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Part A. As tired as I am--it's 2:15am in NY--I wanted to write this while it was still fresh. I have also been asked to post some pics, so here's some! We weren't allowed to photograph the clothes, so I can't post any of those, but here's some color in this massive black & white post!
Thursday
"No singing, just dancing," and, “I understand why models complain about having such a hard job.”
Since we weren’t getting picked up till 11:30am, we got to sleep in a bit—which knowing now what the day would hold, I’m super thankful for! Bonnie had found the workout room in our hotel, so we weighed in & were confident that we’d fit the clothes they’d picked out for us! Thank goodness NYC is a walking city! They also had a huge bowl of Granny Smith apples in the gym! At a hotel that doesn’t even have complementary coffee this was huge! I grabbed two! I also find it super funny that this hotel has an iPad that greets you by name in every room & has loaded on it all the hotel & surrounding area info, but doesn't have a microwave or coffee maker in the room!
Joe (the personal assistant to one of the production assistants) picked us & two other girls up. The other two girls were going in for wardrobe fittings. One had spent 8 hours the day before in a salon getting her hair done! (Sad story is that later in the day they bought her a wig to wear instead! Also a funny hair story--Bonnie & I were the only ones who did not have to have our scalp painted or made up--thanks, mom & dad for giving us the worlds thickest hair!) We were taken to a different studio than on Tuesday. This one was apparently better for filming in & was in Brooklyn. We drove through some neighborhoods that our driver told us had been super ghetto but had become popular hipster neighborhoods where “they go to spend dad’s money.” Litterally minutes after he said that a guy rode by on a super tall bike—I mean the guy was at least 6 or 7 feet off the ground. Joe said, “I’m surprised that guy didn’t ‘accidentally’ run into us or spit on us—he hates SUVs & things like this.” Then two seconds later someone crossed the street in front of us carrying a surfboard. Where the heck are we? I found this pic of tall bike jousting online--this is apparently what had gone on a few weeks earlier in this area--
We got to the studio & it is hands down the strangest building I have ever been in. When you enter the main door, it’s like you’re walking in an old library, complete with a suit of arms in the corner. Take a turn down the hall to the right & you’re in an old train car with bench seats and street signs on the walls. Keep going & you enter into a hallway that can only be described as a WW2 submarine—the kind where you flatten yourself against the wall when someone walks by. There were even fake life boats hanging from the ceiling. Each of the probably 8 rooms off this hallway were really teeny & themed. Bonnie’s & my dressing room was a tiki hut complete with a covered Jacuzzi in the corner.
The other dressing rooms were castle themed, Asian themed, Mexican themed, etc. The hair & make up room was like an old stage with bunting painted on the walls. So weird. All us girls doing the commercial shoot had dressing rooms along this hall, as did the wardrobe & seamstress team and the hair & make up team. They all said they were pretty sure this hall & rooms had been used in a porn film & that this was the dirtiest place they’d ever been. I tried really hard not to think about it & tried not to touch more than I absolutely needed to.
The wardrobe/stylist team still had not had one of my outfits approved yet, so in between getting nails done and hair & make up started I would try one different tops, have them photographed & then they’d be emailed to “the client” (WW—who we never once met anyone who worked directly for WW this whole time!). We also filled out all the paperwork for this "job" (W2s, etc)--we got a huge kick out of signing where it said "models sign here" on all the papers! Our shoot got started at 12pm & we were scheduled to begin filming at 6:30pm. The two girls who we met on Tuesday had their call times at 8am and 10am. One was about to begin filming & the other was still getting some wardrobe details tweaked. They’d run thru the hallway area between outfits & say how fun shooting was & how huge the set was. And how many people were out there! For a minute I thought that maybe "so many people" was code for "Jennifer Hudson is out there." But it was not. There were at least 50 people though--the room was huge--a HUGE green screen that was on the floor & behind us during filming--so that we could be on the white background with the funny little words & cartoons around us. The print set was a HUGE white wall with all kinds of lights & a fan to make us look good!
Lunch was set out about 1pm. Not knowing how long the day was going (the schedule had “wrap” at 8:30), we ate lightly—fruit, veggies, some nuts. There was a lot of “hurry up & wait”—trying to get outfits approved, getting various stages of hair/make up done…then sitting while one of the girls who was filming at the time needed something that took priority. Bonnie was dressed about 4pm. My outfit was finalized about 5pm. Since Bonnie was sewn into her first outfit, she wasn’t allowed to sit. My top was silky & so I wasn’t allowed to sit in it since it would wrinkle. Hours of standing in stilettos=hard work. Our film outfits needed to be "muted & not flashy"--Bonnie's wore a brown ballet neck top, black pencil skirt, brown belt & black pumps. I ended up being a pair of skinny jeans, a navy blue halter style top & tall tall tall black boots. They said they were trying to make me as tall as Bonnie was--and she was wearing super tall shoes!
We probably started our shoot about 7pm. Since things were running to behind and we were the last people being filmed, most of the assistants had left. Bonnie & I had the real deal stylists doing touch ups on us as they made the lighting & everything right for our shoot. Amy, the director, would ask us questions off camera & we would answer in complete sentences. All those reality show interviews make sense now. She’d ask, “What was your favorite thing about the mobile app?” And we’d answer, “My favorite thing about the mobile app was….” There were also things that had to be said a certain way--"it's a plan, not a program", "always say Weight Watchers Online", "don't say 'support group'", and don't mention brand names other than iPhone--but not Apple! At one point Bonnie did reference Oprah & the director had to call "cut!" She would get us to tell the same story but from someone else's point of view--like I have a story about friends I work with lining up behind me during a staff lunch one day to see what I was eating & I'd texted Bonnie that I was like the Pied Piper of Weight Watchers--Amy had Bonnie tell that story about me. Or after Bonnie would tell a story about "lightening up a recipe" she'd have me tell it as well. I cannot wait to see how they turn this hour-hour & a half session into a 30 second commercial! Things were going well, until about a half hour into our shoot they called a dinner break. Apparently it’s union regulation that food is served every so many hours. My feet were absolutely killing me. I was wearing some super tall leather boots without socks, so my feet were just crammed in the leather. I wasn't allowed to take my shoes off (for fear I wouldn't put them back on) but they did let me sit & put my feet up. After a little while someone brought me baby powder & little footie nylons & that helped a lot!
Bonnie was allowed to take her shoes off & put on surgeon’s booties over her feet. The stylists & film crew would wear these around the set—I guess they didn’t leave footprints on the green screen we were standing on. We really weren’t allowed to eat in our clothes since we weren’t finished filming yet. They brought us water bottles & diet cokes with straws so as not to spill, drip or mess up our make up. While Bonnie & I were semi-collapsed in our dressing room, the director, Amy, walked by with her plate of food & talked with us—she & her husband, the other director/photographer, are from LA. She’d done WW after having her second child. She was really nice & down to earth. It was good to get to know her a little better & get more comfortable talking with her on camera. After another hair & make up touch up (this happened every few minutes—it was so hot with all the lights on set!) we went back to finish our filming. Since you’re legally not allowed to say how much weight you’ve lost on tv, we were only allowed to say 24 & 47 pounds. Kind of odd, but there was nothing else to do about it. Our film shoot finished & we went to change for our print shoot. We did separate pictures & then some together. This was fun—they’d play music & tell us to dance around. They kept having to remind us not to sing along (they played Black Eyed Peas & Beyonce—not easy to not sing!). One of Bonnie’s dresses was pretty short & every time she’d raise her arms her Spanx would show, so we heard, “Bonnie pull your dress down” a lot! The clothes & shoes we wore for the print shoot were more fun than the film shoot. For the print shoot I wore a "flirty" purple dress (that's what they kept calling it--it had a ruffle along the neckline--I guess that's flirty in NY!), pair of Fendi sandals (that cost “like a thousand bucks”) and Bonnie wore a red/almost maroon dress as well as a black & navy dress & some YSL sandals & Christian Louboutin pumps. They were some “major” shoes according to Joe the stylist. He told us that we were the only ones he got to shop for without any direction so we got the best stuff! Woohoo! And we learned throughout the day that anything they took the tags off was ours!
The print shoot lasted till about 10:30pm. It was fun because everyone knew they were about to be done for the day so multiple directors, producers & assistants were dancing in the back of the room while we were dancing on camera. One of the people dancing was our "stand in"--a girl whose sole job was to put on an outfit similar to ours & stand in front of the camera so they could adjust the lighting. It was real funny seeing her in the back with the same dress Bonnie had on next to me! They are all scheduled to start at 7am Friday morning! I do not envy them! After our print shoot was done, we were taken to the wardrobe/accessory storage room to film some behind the scenes stuff. They asked us questions about our experience & some questions to be used in the WW Online success stories. It was approaching 11, and we really had not eaten much all day—people would come thru & say goodbye while we were filming this. All that got us thru was thinking about the pizza we were going to eat. As soon as we were released we were told that everything we wore (minus the shoes & jewelry) was our to keep! I came away from this deal with some 7 for all Mankind jeans, great navy top & and an awesome purple dress. Bonnie got 2 great dresses & a top & great pencil skirt. Can’t wait to look up the designers of these clothes! I don’t recognize them, but apparently they are big time. Someone had made us dinner plates—cold tacos. We ate every bite!
We had a car called for us to take us back to the hotel where we quickly dropped off our extra clothes & then walked a couple blocks to a pizza place. We each had huge slices of pizza & split a canoli. Dough filled with icing & chocolate chips—so glad I am not Italian. I’d weigh 1000 pounds. Best meal ever!
I am about to crash. My feet are killing me. I’m going to wear my chacos all the way home tomorrow! We don’t leave for the airport till 3, so a day of walking around SoHo is the plan for tomorrow. H&M, Bloomingdales & a few other boutiques that caught our eye! We both agree that while this has been the experience of a lifetime, we are not cut out to be models. Way too much work & pressure. And I like flat shoes too much. But it’s been such a fun time! And we still have a few hours of fun left tomorrow! Woohoo!
