Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 037

Just a little catching up today. I've been watching Promised Land on the Gospel Music Channel and I've noticed a few subtle changes compared to what was broadcast on CBS in the late 1990s. So... enjoy.

Download this episode here...
StandinPodcast037.mp3

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 036

I'm back! This time I take a few minutes to talk about the Gospel Music Channel, which is now showing Promised Land every weekday! Imagine following along with this series while I tell you all of my behind-the-scenes stories. Wow!

Download my podcast episode here...
StandinPodcast036.mp3
(Running time 27:12)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 035

This time, I'll talk about working on the season premiere "Crossover Episode" that kicked off both Touched by an Angel and Promised Land in the fall of 1997. Our special guests included Richard Thomas and Faith Hill!

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StandinPodcast035.mp3
(Running time 44:38)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 034

This time, I'll talk about working on episode 202 of the Promised Land television series.

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StandinPodcast034.mp3
(Running time 25:11)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 033

In the summer of 1997 I returned to the Promised Land show and we started working on season two. So, let's talk about that.

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StandinPodcast033.mp3
(Running Time 25:19)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 032

During "hiatus" between the first and second seasons of Promised Land, I worked on a cheesy "monster movie" called Marabunta. So, let's talk about that.

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StandinPodcast032.mp3
(Running time 31:14)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 031

This time, I'll talk about working on the season finale of the first season of Promised Land.
Also, I mention a young guest star we had on the show, Vanessa Lee Chester.

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StandinPodcast031.mp3
(Running time 30:00)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 030

It's time to talk about episode 1.22 of Promised Land.

Download the podcast episode here.
StandinPodcast030.mp3
(Running Time 33:21)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 029

Download the newest episode here...
StandinPodcast029.mp3
(Running time 28:37)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 028

Download the newest episode here...
StandinPodcast028.mp3
(Running Time 38:37)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 027

This time, it's all about Catering. You want to keep a film crew happy? Feed them.

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StandinPodcast027.mp3
(Running Time 27:30)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 026

In late February 1997, the crew of Promised Land went to Southern Utah to film three episodes. Why? How? I'll tell you about it.

The first episode we filmed in Southern Utah was called Outrage, and it was the story of a mining company that was pushing a bunch of Native Americans off of their sacred land. As it turns out, one of those Native Americans, Jesse Rainbird, it an old friend of Russell Greene. And, as it turns out, Russell and his family show up just in time to help these people fight against injustice. So... let's talk about what happened behind the scenes.

Download the podcast episode here...
StandinPodcast026.mp3
(Running Time 26:19)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 025

In this episode, I'll explain how a slow director can quickly become unpopular among film crew members. I only talked about that because it was on my mind, but I didn't mean to imply that the director of Promised Land Episode 117 was a slow-working director. In fact, Michael Schultz was very popular among the crew memebrs on our show.

Anyway, let's talk about this particular episode of Promised Land which was filmed in the last part of January 1997.

Download the podcast episode here...
StandinPodcast025.mp3
(Running Time 27:33)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 024

This time around, I'll talk about a big-time "crossover" episode involving characters from Touched by an Angel and from Promised Land. This episode was called Amazing Grace and it was filmed in late January and early February 1997. It was an "important" episode about racial tension in America. And we got a lot of attention for this big, two-part story. I had a good time working on the show but, in the end, I didn't find it very enjoyable as a viewer. So... I'll tell you more about this in this week's podcast episode.

Download this podcast episode here...
StandinPodcast024.mp3
(running time 28:30)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 023

This week, I'm talking about some of the on-set protocol that you'll find when you work on movies and TV shows. What's a "page count" on a movie set? What are "sides"? What's a "call sheet"? What does the script supervisor mean when she says, "Seven Baker is up..." to the other people on the crew? It's a whole lot of stuff like that on this week's podcast. Enjoy!

Download my podcast episode here...

StandinPodcast023.mp3
(Running Time 26:40)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 022

In January 1997, we shot an episode of Promised Land called The Collapse. We shot in and around a real mine southeast of Park City, as well as a bunch of sets built by our remarkable Art Department crew. Join me in this podcast episode and I'll tell you all about it.

Also, follow this link for a few behind-the-scenes pictures that I took all by myself on our mine set.

Download the podcast episode here
StandinPodcast022.mp3
(Running time 24:32)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 021

In January 1997, when the Promised Land crew returned to work after our Christmas break, we shot episode 115, an episode about a homeless, runaway teenager. Our special guest was Thora Birch, who later became somewhat of a movie icon for her role in American Beauty.

Please Note: After I recorded the podcast, I realized that I was wrong about Thora Birch being featured in the ads for American Beauty. What can I say? I never saw the movie.

It was a new year and we were shooting with a new film format (or, at least, it was new to us). We had been filming the series in 16mm but, starting in 1997, we switched to a format called Super 16.

So, please join me for some memoirs about this episode, which was shot on location in Salt Lake City's Pioneer Park.
Follow this link in Google Maps. Also in this episode, I tell you why you'll often see rooms with closed curtains when you're watching movies. Plus, what's "dulling spray" all about?


Download the podcast episode here
StandinPodcast021.mp3
(Running Time 24:21)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 020

For this episode, I'm going to take a break from talking about the Promised Land television series and, instead, I'll talk about something which happened more recently. Perhaps you heard a lot about actor Christian Bale's bad day on the set of an upcoming Terminator movie. This happened in the summer of 2008. He got upset with the Director of Photography and verbally tore him apart for several minutes. The whole thing was recorded and, just a little while ago, the recording was leaked to the public.

Well, I've witnessed similar incidents on movie sets in the past. No, there wasn't anything quite that intense, but the basic elements of the problem were there. So I decided to comment a little bit and analyze that situation, so that we can all better understand how to avoid such ugly situations in the future. So... it's a practical analysis and some worthwhile advice, if I do say so myself.

Download my podcast episode here...
StandinPodcast020.mp3
(Running time 30:38)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 019

It's time to talk about Episode 114 of Promised Land, an episode about "a very important health issue." It was the last episode we did before our Christmas break at the end of 1996. We also had a cast and crew Christmas party at the time at a restaurant called Log Haven, in a canyon east of Salt Lake City.

Download this podcast episode here.
StandinPodcast019.mp3
(Running Time 25:23)

Apologies for a rough week

I'm afraid my hectic schedule has caught up with me this week. I'm going to skip producing a new podcast until next week. Until then, please enjoy a "rerun" with the podcast archives as you scroll down the page.

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 018

This time around, I'm talking about Episode 113 of Promised Land, the title of which was "Independence Day." Our special guests included Chris Burke and Jason Beghe. Also, find out what happened when crew members used foul language around the set of Promised Land.

Download Episode 18 Here
(Running time 26:39)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 017

In this episode, I'll tell you about the production of episode 112 of Promised Land in late November 1996. This was a "socially relevant episode" about a "very important topic." But, above that, it was a chance to see Russell Greene behaving so tough it made me wonder if Chuck Norris could even withstand him!

Highlights of working on this episode included working with Stuart Margolin as director and John Finn as a guest.

Download the episode here...

StandinPodcast017.mp3

Running time 17:47

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 016

In this podcast, I'll talk about working on the Christmas episode of Promised Land in November 1996. We did a lot of the work at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake City. And I have my own behind-the-scenes photos from the episode at this web page here.

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StandinPodcast016.mp3
(Running time 31:41)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 015

I'm still talking about my work in the Fall of 1996. I worked on Episode 110 of Promised Land, which was called "King of the Road." Also in this podcast, I mentioned a restaurant called La Caille, which should be familiar to fans of Touched by an Angel and Promised Land. It was used several times for episodes of Touched by an Angel. And I quickly mentioned something called the Taft Hartley Act. Here's a link to something about how it applies to the Screen Actors' Guild.

Download this podcast episode here...
StandinPodcast015.mp3
(Running Time 31:20)

Memoirs of a Movie Stand-in 014

Happy New Year! We kick off the new year with a few stories from the Fall of 1996. I worked on Episode 109 of Promised Land, which was part two of a "crossover" episode. The story began on Touched by an Angel on a Sunday night and then the follow-up was broadcast on a Tuesday night on our show. The special guest star was Delta Burke, who worked hard on both episodes. But it's still kind of interesting to note that she did the episodes out of order. In other words, she did part 2 before she did part 1.

Anyway, download the episode here...
StandinPodcast014.mp3
(Running time 27:37)