Wishing Well

October 20, 2008

I worked on Wishing Well, which is a T.V. movie for Hallmark Channel. The great thing about this show was who I was working with, and the fact that I got to talk to two of the stars. It took a bit for me to realize who the Sally was I was sitting next to on set. She would walk into the scene and offer each of the characters on camera a sandwich box (me being one of the ones to take one from her) and then take her seat next to me. She was very pleasant and at one point was asking the director if she had done a certain action during the last few takes, and no one responded. She turned to me and I nodded and said that yes she had done that move. She smiled, said thanks and asked my name. I told her, and she said it was good to know who to give credit too if she was wrong. She was kidding. I think. She was also Sally Kellerman. Nice person.

Sitting across from her and me was a star from my T.V. viewing past (movie past too). He ate lunch right near where I did. He spent some time talking to a few young ladies who were visiting the set, and when he was done walked by where I was sitting. I smiled at him and he said hello and shook my hand, and I got the chance to let him know that I have enjoyed his work from back when he was on McHale's Navy. He played Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale. Ernest Borgnine, of course. Such a pleasant person to work with. I'm glad I had the opportunity.

Boston Legal

October 14, 2008

I was back on Boston Legal, which is always nice. I played a lawyer and sat right behind William Shatner and James Spader in the courtroom scene. Last time I was in the courtroom, Shatner and Spader were there. I really enjoy watching both these actors, and their characters are quite fun as well.

Outside in the courtyard of the Courthouse (which was actually next to the parking structure and coffee shop at Raleigh Studios Manhattan Beach) I was placed at a table behind Betty White, John Larroquett, and Henry Gibson. Watching them work was great fun. Betty spent time sitting back in holding talking to some of the background, and Henry Gibson was making a mess each time he did his scene, though it was quite intentional. Well most of the time, anyway. He did manage to end up with a lap full of water during one take that was not planned. Course, between each take, someone had to clean it up so he could do it again.

Everybody Hates Chris

September 17 and 18, 2008

I worked on Everybody Hates Chris as a detective in September. EHC is the show that Andrew Giannetta was working Camera A on. Drew is my son-in-law, and it was great fun working this show and seeing him do his thing. I was booked to work it, and then let him know. The day I worked, he let the 2nd 2nd know who I was and got placed to be seen in one of the scenes we were shooting.

I would hope to do the show again, but it's future is unknown at this time. EHC may well have shot it's final episode, but there is always hope, and until the official word is out, so is the jury. I have a friend who has worked the show many times because he has a car that fits the time period of the show. Alas, he works on the outdoor set, and I was working inside.

Intermission - August 2005

The previous posts dated from August 15th to August 31st of 2005. This was the first month of working as a background actor. This brings up something worth saying because I was only 15 days old as a background actor, and had worked only nine shows by the 31st. As I read these bits, I am trying to correct anything at is "wrong". My intent will be to make sure that I am factually correct, though I am going to try to do so in a way that doesn't mess with the articles too much. I wrote what I wrote, sometimes from ignorance, and I will try to preserve said goofs while making corrections.

You will note in later blogs that I had the opportunity to work several shows more than once. West Wing was one of my favorites, I had high hopes for Night Stalker, and Arrested Development was a blast. While I repeated my visits to West Wing and AD, Night Stalker didn't last long, and I didn't get to make that a regular gig.

I will continue to put up the old adventures, and when I have caught up with reality, I will begin blogging about current experiences. In the meantime, I will put intermissions into the timeline with comments about each of the months as they pass by.

Arrested Development

August 31, 2005
Episode: The British Bombshell
Location - Beverly Hills Courthouse

Thank Goodness for WARDROBE!

Today's shoot is outside the Beverly Hills Courthouse on a very sunny day, and thanks to wardrobe, I was lucky enough to go the day without a jacket and tie. She even had me roll up my sleeves to give it that casual look. Some others wore black jackets and ties.

The AD on this show is Jennie, and after assuring us plenty of sunscreen and water, she laid out the day for us. Told us about the show, and the episode we were going to film, as well as what some of our responsibilities were for the day. As she put us in our starting points for the scene and told us where to walk on "background", she also informed us that because there were so many of us and lots to film, after we made our crosses, we were to go ahead and make another cross to keep the background busy. On background, we all made our crosses and then stood there unsure if she really meant we were supposed to just walk on camera again, with no specific direction. Marching onto camera and hearing the director yell "cut" followed by "who the hell just crossed there?", was not high on anyone's list of things to do. Jennie came out and gathered the background together and said, "OK, not such a big success, that shot. Where were my background?" She proceeded to give us more direction, and once again told us to go ahead and just make those extra crosses. By the end of the day, we all had it pretty well down. Far more freedom/responsibility than this BG is used to.

If you pay real close attention to BG on this show, and this episode specifically, you will note that continuity is not such a big issue. If you were to follow me around by where I am headed in each segment of the scene at the courthouse, you would notice that I first go up the steps toward the courthouse, then soon afterwards, head back down the steps and away from the courthouse. Shortly after that, I cross camera again heading toward the courthouse to watch the magic show, where I stop and observe the entertainer. I'm all over the place. If you watch even closer, you will note that shadows are all over the place, and what is a ten to fifteen minute period on the show took 12 hours to film, and the sun (firmly in the east at the start) was setting in the west by the end.

This program will go quite a ways to use a joke. During the beginning of the visit to the courthouse scene, the camera will cross the courtyard and stop on a log cabin sitting on a flatbed truck with an older man, wearing white, rocking in a chair by the door. Look close and you will see an Andy Griffith look alike (Matlock reference here). That BG actor (the look-a-like) was paid to sit on the porch of the log cabin for several hours just to get that one shot and keep continuity.

There are some nice things about being a principal actor on a series. One actor had his dog on set. The little pooch was well behaved, never without a handler, and getting almost as much attention as the stars. In between shots, wardrobe and props would come up to actors and take jackets and briefcases so the stars didn't have to carry them between shots and they would bring the actors umbrellas, to keep them shaded. Make-up would be there to do touch ups and take care of hair issues. During one moment before getting a particular shot, Jeffrey Tambour responded to the line of another actor ("I am a star") with a short rendition of "There's No Business Like Show Business". The other man was in a cage, dangling above the crowd wearing a chicken outfit and mask, with simulated blood oozing down his head.

Today was the first day paparazzi near set I was working on, and bless their little shutterbug hearts, they were not there to get my picture. Charlize Theron was guesting on this episode, and they were there to follow her. One poor guy had trouble getting a decent shot of the actress because the sun was shining in his lens. Of course, the sun was to his back, but this didn't stop a few of the crew from putting a reflector to good use. The police had to work to keep them out of the shots and crew was watching them like hawks just to make sure they didn't get too close.

Lastly, an exchange heard earlier on the set, that will give you some understanding of the confusion that occurs with the blending of reality and make believe. A background actors comment to two men sitting in the eating area having breakfast, "Wow, you guys really look like cops!". The response was "We are."

My Name is Earl

August 30, 2005
Episode: Joy's Fancy Figurine
Location - Van Nuys

This is a flash back episode, where the flash back year is 1981. That means it is a period piece and requires that hair styles and apparel match the time. The men didn't have a hard time of it, because most of us had short hair, and styles have not changed that much on "dress up" type clothes. The gals on the other hand needed to have hair set, make-up applied and clothing that said, "I'm an 80's kinda girl". This was the first time I've seen so many background need make-up.

Background actors come in two flavors: Union and Non-Union. On any given show, there is a minimum of BG actors that must be Union. Once that number (usually 20) is met, all others are going to be Non-Union. There are certain rules the producers must follow when dealing with Union BG regarding lunches, dinners, bumps in pay for costume changes and more, and of course, the Union boys and girls make more money. The only way to become Union BG is to work on three Union vouchers, and that is sometimes kinda hard to do. You might be offered one by the person clocking you in, or you might talk your way into one. I am in no hurry because, while your pay goes up, once you get in, the number of jobs you can get, go down. Can you say "Catch 22?"

This show was shot in a sound stage (like the one I was in on 20th's lot yesterday) that was putting up next weeks sets while working in this weeks. That meant that each time the bell rang and "Rolling" was echoed through out the stage, all the craftsmen/craftswomen working on the new sets had to stop what they were doing and wait out the scene being shot. Makes for slow going on the whole building thing.

One thing you notice about the set is that all the crew have headsets, and communicate constantly. When "rolling" is called, you will notice key people clicking the mics and repeating "rolling". No one on set can claim they didn't hear. Air conditioners and fans get shut off and you could hear a pin drop.

Often, crew will be talking one moment and then stop, stare into the distance and commune with that voice in their heads. On completion, they will pick-up whatever conversation they were having as if there were no pause. It takes a while to get used to, but soon you become quite adept at recognizing the sudden distance of the crew member and get right into the rhythm of the thing.

This episode also employed many children, mostly well behaved and occupied by parents. Never-the-less, one BG actor was heard to utter W. C. Fields' line about children. I personally think the kids did fine though. And watching them work was just like watching any other actor (except they have smaller bodies and are only 5 or 6 years old). The director was giving them direction, and they did their best to follow it. Real troopers.

One crew member, a D.A./BG wrangler, managed to keep the little girls, busy at one point by answering questions about and modeling her many tattoos. The kids were so busy pointing out and describing the tattoos to each other, that they didn't notice the wait they were otherwise experiencing.

Head Cases

August 29, 2005
Episode: In the Club
Location - 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox Studios is tricky to get in to. Most of the cars wanting to enter the studio seem to be coming from the south, and thus need to turn left and cross the south bound lanes to pull into the lot. Because all of the background actors need to be checked in, the speed of traffic that goes through that gate is glacial. South bound traffic ends up blocked by folks who don't want to lose their place in line. Once on the lot, finding the Stage I was supposed to go to was an exercise in, well, exercise. I walked to the wrong end of the studio before realizing that I was lost. Asking for directions sent me to the right location only a stones throw from where I parked.

This, of course, was my first time on the 20th Century Fox lot and I was able to stop by the Studio store and buy a 20th Century Fox pin to go along with my WB Pin. I am building a collection. I have a looong way to go.

This was also the first time I was working in a "real" Stage, like the ones you see in the movies or in T.V. shows with the big doors and the flashing red lights and the bells to tell the world that it is time to be quiet while we film. One long bell ring for "be quiet" and the outside red flashing lights go on at all the doors to warn people not to enter. Two quick bells tell everyone it is ok to continue with whatever you were doing, and the flashing red lights go off. As big and well padded as these buildings are, sound may not get in from outside, but it can and will be picked up on set during filming if it occurs inside the studio. During one take, the director hollered cut only a few seconds into action to yell out, "I Can Hear You Walking", to whoever was ignoring the bell and padding through the paths between sets.

On this stage, the background holding area was right behind the set, and all that stood between the cameras and us were the ply-wood walls that made up the courtroom. While doing one scene in the courtroom, I noticed how easy it is to forget your on a set. We were surrounded by 4 walls, with jury seating and the judges bench and the seating area for court watchers, and I had become so focused on what was happening, that when I looked up and noticed the lack of ceiling, I was a little surprised. To avoid a surprise of another kind, the background was warned that during the courtroom shot, we would be seeing the "Vaseline" guy. This is a featured background actor, who had Vaseline spread all over his body, and owing to the strategically timed dropping of his pants, was able to prove the fact. If you catch this episode, the line you probably won't hear is, "Is that a persimmon, or are you happy to see me?". The actor giving that line went through so many permutations of it, that I have no clue what one will make it to the final cut.

Nightstalker 2

August 24, 2005
Episode: Malum
Location - L.A.

You gotta love this job. I get up and go to work, and the first thing I do when I get there, before I clock in, is eat. They feed me. Hot breakfast, cold cereal, fruit, pastry, the works. Today I had an omelet cooked fresh with my choice of ingredients. Nice way to start the day.

After we ate, the call to set was almost immediate. We went upstairs to the set and took our places. I have a desk that is "mine". It is where I am seen the most, so that is were I get to sit most of the time. Today was the beginning of a new episode, and so the logical place to start were scenes 21, 32, 33, 25, and 28 in that order. There really is logic at play here, because all these scenes take place in the News Room of the Los Angeles Beacon. Even though more than one day passes in context of the show, we shoot them in one day, so change in costumes are needed so it does not look as though we never get to go home and always work in the same clothes.

Once on the set, the crew began shooting establishing shots. No sound is needed, so the set was noisy and both cameras were working different areas at the same time. I didn't end up in any of the establishing shots, but I think I'll show up in background on two other possible shots.

The director is the closest thing to god on the set, and as such is often only heard from on high. Unlike the movies you see where the director is right next to the camera, most of them work in an area with blinds that block their view of the scene (though more than once I've seen them in different rooms altogether). They do come out and give direction to the actors, and sometimes to make changes to the way something looks on the set, but otherwise, their major view of the action is on a small monitor in a dark space. From this space you'll here the distant cry of "Camera", "Action", and "Cut". This is the director. Each of these orders are repeated throughout the set so that it often sounds like an echo canyon. "Camera" yells the Director, "Camera" yells the DA, "Camera" yells two or three more voices off set, just in case you don't hear it the first two or three times. "Action" only gets repeated once, and again the echo begins with "Cut". The word that gets repeated the most is "Wrap". "It's a Wrap" is joyously chorused by better than half the cast and crew, because these words set you free, at the end of a long day.

Next time you see a cozy little chat going on between two people at a desk in a small space, you might reflect on what really happens to film that shot. In a space roughly 10' x 10', Kolchak and Gabrielle (actors Stuart Townsend and Perri Reed) talk about their latest adventure in hushed tones, to exclude prying ears. Also in that 10' x 10' space are two cameras on dollies each with an operator and the guy that moves the dolly, the sound man, lighting people and others whose job remains a mystery to me, totaling 11 people, the props, set pieces and equipment. That's 22 ears. That's no way to keep a secret.

Nightstalker

August 23, 2005
Episode: The Five People You Meet in Hell
Location - L.A.

Another long day. I clocked in at 11:00 am and clocked out at 1:12 am, next morning. The office set of the Los Angeles paper that Kolchack works for is on the 16th floor of a Downtown L.A. building, and base for the Background is on the 15th floor, so today meant a lot of elevator rides up and down. It also meant that when I was not on set, I was in an air conditioned office space with a view of the L.A. downtown. Being as I have issues with heights, I didn't make much use of the view, but one could not ignore it given there were more windows than extras on this set.

Today (and tomorrow) I am a staff writer for the Los Angeles Beacon, and as such, I got to sit at a desks and pretend to be busy. As a background artist, I am expected to remember what I did, so that each time the cameras shift location to film the scene from somewhere else, I will repeat the actions the same way in each shot. This allows the editor to cut the scenes together while having some level of continuity. In one long scene, I wrote out my actions as I did them.

Paper, Phone, Write, Hang-up, Book, Phone, Write, (Long wait).

I picked up a paper, examined it, picked up the phone, spoke to the person on the other end (i.e. talked to myself (without talking)), wrote down information, hung-up, picked up a book, again picked up the phone and wrote down more information. The last action was longer as the scene was long. This was easy enough, because before each call of "Action" by the director, is the call for "Background", which is our cue to start doing whatever we're to do. By the way, the director relies on the production assistants, or director's assistant (2nd 2nd) to place and direct the Background. He may call for more movement or bodies, but what they do is not his concern (unless it takes away from his scene).

By 12:30 am, things were getting harder. All I had to do on the "Background" call was walk from off camera, into the scene and away out the door at the far end of the office. The only problem was that the guy who yells "Background" was not given his cue and so neither were the Background artists. For quite a few takes, we background folk were relying on telepathy to know when to go. This was the last scene, and the last camera angle, so everyone was rather beat.

During one scene, the director was upset because a simple 3 line scene was taking too long to set up. He hollered that if things didn't get moving he'd shoot himself. Then he added that he would take a few others with him first. Crew pointed out that they did not have budget for bullets, so he was out of luck.

By wrap, several of the Background artists had to be nudged to get them going, as they had fallen asleep. A good thing, as many of us will be back on the set by 11:00 am next day. Less than 8 hours of sleep away.

CSI: New York

August 22, 2005
Episode: Corporate Warriors
Location - CBS Studios

Sometimes you just hit the jackpot for bookings. While I did not end up as a dead body on CSI: NY, I did get to be a band member. The actual call was for background that had their own instruments, and no, you did not need to know how to play them. I have a trombone and was thus told to show up in proper band attire, and was given a white hat and suspenders. For this episode, there was one trombone, two trumpets, one cornet, two clarinets, and three saxophones. Only two of us actually played the instrument we brought with us. Myself and one of the saxophones. He and I had the chance to jam as we did a little impromptu swing and Dixie. Though not to loud, so as not to annoy the director.

We were taken from base to New York street, perhaps better known as the Seinfield street. This is where many of the street scenes were shot for that show, and today we were shooting an Italian Festival where some poor guy gets the bloody hell kicked out of him. Now the good thing about all of this is that this Italian Festival is a food thing. Lots of food, and it is all freshly cooked on set and edible and background were told to go ahead and eat what they wanted, but please try to eat some of it during the camera roll. I'm sure I saw one or two people being rolled off the set by overworked crew. This ended up being a ten hour day for me (starting at 5:45 am) but I never felt the least bit hungry.

New York street has awnings that bridge the gap between buildings on both sides of the street, thus allowing some control of light and preventing direct sun light on the cast and crew. The street itself is not overly long, so to give it that feeling of greater length, the cameras shot the street going first one way then the other. There were quite a few background on the set, so it really was as crowded as it looked, though it did help that most of the background stayed off the sidewalks.

In the scene I suspect is the opening scene to this story arc, some guy larches into a statue of a saint and appears to be grabbing handfuls of cash, only just put there by obliging background actors. Five Italian looking guys grab him and beat and kick him in a violent display that surprised most of the background players who, because they were not told that the fight was going to happen during that take, were sure that some of the folks on set had gotten into a non-verbal dispute. The beat upon actor got quite the applause after regaining his feet and demonstrating that he could still walk.

Alas, some people have all the perks. I noted with some envy that the guy that played the dead body (after being so artfully beaten) had a stand in, just like the leads of the show. Any time you could not see the body, but one of the stars was looking at or photographing it, the actor got to go back to the shade and a dummy was put in his place. I wonder what they pay the dummy?

West Wing 2

August 18, 2005
Call time: 12:30 PM
Warner Brothers Studio
Burbank, CA

Today was a really cool day, because today, I pulled up to the WB parking lot and said, "I'm background for West Wing, 12:30 call." and I got to park my car and walk onto the WB lot.

They could have had me sit on my hands all day, and I would have been just fine. I managed to get to the souvenir store on the lot and use my pay voucher to get 20% off the WB pin I purchased. Next best thing to being a regular employee.

Clocked in at 12:30 (There really isn't a clock. That is just when they hand you your pay voucher) and sat around, visited the company store and walked onto the set of West Wing (actually behind the scenes). Like all things on T.V. they look bigger on the screen than they are on the set. After much sitting around and some wandering, the time came to go over to the "Ranch". This is where the WB has many more sets that can be used by any production. Today, we were shooting in a library. More specifically, the school library of the High School we visited yesterday.

We sat and sat and it was after lunch (5:00 PM) before my group of parents/teachers were called. Of course, during this time, rehearsals were going on with the talent and such. In the library, Santos finishes a speech and is then open to questions from the assembled parents and teachers. The subject of the questions was Creationism and Evolution. At one point the director (who looks like he just graduated high school) explained that he needed the background to respond to what Santos was saying, i.e. take a side and agree or disagree. He asked how many people in the group believed in Creationism and no one raised a hand. So he asked for a show of hands of those born between January and June. When the hands were up he said, "You folks now believe." Funny how this method worked for him in other ways. Santos makes a humorous remark and those of us born between January and October were the chucklers in the crowd.

Now here is something that you would never know if you didn't see it or weren't told. Sets are very warm/hot places. Lots of lights and people packed into a place with no air conditioning (picks up on the sound recordings) and the doors are kept closed during shots. By watching the show, you couldn't tell that the actors was being mopped between takes. Nearly every time the cameras stopped rolling, make-up was out with tissue and retouches as needed, and let me tell you it was needed. Bottled water was provided and I noted that the water was HtoO, which gives 100% of the profits (after taxes) to charity. I don't know if this is a WB thing or a West Wing thing, but I thought it was cool.

One of the books on this mythical high school set was "Complete Sexual Fulfillment" and a copy of the Financial Times was visible with a picture of George W. Bush on the cover. You never know what little secrets are kept from you on television.

If you want to make money in stocks, buy stock in the company that makes the black, orange, red, white and blue tape used by the crew to do everything with. I kid you not, one gal had at least one of every color on her belt, and it was used to mark where the camera stops and travels, where the actors stand, where the chairs are placed, and for tacking down anything that one didn't want getting up. The WB must spend a kings fortune on this tape, and Hollywood is full of studios that use it.

At 8:00 PM we took a brake while the set was adjusted so the cameras could look at the audience that Santos was talking to and we came back in and repeated the scene many times over with ever changeling camera angles and points of focus. The scene probably runs less than four minutes, and took a minimum of five hours to shoot.

We were done by 10:00 PM. While wondering around the Ranch, I came across a sign that you might recall from some of the WB's commercials for their shows. It's at the top of this post.

West Wing 1

August 17th, 2005
"Mr. Frost" (episode # 7.4)
Call time: 6:00 AM
El Segundo - On location
Leonard High School

I managed to get just over 3 hours sleep before getting up and getting ready for a 6:00 AM call in El Segundo (10 miles from home). After checking in with wardrobe, the background people loaded onto a bus and were taken to a local high school where we settled our belongings and marched over to props to be turned into, protesters/parents/teachers, Secret Service, state troopers, journalists, photographers, camera/boom mic operators or VIP's. Amongst the background we had a musician playing a protester, an ex air force officer/environmental engineer as a journalist and a working L.A. policeman as a state trooper. Takes all kinds.

By 7:30 we were busy shooting a scene where Senator Matt Santos (played by Jimmy Smits), along with Josh Lyman (played by Bradley Whitford) and Louise Thornton(played by Janeane Garofolo) pull up in a motorcade in front of the high school, and walk from the cars to the inside of the front doors. Josh and Louise stop to talk a moment while Santos stops to talk to the previously mentioned VIP's. Then Santos joins them and they walk into the school.

Sounds simple, I know, but the truth is that it just ain't so. First of all, all of us protesters had to be put into position. One of the PA's (production assistants) came over and proceeded to tell us protesters where to stand. We were put into "pro religion" and "anti religion" groups and told to holler and chant real loud when the director yells for background. Then she went away and we stood around waiting for all to start. How silly is that. Another PA came over and rearranged the two groups into four, mixed them beyond understanding and told us to mime the yelling and chanting, so as not to interfere with the sound.

Finally the director is ready to go and the cops halt traffic, and background is called as a 737 passes 20 feet over head as it leaves the runway of LAX. I mean the bloody landing gear is still spinning and you could see little Eddy looking out the planes window at all the funny people standing around the high school. If you ever think it must be a breeze to be an actor, or work in television, think again. We finished that one blasted scene at 12:00 Noon. That is to say FIVE HOURS LATER! We yelled, we mimed, we collapsed because if we had been real protester waving those signs (mine said "STOP Praying on America's Children") we would have dropped them and gone home hours before. By lunch time, my arms were about to fall off, the "press" background actors were scorched, having been in the sun the whole time, and the actors had gotten in and out of those SUV's enough times to qualify as door testers at the car factory.

I got to eat lunch at 1:00 PM and then sat in the shade of the Base until 6:00 PM when I was called to be background once again. This time I sat in a chair for an hour and twenty minutes while poor Jimmy Smits repeated the same scene over and over and over, until the children in the band behind him also had the words committed to memory. By 9:00 PM we were done shooting and by 9:45 I was on our way home. That's 15 hours and 45 minutes after I clocked in. Long day, huh.

Something you pick up on quickly is that everything moves around a set in a rather chaotic manner, and one of the things you here often is "Watch your Back!" You are a participant in avoiding your own injury. You are warned and then must move or be moved.

The crew was great and West Wing is a must to work for again. Which I will be doing tomorrow. Gotta love this biz. I only hope the day is a little under 15 hours this time.

Huff (Showtime)

August 16, 2005
9:30 Background Call (Extras)
Set: Trader Vics in Beverly Hills

I set my alarm for 7:45 AM and got up at 6:54 AM (groan). Dressed and out the door by 8:30 AM and at the base camp by 9:00 AM. Base camp is where they set up the meeting place for actors, crew and such. Because this was a location shoot, we were fed breakfast and lunch. The "background", which is what the extras are called, were ferried to the wardrobe department where the talents (principal actors) trailers and make up vans were located. Costume people checked what we wore, and I had to change from a white shirt (too much for the cameras) to a red shirt and as I had done my own make-up, I was ready.

We were then ferried (again by van) to the shoot site. This was the famous "Trader Vics" restaurant in Beverly Hills. I went inside and found a seat where I spent the better part of an hour chatting with Jennifer (J.J.) who was set to play a jail guard later in the day. We now know each others lives. While I was sitting there, a production assistant came over to Tom Skerritt and asked him if he could filet a fish. He asked why and was answered, (couldn't hear the answer) and then asked if they were going to put him to work in the kitchen. He seemed reassured that he was still going to play the scene he rehearsed.

It was about 11:30 before they needed me. On the call "Background", the extras start moving, and then "action" is called. Action is when the talent begins emoting. My first bit was to be seated by a waiter with two women and another man. By the third take, the other guy was taken off to sit nearer the action. About 3 or 4 takes later, I was dragged off a spot about six feet from the talent, where I waited for my cue to cross from stage left to stage right, just behind the actors. We did this a bazillion times.

After a while, they moved the cameras, and I had to move to a table just behind the talent, where on my cue, I got up and made the same cross. I have begun to think that some of this was made up on the spot. Kind of, "Well, we got this guy crossing, and now we gotta figure out where he crossed from." A rather controlled form of chaos.

Among the "background" players, were those that were enjoying themselves, like me, and those who gripped about the working conditions. Kind of like a fisherman gripping about having to work on a boat. Sheesh.

After lunch at 4.44 PM, I clocked out and went home. About a 20 minute drive. And I am beat. Spent most of the day sitting, but when I worked, I had to pay close attention to what was going on, this being my first day on a set. I had a ball. I would not mind working with this crew again. Professional and polite.

Tomorrow -------------------------------------------- West Wing!

In the Background - The Start

Three years ago I joined up with Central Casting and became a background actor (extra). These are the blogs I sent to my friends and family.

Central Casting
August 15th, 2005

Well today was the day to sign up at Central Casting. Easiest job I ever put in for. You go in, fill out the papers, pay a fee to sign up, and you are almost an extra. I say almost because, I still have not worked in that capacity. That will be remedied tomorrow, in Beverly Hills, where I will be making my first appearance in a T.V. show.

I will be a restaurant patron on the Showtime show, Huff. Release date to be noted when I get one. I am, of course, excited, and will let you all know what happens.

While signing up at Central Casting, a gentleman made a most excellent observation. He said, "I would rather pretend to type in an office for a living, than actually type in an office for a living." Here - Here!

Well check in Wednesday to see how things go on Tuesday. I will try to keep this log active and up to date. I suspect my success will have something to do with how busy I am.