Disney Channel Fans

For those of you unfamiliar with how an episode filming works, I recommend you stop and read about my first filming for Good Luck charlie before you continue.

For whatever reason, SWAC starts filming later in the day than the other DC shows. The scheduled time is 5:30, but it was more like 6 before we where seated inside. Our “warm up guy” was Ezra Weisz, who has to be the best in the business. I saw him before at my Wizards filming. Ezra’s job is basically to keep us entertained between takes, and one of the first games he did was he asked people what they wrote on their facebook status before they came to the show. I saw this as a great opportunity to get to talk to him, and the group as a whole – so I raised my hand – “I’ve got a good one!” He seemed skeptical of that, but let me continue to say that I was going to write that I was excited to see him again. He commented and let me continue to say that everyone should check out the behind the scenes videos on his youtube. At which point he knew that I really was a fan of him and not just trying to butter him up. And then I mentioned the fansite: “That’s sonny with a chance dot com, with dashes between the words” before sitting back down.

This was episode 222 “Sonny with a Choice” directed by Eric Dean Seaton. Eric has worked on many SWAC and GLC episodes, and I was excited to finally get to see him in action! It’s also worth noting that this episode is not listed on Eric’s website. I don’t know if this was a last minute substitution for him, or if they just haven’t updated the site yet, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Also, since this was episode #22, and two weeks ago Tiffany Thornton told me there where four left to film this season, that would bring the total number of episodes this season to 25, not 30 as some believed.

Now, I don’t want to give away much on the plot. This is a major episode for the overall season two storyline and it wouldn’t be fair to you all to spoil how it ends. In this episode, So Random and MacKenzie Falls are both nominated for the Tween Choice award for best Tween show, which causes some (additional) friction between the two casts. Frequent readers already know that Chad & Sonny start dating in “Falling for the Falls.” The episode stills and Disney commercials already give that much away. But surprisingly, when the subject of Sonny and chad dating was first mentioned, there was a collective gasp from the audience. I guess they aren’t as well informed as we are. Anyway, there was some serious Channy in this episode.

“Chad is a totally changed person since we started dating” – Sonny.

There was hand holding, Chad had his arm around her a couple times, both their casts knew, they walked the red carpet at an event together, and there was even a quick kiss. Definitely a Channy episode. There where a few “Awww” moments (one of which was cut, unfortunately) and there was one very powerful scene that I really must not discuss further. Let me just say this, I know I’ve been somewhat critical of Demi’s acting skills in the past, but she blew me away last night. To film those intense relationship scenes right after her breakup with Joe? Amazing doesn’t even come close.

At the end of our episode, they filmed a pick up scene for the Christmas special. That episode is a sort of behind the scenes of So Random, with Chad guest hosting SNL style.

Following the last scene, the cast did the curtain call and signed autographs. By this point, it was almost 11PM and the crew was eager to put everything away and clear us all out of there. Sterling had to leave early to catch a flight so I didn’t get a chance to speak with him again. I got Brandon’s autograph but didn’t get a word in as he was talking to the person next to me as he signed my picture. I got maybe five seconds with Demi as she commented on “how white” she was in the picture and I laughed and thanked her. I wanted to get a picture with her, but couldn’t from where I was. Tiff was next, she saw me as was like “Hey, Greg! ” And I was like “Yeah, I made it! ” She signed my picture quickly and then had to move on to the next person. Finally, I managed to get over to where Allisyn was to get her autograph. She signed it quickly and I thanked her as they they where pushing us out. I snapped a few pictures of the set, but just like at wizards most of them came out blurry.

And I did win a trivia prize as well. The question was to name a member of MacKenzie falls, other than MacKenzie. A couple people guessed random names, so I stuck my hand up: “Portlyn! Season one, replaced by Chloe in season two.” Needless to say, people where impressed. Ezra took a moment then to mention that I had a fansite to one of the showrunners. I think it was creator Steve Marmel, but I’m not sure.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and I’m very glad that I was able to go before the end of the season.

If you have questions about the filming, please visit this thread on the SWAC forum to ask, and read what others have asked. Thanks!

Demi Lovato, Sonny With a Chance, Tiffany Thornton, Webmaster Greg, YouTube | RSS 2.0 | Comment it , or trackback this post.