Fiesta La Ballona is an annual festival in Culver City down the street from me. I received a post card on my door about it recently, and when I finally got around to reading it, I noticed that Royal Crown Revue was playing! The last time I saw them play was when I lived in Atlanta. So I headed down to the festival and enjoyed the music ... even got to dance for 2 songs!
Yesterday, I worked on Boston Legal, one of my favorite shows. My call time was at 9:30 am and the studio where they shoot Boston Legal is in Manhattan Beach (which isn't too far from me). The scene was for episode 5 and was in a fine dining restaurant. I was to wear black pants and black shoes, but when I went to see wardrobe, they gave me different black pants, a white button down shirt, a black tie, and a long black apron (which covered up the black pants, lol). I didn't mind that they gave me black pants to wear, though, because I discovered yesterday that mine have gotten a wee bit tight and it's time for me to go shopping for new ones. Anyway, wardrobe didn't like my shoes. I have a pair of "shoes for crews" that I ordered when I was waiting tables. They are black loafers that are comfortable and have a non slip sole for slippery kitchen floors. Wardrobe gave me a pair of black suede pumps with 2 1/2" heels and said since it was an upscale restaurant, I needed upscale shoes. That was a laugh. They weren't comfortable at all, and although I've suffered through scenes in the past wearing uncomfortable shoes that wardrobe gave me, I was nervous about this scene, because I would potentially be carrying dishes, etc and trying to navigate set. So, I brought them with me to set, but I didn't put them on, because I wanted to wait to see where they would place me and whatnot.
It was a quiet scene with James Spader and a date. I believe it was 1 1/2 pages and some of the dialogue was almost a whisper. Now, most of the time, when working background, it's all pantomime. You don't talk or whisper, or make any noise, which is what they wanted for this scene. They kept asking us to try to walk quieter. They checked everyone's shoes, and put shoe foam on the bottoms to help with the noise. When the wardrobe lady came over to me, I thought she was going to get mad at me for not wearing their shoes. But she just had me walk to see if my shoes were noisy (which they weren't), and didn't say a thing. Every time I had to walk by the lead actors' table I was holding my breath trying not to make any noise. Finally, when they moved in a bit tighter, they told us we could take our shoes off. That was awesome for me, because it gave me the freedom to move more naturally.
All in all, it was a good day. We wrapped around 4:30 pm. It was really cool to be on the set of one of my favorite shows!
Worked today on a new show called Life. They booked me as a jogger and my call time was 1 PM. They were shooting on location on Mulholland Drive, and for once I had no traffic problems getting there and actually arrived half an hour early. There were a handful of extras ... some neighbors, some joggers and 1 dog walker. They finally started using me and one other girl to ... well ... you guessed it ... jog. We had to jog uphill toward the sun, past the house the lead actors were heading in to, but not for too far really. We did it about 7 or 8 times, and they waited until the sun went down to break for lunch. And then we were wrapped. Not a bad day, really, and good money since they didn't break us for lunch on time. I was told they were shooting the 3rd episode.
I joined a background service this week. It makes finding work as an extra much easier, especially once you've joined SAG since those jobs are harder to find. The service submits you to Casting Directors and if chosen, the casting director books you through them.
I was booked on Brothers & Sisters yesterday and was excited to be working again as an extra. Senator McCallister and Kitty (Rob Lowe and Calista Flockhart) were touring some plant for McCallister's presidential campaign and we lined up to shake his hand as he was leaving. Very easy day. We were used only for the one scene and I spent the majority of my day reading.
We were wrapped close to 5pm and I hurried to get out of there hoping traffic wouldn't be bad. And I was right ... until ... traffic on the 405 was coming to a complete stop. So I took the next exit and found my way on back streets ... and came to very very slow traffic and realized this wasn't much better. Not much I could do. As I was sitting in traffic, I finally heard a traffic report. Apparently a man with a machete was shot and killed by police on the 10. Part of the 10 in East LA was shut down which caused all the traffic in west LA, adding an extra hour to my trip home. Only in LA!
Sunday was my last day as a Dove Girl. We went to the Hollywood Farmers' Market. I had never been to that farmers' market before and it's huge, with lots of great stuff! I definitely need to go back. But for now, no more handing out free chocolate. Now it's time for me to find more work!
The JKL skit aired on Thursday night, without the extras lol. It was cool to see the end result though, since it was all done in front of a green screen.
Was called on monday to work as an extra on JKL on Tuesday. I was excited, since I've never worked on this show and I've heard lots of good things about it. My call time was at 1PM. After arriving and filling out all the paper work (AFTRA) and meeting the others, we all sat and waited until 4PM. In the meantime, we were treated to some good fried chicken, corn and mashed potatoes. Finally, we went out back behind the theater to a parking lot. The skit is about Uncle Frank sitting in a kayak trying to catch the big home run ball at the dodgers/giants games here in LA. It was all shot against a green screen and when they were done with Uncle Frank, all we had to do was walk back and forth in front of the green screen a bunch of times, like we were heading into the game. I was wearing a white dodger baseball shirt and a blue dodger cap. It was the easiest extra work I've ever done, and a lot of fun. I don't believe it aired last night, so look for it tonight. =)
