Tribarazzi: Joline Gutierrez Krueger

Props for props

It's the little things that make a movie great.
OK, maybe not great. Believable.
Over the last few days we have watched the "Bordertown" crew transform our newsroom into a ... newsroom. We had already been told that one of the reasons they loved our place for the shoot is because of its slovenly charm. How sweet.
But the set decorators, we find, have added their own special touches to the newsroom, scattering stickie notes and random pages here and there just to give it that additional cluttered look.
It's a little like trying to make the ocean look wetter.
A closer look uncovered some very strange notes indeed, so when you go see the movie, keep your eye out for the following:
Stickie notes - A few we found included these intriguing messages: "Must have chocolate cake cheese and crackers." "I just wanna dance. Is that a crime? All right then." "Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet." And the Shakespearean "As an unperfect (sic) actor on the stage whose strength, abundance woodens his own heart."

Paste-ups - Posted on the glass window of our managing editor's office are drawings by little children who have witnessed domestic violence. Just odd. Next to those are faxes announcing Reality TV's Sexiest Women! Odder.

Pencils - Jennifer Lopez's desk has several pencils tossed about. She uses one to tap impatiently at her keyboard. Until those J.Lo pencils I had not seen one in this newsroom since my kid brought his homework in.

Maps - Gone are most of the Albuquerque and New Mexico maps, which strangely would make no sense being in a Chicago Sentinel newsroom. But if you look hard, you'll still see a huge N.M. one at the back of the newsroom.

Shameless self-promotion - One of our real reporters, who shall remain nameless, wanted his moment in the spotlight, staying late to be in a shot and emblazoning his name atop his computer screen. You know who you are, ERIK SIEMERS!

Photos - Several of them are hanging in the editor's office, and if you look closely you'll see they are really of Martin Sheen doing various activist things: meeting nuns, speaking in front of a peace symbol flag, playing basketball with inner city kids. Nice guy. For real.

My photos - The woman with the glam glasses who you see at the bottom of this blog is me, and you'll see that unfortunate mug all over the newsroom. I didn't put them there. I swear.

Posted by jglenn at June 22, 2005 03:59 PM