Happy Easter!

Spring is finally here! These past few weeks have been crazy. I'm burned out on casting and look forward to wrapping this project. I've wanted to post more about it, but since it's confidential, there's not much I can say.
Hopefully, I have will have a lot to write about very soon. =)

My Favorite Band

girls night out in Arcadia

As you may know, I lived in Austin for close to a year before moving to LA. I loved it there and miss it terribly. I loved living in Atlanta, and Columbia, SC will always have a special place in my heart since I grew up there, but Austin just feels more like a hometown to me. When I lived in Austin, I went out dancing at least once a week, and it was rarely to DJ'd music. Every Monday, the Seth Walker Band played at a bar called Mother Egan's. I made so many friends there and really got to love blues dancing. Since I moved to LA, I've only gotten to visit Austin once, and it's definitely on my list of things to do for 2008. This past weekend, I was happy to find out that the Seth Walker Band was coming to California. They played in Arcadia friday night, and then in Hermosa Beach on Saturday. I was so excited to be able to go and listen, and possible dance to some good live music again. I went both nights, and although there wasn't much of a crowd in Arcadia, the bar in Hermosa Beach was packed and the energy was high. My next door neighbor (who, in a strange coincidence, is from Austin and also knows Seth Walker, and also swing dances) showed up on Saturday night, and I was able to get some good dancing in to some of my favorite music. I had a blast and this past weekend really energized me! It was a mix of emotions for me though. Along with having fun and dancing my heart out, it made me miss Austin, and all the dancers and barflies I was used to being surrounded by when seeing this band. The next time I visit my parents in SC, I definitely plan on stopping in Austin.

playing in Arcadia

at Hermosa Beach

Happy 2008!

Wow. I can't believe it's the middle of January already. I got back to LA on the 3rd and went straight back to work that weekend. It's been much calmer at work lately and not as crazy which is good. I still can't talk about the current project yet because it is confidential. What I can say is I got to go to set on Friday and Monday, and it was very cool.
My boss is going to let me work as an extra at some point. I was up for a cool scene back in November, but the numbers got cut and my part was down to me and 1 other girl and she got it. So she's submitting my picture, along with lots of others', to the director for some cool scenes that will be filmed in March. The catch: anyone who is submitted has to be ok with having their head shaved. Should be interesting. I'm up for it if I get picked.
I'll try to keep writing here, but it's tough to write about what I'm doing, when I can't really talk about what I'm doing. So, unfortunately, until I'm released from the confidentiality agreement, my posts may be a little boring.
And if I get picked for those scenes in March, I'll be sure to post a pic of my new bald head!

Happy Holidays!!

I've been so crazy busy with work that I haven't had a chance to post here! I'm back in SC until Jan 3, having a good holiday with my parents. I've been working as a casting assistant again on an untitled confidential project. It's been absolutely crazy but it's an exciting film to be a part of.
Hope everyone is having a great holiday!!

Sasha

My mom waited patiently last night until I finally got home to tell me some sad news. Sasha passed away yesterday. I loved him very much. He was my soul cat and I will miss him. I found him when I was working at Six Flags in Atlanta the summer of '97. He was a stray that would let me pet him and no one else, so at the end of the summer, I rescued him. When I moved to Austin, TX, he went to live with my parents. He always seemed to be a happy cat and I know my parents took good care of him. He ate breakfast yesterday and appeared to be normal. Then, a little later, my parents couldn't find him. They saw Sniffles and Mystic (our 2 other cats) sniffing around our wicker love seat. Apparently, he had crawled underneath and died in his sleep. Here are some of my favorite pics of my soul cat.

Sasha with his pal Mystic in the kitchen window.

The perfect lap cat.

Corporate Headquarters - Stand In

Well I'm back in LA and started working as a casting assistant again. Yesterday, I was needed to work as a stand in and get to today and tomorrow as well. It's great because I really need to work SAG as much as possible so that I can qualify for medical benefits. It was my first time working as a stand in and I had a blast.

Still in SC ...

so my parents drop me off at the airport on Monday ... and just before I board the plane I call them to make sure they made it home safe (my dad is 75 and I'm not too keen on his driving)

so my mom answers her phone and says they are almost home (my dad is driving) and then my mom says "WAIT" real loud, then says "oh my god" then I hear a crash and the phone goes dead ...
needless to say I didn't get on the the plane! They are ok. My mom called me as soon as she could to let me know they were ok. The accident happened a block from our house.

So I'm in SC until Friday ... staying to help with the insurance and help them get a new car.

St Cloud Class of 1950 Reunion

I flew home to Columbia, SC so that I could drive my dad down to St. Cloud, Florida for his high school reunion. St. Cloud was and still is a small town in central Florida near Orlando. They have long since built a new high school, but this was a reunion for the old school. I believe the years were 1929 - 1968. My dad was in the class of 1950, and his class met for dinner the Friday night before the reunion.
Saturday was the big reunion day. We went for the lunch and then returned around 4:30 for the dinner. There were people there that graduated in the 40s all the way to the 70s. I think overall, a little over 200 people showed up. It had been said that that would be the last reunion (they've been having them every 2 years for a little while) but there was a rumor that someone from one of the younger classes would be taking over and continue to have them.
I met some great people and heard some great stories. It was a lot of fun and I brought a video camera that a friend had lent me and tried to get some stories on tape, although some people became a little shy when they saw the camera.

St. Cloud High School (which has since been torn down)

G-Force - Pedestrian

Worked on a film called G-Force last monday. Easy day ... only used 3 of the 11 of us, so we just sat around and talked and admired the wonderful food they had at craft service.

Booked my flight home to Columbia, SC today. I'll be there from Oct 15 - Oct 29. I'm taking my dad to his last high school reunion in Florida on Oct. 20. I'm looking forward to a road trip with my dad.

I was hoping to hit austin on the way back to LA, but flights just got too expensive ... I waited too long. =( My friend Jason is getting married the first weekend in November and I was hoping to make that. On the bright side though, round trip tickets from LA to Austin are less than $200 at the moment ... so if I come up with the $$ then maybe I will make it.

Time for me to drive down town for a night shoot ...

Cavemen - Office Worker - 2 Days

I worked on Cavemen on Wednesday and Thursday. The shoot ran long both days ... good money, but boy was I tired. I didn't get home until 3am Thursday night (or should I say Friday morning).
It's a new sitcom based on the guys from those Geico Insurance commercials. I was an office worker in a mundane office where one of the "cavemen" gets a job. I'm not sure how this sitcom will do, but from the little I was exposed to, the writing seemed smart. It's not the kind of show I watch though.

Super Hero - Nurse

I hadn't heard of this film when I got booked on it, and apparently they were only in their 2nd day of shooting. My call time was 10am on Tuesday in Hawthorne, which is only about 20 minutes from me. I was actually booked as a patient and was told to bring pajamas, a robe, and slippers. They handed me a hospital gown and as soon as I had changed into it, they changed me into a hospital worker/nurse because someone hadn't shown up. So they gave me lovely pink scrubs to change into. I quickly discovered that the film was a comedy when I worked in the first scene. Jeffrey Tambor was playing a doctor and the scene had him walking through doors in the ER while he was talking to someone (the lead of the film, I believe, a guy that looked 18-20 yo) and the door hits a nurse with a tray, the nurse and the tray go flying, and Jeffry Tambor keeps walking and talking oblivious while we all scramble to see if the nurse was ok. It was a fun scene to be a part of. The nurse was a stunt woman and there was a stunt coordinator as well. Even though it's not that dangerous of a "stunt", films always take this kinda of stuff seriously and there was a large cushioned mat for her to fall onto.
The next scene we filmed, the doctor (Jeffrey Tambor) brought the guy into a hospital room to see his uncle. The uncle turned out to be Leslie Neilsen. It was real cool to see him in person.
The whole crew seemed laid back and had a sense of humor. At some point, someone fell asleep in a chair ... I'm not exactly sure who, on set. So, for fun, everyone started to quietly leave the set. The guy woke up before we could pull it off, but it was pretty funny.
All in all, it was a long day (YAY for OT!) but lots of fun.

Audition - Embarq

For whatever reason, I haven't heard from my commercial agent in a year. So I was surprised and happy when they called on Friday to let me know I had an audition on Monday. I was required to bring a winter coat, scarf and hat, and judging by the email I received, it was for some wireless service. My audition time was at 1:50 PM, but thought that since there was a slight possibility that I may have written it down wrong and my audition time may have been 1:15 PM, I planned to get there at 1. I arrived around 10 after 1, and I was the first person there. The casting agency (Danielle Eskinazi Casting) was at lunch until 1:30 so I found the sign in sheet and the info and made myself comfortable. The biggest part about getting nervous for auditions for me is mostly finding where I have to go and getting there on time. A man arrived and signed in and I signed in after him. I hate being first. =P
More and more people starting showing up in their winter attire and someone finally came out and started collecting our headshots and taking photos of us. The audition was a christmas carol like jingle for Embarq, a wireless carrier that I've never heard of. They were auditioning us 8 at a time and we all had to sing. They picked 1 town crier, 1 character, and the rest of us just sang the initial chorus: call, call, call, call, unlimited calls.
We rehearsed to the jingle music a bunch of times and then were called into the audition room. They placed us all together like carolers, with the town crier in the middle and the character with 2 lines behind him and the rest of us grouped around him. We rehearsed twice and then did it for the camera twice and that was it. Oh ... and of course I was "good" and left my cell phones in the car, and once we were in the audition room they asked us if we had our cell phones. They gave me and a few others highlighters to hold up as our cell phones. All in all, it was a fun audition.

My Name is Earl - Reporter

My call time was at 3pm yesterday somewhere in the middle of the valley. I've heard good things about working on this show and was looking forward to checking it out. I like the show, but hadn't really kept up with it last season and had hear that Earl was now in jail and figured the reporter scene had something to do with that. I arrived just before they broke for lunch, and even though they invited us to eat lunch, I wasn't hungry because we were told to come "having had" which means you're supposed to eat before you come and I was full. I was a little disappointed because the food looked better than normal catering, but I did have some fruit.
After lunch we waited while they finished up shooting some prison scenes. They also spread out "My Name is Earl" posters on the tables next to us that had some autographs on them. When the prison scenes were done, Jason Lee came by to add his signature to them. He seemed like a pretty cool laid back guy. That was pretty much the only time I saw him. We (the reporters) were finally told what our scene was about. It was part of a group of small scenes having to do with the governor. The scene was the governor's wife giving us a tour of the governor's mansion and all of us walking in to find the governor (Craig T Nelson of Coach and Poltergeist) standing in his underwear playing around with some kind of guitar. We had to react to him and that was the scene. Very short and sweet. It was fun and we probably did it about 4-5 times and then we were done.

Boston Legal - Juror - 2 Days

Back to Boston Legal. I was scheduled for a 2 day call on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was obviously a court room scene and I was one of the Jurors. I sat in the front row next to the floor person. I was hoping that I'd get to see James Spader do one of his awesome closing argument monologues, but he wasn't one of the lawyers.
They did scenes with each lawyer questioning the "witnesses"and it was interesting. They did the scene of the reading of the verdict before a lot of the other scenes, so we (the jury members) were trying to figure out why we would have voted that way before we had the whole picture of the trial.
At the end of the 2nd day, all the actors were wrapped and they kept the jury to do coverage. All the cameras were pointed at us and they let the standins do the scenes for our sight lines and our reactions. It was a little intense to see that many cameras staring at you when the bulk of your "reaction" is just listening to testimony ... but it was fun.
I was told the episode airs on November 6 @ 10:00. =)

Tonight He Comes - Hospital Worker - Day 2

I had the same call time of 6:00 PM and since it was friday, made sure to leave early enough to battle rush hour traffic. After getting there, went through wardrobe and was taken to set. They were going to do another jumping stunt with the cranes and something with a bus. But first they did a helicopter shot of the building ... Mercer General (the building that Will Smith's character jumps out of). They had all the background set in the plaza just before the entrance of the building and when the called "action", the helicopter showed up. We walked around the plaza for around 15 minutes while the helicopter hovered from different angles. It was a cool shot to be a part of and pretty cool because you didn't have to worry about where the camera was or staying quiet. We just walked and talked for 15 minutes. They also had a camera on the roof and the next shot was shooting straight down at the plaza while we "evacuated" the building. Most of the scenes that were done these 2 nights, I was in the deep background, but it was really cool to be a part of and to see everything that went into shots like these. Except for the lack of sleep, I'm glad I was a part of it all.
Here are some pictures I took from the second night. My camera is not that great in the dark and the batteries were low, so I apologize for the quality.

This was the building they used as "Mercer General". I think it's actually the CalTrans building in down town LA. It has some really cool and strange architecture.

Same building with the sign they made out front. It looked like it was made of cement blocks and was a permanent fixture, but that's the magic of film. Just about everyone went up to it to feel it and knock on it. I think it was simply made of wood with some textured paint to look like cement.

This is part of the set. Those giant lights are what they use to turn night into day. They are actually big balloons hanging from cranes. In another shot they had them lower and kept them floating by tethering them to the ground.

I find that when I work on location, I usually see something that I normally wouldn't see just driving around. This is a sign that was near to the set that shows all the sister cities of Los Angeles. I thought it was pretty cool.

Tonight He Comes - Hospital Worker

Well ... that may not be the final title, but I was booked under that title. If you look it up on IMDB it takes you to a page for the film Hancock, but when I arrived on set all the movie paraphernalia had John Hancock on it. *shrug*
Anyway, it's starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman. I was prefit last week as a hospital worker and told I would be working on Thursday, Sept 6. On Sunday, I received a call saying that it was now a night shoot with a possible recall for Friday.
So last night I left at 4PM in order to be at the location down town by my call time of 6PM. I got there around 5 so that wasn't too bad. I checked in, went through wardrobe, and was taken to the set. I think there were close to 75 or 100 extras broken up into categories (10 hospital workers, police, swat, reporters, etc). They had a whole intersection blocked off with 3 cranes and rigging set up and a building set up to be "Mercer General". My scrubs say "Mercer General" and so does my id badge. Will Smith plays a super hero and apparently in the scene, he jumps out a hospital window into the street below into oncoming traffic. One of the scenes they did last night was his landing in the street in the middle of cars and flying and landing again. It was really cool to watch. He and his stunt double did it many times.
The other scene, that we worked on while they were rehearsing the stunt, was a scene with Jason Bateman talking to reporters outside the hospital.
In all the scenes I worked on last night, I'm way in the background walking around, but it was really cool to see the way they worked on the stunt and all that went into it.
I got recalled for tonight ... call time 6 PM again. I only got 5 hours of sleep, since we didn't get wrapped until 5 AM last night, so I'm a bit out of it at this point.
I'm looking forward to seeing what scenes we'll be doing tonight. =)

Fiesta La Ballona

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!

Boston Legal - Waitress

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!

Life - Jogger

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.

Brothers & Sisters - Worker

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!