Grey's Anatomy Crew Call

Grey's Anatomy Crew Call is a weekly event hosted by Karin Gleason on the social media app Periscope. Every Thursday, Karin has a chat with one of the crew members of the show in order to allow viewers to get to know them better and understand what they do on the show.

Usually, the Crew Call is held around 2:00 PM PT, but this may vary based on the crew member's availability. Before the crew call starts, Karin notifies her followers on Twitter about an hour before it starts. The length of the talks varies on the amount of time the crew can spend with Karin.

Summaries
The following summaries summarize the shared info about the crew members and what they had to say about their jobs.

Beau Baker
Beau has been part of the crew since season 2. As a sound mixer, he records actors speaking when they're filming their scenes. The main goal is to try to get the clearest sound for post-production, because it's hard to cut or seperate sounds from filmed sounds, whereas it's easier to add them if necessary. Himself aside, his team consists of a mixer and two boom operates, who handle the boom poles that actually record the sounds. Beau has worked in the business for about 30 years, out of which 16 as a mixer. He's worked all over the Unitated States and even did a couple of movies in Europe. Beau is very appreciative of his job on the show, because it allows him to stay local and spend time with his family.

Asked about how he decided to become a sound mixer, Beau explained that as a University of Southern California film student, he was fortunate to visit different sets, which sparked his interest in sound. He started working with a well known sound mixer in his 20s and work with him on jobs he had. Initially, he traveled around for jobs, but after he started a family, he started to look for jobs close to home.

As to the challenges of his job, Beau explained that there are two major challenges. The first one is that the microphones can't actually be seen in the screen shots. Therefore, he has to be very particular about where mics are placed and hidden. The second one is that microphones also pick up background noise or equipment sounds etc. It helps that mics have directionality, so they can be put directly facing an actor or a machine, but it can't leave out the background noises.

Since there are different types of microphones, it all depends on the action in the scene which type is used in that scene. If actors are standing at a nurses station or in a patient room, microphones held over the actors on boom poles. If it's a walk-and-talk scene, the actors wear small transmitter microphones hidden in their clothes. Overall, it's the main goal to minimize the outside noise as much as possible. During the crew call session, Beau showed all different types of microphones they used.

A special and challenging episode was of course the musical episode. The songs were pre-recorded and played for the actors as they filmed their scenes. A play-back operated was hired to manage the pre-recorded music. The most challenging was timing the dialogue perfectly to the pre-recorded music. Wearing ear wigs, costing about $1,000 each, the actors could hear the songs so that they wouldn't be recorded again as Beau and his team were recording the dialogue and background sounds.

Another special type of scenes is OR senes, where the actors wear masks and there's real medical equipment that makes loud noises, such as the suction and heart monitor. Sometimes, Beau has to do a "wild track", also known as wild sound or wild lines, which means he has the actors run through their lines with the right timing while the scene is not being filmed so Beau can focus on the dialogue. Sometimes, actors do have to do ADR (automated dialogue replacement), which means going back to record particular lines. The fact that the actors are wearing masks is also helpful, because it makes it unnecessary to have a perfect timing then because the dialogue doesn't have to perfectly match the movement of their previously recorded mouths. However, ADR is usually avoided in order not to take too much time away from the actors as they already spend so much time filming on set.

Must-have skills for a sound mixer, according to Beau, are the ability to focus on what you do or what you want to do. It's best to focus on learning the sound. Listen and learn. Since working in film is a trade profession, it's best to work with someone as an apprentice to learn by watching and doing it afterwards. You have to be attentive and cheerful, and willing to work long hours in sometimes hot, wet, or cold conditions. As long as you keep yourself happy in your work, you'll go far, Beau says.

Beau's favorite episode is That's Me Trying because of the mass casualty trauma drill scenes. There's lots of rain in the background all the while the doctors also had dialogue while treating the mannequins. Beau is very proud of the fact that he managed to record all the sound during the 3 to 4 days shoot without requiring ADR, despite the strong and loud rain and issues with wetting the microphones..

The best thing about the job is his team. They have worked together for awhile so that they've become one entity when it comes to working together to get something done. He's also happy to be involved in the scenes, but only having to worry about the sounds, whereas others have worry about sets and wardrobe and other things like that. He's not part of what we see, only of what we hear.

To conclude, Beau shared some advice for those trying to work in his profession. These people have to work hard at finding and learning what they don't know. Luckily, nowadays there are many modern ways to record sound. The technology is becoming more affordable, so learning the basics of audio is easier and affordable. With some networking, it's easy follow around a mentor who can teach you some things you need to know. It's a trade craft, so you have to dive in the water and learn how to swim with it.

Mimi Melgaard
Mimi is the costume designer. She has been working on the show since As We Know It, the middle of season 2. Her job is to read the script and figure out what the characters need, where they're going and who they are. That vision of the characters depends on where Shonda wants it to go. After receiving the script, Mimi has 7 days to days fit and alter clothing before it goes on screen.

Asked about why she became the costume designer, Mimi says she has always loved fashion and how clothes can help tell the story. She wanted to become a costume designed since she was in school. She's had jobs in theather, comericals, movies and television. She prefers the pace of TV since she has so much energy to dedicate to the show. Movies give her more time to pick out outfits for the character. As an example, she gives wedding scenes. On television, she still has 7 days to pick outfits for both the bride and groom as well as outfits for all the guests in the scenes, no matter how big the wedding is, while movies offer her more time.

Mimi thinks that as a costume designer, it's important to be super organized, to have a really good work ethic and to be good with managing a lot of different personalities, as every artist has a different way of communicating. You also need to know where to get the research for whatever project that you are working on.

When asked how she chooses different types of outfits for the various cast members, Mimi says a wardrobe meeting is held to discuss the characters. In the meeting, Mimi discusses what she'll need and certain characters details, such as their personality, as the wardrobe is an extension of the character. Also, the actions of the character makes a difference to what she'll need. For example, vomiting and bloody scenes require more of the same outfit than usual because it'll require multiple takes.

The best thing about her job is just coming to work at Grey's Anatomy. Even after all these years, she's still excited to read the scripts to get to know what's going to happen next with the charactres. She thinks it's rare to have such excitement after so many years.

As to advice for those trying to work in her profession, Mimi explains the film business takes a special kind of person. You have to work really hard and be committed and open to hearing other people's points of view. You have to be committed to your own but listen to others. Mimi states you should take every job that you can, work for free if you have to or at half a price until you get to the point where you can charge full price. Mimi thinks that if you keep plugging along, eventually people will start to hire you.

A special piece of the wardrobe are the scrub caps. Mimi is in charge of choosing the fabric and then works with the actor and Shonda Rhimes to choose which one is best for each character. Like all other wardrobe, the scrub caps are an extension of the character and part of the storytelling.

Notes and Trivia

 * The first Crew Call was organized on August 6, 2015, during the hiatus between seasons eleven and twelve.
 * Tweets regarding the topic can be found with the hashtag #GACrewCall.
 * Actors won't be interviewed, as the Crew Call is meant to spotlight the hardworking crew.