Last year I got the opportunity to be a medical consultant for the movie My Sister's Keeper. It was definitely an interesting experience. The movie industry is vastly different from the medical world.
As a medical consultant I mainly assisted the property master with propping the medical equipment. So for certain scenes, I would set up the IV pumps and IV lines, cardiac monitors and even a dialysis machine. (Which, of course, I have never touched a dialysis machine in my life because dedicated dialysis nurses do that in real life. So, I just had to fake it to make it.) Other times, I was called on by producers to help create dialogue for scenes, assisted the set decorators with developing a set and assisted with direction of extras. At times, it was quite a busy job.
Even though there were busy and stressful times, the job came with a lot of perks. The most obvious perk was the FOOD!!! I've never seen so much food in my life. Everyday there was provided breakfast and lunch. It was good too!!! There was a full service coffee cart there everyday and you could order any drink you wanted from plan drip coffee to a fancy smancy blended drink...and it was FREE!! Every now and then Miss Diaz would even send the Hot Dog on a Stick truck over and we would all get corn dogs. In between meal times there would even be snacks sitting out. But the coolest meal of all was the one we had on our last day of shooting. The caterer served filet mignon, lobster and champagne. It totally beat the $8 coupon to the hospital cafeteria that I get once a year as a Christmas gift from my usual workplace.
I really enjoyed learning about the creative process of making a movie. It's really amazing to see all the work that gets put into just one scene. From the lighting to the set, to propping and the camera, everything has to be changed or adjusted for every scene. Before this, I really had no idea all the work that goes into movies. We often worked 12 hour days. Later, I was told by crew members that 12 hours is actually a pretty short day. Most crews on movie sets work 14-16 hour days...yikes!
The best thing of all about working on this movie was the chance to meet so many great people. The property girls, Maureen and Drew were the best. They always had great stories to tell about all the past movies they have worked on. We always had time to laugh and goof around. They were just so much fun to work with. I really learned a lot from Maureen, like all her techniques on how to age paper and forge peoples signatures on documents (only for propping of course). I had the opportunity to meet and interact with so many talented and creative people. From all the actors and directors to the crew, it was fascinating to watch them work and amazing to actually have the opportunity to work with them. We all had fun times and shared a lot of laughs. I'm actually kind of sad I don't get to see them anymore.
The movie comes out June 26th. I'm actually a little nervous for it to come out because I hope all the medical stuff turns out okay. I just hate it when I watch ER type shows and the medical equipment is set up wrong. I'm sure medical people are the only ones to notice, but since I'm one of those people, it bugs me. There were times when I would try to set things up perfectly or suggest that certain dialogue didn't sound medically correct, but the powers that be just went with it anyway. My "medical expertise" got overruled when there was a time crunch and there was no time to fix it or they opted for creative license. Anyway, here is the trailer for My Sister's Keeper, which is based on a book with the same name by Jodi Picoult. So far, the trailer looks great. Enjoy.
As a medical consultant I mainly assisted the property master with propping the medical equipment. So for certain scenes, I would set up the IV pumps and IV lines, cardiac monitors and even a dialysis machine. (Which, of course, I have never touched a dialysis machine in my life because dedicated dialysis nurses do that in real life. So, I just had to fake it to make it.) Other times, I was called on by producers to help create dialogue for scenes, assisted the set decorators with developing a set and assisted with direction of extras. At times, it was quite a busy job.
Even though there were busy and stressful times, the job came with a lot of perks. The most obvious perk was the FOOD!!! I've never seen so much food in my life. Everyday there was provided breakfast and lunch. It was good too!!! There was a full service coffee cart there everyday and you could order any drink you wanted from plan drip coffee to a fancy smancy blended drink...and it was FREE!! Every now and then Miss Diaz would even send the Hot Dog on a Stick truck over and we would all get corn dogs. In between meal times there would even be snacks sitting out. But the coolest meal of all was the one we had on our last day of shooting. The caterer served filet mignon, lobster and champagne. It totally beat the $8 coupon to the hospital cafeteria that I get once a year as a Christmas gift from my usual workplace.
I really enjoyed learning about the creative process of making a movie. It's really amazing to see all the work that gets put into just one scene. From the lighting to the set, to propping and the camera, everything has to be changed or adjusted for every scene. Before this, I really had no idea all the work that goes into movies. We often worked 12 hour days. Later, I was told by crew members that 12 hours is actually a pretty short day. Most crews on movie sets work 14-16 hour days...yikes!
The best thing of all about working on this movie was the chance to meet so many great people. The property girls, Maureen and Drew were the best. They always had great stories to tell about all the past movies they have worked on. We always had time to laugh and goof around. They were just so much fun to work with. I really learned a lot from Maureen, like all her techniques on how to age paper and forge peoples signatures on documents (only for propping of course). I had the opportunity to meet and interact with so many talented and creative people. From all the actors and directors to the crew, it was fascinating to watch them work and amazing to actually have the opportunity to work with them. We all had fun times and shared a lot of laughs. I'm actually kind of sad I don't get to see them anymore.
The movie comes out June 26th. I'm actually a little nervous for it to come out because I hope all the medical stuff turns out okay. I just hate it when I watch ER type shows and the medical equipment is set up wrong. I'm sure medical people are the only ones to notice, but since I'm one of those people, it bugs me. There were times when I would try to set things up perfectly or suggest that certain dialogue didn't sound medically correct, but the powers that be just went with it anyway. My "medical expertise" got overruled when there was a time crunch and there was no time to fix it or they opted for creative license. Anyway, here is the trailer for My Sister's Keeper, which is based on a book with the same name by Jodi Picoult. So far, the trailer looks great. Enjoy.
