Survivor's Club: All Tied Up

There are a lot of days when we film in bad weather - days so hot your eyeballs feel like they're frying, days so cold your hands might fall off, and rain pouring so hard you could almost drown on set. Each month we'll remember one of those horrible weather days and celebrate the survivors who braved the elements in order to film.  Why would we want to remember those days?  Because going through hell on set has a way of bringing everyone closer together when they can say they survived mother nature AND filming on a Yibble set.

ALL TIED UP

Taking 'Uncomfortable' to a Whole New Level

(aka Yibble Really Is a Sadist)

Many productions have scenes where certain characters get chained up, tied down, or handcuffed, and the actors are the ones who have to suffer through it.  Just getting handcuffed for a scene isn’t enough to make it into the Survivor’s Club though – you have be handcuffed, tied up, or otherwise immobilized for at least a full hour and sometimes two or three. You have to truly suffer to make it into this club.  Wait…why would you want to? Well, for some reason these people did.

Pandora’s Box had a few scenes where people got tied up – not unusual in an action-adventure 24 episode TV show. Jacob MacLeod had to be tied up for two scenes while filming Episode 19 of Pandora’s Box, but unlike most people on this list he was tied up for two hours and wasn’t filming for most of that time. He was wrapped up pretty tightly in the same thick, scratchy rope for the first scene.  Then I made him stay tied up while we filmed another scene and part of a third scene.  When I was finally ready to film with him again we only needed him tied up for literally one shot before his character got out of the ropes.  So, he really didn’t need to spend that whole time tied up. I’m just a sadist.  At least he got to sit on a chair though.

Jacob was tied up again for a different scene in the same episode, this time with Virginia McCreary. This scene wasn’t as hard on either of them since it was barely an hour and I don’t think the ropes were very tight. However they were sitting on a cold, hard, dirt floor in a cellar and had to shove each other around while being tied up with ye old scratchy rope.  Being tied up with someone else is a different level of discomfort than being tied up with yourself. At least I assume so. I’ve never had to be tied up on set either way.

As previously mentioned in the Production Diary for Fortunate Ones: Forever, Kate Weber and Drew Thomas had to be tied up, back to back while sitting on a cold stone basement floor for almost two hours. It was smoother rope this time, and they each had a hand free so it could have been worse. Again, though, being tied up back-to-back and sitting on a hard floor in the exact same position for two hours can cause spinal injuries and butt numbness.  But they were troupers and survived, although I think Drew’s back got messed up for a while.

The Gift Bearer also had several scenes were people got tied up. In the first two episodes the Silverstone sisters are captured by the townspeople of (not) Salem and are tied up waiting for the dawn when they will be burned at the stake. Christine Komiskey, Morgan Thomas, and Brittany Ann Whalen had to spend at least an hour, if not more, tied up together for a long scene – and yes they were tied with the same thick, scratchy rope.  Unlike the others who were tied up with it two of the three of them had short sleeves, so it probably hurt more.  I have no idea how more or less comfortable it is to be tied up in triplicate though.

Christine Komiskey and Morgan Thomas had to be tied up again in The Gift Bearer, this time in an attic at Fort De Chartres for Episode 4.  I think they were tied up for about an hour while we filmed, and they had to sit in uncomfortable costumes in a hot attic tied up with Scratchy McScratchy-Rope.  Christine had to pull a small dagger out of her bosom using her teeth while tied up so that was pretty impressive.

One of the most painful experiences with being tied up had to be when Brittany was tied up during a different scene (on the same filming day) for Episode 2.  Yes, ye olde scratchy rope was involved, but this time she wasn’t just tied with her hands behind or beside her.  She was tied up with you arms outstretched and her legs and feet were tied up to. Tied in what looks like a very uncomfortable position, she had to strain and fight against the ropes around her wrists which probably left marks.  The worst part was that she was tied up like this for at least two hours. Man, her arms had to hurt after all that time. Oh and when she finally did get untied, she ended up falling face down because the rope at her feet didn’t get untied right.

I guess Brittany has a habit of getting tied up – or at least bound - on set because she ended up being handcuffed for several hours on a later shoot, this time for the short film C2.  The two main characters, played by Brittany Ann Whalen and Syndi Eller, get handcuffed together by the trickster they’re hunting and spend several hours that way.  Perhaps it’s not as bad as being tied up, but it lasted a lot longer (almost 4 hours I think, or maybe more) and moving around, fighting, and flailing with metal handcuffs on left bloody scratches and bruises on their wrists. They ended up breaking two pairs of handcuffs, which also probably hurt considering they broke one pair when they both tumbled over a fallen log.  Well, Brittany fell down but since they were handcuffed together she took Syndi with her. Ouch.

Edward Stasheff mixed things up a bit when he directed Mind Games.  In one of the last scenes the antagonist of the film - who is a dangerous psychopath – is restrained by both handcuffs AND actual chains with his arms above his head. Chris Lamb had to sit in that position for over an hour and I can only imagine how uncomfortable that was. Although I think the copious amounts of medical tape wrapped around his bare torso was probably far worse then the handcuffs and chains.

Although Brittany Ann Whalen is the winner of the “Most Often Tied Up” award, the award for “Tied Up for the Longest Amount of Time” award goes to Russell Martin.  His character, Xavier, spends the second half of Episode 11, the first scene of Episode 13, and all of Episode 12 tied up AND handcuffed to an uncomfortable plastic chair where he is tortured for several hours. He was also gagged with a shiny sash for a little while.

Russell, like his character, spent several hours being tortured with my favorite thick, scratchy rope, metal handcuffs, covered in bruise make-up and fake blood sitting under a hot light for…um…how many hours was it again?  Five? Six?  It was a LONG time.  He was tied up filming though scene until at least 2am. Oh, and he had to fall down in the chair while tied up, then lay on the floor – still tied to the chair – for at least an hour. Poor, poor Russell, but he was such a trouper about it all, a true professional.

Thank you to everyone who has suffered through being chained up, tied down, bound and gagged for hours on set! Here’s some aspirin, some bandaids, a soft pillow, and a healing lotion to help with the scratches from that damn rope.  Now go take a well-deserved nap.

Just for fun here’s some bloopers of people who are tied up: