My ER Live Audition
I was hired on the television show ER in 1996 when I was 25, at the beginning of their 3rd season. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, it was, by numbers, the most popular show in the history of television. To give you an idea, at that time, a good rating for a show was somewhere near an 8 or 9 share, which means that 8 or 9 million people are watching at any given moment. ER maintained above a 40 share from the moment the pilot aired until about the fifth season or so when it dipped down into the high 39s. When I say most popular show in the history of television, I mean most popular show in the history of television.
In addition to being the most popular show in the history of television (did i mention that), it was known for its long involved steadicam oners, massive shots that told an entire story in one single shot without an edit, and the way we did this was by using the steadicam in a way that it had never been used on television before - it was groundbreaking and I was the only operator on the show, there was literally no better place to be as a steadicam operator than that gig.
Side note, but an important one. The person who I owe this all to is a great steadicam operator, now director/producer, Guy Bee, who started the show and made it what he was. Had a steadicam operator who was not as great as he was, been in that position, the show likely would have not become what it was with its fast paced storytelling and a camera that was more like another character in the room. Guy was an incredible operator and eventually moved on to be the incredible Director he is now, but it would be wrong not to credit him with this. I stepped into his shoes and merely didn’t screw it up too badly, he created the shoes to begin with.
I waded through that first season, thanks to the guidance of my focus puller, Terence Nightingal, who kept me above water until I could swim on my own and by the beginning of the fourth season I’m surprised my ego could fit through the elephant doors on the stage when I walked in. Mind you, on the outside I was still trying to and hopefully appearing to be the humble kid I had been raised to be but inside I’m pretty sure I thought I was the shit. And in retrospect, on some levels, I guess I was. There was a lot of responsibility on me to be in such an amazing position at such a young age and I relished every minute of it.
Around the end of the fourth season, Tony Edwards and Geroge Clooney, two of our lead actors, started talking about doing a live show in the fourth season. We all assumed this was a joke and didn’t think much about it but sure enough, we came back on season four and started to shoot episode two instead of episode one, because as we understood it, episode one would be live, something we then didn't hear much about.
The episodes that the public sees, back in 1996 before streaming when there was still a television season, were shot months in advance to allow time for editing, color timing, promotion, etc. So we would generally go back to work in July and start shooting the first episode of the season which would generally air sometime in September.
On season four, we started with episode two in July and there was some foggy discussion that we were doing so because we would shoot episode one of that season, LIve, as it was beaming out to everyone in the country, on the night of the air date in late September. Looking back on this news, I can’t really recall what we though other than, someone will probably explain this all as the time comes because lets face it, a crew that is sued to shooting an episode of televisions in 8 days, with lunch breaks and weekends, doesn’t just pick up a camera and shoot a full episode in real time, with commercial breaks and everything. Beyond that, how would the time zones in the US even work with that? And we shot on film so that had to be worked out. Clearly there were some issues and I think we all figured that a month or so into the season we would be told that we were going back to shooting episode one as we regularly would and we had to do it quickly. None of us gave it much thought.
We started shooting and as is normally the case, before long, it was like we had never left. Shows like this tend to fall into a routine and even the jokes are recycled. Its actually quite comforting. The Live show was not discussed much and generally when it came up it was seen as a joke because none of us ever thought it would actually happen and we hadn’t heard much so we’d often postulate about when we would start episode one in earnest.
Sometime around the beginning of September, we started to hear rumblings about the LIve show actually happening but not much else. We all wondered what was going on because we figured that surely we had to prepare. One morning, after I got to work on stage 3, one of our stages that was not the main hospital set on Stage 11, I heard that they were auditioning camera operators for the live show on Stage 11.
“What do you mean” I asked, “I’m the camera operator on the show”
“I don't know anything else, I just heard that Tommy Schlamme, the director, is over on 11 and they are having camera operators come in and try out.”
Now for those who don't know, which included me at the time, LIve TV camera operators and “regular” camera operators like myself have completely different skill sets. There is so much about live shooting that is is and was completely foreign to me that i can’t even list it all. For starters, you are operating a camera that the entire audience is seeing AT THAT MOMENT. There are not second chances. So mentally there is a whole different mindset. More importantly, when you are on a LIVE event, there is a headset on you and people are talking in your ear, sometimes many at the same time, explaining what shot and camera are on deck, what shot is up, and what shot is next, as well as cues for operators to go to their necxt setup and a myriad other things, all in lingo I was not familiar with. Bottom line, it wasn’t something i could do. Add to this that the guys they were having come in and audition were the best of the best in the live camera world. So why the audition? Because nothing even close to this had been tried since television stopped being lived over 50 years before. These guys were the best of the best but they were not shooting narrative story and so they were being asked to show that they could think like storytellers (and the guys who made it were amazing by the way).
I stewed over this most of the morning, doing the days work but in the back of my mind, just slightly north of my ego, thinking “they come into my house and don't even ask me what i think? How dare they” and all sorts of other childish thoughts that i wont share with you here.
I can’t remember all the details, if i mentioned this ahead of time or if I just walked in, but at lunch I walked over to stage 11 like i owned the place (because I thought I did) and proceeded to ride the fine line of making a complete ass of myself and proving that i was worthy.
I walked into the little group there and said “Is one of you Tommy Schlamme?”. I’m pretty sure I pronounced his name wrong (its pronounced Sha-La_Me) and i can guarantee you my tone was anything but respectful when asking for the multiple Emmy award winning director who most thought was the best in the business and would go on to create the West Wing among other things (in fairness this was before IMDB, phones and the internet as we know it).
A tall guy with curly black hair turned around and said “I am, and you are?”
“I’m Dave Chameides, the operator on the show and I want to know why I haven't been asked to shoot the live show” I said in what I can only guess was a pretty snotty tone. The fact that they didn’t kick me out of there is still sort of shocking.
We talked haltingly for a few minutes about the need for veteran live operators and how this show was not going to be a lot like the regular show because of the live aspect and somehow I convinced them that to not give me a chance would be wrong and they would be missing out on something. I wanted the chance to fail.
Tommy walked me into one of the trauma rooms on the set, the room where I had done countless steadicam roundy rounds till I could do them in my sleep, and explained what was going to happen. Apparently the conceit of the show was that a documentary news crew was going to cover the ER for a night and I was a news cameraman.
“So the cameraman is in here and it’s quiet. Nothing going on, until a trauma team comes crashing through the doors and starts working on a patient. I want you to document it like a documentary news op would, not like ‘ER’ or with ‘roundy rounds’” (he actually used air quotes and my 26 year old mind felt like he was being completely condescending but he probably wasn't being), “ but like an actual news team would”.
Everyone walked out and left me there and I looked around the room and walked over to a crash cart and opened the drawer. I wedged the camera on my hip, threw it out of focus and pointed it towards the drawer at an off angle, and grabbed a medicine vial and started holding it in front of the lens as if it happened to be catching what I was doing. About 30 seconds later he called in “Uh Dave, let us know when you are ready any time and we can start”.
“I started the shot 30 seconds ago” I responded. “I figure if I’m a news cameraman and nothing is happening, I’m either talking up nurses or rifling through drawers to see what’s there. This is how I think this scene should start so you can send the trauma team in any time”. I’m guessing the level of obnoxiousness and superiority was off the charts, but I was a kid and in fairness, It was a smart move. They sent in the trauma team and I popped the camera on my shoulder, did some snap zooms to try to grab some of what was going on and before I knew it, Tommy and his support staff were in the room.
I don't remember exactly what was said, but he acted as if he had never doubted me, said we needed more of this kind of thing, and told me I was on for the show. In my mind I mic dropped the camera and walked off as everybody applauded me and could not believe they had the audacity to ever doubt my greatness. In reality I think I thanked him, told him he wouldn’t be disappointed, and headed back to stage three shocked I had gotten away with that and wondering how the hell LIve tv worked.
The next few weeks were Tommy and I with a small crew and an old VHS video camera, setting up every shot and working together to create the story of the show. I’ve known Tommy for close to 30 years now, he is a friend and incredible collaborator, so much so that he called me to help get the Show West Wing off its feet, and I can bet you anything, his recollection is completely different than mine.
We did the show twice, once live for the East Coast and once live for the West. There were two main camera ops, one of whom was me and about 6 other cameras as well for small bits where we couldn’t easily get to in time. The crew that came in was the best of the best and welcomed me with open arms. I helped them out with narrative ideas and they laughed and explained everything I didn't know about live TV, which was far greater than what I had to give them. The shows went off perfectly well beyond one terrifying moment on the West Coast feed where my camera all but got pulled out of my hands ending the entire thing.
But that’s a story for another time.
