DAYS OF OUR LIVES Tyler Topits
Writers’ Assistant, 2008-present
- Soap Opera Digest
- 2 Mar 2020
HOWARDWISE/JPIWhat’s In A Name? In 2015, Kayla (Mary Beth Evans, near r.) tended to Caroline (Peggy Mccay), whose disease was named after Topits.
How did you first get hired at DAYS?
“They had an internship program back in 2008. I applied for that and got it. I was an intern in the writers’ office. As soon as the internship was over, they were looking for extra help around the office. They were still a little bit backed up from after the writers’ strike ended in 2008, so I stuck around for about four weeks. That turned into five and then they just kept me on as a full-time writers’ assistant.”
Did you study writing in college?
“I went to Cal State, Fullerton. I majored in radio, television and film, with an emphasis in writing.”
Have you held any other positions at DAYS?
“Yes, outline coordinator and script coordinator, script writer, associate writer ... Now, I’m just in the position in the office, and I do a few things for the [DOOL] app or special projects. And, once in a while, I get to write a show.”
Did you watch the show before you landed the job?
“I had been a DAYS viewer in my childhood. It was one of the soaps my mom watched, so I had it on in my house. I was familiar with the show. That kind of led to my destiny here, I guess you could say.”
What are your daily job responsibilities?
“First and foremost, it’s a lot of tracking, editing and proofing of all the materials. It will also be finding and tracking the continuity and inconsistencies [in scripts], making revisions and reporting things like that to the head writer.
Saying, ‘Hey, I found this. It doesn’t track with that show. Should we change it?’ Also, talking to the producers about that. Then, just some busy file work, where I set up a cast list. Production uses this as a tool so they can do their scheduling. I also help Publicity with summaries. I help Casting finalize audition scenes that the head writer has approved.”
What’s the most fun thing you get to do at work?
“Read the new stories every week. I have to read [a script] a couple of times to proofread it and make sure it tracks. Sometimes I get sucked into the story. I’m like, ‘Oh, my God! We’re doing that?’ It’s also fun to see the final product and how it’s changed for multiple reasons.”
What has been your proudest moment on the job?
“Probably just seeing fan feedback to certain shows that I had written, or funny lines that they picked up on and are enjoying. But I guess the proudest I feel is being a part of keeping the show going for as long as it has. That is our ultimate goal. We want to keep it going.
We want to hit 60 years, and then 65 after that.”
What has been your most challenging moment on the job?
“When something unexpected happens and it’s not in our control. Like, say an actor quits on the spot or someone decided a story wasn’t working out and we had to flip it. That has not happened so much recently but in years past, I remember being challenged or stressed out by that. It’s like all those things we wrote are now gone. We’ll write a story sometimes that doesn’t work out and something changes and it needs to go. Then I’ll have to get that story out of my head. You can’t remember that for your tracking because it isn’t what happened anymore.”
What other departments do you work with closely?
“I work closely with all of them, anything from Publicity to Casting to Production to the Art Department to props. A lot of times my co-worker and I will have to submit, like, a letter, and if someone is reading one, they’re going to want something to get a shot of so that it’s not just a blank sheet of paper. So there are those things and online articles that people are reading, too. A lot of times we have to handle that. Sometimes we have specific props that are key to a story, anything from a Fabergé egg to a Gina compact. They’re asking for details, and we’re helping the writers look things up. I’m helping out all the departments, even Editing. Editing will say, ‘We need a certain flashback to put in this show. What do you think? What would be good here?’ ”
The late Caroline Brady’s “Topits Disease” was named after you. How did that come about, and is it flattering having a disease named after you?
“My mom didn’t think so [laughs]. She was like, ‘Why did you name a disease after our last name?’ That happened when Josh Griffith was head-writing with Dena Higley. We had not named that disease for obvious purposes. We were basing it off a particular disease, but then altering it because we’re a soap opera, so why not? Josh asked me why we didn’t have a name for it and I tried to explain. He said, ‘But we have to come up with a name.’ He looked at my nameplate on my office door and said, ‘Topits. How about Topits Disease? We’re going to go with that.’ He took my last name and ran with it, and the rest is history.”
How did you land at GH?
“I’m from Idaho and moved to L.A. in October of 2005. I was a lighting designer in a theater, but I’d never done TV. In November of 2005, I was hired in the production warehouse. I started by pushing sets, just pushing scenery around. In 2006, I was building sets in the weld shop, then I moved into the electric shop, where I spent a few years fixing lights, and then they moved me to the stage to be an electrician and also the backup light board operator. Then I got moved up to head electrician and then Frank Valentini [executive producer] decided to promote me to lighting director. It was an honor that he asked me to do it, that he had that faith in me. Every single day I have the thought in my head, ‘I don’t want to let Frank down!’ ”
How would you describe what the job entails?
“I create the look of the scene to match the emotion of the scene. If the lights need to be brighter or dimmer depending on the mood, depending on the story we’re trying to tell, I need to set the lights in such a way to enhance that mood and constantly adjust those light levels because we have four cameras, so it’s not just looking at it from one angle, you’re looking at it from four angles. It’s not just adjusting levels and it’s not just switching on a switch. There’s a lot of, almost geometry, that goes into it. The lights completely surround the set and I make the decision on exactly where those lights go, exactly what colors those lights are. In the nurses’ station alone, we have four or five hundred lights.”
What are your hours like?
“In a typical week, I’ll go in for a production meeting, I prepare, I talk to the directors, I talk to the producers for the next day’s show. I’ll look at all the blueprints, all the blocking, I’ll find out what the emotions of the scenes are — if there’s a gun fight or a moving car or a hospital scene, whatever the scenes are, I need to know exactly what the emotions are and make all my notes, and
I’ll go home. At midnight, my shift begins again. At midnight, the electric crew starts setting up for the following day. There could be two sets that we need to set up, there could be a dozen. It depends on the production day. I will set all the lights for all the sets. At 8 a.m., the night crew is finished and the day crew comes in. At 8:30 in the morning we go on camera and we start shooting until we’re finished for the day. Sometimes it’s 5 or 6 o’clock, sometimes it’s 8 or 9 o’clock at night. So, I’ll be there from midnight till maybe 8 o’clock at night.”
Five days a week?!
“No, there are multiple lighting directors and we switch off. None of us are there five days a week.”
What is the most challenging set to light?
“One of the most challenging was a couple of years ago, when Nina and Valentin went to Morocco. It was filmed on our soundstage, but they were in this lavish tent that Valentin set up for Nina. There was no way to light in the tent, because it’s totally enclosed. I’m figuring out, ‘Okay, how do I actually light the tent and these people without anybody seeing any of these lights? I can’t actually attach anything to
the interior of the tent.’ That was a big challenge for me to figure out.”
Of the sets we see more often, are there ones that are easier to light than others?
“The nurses’ station is there all the time, so there’s not really much I have to do on the turnaround night. But the Metro Court restaurant, we use all the time, and it goes in and out [of the studio]. It’s a very big set. You have the main set, and then you can sometimes have the terrace and then we have the elevator area — which is a completely different animal because there’s this huge header there and you have to light that — and then there’s the bar. It’s almost like it’s five separate sets and it takes a long time to do just because of the sheer quantities of lights that we have to put into that set. It probably takes about twoand-a-half hours.”
How
many lights are there in, say, Sonny’s living room?
“We have about 40 lights for the interior. But if you go exterior [to the patio], then you can have a dozen lights for daytime [lighting], and if you want nighttime, that’s another dozen.”
Is there a set that’s particularly fun to light?
“I love lighting Wyndemere because I can make it look mysterious with the light coming through the window and stuff.”
Do you interact with the actors much?
“When I was the head electrician, I was on stage for everything and I chatted with the actors quite frequently. Now that I’m lighting director and I’m in the booth, I don’t have as much opportunity to talk with them on a personal, interactive basis and I do miss that. But everybody knows who I am, and I know who everybody is. Briana [Nicole Henry], who plays Jordan, she’s very sweet, and when we can, we chat on a break.”
