Behind The Scenes

What's that song?

"It was late at night
You held on tight
From an empty seat
A flash of light"

Olive forced her eyes open and got up before setting off her alarm, she thanked her past self for choosing a good song to start the day, this helped her a lot to wake up in a nice mood. Actually, a perfect mood, cause this was the morning of Olive Maia's first day working on set with Tim Burton, her childhood hero.

Well, technically, it wasn't even really a morning yet. It was exactly 4:30 a.m. when Olive's alarm rang. According to the callsheet they received the night before, Olive's role for the first day was as a crowd PA (Personal Assistant). Which meant she had to get ready quickly to meet with the background actors and take them to hair and makeup for today's shooting schedule.

Before leaving the hotel, they all made sure to get their COVID-19 tests done - this is a routine they'd be having every morning before leaving. Jihye Kim, Alexandru Trandafira, Sabina Balan and Olive Maia - the ones in charge of the crowd - shared a taxi to the background actor's agency, where they'd all meet up at 5:30 a.m. to go to the shooting location with unit 1.

Maia had a nice black suit on, she enjoys wearing suits for most occasions - even when the dress code is more casual. She believes fashion is a good way to express yourself daily, and as someone who loves all kinds of arts very much, she appreciates anything that allows her to be herself. And today, she felt unusually important.

- Trandafira, headcount please. - the crowd's first assistant director spoke quietly when they arrived at the agency and saw the background actors in the sidewalk - Maia, please find out where's the bus. Gi... Gihi...?

- Jihye, miss Balan. But you can call me Kim, don't worry.

Kim had a calm and lazy smile on her sleepy face. Olive understood she's not a morning person but she's trying her best.

- Ok. Kim, please check their documents.

About 40 minutes later, the four crowd PAs were getting out of the big studio bus together with the background actors. Olive looked around to see the Politehnica University of Bucharest. She got chills all over her body, not only cause it was a cold morning, but also because it started to feel like it wasn't just a dream anymore.

- Kim, Olive, I need you to take them to the trailers and make sure they get their makeup and costumes done. Me and Alexandru will be inside to help organize everything. Don't be late.

- Yes, ma'am! - Olive innocently made Sabina Balan and Jihye Kim laugh because of the amount of respect.

Both the contest winners were obedient and efficient. Maia helped the background actors to change to the costumes and Kim helped with their makeup, meanwhile, they all ate quick snacks for breakfast provided by the other runners. Because they were assertive, they all got on set about 5 minutes earlier, which gave them more time to do the blocking and allowed the two newbies to help with preparing the equipments and lighting.

As soon as they arrived at the hall, Sabina Balan saw both of them and smiled. She mouthed "good job" while helping to set up one of the cameras. Olive and Jihye looked at each other in the eye, they were aware of each other's happiness with their superior's reaction cause they understood each other. Doing a good job in the industry means being remembered by your crew mates and eventually receiving another opportunities to work together again. So doing a good job was everything they were fighting for.

Not too long after, Mr. Burton arrived on set with the main actor Jenna Ortega and two hairstylists. All the crew and cast went silent, miss Maia quickly pulled up a small notebook and a pen out of her blazer's pocket.