This is my Set!

Further memories of Syriana

As part of the swing gang, we rarely got to see the big action -- stars, Panavision cameras, everything lit beyond belief. We either put together the set before anyone else arrived, or broke it after the A-team had long since moved on.

One exception was a day at Loyola College in Baltimore, which was doubling for (I think) Princeton. George Clooney and his son are waiting in the admissions office. Due to scheduling issues, we were dressing this set on the same day as the shoot. So my fellow crew members are all over at the truck, and I Have the Set, as we like to say, complete with capital letters. A few locations people come and go, and the DP wanders in to start looking over lighting angles. While I'm shooting continuity stills, this disheveled-looking character comes in and plops down on MY sofa! Figuring it to be yet another Loyola student that I need to shoo away, the words "Hey you!" are just about to come out of my mouth when the DP says "So, Steve, do you think we should go this way?" Yeah, I was just about to chase Director Stephen Gagan off his own set.

So I grabbed the above shot for history. Gagan noticed me, got up to walk out with the DP, turned to me and said "Hey, this looks great." Dressed in hiking boots, zip-off shorts, a t-shirt with some other production on it, and a belt full of tools and doo-dads, he instantly recognized me as art department.

Now if only the writer-directors wore uniforms too...