Not twitter... but Facebook and not really days related unless you think of Rachel, Jules, Carver and Henry.
I watch a show Call the Midwife on PBS, they posted this picture and story... Picture is a thumbnail.
This photo was taken on the set of our new series. An infant, newly born, sleeps in the care of a medic. The joy and chaos of their birth is now concluded. A human experience that we all partake in, without exception.
We still have to pinch ourselves when we realize - even after ten years of filming - that this sleeping child is not actually a child at all. It is a prosthetic model of a baby - made with astonishing care and skill for our production!
This model is constructed using silicone, to give the flesh an extraordinarily natural feel. The delicate hair on the lids, eyebrows and head is genuine human hair. The weight of the model is exactly the same as for a real child - and so lifelike does it feel, that one instinctively adopts a nurturing posture when picking it up. We are accustomed to seeing our actors gently rocking their model when they are standing waiting for a scene.
Prosthetic models have always been a part of our technical armory when filming childbirth. They'll never replace the real thing - but alongside the real infants we employ, they provide an extra dimension to what we can achieve. Quite rightly, very strict rules govern the use of real infants on a TV set, and we are only allowed to use newborns for a very short time. These prosthetic models are so accurate close up, that they are frequently able to stand in for our real stars without compromising authenticity.
Yet to reduce this sleeping beauty to the role of a stand-in or a simple prop is to miss the point. When you look closely at this model, you are aware of the astonishing and varied collection of talents that go into making a program like Call the Midwife. The incredible detail and and skill that has been lavished on this model serves as a tribute to all of those technicians who work behind the scenes to bring you the drama we love.
After so many years, we remain awestruck at what such a collection of talent and love can achieve.
It won't be long now before our sleeping beauty will be on your screens. But in the meantime....shhh!