and equipment were used. Instead of colored filters or diffusers being fitted onto the front of lights, colored (fireproof) plastic was clipped with C-47s to the barn doors attached to the lights. It all looked very kludgy to the casual observer.

During the long waits, one could wait in the Green Room, which was the large area in the front of the building, or hang around the edge of the set. The Green Room (which was not green) was the large room in the front of the building that served as reception area, dining area, and waiting room. Prop and wardrobe rooms were off at one end, with worktables where costumes and props were worked on. People had laptops and screens set up to watch Star Trek episodes, related stuff, or video games. It was like a continuous Star Trek convention. Other people would be crashed out asleep because of the crazy hours we were keeping. I spent some time there, conversing with people and showing off the car. James Cawley got a tour, and asked for tours for various guests who showed up.

I prefered to spend more time at the edge of the set so I could see what was going on. I often took tasks of turning the fans on and off in the doorways, or operating the sliding doors on the set. When anyone called for anything on the set, I tried to be the first to yell "I'm on it". Mostly I sat and waited, and watched, if anything was happening.

On the second (or third? I had lost track of time at that point) day there, shooting went long into the night. I was at the edge of the set, not quite paying attention when Patty, the costumer, stepped out with one of the actors, tapped me on the shoulder and said "Come with me." I followed her out wondering what she wanted me to get. The next thing I know she is asking me my sizes and telling me to get undressed. Then it hit me. I'M GONNA BE IN THE MOVIE !!! I spent the next hour in a Starfleet costume, including a very uncomfortable pair of heeled boots, walking through a few second shot on the bridge. If you are looking for me, I appear in the very last scene.

It was pouring rain all evening, so hard that the roof developed leaks. When I left about 2 AM the rain was still coming down very hard. I figured my tent may well be flooded, and hoped that at least my sleeping bag had not gotten wet. When I arrived, the tent was not flooded, but some water had gotten inside. I figured it best not to try to sleep there, and went with Plan B, which I had anticpated. I had put up a tarp tied to the trees high enough just to drive the Prius under. The plan was to put the aero bed mattress and the sleeping bag inside the Prius, leave the windows cracked, which I could do under the tarp. It meant getting things cleared out of the Prius, getting all the seats folded down, deflating the aero bed and moving it and the sleeping bag into the Prius, and re-inflating the aero bed from and inverter plugged into the Prius 12 V power outlet. All this is pretty easy, except I had to do most of it while inside the Prius to avoid getting soaked immediately. Then at some point I found the Prius would not start. I forget why I needed to have it on. I figured I must have run the battery down, so I went outside with my jump-starter and attempted to start the car. It would not start, but I did get soaked, which I had been trying to avoid. A little symbol came up on the dashboard indicating that I did not have the key. I did have the key, but as I later figured out, I had bumped the Smart Key switch, so now the key fob had to be inserted to start the car. At some point, I bumped the alarm button on the key and the car alarm goes off BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP at 2 AM in the campground. I couldn't get to the fob to turn the damn thing off, and then I fumbled for several more seconds trying to figure out which button to push to turn it off. Meanwhile I am getting dirt all over everything and cursing and -- did I mention it was still pouring rain? -- getting frustrated, but finally got everything sort of into place. The mattress was not level, but at the point I said to hell with it and went to sleep.

The hours were crazy as I mentioned. We ended between 2 and 4 AM and James would name a time to start up in the morning. I arrived on time every day, but most folks did not show up till about 2 hours after the specified time. There were moments of the set of tension, including a couple a blowups, usually late at night when everyone was tired and stressed. Some clowning around occurred, and some of it was caught on camera because there was a behind the scenes camera running part of the time. I had a part in some of it. I got the key grip and the director's permission to put all my Tribbles (I had a couple dozen which I used as part of the car's display) all over the bridge while James was on break. When he came in, he stopped "What the--" realized what had happened and flipped into Captain Kirk mode: "Who put all these tribbles on my bridge?" He walked over to THE CHAIR where a large number were. He picked up the strategically placed big one, that makes the tribble sound when you pick it up. He jumped when the thing made the noise, and bounced right out of role. "I've never seen one that did that!!" He kept shaking it around, and did not want to give it up even when we had cleaned all the tribbles off the bridge. The Klingon actors stepped onto the bridge and shouted "It's a Federation trap !" We caught it all on camera, and I have no doubt it will show up on the Behind the Scenes video once that is released. Other amusing incidents on the bridge included [THIS SECTION REDACTED PENDING THE RELEASE OF KITUMBA TO AVOID RELEASING ANY SPOILERS]

Sunday came and it was time to go home. I had lunch in Ticonderoga with many of the crew, Jim Cawley and the guest stars, and hit the road.