Pippa Prepares to Graduate

May 23*

Monday was Victoria Day, so it was a long weekend! And I did not spend a minute of it resting. It was gorgeous weather and I was happy to be outside. My boyfriend came to visit the city, and we spent it on the waterfront, with me trying to convince him that big cities are not actually hell on earth.

Back on set Tuesday, I’ve started helping the art department more. Well I kind of did last week too, towards the end of the week when we did a ‘cocaine’ scene that involved icing sugar absolutely everywhere. That was a lot of clean-up. Plus, it was the day that there was the fire at the Runnymeade subway station - which is my stop on my way to set!

I also got to help one of the art hands on set with her tiny houses for one of the scenes in the series. The amount of work and detail she put into them - they were so fancy! I learned about different types of paint and glue used to decorate the set and props. And all that hard work on her miniatures just to be dramatically crushed in a matter of minutes!

This week, everything was changing. We had our last days at Trench Studios this week. We started working nights. I did some canvassing this week too, which means I was knocking on the neighbours’ doors to get them to sign off on us using loud special effects late at night. The special effects team used lights and smoke machines to ‘set fire’ to the studio! It looked pretty cool, but was also a super late night.

My sleep schedule is super messed up right now. We were doing early mornings - like 6:30-7:30 am starts, and in the span of a day, now we’re on nights, starting between 3:00-5:00 am and not finishing the night until 3:00-5:00 am. Caffeine is definitely my best friend right now!

I started to feel like I wasn’t really needed on set the latter half of the week because the majority of my time was being spent firewatching. It wasn’t until Saturday night when I got to talking to the Grips and the Gaffers while firewatching their truck that I realized how much it helps out them if they have someone to firewatch. Plus, they’re a big fan of the fact that I usually deliver the candy to the set, and that I made a point of memorizing as many of the crew’s coffee orders as possible.

Next week we wrap up shooting! It’s been a learning curve for me for sure, and it’s been a valuable experience, but I’m really excited to come back to Smiley Guy Studios on Friday!

Except it’ll be my last Friday on internship, because I graduate from college the Friday after that! I’m excited to be graduating college, but I’m really going to miss Smiley Guy Studios after my internship is over! :’(