The call came in late Friday, to the downtown Toronto office of Jay Blue, the lady they
called Crazy Jay: crazy for Chris that is. JB responded in a flash, sending out the word
to her faithful sidekick Jedi Maeve, and the Hunt was afoot.
Wednesday, 5:05 pm: loitering outside the Pantages Theatre, now inexplicably renamed the
Canon Theatre (witness the power of corporate sponsorship), an anxious JB called Jedi
on her cellphone. Jedi bravely nipped and tucked her way through relentless downtown rush hour traffic, finally reaching a frantic JB, who flung herself headlong into the Official Hunt
Vehicle: 2-Jedi. Jedi zapped her way through the snarled Yonge Street traffic; the Longest
Street in the World had become the longest parking lot, and our tour started at 5:30 sharp.
Due to the awesome driving skill of Jedi Maeve, we arrived at the studio at 5:35 pm.
JB hurtled out of the car and into the reception area, while Jedi dashed to find a parking spot.
Once inside the reception area, Jay Blue became calm. Her beloved Brit was not there.
Somehow, she just knew. The atmosphere of the studio was rendered empty by his absence.
Crazy Jay registered a hollow clanging deep inside herself, just about where her heart
should be. No matter, she thought to herself. We'll have a good time anyway.
A crowd of 8 year olds dressed in Girl Scout uniforms thronged the hallway as Jedi returned triumphant, having managed to find a parking spot about ten miles up the street. The tour was beginning, and we were babysitters. We had the privilege of tagging along with the Scouts, thanks to the lovely Irish maiden, otherwise known as Ashleen of the Relic Hunter production office.
Ashleen bid everyone hurry, as they were wrapping early today. She opened the secret door
and off we went, following anxiously behind the gang of children. We were led through the studio, which looks just like a big empty Home Depot, through another door and out into the open air.
Just as we walked outside, who should come running in the opposite direction but Simon McCorkindale! He was late for his take but still managed to grin at us as he dashed past.
Outside in the back lot, there were three or four trailers parked. One was marked "Hair and
Make-up", another was a kitchen in which a couple of young women appeared to be having a food fight, and a third was a very nice, new, smart trailer which had the blinds pulled and the door closed. Suddenly the door of this trailer opened and out walked Tia Carrere! And oh, is she ever beautiful. She had freshly-done, impeccable make-up, gorgeous hair full of soft waves, and she
was wearing her Sydney clothes but with a black ski jacket over top because it was quite cold.
Tia stood there surrounded by this gang of kids. She was smiling and friendly to all of them, patiently answered their questions, laughed with them and listened with genuine interest t
o every single one of them. I can definitely report that Tia Carrere is a wonderful, warm,
vibrant human being. Not the slightest hint of "star syndrome".
Tia demonstrated a side kick for one of the kids, but took pains to point out that she has a stuntwoman who does all the difficult stuff. She said "everything is fake". She apologized
for the fact that we would not be able to watch them shoot a scene, and explained that they normally have 12 hour days, starting at 7 am, but that today they had wrapped early
"because we have a fabulous director." One of the kids piped up "where's Nigel?" and
Tia made a face and then smiled at the kid and said "I don't know, I think he's gone home!"
Yeah. JB already knew the little brat was long gone.
Jay asked Ashleen if we were allowed to take photographs, and she said no, but because
JB had brought her camera, Ashleen very kindly arranged for Tia's personal photographer
to use JB's camera to take a picture of Tia with the kids. Of course, Jedi and Jay snuck
into the back of the picture!
Tia waved goodbye and went back into the trailer. The assistant director then took us all
on a tour of the studio, starting with the take that Simon McCorkindale was doing. We had to stay very still and quiet, as the cameras rolled and Mr. McCorkindale did his stuff. He was in a
cave and it was all lit up with big overhead lights. The director said "Action!" and Simon l
unged from one side of the cave to the other, the director said "Cut!" and that was it.
The whole thing took five seconds. Then we moved on.
The whole studio is extremely dusty. The dust just hangs in the air like…well, like dust I guess. It's like walking through a morning mist in the mountains. We walked past the chairs where the principals sit between takes: they are labelled "Nigel" and "Sydney". JB thought that was pretty funny. We went past all kinds of little cubby holes where there were old props, wardrobe, pieces of polystyrene stone being painted, piles of old paint cans on the floor, bits of wood lying around, etc. It was a complete mess, everything covered in this fine dust and stuff thrown about everywhere.
Then we were shown the tunnels and the cave. Every time you see a tunnel or a cave on
Relic Hunter, it's the same tunnel and cave. They just shoot it from a different angle. The
kids had great fun going through the tunnels. The floor is sandy and very uneven, and the walls are made of some kind of plastic stuff, and there are tree roots hanging down from the ceiling.
JB kept putting her hand on the tunnel wall to keep upright and of course when she pushed
against it, it gave way because it is only plastic. The cave is at the end of the tunnel and f
or this particular episode, it was painted with a Chinese style backdrop of mountains and little houses, with a red door with Chinese symbols on it. The episode they were shooting was a
followup to "Sydney at Ten" with Simon McCorkindale reprising his role as the bad guy.
We also saw a mock-up of a plane interior, and a train carriage. Two guys have to jump up
and down on the end of the train carriage to make it seem like it's moving! Also, they have this
mock-up tunnel section which is high up, like the guys are climbing along the top of a closet,
and then they pull a lever and the whole thing caves in, so they fall down inside it.
It's just a square thing about twice the size of a clothes closet.
Finally we got to the part JB was looking forward to the most: the interior set of Trinity College! You know when you go to Home Depot, and there are mock-ups of kitchens, and bathroom
interiors, etc.? That's what Syd and Nigel's offices are like. The first thing we noticed was
that they are covered in a thick layer of dust. There is a staircase that leads nowhere, outside
in the corridor, and a bench seat that you can sometimes see just outside the door. We went
through the door marked "Ancient Studies Department" and into Nigel and Karen's office.
Nigel's desk was covered in dust and there was an empty can of grape-flavoured C-Plus on the
desk. There is a Union Jack flag in one of the pen-holders, and beside his filing cabinets
there is a model of Big Ben (the clock tower at the Houses of Parliament in London). On
the walls there are all kinds of pictures, maps, artifacts in glass cases, etc. It's really cool.
Jay didn't pay much attention to Sydney's office, she was more fascinated by Nigel's desk.
She wanted to sit in his chair but unfortunately we weren't allowed near any of the desks.
They had the one desk which had the big magnifying glass thingy where they were all
examining this relic. There was a bunch of stuff on it but again, it was all covered with dust. Looking up, you discover that there are no ceilings to these "offices", it is just a huge high warehouse ceiling hung with lights and the dust was just swirling in the air. Amazing!
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs of the studio. Darn!!
We left the offices and the kids were hungry, so they went and finished off some of the food
that was lying around. We were informed that "no sugary food is allowed in the studio". Ashleen from the production office kept offering us coffee or tea, there was a cappuccino machine
that we could have made use of. But we declined. The intrepid hunters had failed to
corner our main quarry, and we were feeling a little defeated.
Finally the kids were all fed, watered and taken care of, and the tour was over. Ashleen
handed out autographed photos of Tia that she had signed earlier, and we managed to get
one as well. Very nice, but small consolation for not getting to meet Our Hero. We were
escorted back out into the reception area, shook hands with Ashleen, thanked her very
much for having us, and headed back to the car.
The motto of this story is: so close, and yet so far. But…watch this space!!!
~~ and the Hunt continues ~~
|
The Hunt for Christien
