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Saturday February 13, 2010
Shoot, day one
The previous day my
calling service
notified me that through
Alice Ellis casting
I was booked on a commercial filming
Saturday with a Possible Recall for Sunday.
I was notified in advance that being shot on a weekend that
private-sector compensation for labour
would be twice
[background]
scale.
I would be a "ranting guy," which was vague enough we weren't sure if that meant homeless, business or business casual
(e.g., businessman who's lost his mind).
The information was emailed to me
(via which I was to confirm, which I did),
and the map indicated being base camp only a few blocks from my day-job.
I brought with me both outfits: I wore my business outfit, and in my blue bag a casual/quasi-homeless'y out.
Wardrobe loved what I was wearing; I didn't even need to show the ties.
I had learned I would be "ranting on [a] cell phone," and my own cell phone was approved as my "prop."
Walking the two blocks from the 7th Street Metro Red Line Station I arrived at 6:20am for my 7:00am calltime.
Breakfast was fantastic
(far better than the on-time lunch which was so-so and far too "exotic" food prepared).
The friendly Jordan from Alice Ellis checked us in, as he did for the
previous Alice Ellis gig
I did.
They first took about half of the many background via a shuttle to the location; the rest of us were brought over around 8:30, to Pico and Grand.
Whilst waiting I spoke with
Tracy Weisert,
who is quite a working actress on her own.
Joining us was
Stacey, who later I learned
grew up in my
home town,
rather close to the original main school, now simply called
Pequannock Valley Middle School
(she was also kind enough to drive me home when we wrapped).
Also on hand was the super pleasant male model
Trevor Brunsink
(whom I met when he and I worked on
Born To Be a Star),
plus G.P.,
former roommate of
Tafan
(and hence G.P. also being in
Strictly Background
at the time).
The commercial will air in Europe; the production company generally is London based.
Even by the end of the day I was a little unclear as to the exact premise of the spot.
It involves a boy either walking a pet cow, or a cow "stalking" the boy.
I was not used during this sequence.
We broke on time for a half-hour lunch
(1-1:30pm),
after which we were shuttled to, of all places, Broadway and 7th.
Predictably the downtown streets were packed with cars, and the sidewalks were
jam-packed with shopping pedestrians, many of whom were rubber-neckers and "bogies," as the crew began to call them... those who would watch so close they would be too close to the shot's framing.
Amusingly, the local Angelinos in the background were wondering in advance why use this intersection in the early afternoon on a Saturday
(particularly the day before a Sunday Valentine's Day)...
based on results the production apparently thought downtown on a weekend would not be as crowded as it is; most of the background concurred had they scheduled the same scene Sunday morning first thing, it'd virtually be a ghost town and crowd control would be super easy.
For that sequence I was deep background, just street crossings.
We moved up to half a block north on Broadway, for which the boy with
(and/or being followed by)
the cow
(of which there were two, being traded off when one seemed she needed a rest),
notices himself and the cow on a big-screen TV at the doorway of an electronics store.
For this Jordon and I crossed each other from opposite directions.
I was cued by Giselle, the very pleasant 2nd AD.
At one point this late in the day Jordan clarified with me whether I was available for the next day, which I was.
When the light was gone enough and we were to be wrapped, Giselle recalled I was to have a bit ranting into my phone, and I was recalled for Sunday.
Sadly, most of those there with whom I'd been chatting throughout the day were not recalled, but we did have two hour's
[twice-scale]
overtime.
Once back at home I found Alice Ellis's email waiting for me, with the next day's 7am calltime and new location information had arrived, and I confirmed before grabbing some dinner.
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