Tuesday November 11, 2008
Shoot/ing
Shortly after getting home from work the previous day, I received a call from my Calling Service that the following day I was booked to work an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a halfway house "client." I called in to work to relay I had a shoot the next day, unaware that Tuesday would be Veteran's Day and the office would be closed "anyway."
Having just nudged out May (in which I had two gigs), November 2008 has become the most busy month of the year, considering most months I have been lucky to aquire only a single day's SAG work (nothing at all in January or February, June or October: November 2007 I had five day's work, via four gigs). Then the previous week I worked on an episode of The Office the day after as a principal, shooting my first national/Superbowl commercial.
My calltime was 8:30am for this CSI episode, which I would learn was episode 912, Disarmed and Dangerous (Frank Whaley is a guest star in the episode, btw). Crew parking and main basecamp was at a Food 4 Less I knew well on Venice Boulevard, so I arrived just past 8am. I was given my voucher but before I could fill it out, even before 8:30, I was scooted to wardrobe. I was given a light brown plaid shirt (very Earl), after which we were shuttled over to the near-set basecamp of sorts, only to learn breakfast was no longer being served.
Eventually a backgrounder named Rob and I were selected to approach the scene as some police action outside the halfway house took place. Consider this Sequence Three.
(Remember that I do not believe in providing storyline spoilers myself [such generally currently and/or eventually being readily available Elsewhere notwithstanding], I only convey indications of where I can be seen.)
Shortly later on, Rob and I were placed on the other side of the action, running out to the street to see what is going on. Essentially, if we're actually at all visibly recognizable in the previous shot, we both bi-locate. Consider this Sequence Four, as the action is continuous.
After a magnificent, delicious and seemingly UK inspired lunch, the lot of the background went into the halfway house. At first we sat around in a cicle as though in a group therapy sesssion.
Paul Guilfoyle (as Captain Jim Brass), enters with Laurence Fishburne (as Dr. Raymond Langston), and they speak with guest star Keith Szarabajka playing Randy, the at-the-moment guy-in-charge of the place. Consider this Sequence One.
Randy brings the two to one of the resident's room. Consider this Sequence Two.
For the interior sequence/s, I cross behind Randy's desk and go into the therapy room, then I return and head up the stairs behind Randy's desk, directed to glance nervously at the cops, unsure if they're there asking after me or about someone else (Sequence One). Upstairs as Brass and Langston enter the room and Randy looms at the door, I should be seen lurking in the corridor just beyond Randy (Sequence Two). They then leave the halfway house (Sequence Three and Four). At least depending on the angle and perspective, it could seem as though instead of running from next door, that Rob and I are running from inside the halfway house itself.
For Sequence Two, I was kept with two others while the rest of the background were wrapped. We three weren't needed for about another hour, as they worked with close-ups and coverage of the principals. At least unlike much of the day while standing around waiting outside, we had access to chairs.
Amusingly, the room used was on the first floor, just off the side door to the backyard, not actually upstairs where Randy brings the two LVPD detectives. The last three of us were wrapped at "7:42pm," even though for me it was slightly after that. Lunch was 1:30 to 2pm, so no meal penalties, but tons o'smoke was used inside the house (always a nice bump), and the last three of we background folk had a hiccough over two hours overtime. Thankfully the bus heading north on Western arrived a few minutes later so I didn't have to wait 45 minutes or so.

Thursday January 29, 2009
Double dose airing
Along with the Disarmed and Dangerous episode of CSI, the previous November I had worked on a few projects (the national Pedigree commercial, The Office, Eli Stone and the Tim Burton directed feature film Alice in Wonderland). Most of the TV projects were about to start airing. The Pedigree national commercial was already online and already becoming viral, and about to premiere officially during the 2009 Super Bowl on Sunday February first. The episode of The Office was scheduled to air the following Thursday, February fifth, and while about a year too early for the release of the Alice in Wonderland feature film, and still with no word as to any air-date for the Eli Stone episode, Thursday the 29th held the very rare occasion (in fact to my knowledge, the first time), that two TV episodes on which I worked would air the same night.
At 9:00pm on CBS would air the Disarmed and Dangerous episode of CSI, thirty minutes after the 8:00pm re-airing of my NBC My Name is Earl episode Joy in a Bubble, as the ice-cream vendor.
My film producer friend came by and watched both, having missing the first Joy in a Bubble airing, in which my bit was quite prominent, but the for CSI episode, it was very much a Don't Blink situation. While I easily could say, "There I am" (watching from out in the hallway), for my staircase ascent only my arm and plaid shirt is visible. In the subsequent exterior shot/s (and saw myself easily, only as I knew where to look), to point me out to my friend I had to pause it. I agreed that without pausing it, no one but I wouldn't be able to spot me for that one. Unused was the angle for the other bit of my being down the street and approaching.
Irritatingly, the two shows either did not record or did not save, so I could not DVR-record either scene with me with which to create frame-grabs. In a few months the two series current season should hit DVD. Being one of the best written comedy series, I buy the My Name is Earl DVD box sets anyway; CSI I can Netflix and frame-grab from there.