23rd
Hey Rangers,
Monday morning on the set and we are in the last shooting day of episode 3, which is being directed by John Peters. I can’t tell you much about today’s work because it all takes place on sets you haven’t seen before. However, Shoshannah Stern (Bonnie Richmond) is working today, and she brings a whole different kind of positive energy to the set. Shoshannah always has a smile on her face and is the first to start in with the “between takes” joking. Also here today is one of our new actors by the name of Emily Rose. Emily received a Masters degree in acting from UCLA and is fresh off the set of HBO’s “John From Cincinnati,” where she portrayed conflicted film maker, Cass. We also had to drag Kenny Mitchell away from his new baby to perform a few scenes. Ken is spending so much time with his daughter HE even smells like new baby. (Yes, we are that close.) When you ask him about her, he gets all gooey… it’s disgustingly adorable.
We had another hot day at our Simi Valley location last Friday. Simi is the area where we shoot the Richmond’s Ranch and most of our “Kansas” exteriors. I can’t begin to tell you how beautiful the ranch is, it is one of the last remaining undeveloped areas in southern California. The ranch has hosted several TV shows and movies such as the Little House on the Prairie set (which sadly burned down in a forest fire a few years ago) and most recently was the site of a meteor crash for the movie Transformers. Now I know that there has been a bit of chatter on the web about how Kansas doesn’t look like our ranch but hey, it’s pretty darn good for being 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles. This is one of those things where we will have to beg for a little suspension of disbelief. We had a pretty late start in the day because half of the shots we needed were daytime shots and half were at night. The heat was pretty tough but having shot there for two years now most of us have become accustomed to the drastic temperature swings. I have to tell you, there is another big fire burning in the Santa Barbra area that sent a ton of smoke into the air causing the moon to be blood red; it was awesome and creepy at the same time. We will be back out at the ranch again soon, so hopefully the fires will come under control before we get there. On a side note about our crew, we recently held a Jericho Gun Club Day. Gun club is open to all crew and cast members who are interested in shooting sports. These events are hosted by Assistant Prop Master “Dr. Booty.” The crew rented an outdoor range in the area and spent the afternoon sampling some of the many firearms owned by different crew members. Many paper targets, empty soda cans, clay pigeons, and partially spoiled melons didn’t survive the day. I wanted to tell you about this to help accentuate the tight knit crew that we have as well as inspire you to form a Jericho interest group in your area. Whether it is a shooting group like ours or a Jericho viewing and discussion group, now is the time start building an audience and build some friendships. Well, that is enough for now so fight on Rangers and continue to recruit new members into the ranks.
Yours truly,
Loomer
Jericho/On-set Dresser
