Page 79 of Catch Me
‘Where’s Crystal?’ she mouths.
I shrug at the same time three others on our team come running into the room. They all have that deer in headlights look in their eyes.
“Crystal’s in a meeting all afternoon,” Rachel, one of the interns, says.
“Fine,” I say while thinking of the different possibilities.
“We could swap out the shirt he’s wearing for this one.” Lillian holds up one of the extra pieces of clothing we have on hand. It’s a burgundy button-down.
“We used that last week in Ron’s big scene, remember?”
“That’s right. Shit.” Lillian tosses the shirt.
I run through all of the clothes we have on hand and the intricacies of this particular scene. From what I recall, I know certain colors won’t work for the role this guy’s playing. It’s a minor role in the film itself, but it’s vital to this scene. He has to stand out but not too much.
“What if we did this …” I say to no one in particular.
Footsteps sound behind me as I walk toward the area where most of the clothes hang on the rolling racks.
“Let’s ditch the belt since it’s not working with the lights. We’ll change out the pants for a pair of dark jeans, instead. We have his size, so he shouldn’t need a belt.
“Then for the shirt, how about we do a wife beater underneath and then layer it with the dark blue button down.”
“Isn’t that too put together for the role he’s playing?” another one of the interns asks.
It’s a perfect question. And she’s right.
“Not if I …”
Lillian and two of the interns make shocked sounds when I rip one of the sleeves of the shirt. Then I rip the pocket of the shirt, so that it’s hanging on by a few threads.
“He’s just gotten into a fight, so he needs to look like it.” I glance around the room and spot what I’m looking for by thewindowsill. Passing my coworkers, I reach for the potted plant. Well, more so for the dirt inside of the potted plant. I rub some of the dirt on the shirt to give it the grungy, worn, just been in a fight look I’m going for.
“What do you think?” I ask Lillian as I hold up the shirt.
“I think he needs to get changed into this now,” she replies.
We help the actor into his new clothes.
“Wait, won’t this outfit be different from what he wore in the fight scene?” one of the interns asks.
“Already thought of that,” I say without looking at her as I help the actor put his clothes on. “Mr. Keith chose to cut that scene out, so it won’t be on camera. The last we’ve seen of this guy was on a totally different day. No continuity issues,” I assure her and then step back.
I quickly run my gaze over the new outfit, ensuring that there isn’t anything that should clash with the film’s lighting like the previous belt had.
“Looks good,” Lillian says. “Let’s get you back to the set. Our fifteen minutes are just about up.”
We all rush back to the main set. Michael Keith still looks pissed, his eyes running over the actor and then back at us. He doesn’t say anything, but I take that as a good sign. Mr. Keith isn’t one to bite his tongue.
Yet, I hold my breath as they start filming and throughout the entirety of the scene. There’s more work that needs to be done back in “the closet” but I stand there to make sure we’ve gotten this right.
It isn’t until Michael Keith yells cut with a satisfied nod that I feel my shoulders sink in relief.
“Nice,” Lillian says in my ear. She wraps her arm around mine. “Let’s get back to the closet.”
Nodding, I allow her to pull me back toward our main station for all of the clean up and set up we have to do over the nextfew hours. There’s another late-night shoot today, and instead of heading home at my usual time, I’ll remain here until filming’s done for the day along with the rest of the costume design team.
It’s going to be a long day, but at least that gives me another excuse to keep my distance from Andreas.
