GIRL MEETS WORLD

Girl Meets World is the spin-off of Boy Meets World.  I never watched the show because I was too old, but it was about a boy who learned about the world.  This show is about his daughter.

I was late but thankfully the wardrobe line was still long and I was at the back of it.  We were shooting the pilot and it was in a subway so there were a lot of people.  All kinds of people since it was supposed to be New York.  Our holding area was pretty large so it was nice and chill.

I didn't get used till late and I just pretty much did some crosses or stood around the subway stop listening to the director yell at the two kids.  I feel bad for them because the way they are worked would never be allowed with adults.  I don't know if the directors feel like this is the only way to work with kids or if it's a little abusive, but what am I supposed to do?  I feel like those kids in the commercials about bullies where they just sit there and watch the bully bully.  You feel helpless.  Someone should make a funny skit about this.

So we got into a little overtime which was nice.  I also met an Asian chick who said I was her best friend since I had an iPhone 5 charger.  Funny how some people are so wrapped up with their phones and being connected.  I don't get it.

(written 4/17/13)

UNTITLED FRESCO HAYES PROJECT

I love pilots because I know from working on the LOLA pilot that there's a chance you can become a regular.  I was cast as an office worker in some kind of Internet retail website.  One of the leads played the nice guy who worked in the office while the other guy was kind of a Nazi who purchased the company.

When I was set by Simon, an older British chap, inside one of the offices, I felt like I was back in the advertising world.  The funny thing is that I'd much rather be in this fake setting than the real setting with all its corporate crap.  I can't pinpoint why I dislike it so much but maybe it's simply that I don't like the thought of doing work that I don't feel is really worthwhile.  At least with entertainment, I feel like I'm doing something that entertains people and allows them to relax and find joy in that.

I met Sphynx whose real name I can't recall.  She does background but she's really an artist.  I spoke to her about marketing and advertising since she didn't really have any ideas about how to do that.  I always forget how little people know about actually doing that and that there must be some kind of market to help people like her with her challenges.  The question is always, how much are they willing to pay and will they get a return on their investment?

The show is a usual audience kind of deal and they even had a fake audience during this test performance.  The PA told us to contact Central to make sure we know what time to come back next week.  I'm kind of excited because I hope it will lead to being a regular on the show.

(written 4/15/13)

MENTALIST #7

I feel like I've worked this show a lot, but not enough to make me real loyal.  It happens to be one of Zita's favorites.  I always wish I could show her the scene I worked, but I never get around to it.

We were sent on location in downtown LA, basically on the same street I worked when we shot The Unit.  I met a kind of annoying lady from the Caribbean who turned out to be pretty nice.  But not enough to make me want to be friends with her.

Anyway, the scene just had me and my car.  It was parked on the street while I walked up and down the street.  Everyone was saying how unorganized it seemed but I don't know, I feel like maybe the PA was just lazy and didn't really feel like working too much.  Or he felt like we should know what we're doing.

The thing I was reminded of was an old lady who didn't really know how to use her phone or her tablet efficiently.  It just made me realize that a lot of the elderly might not make best use of technology.  Would they want to learn?  What's the best way?  Does a class make sense?

(written 4/9/13)

KICKIN' IT

I'd tried to remember if I'd ever been booked on this show, but looking back, I realized I hadn't.  It's another one of those shows produced by It's a Laugh who make pretty much every single show on Disney and Disney XD.

I parked on Cherokee and found a spot pretty close to the studio.  I had time to chill and then walked over to the studio very carefully since I was pretty damn sore from the marathon yesterday.  I even brought a cane to walk around with, but I discovered I didn't really need it after my legs were warmed up.

There are always kids on these shows but as adults, we were seated to pretend to watch a talent show.  What we didn't know was that fake snot (which was really vanilla tapioca) was to be shot out of a canon at us.  The gag was that the sensei of the show sneezed and snot was blasted onto the judges and audience members.  I had a bad feeling that we weren't going to get paid extra for this and I was pretty much right.

At the end of the shoot, they just gave us an extra wardrobe or meal penalty, I can't remember.  It was just an extra $10.  I guess that's fair since dry cleaning wouldn't cost that much but I just didn't like the fact that we weren't given any notice before the shoot that we were going to get blasted.

I walked some girls home that were long time veterans.  One black chick didn't ever want to be booked there again since parking was off site and she didn't like the idea of walking alone at night.  The other chick, an Asian, seemed to be kind of ditzy and couldn't remember where she parked.

What really sucked about the night was that I ended up getting a parking ticket for not paying attention to the sign where I parked.  I just assumed that the sign was the same as what was on the opposite side of the street, but it wasn't.  So the lesson is that you should never assume when it comes to parking.

(written 4/8/13)

LA MARATHON

These are the times I recorded on my watch. Not sure how accurate these were because sometimes I thought I had pressed the lap button but then realized I hadn't.

I wish my times were listed somewhere by mile, but I can't seem to find it.  Instead, the marathon site just lists 10k, 20k, 30k and 40k split times and average per mile.  Mine was listed at an average of 14:11 per mile and a total of 6:12:01.

01  11:28
02  10:10
03  10:54
04  14:33
05  06:52
06  14:26
07  10:04
08  07:52
09  10:55
10  10:41
11  16:40
12  11:09
13  11:28
14  15:52
15  11:46
16  17:18
17  20:42
18  11:32
19  21:02
20  19:51
21  21:41
22  15:24
23  14:41
24  15:52
25  14:54
26  15:44

GO ON #2

Last night, Brandy called to ask if I could hit balls if I were in a batting cage.  I told her I could.  I was in Walmart at the time shopping for a seat pillow for moms since she had a tailbone issue.  Brandy also asked if my car was really old.  Of course, my replies were all meant to comfort her since casting directors always worry that you can't do something.  I told her I could make contact and that I hadn't played for over eight years but that I had good form.  She seemed hesitant, but essentially, when you have someone on the line, they pretty much want to use you and you have to really screw up for them to call someone else instead.

So I ended up getting booked for this gig all the way out in Santa Clarita.  I swear, it seems like we are always on location with this show even though it's only the second time I've worked on it.  We started at a Shell station where we kind of just parked our car and waited and waited until they shot the scene.

Then we were moved to a kind of arcade that has the usual batting cages and things like that in it.  I guess every neighborhood has one of these.  Anyway, it started raining and the nice thing about the batting cage I was placed in was that it had a cover.  That was good for me since I didn't get any rain on me while we shot.

What sucked is that I never ended up hitting any balls.  I just had to pretend I was swinging at them.  Lame if you ask me.  The funny thing is that the other two guys who were placed (we were all considered experts), weren't any better than me.  One guy had good form and couldn't hit any of the balls and the other guy had bad form but was making good contact.  I actually got sore because the DP kept telling me to swing harder and man, I was swinging as hard as I could and he wanted even more speed.  I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong because it felt like I was really swinging hard and fast.  But when you have pretty good form, it looks pretty deceptive, just like in golf.

Most of us were wrapped pretty late into the night but they did keep some of the non-union folks to keep shooting.  It's interesting how much the production staff try to keep the costs down even though they order all kinds of food for us to eat.  I guess that's one of the most important things with any production. You gotta make sure everyone is fed until they can't eat anymore.  I ended up eating a pastrami sandwich and brought the other meatball half home since I was so full.

(written 4/7/13)

HAPPY ENDINGS #3

I was surprised to get booked on this show again considering I had already worked on it a few weeks earlier.

This time I was set as a street walker and just walked up and down the street outside their local bar.  It was as simple as that.  Everyone that was set with me had the non-union spirit.  Funny how being in something for a long time can make you lose your appreciation for it.

(written 3/28/13)

CRASH AND BERNSTEIN

I'm not sure who is Crash or Bernstein, but one is a puppet and one is a chubby kid.  I was booked as a parent and paired with a Hispanic kid.  All we did was chill in line at a teddy bear like factory.

The only thing I remember that was a little out of the ordinary was that I received conflicting directions from the PAs.  One told me to walk through the door at one point and another told me to do it at a different time. Whatever.  I need to learn to handle my reaction differently because I just told one PA that the other PA told me different directions.

(written 3/26/12)