Bates Hospital

Patients check in, but they never check out!

Had the perfect shoot today. Late call (10:30 am), early release (1:30 pm), and right in the neighborhood. The only thing that could have made it better would be really great pay. But it was only decent pay. About standard for an industrial.

But one thing that was kinda cool is that we shot it inside an old, vacant hospital. Lincoln Park Hospital, which google now tells me closed last fall. The fact that they apparently couldn't find a buyer explains the state it was in. On the one hand, super disheveled -- open lockers and cabinets, lab coats and supplies scattered on the floor, wires hanging from missing fixtures.

Apparently there was an auction, but not everything got unloaded. There was lots of random stuff left -- beds, chairs, tables, equipment, supplies, even TVs still bolted to the ceilings in patient rooms.

At the main desk were stacks of Admitting and other forms neatly stowed in trays. I kept half-expecting to find a lit cigarette in an ashtray or coffee brewing on a burner. Like an old Twilight Zone episode.

(Also like the Twilight Zone, it appears the place hadn't been remodeled since the '50s and closed several decades past its prime. It's amazing the made it look okay on film -- we were not, as Facebook friends guessed, shooting a horror film.)

The spookiest part was the elevator with no lights. Thank goodness for the iPhone flashlight app. (And the fact that it seems 7 out of 10 actors and crew people in the business use iPhones.)

Check that. The spookiest thing was this dismembered CPR baby:

Obviously a victim of Obama's death panels. Rest easy, slugger -- your pain is over now.