Cassandra Clare's Diary from 'The Mortal Instruments' Set: Day 1

Teen.com and Screen Gems have teamed up to give us an exciting look of what it was like to be on set from Cassie's point of view. On Friday they posted the first of a series of posts they'll be sharing with Shadowhunter fans, written from Cassie herself. Here's what they featured, which is from Cassie's account here.

image credit: Jacedwayland from tumblr

Day One: Monday

I show up on the set actually the first week that they are shooting entirely in-studio and not on location. The studio is an old glass factory, so it has a lot of room inside — the production offices.

There are a bewildering number of people, and it’s kind of alarming to realize that all these people have been herded together to make a movie out of my books. Sets, props, costumes, from the huge Institute set to the littlest family ring, all look like they came out of the book’s pages. It’s frightening. There are runes up everywhere, even in Gersha’s (the costume designer) office:

On set, there’s a section of director’s chairs where the actors sit, and another section, across a bank of equipment, where the producers sit and watch the “playback” — whatever scene just filmed. Harald [Zwart], the director, ironically does not have a chair that I can discern, but is running around like a whirlwind issuing commands so that may not matter.

I have my own chair with my name on it!

The producers’ chairs have their names on them; the cast chairs have their character names. It’s fun to see them lined up, though I can never see Jace’s name since Jamie [Campbell Bower] appears to own 30,000 jackets.

During the day, the actors come around to say hi, except Robbie [Sheehan], who isn’t there yet. Everyone looks fantastic. There’s a buzzer that goes off when they start filming, which means we have to be really quiet, and watch the filming with headphones on so we can hear the sound. I am once again impressed with the patience of actors, doing the same thing over and over and over again. Robert the Producer explains to me that when they think they’ve got the right take of a scene, Harald says “Check the gate,” which means they check the camera and then move on to the next scene.

I demand to meet Sideburns Guy, but no one can track him down. Tragedy!

I love being able to see what the set was like through Cassie's eyes. I know what I was feeling being on set, but I can't even imagine what it's like for her, given this is the world and these are the characters she created. I can't wait to read about Cassie's day 2!