Friday March 14, 2014
Colliding calls
My calling service contacted me with information for the next day, a Saturday shoot for the feature film Lost in Austin.
At the same time, another call started to come in, demanding my attention. Thankfully I quickly got the recorded call number, and was able to accept the incoming call... which turned out to be someone else at my calling service. "Oh yes," I said. "I just got the info for tomorrow's Lost in Austin..." I was told that this call was for information for a Monday gig for a Bridgestone commercial through Alice Ellis, that I'd be getting an email over the weekend with the information.
The Lost in Austin location was easy enough, at illuminate, within easy walking distance of the Universal Red Line Station.

Saturday March 15, 2014
Shoot
With a twelve noon calltime, it was felt we would have a short day. Apparently they'd been working Very Long Days (which we figured, what with a noon calltime), so as it was, we did end up with three and a half hours overtime, signed out full-on at twelve midnight and a half-hour lunch.
I met the pleasant LãShan http://bylashan.com/ and we chatted throughout the day. There didn't seem to be any sort of actual catering; the craft services was okay, but LãShan and I began to observe such things as food being pulled from the back of a minivan, the few people setting up never putting on gloves or having washed the salad lettuce being unceremoniously dumped into open containers, etc. When lunch was called, we decided to forgo any probable food poisoning and went around the corner and ate at a local eatery.
This was the second to last day of of the production, I was told: leads Linda Cardellini and Ursula Parker (of Louie), were both picture-wrapped at day's end. Currently as of this entry, there's no scheduled release date, but the goal would be sometime in 2015.

(Remember that I do not believe in providing storyline spoilers myself [such generally currently and/or eventually being readily available Elsewhere notwithstanding], in my report/s I only convey indications of where I can be seen.)

Initially my role category was TV studio Grip. Once on set, I was placed in the Control Room, in which with a couple of others we chatted for the two plus hours while outside they were setting up and filming the shot. We realized that this was the facility's Actual Control Room (the photo, from the facility website, shows a fellow sitting where I was seated; all we saw of the wall screens was green), so we had to be careful of what buttons to push, etc. At one point the fellow at my left pressed a button which switched off all of green-screen monitors; thankfully he knew which button had been previously lit, and quickly hit it, bringing them back on. We suspected we may have only had the control room screens wink out, as no one came in to find out what'd happened.
If I'm seen at all in the control room (and considering the lighting, it's unlikely), I could be a slight profile or simply the back of my head.
At the end of the day, we were brought out to be TV audience, so depending on the shot and editing, that is where I could be visible.
Now and then during the day, I was able to check my email for the information for the Monday gig, which turned out to be in Malibu, so I had to confirm first I could even get to it. I knew the 534 bus would get out there; thankfully it turned out it had a stop a mere mile from the location. When I confirmed with Alice, I happened to indicate the bus would get me there in plenty of time, and she kept replying, working towards getting me a ride, which she did.

Friday April 11, 2014
Payment
Over a full month after the gig, production finally sent out payment. The previous week I'd had to send in a file-claim in to SAG-AFTRA; on Tuesday the 15th I was called and a message left that production was sending out our checks The Next Day, and that SAG-AFTRA was calculating the late-penalty fees.
Considering they still owe us the late penalties, it was added that production claimed to be "out of money"... as though that's anyone else's problem.

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