During the first half of SP 2019, I interned for the Hallmark movie, Garden Party, which was being filmed in St. Petersburg, FL. After a brief interview process, I was contacted by the Props Master, Alexandra Tibbs, about a props intern position. I was honestly surprised they called me back because of my busy schedule of full-time school and part-time work. I didn’t have a set schedule for working with Garden Party, but I would come in at least once a week, sometimes twice.
Upon arriving to the set, I met the Art Consultant, Jen Burkley. I was then introduced to the director, Mathew, then the Set Designer, Ross Ostrom; Greens/Set, Jim; etc. Everybody was real nice, and started recognizing me. I even saw one of my previous teachers working as the DP, Chris Rish.
As the props intern, I was originally given small jobs dealing with the props. For example, I had to dirty some gardening gloves, create protest posters, and add signatures to a make-believe waitlist. However, as I continued to volunteer my time, I started offering my help. This led to me helping out a lot more on set through planting flowers, moving potted plants, scattering mulch, taping over discrepancies in the background, taping posters, and moving pieces on set.
I later found out, however, that I wasn’t technically supposed to be on set itself, but nobody really cared because I was helpful. I only found this out, because I met another intern who told me that the Set Supervisor, Melissa, told her that due to Union laws, interns weren’t allowed to be on set at all. Oops?
P.S. I didn’t post any of these on social media.