Of all the things we did last week in LA, the most fun for me was spending a couple of hours on the set of HBO’s “Entourage.” We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the cast or of the ‘set’, which happened to be at a home in the Hollywood hills (all I’ll divulge is that this wasn’t the first time they have filmed there). I want to honor the 'confidentiality’ of what we saw and heard, with the exception of two pictures above - click twice to make pics larger. The first is taken from Vince’s rental house of the Hollywood skyline (interestingly, the home that is used as Ari’s house is actually the one on the left - next door neighbors, but only in the real production world). The other house that is on the other side up the hill: not sure what to say, except that our hunch is that it’s a certain character’s girlfriend’s, so we took a pic of it.
Anyway, what really struck me about the experience:
1. There are a lot of people on site associated with the production, most of them union members that comprise “the crew.” Everyone is on a mission to get things done; the unions don’t work weekends and they have pretty strict rules about overtime, etc., so there is a genuine sense of urgency to get things done, and done right. And then move on to the next scene. Time is clearly money.
2. I have this heard this before, but the time in between scenes and sometimes between takes is substantial. While the crew is working a pretty steady clip, there is A LOT of down time for the actors and their own respective entourages. Stop and go. Although, now, most of the actors are constantly text-messaging on their Blackberries in between takes.
3. What am about to say is not specific to what we saw on the set, but the whole 'personal assistant’ thing in LA has been taken to a new art form.
4. The food at “base camp” that we had for lunch was pretty darn good. And the Sprinkles cupcake truck set up outside where they were filming was terrific!