Well I hope your week has gone better than mine. It's been an anguished filled disaster to say the least and I am just exhausted from it all but I do have a positive story to share that happened from the week before.
I was on set being silent in the background and given directions on where to go for a rather complicated scene that had lots of camera work and character interaction. I had to cross by two of the main actors and weave through a hand held cameraman and boom operator in a doorway. Sounded like nothing but it was cramped and I had to sort of dance around to avoid hitting the principle actors and crew.
The production assistants told me not to worry at all and just stand my ground. I did and wound up bumping into one of the stars of the show.
Show Star: Sorry.
Me: All good man, don't worry about it.
I gave him a wave and rounded the hall and realized I just spoke and it's in the scene and my end mark is right in front of the room where the director and producers are sitting. They're watching everything over monitors and listing diligently over headphones. Slight problem here, I'm not supposed to speak. Big no no.
So through the corner of my eye I see waving in the room and I don't want to turn and look in because I figure I'm going to get yelled at. I look anyway out of morbid curiosity and what do I see? The producers giving he the thumbs up.
The director yells cut. We all go back to our starting positions for another take. The Second Second Assistant Director (22AD that directs background actors) runs up to me, smiling.
Second Second: They love the interaction! Keep it but don't force it. If you guys bump into each other, just go with it.
And that was that. My "speaking part" won't make it in but hey, it was a nice positive endorsement. I spoke up and got a nod.
Sadly, I didn't work this week but found out I got approved for another 6 months of unemployment but not without my friends in the department of labor bungling everything imaginable. They miscalculated something and only wound up giving me a check for 65 bucks. A sum that would have prevented me from getting to work as I could not afford the train tickets to New York if I had multiple shooting days. Luckily, they are going to pay me the difference but no one can tell me when. In the meantime, I have sold my cellphone but thankfully I was granted an upgrade so I was able to get a cheaper new one and keep some of the money from the old one for basic needs. Crazy thing is, this new phone is 5 million times better than the old phone. While it would have been ideal to keep all of the money from the phone, I can't. My mobile is how casting agencies reach me which means this is how I get work. I don't have a land line based phone.
In the meantime, that stunt has made me even later with the rent, putting me in an even more precarious spot. Eventually I will get the money, this we know, but as of now it's of cold comfort. Again the theme of speaking up comes into play here. I had to wait hours being put on hold and told to fax things here and there. The eternal hold times happened multiple days in a row but I forced my way through the Department of Labor's red tape and set things right. They don't want you going to the office for this stuff, you have to call or so that's the word on the street. I really can't wait to get working and off this bureaucratic carousel of death. The Department of Labor is not intentionally trying to sabotage me but they just can't get out of their own way and people like me get stomped in the process.
So right now, I am a bit frazzled as once again everything is so near yet so far. I hate to use that cliché but that's the best way I can describe it and while it provides hope it also sucks. And so it goes.
Next....
The amazing shrinking electric bill
My take on the Tiger Woods drama
Does this blog embrace and promote misogyny and chauvinism?
I don't want to be "that guy"
