Sally Carpenter is a mystery
writer who has worked as an actress, freelance writer, college writing
instructor, theater critic, jail chaplain, and tour guide/page for a major
movie studio. She’s now employed at a community newspaper. Learn more about Sally and books
at her blog. Today Sally
joins us to give a virtual tour of Paramount Studios.
Behind
the Scenes of a Movie Studio
Tourists who travel to Hollywood,
Calif., to find some “movie magic” will have to look hard to find it.
Celebrities don’t actually live in Hollywood, and Sunset Boulevard, the main
attraction, is mostly full of tacky souvenir shops. Two places that are worth a
visit are the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and Paramount Pictures.
These two places adjoin each
other, sharing a common wall. Legend says ghosts from the cemetery have walked
through the studio back lot at night.
Many of the classic movie stars
and noted directors are buried here, often with ornate and ostentatious grave
markers. One actor even has a reflecting pool in front of his huge grave
marker. Others, like Rudolf Valentino, have their urns tucked away in regular
niches. My personal favorite is Mel Blanc’s simple headstone that reads, “That’s
All, Folks!”
Non-celebrities are buried here
as well and anyone can purchase a plot. Tourists can walk in and look around
for free during business hours. Docent tours are available as well.
In 2000 I was hired as a page at
Paramount. The pages gave studio tours during the day and ushered the sitcom
audiences in the evening. The tour is different today, but I’d like to talk
about what you might have seen on one of my tours.
I led groups of 15 to 21 people
on a two-hour walking tour, rain or shine (yep, I was in the rain a few times
with some hardy and determined guests.)
The Universal Studio tour is
entertainment-focused, but the Paramount tour is educational in nature. As I
led my tour group around the lot, I talked about the history of the studio.
A studio lot is rather bland in
appearance. The lot is mostly comprised of enormous and nondescript soundstages
where shooting takes place. Some of the sitcoms that shot on the lot would let
the groups come inside and look at the sets when they were not rehearsing. Some
of my best tours were during the winter hiatus (vacation) when the guests could
see the sets for both Frasier and Becker.
A couple of shows, such as Bob
Saget’s Raising Dad, let the groups inside during rehearsals as long as the
guests didn’t talk or take pictures. We’d watch from the bleachers where the
audiences would sit during the taping.
The Entertainment Tonight people let the guests stand on the actual set that was used for the broadcasts.
Up close, a set is made of word and canvas and isn’t a bit glamorous. Once the
ET people let my group go back into the control room.
Paramount has a huge back lot,
several streets lined with facades (fake fronts) to resemble various sections
of New York City (Castle is a modern show that uses this back lot). The
“buildings” have nothing inside them except scaffolding to hold them up. The
streets can be decorated with potted tree, fake street lamps and mailboxes. The
windows of the storefronts can be repainted and decorated to suit the need. The
streets are rigged for rain and snow effects.
The back lot was often used to
make commercials, music videos and outdoor scenes for the sitcoms. During a
shoot, the ends of the street were blocked off with sawhorses. Tour groups
could stand behind the barricades and watch.
At the far end of the lot stood
the mill where sets were constructed. A large garage-style door was usually
open, and the groups could see the workers painting, molding plastic, or making
a set.
The Paramount Theater, usually
our last stop, was a state-of-the-art film theater used for movie premieres as
well as screenings for directors, producers, and studio employees (the lot also
had two smaller theaters for viewing dailies).
A full-time projectionist worked
for the studio, and he often let my groups inside the projection room. He’d
demonstrate how the 35mm film projectors work. Now that more shooting is done
digitally, the projection room might be quite different today.
The tour ended by the gift shop
so the guests could purchase souvenirs and videos/DVDs of Paramount shows.
I used my knowledge of the studio
for my new book, The Sinister Sitcom
Caper, a Sandy Fairfax cozy mystery. Sandy is a 38-year-old former teen
idol who discovers that making a comeback can be murder! He’s the guest star of
Off-Kelter, a corny family sitcom and
the lowest rated show on the 1993 fall season. On the first day of rehearsal,
one of the actors drops dead at his feet, and Sandy investigates the suspicious
death with the aid of a dwarf and an animal actor. Along the way he deals with
his ex-wife, tries to make amends with his estranged parents, and falls in love
with a beautiful choreographer.
Buy
Links
10 comments:
An interesting and exciting post. Thanks for sharing
Great post. The closest I've been to a celebrity or TV/Movie set was a wax figure of Oprah in her chair ;)
Hi Lois, thanks for hosting me. Andrea, my most exciting celebrity sighting was early on morning on the lot when Kelsey Grammar was walking toward me. Nobody else was around. As I approached I said, "Good morning" and he said "'morning" and passed by. I also saw Ted Danson, Leonard Nimoy and a quick peek at Tom Cruise.
I also want to add that the photo you see here is the original entrance to the studio (a different entance with double arches is used nowadays). In the movie "Sunset Boulevard," Norma Shearer is driven through this gate. I always took the tour groups through this gate.
I've always wanted to take a movie studio tour. Thanks for the highlights, Sally. Best of luck with your series.
Thanks, Kathleen and Angela. I forgot to mention that the gate in the photo is called the Bronson Gate (no, not named for the actor).
That was fascinating! I know very little about the motion picture industry, so I enjoyed your peek into it.
My dad worked at Paramount as the head of the plumbing department and I got to see things that probably aren't even there anymore. An outdoor set down in the basement where they shot a lot of cowboy movies, and a big water tank on the back lot for ocean movies. It was even more fake back in the day. During movies we watched, dad would always point out things like toy trains, telephone poles where there shouldn't be any, etc.
Thanks for stopping by, Karen. Marilyn, that's way cool that your dad worked at the studio too. The water tank is probably what is now used as a parking lot on non-shooting days. There's a permanent "big sky" background beside the lot that can be painted over according to the needs of the shot. The boat race in "Stuart Little" and the final scenes of "Star Trek: the Voyage Home" were shot there among others.
Very interesting, Sally! Thanks for sharing.
Madeline
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