Reconstruction

 As I wrote earlier, I was part of a group of actors that did stuff for SCETV.  One program I was involved with was called The Palmetto Special, which was for 8th grade History classes.  The episode I did earlier was called "The Charleston Tea Party", and now was another one called "Reconstruction".
 It was mostly filmed in the studio at ETV on Millwood.  They were experimenting with a new technique called chrome key, which allowed one to be filmed, and then they would fill in with artwork to make it appear as somewhere else.  My scene was to be at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbia, while we were in a studio instead.
 The actual studio was made up of some folding chairs in a row, and a pulpit for the minister.  There were three of us, dressed in period costumes, sitting in the chairs.  A man, dressed as a general, walked in front of us to appear he was going down the pew to a seat.  I wore the same coat that I wore in the tea party show.  I really loved that coat.  I wish they had let me keep it.  I got the idea of moving a little on the chair, as the general was moving in front of us, to simulate him squeezing in front of us.  In actual fact, he was a few feet in front of us, but filming is all about illusion.
 The guy playing the minister could not get his lines right.  We went through several takes of laughing and frustration.  Finally, the crew wrote out his lines on cardboard and placed them in front of the pulpit for him to read.  If you see the show, you will see him look down and read fast.  He was reading the cue cards and not looking at us in the "congregation".
 When the program aired, the matte artwork was filled in and it looked like a church, sort of.  It really was a little hokey, but I guess 8th graders wouldn't have noticed as much.