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SB20

It has come to my attention that this year is the 20th anniversary of a TV show called Student Bodies.

This makes me feel really old. You see, Student Bodies is one of the last projects I worked on back when I made my living in film & TV production. I served as production coordinator on its first season, a few years before I entered the tech world and left behind everything I hated about the entertainment business.

Working on the show was… an interesting experience. I wasn’t bad at being a production coordinator — my detail-oriented brain was well suited to it — but I realized pretty quickly that I didn’t enjoy it. The role was stressful. I worked ridiculously long hours. There was always too much work, or someone demanding something of me. (For some reason, that didn’t stop me from being a production coordinator again on another show the following year — what was I thinking?) Thankfully, within a few years I made the permanent switch to Web-related work and never looked back.

I never really watched the show, but apparently it has somewhat of a cult following of people who remember seeing it as a kid, which is kind of cool. Some of the cast will be reuniting at a convention in Toronto this fall.

In a fit of nostalgia, I went back to take a dip in my files from that era. Being a bit of a packrat, there was lots to choose from. Here are just a few I’d like to share. Paperwork, mostly. Once a production coordinator, always a production coordinator, maybe.

Cast & crew photo - can you spot me?
Cast & crew photo at The Station – the show’s student hangout spot. Can you find me?
memo about garbage
I’m not sure what bothers me more about this memo. Its crookedness, the fact that we wastefully printed out thousands of pieces of paper, or THE FACT THAT’S ENTIRELY IN COMIC SANS, WTF? This was our official production font, apparently.
memo about Student Bodies website
It’s a fax – also sent via E-mail (sic). We’re going on the Interwebs! Note the username for the password-protected site.
congrats for 65 episodes from the producers
The late Robin Spry – one of the show’s producers – was such a class act.
call sheet
My first “call sheet”: shooting day 1. It was my job to put these together: a zillion small pieces of information to get exactly right, every day. We filmed at a real school.

One reply on “SB20”

As someone who worked in film & TV during the ’90s as a script coordinator, I must tell you I was always in awe of production coordinators. All that juggling of little pieces of info, and the necessity of getting it all correct and not forgetting anything – ay yi yi! Kudos to you for sticking with it as long as you did.

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