Those Taillights Look Even Better

My oldest sister, Janice, had six kids of her own but as she grew older, there were even more grandkids to follow. And after an unusually hectic weekend with a houseful of kids, she often made this remark, "Those headlights looked good, but those taillights look even better". I felt the same way this week.

Just over a week ago there was a lot of excitement surrounding the arrival of the film crew and cast for LOL. Nearly everyone was excited to see the prop people make changes to the building, and to see all the trucks converge on the site late in the evening. Of course, the excitement only increased when onlookers actually idenified the trailer that Miley Cyrus would use while on site.

All in all, it was an enlightening experience. I never realized it would take 100-125 crew people daily to make what is considered a low-budget film (about $14-15 million). I also learned what the "grip" people actually do, and how different and clearly separate their tasks are from lighting, sound, location, and videography staff.

It was also gratifying to see current or former South students in the role of "extras", but I observed how boring and tedious the job of an extra can really be. They had to dress warm (fall clothes despite hot, humid weather) and walk the same route over and over again until the 'take' was just right. Believe me, it didn't look very glamorous.

However, after more than a week of having virtually the entire school operation disrupted for the movie crew, it was nice for it to come to an end. Today, there is some normalcy coming back in the building and we can prepare in earnest for student registration next week.

In summary, I found the movie crew to be easy to work with and very forthcoming with information, however, by the time they left on Wednesday evening, "the tailights looked even better".