Look for me on "Life on Mars" this Thursday...

Since pursuing background work for television about 6 weeks ago, I have been fortunate to work on the following shows: Law and Order (the original), Law and Order Criminal Intent, Life on Mars, Gossip Girl, and a new pilot for USA - Royal Pains (coming out next year).

TV production involves long hours and as a non-union actor, the pay is decent but nothing glamorous. However it has been a great learning experience to spend so much time on different sets and familiarize myself with how shows are made. There is a whole world of terms I am learning and all different types of people that work on the production side of things. Its also been fun to meet other actors and many of them I see over and over again on the different sets. Of course, its also quite exciting to be up close and personal with some of tv’s hottest stars and to have the chance to be seen on these shows myself.

Since I am still non-union a lot of ‘featured background’ parts go to SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild) members, however I have been lucky enough to end up with prime camera placement a lot of the time. So far none of the tapings I have done have aired on television and as I find out each show and episodes air date I will post the details here. Law and Order doesn’t start up again on tv until January so that one, along with the pilot I did for Royal Pains, will have a longer wait. L+O Criminal Intent is suppose to be in late November since the episode I did is the season premiere. Gossip Girl (for which I filmed for three days of 12-14 hour days) should be sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But, the Life on Mars episode I did is this coming Thursday!

The scene I am in is at a 70’s club/bar that the main characters come to after work. They shot several scenes at the bar, all of which I lucked out to be in the proximity of the main characters. Of course, I have no idea which scenes will end up on the cutting room floor and/or which camera angles will be used. I will do my best to describe how to look for me and if you are watching the show from the west coast I should have a chance to see the show before you and send out an email as to whether or not I’m visible at any point.

I am wearing a short black leather skirt, black boots, and a deep purple see-through silk poncho over a black bra (no I did not pick this outfit out myself). My hair is down and parted in the center. My hair is quite long now so I had the perfect hippie hair without having to do anything to it! The scene is in a bar so its dark and they were using a smoke machine which may make it harder to make out actual faces.

1. The scene when Sam (main guy) enters the bar with Gene (Harvey Keitel’s character) they walk in and go to the bar where two of the other guys are already standing. I am right next to the bar facing the direction they come in from. Then Annie (blonde girl) comes into the scene and goes to the bar and I remain right next to the main characters doing my hippie dance. When Sam and Gene leave Annie standing at the bar by herself, I cross in front of her with another guy and act like I’m ordering a drink.

2. Later on, Sam comes back to the dance floor scene and Sam and Annie have a scene in the middle of the dance floor and dance together for a bit. I’m somewhere behind them and then later behind Sam from Annie’s point of view.

3. When Sam spots the guy wearing the Nirvana t-shirt I should be somewhere to the left of the screen dancing (depending on how wide of angle they end up using. Then when he spots a famous football player from the 70’s flanked by two models, I do a couple of crosses between the camera and the football guy.

These are just the specific scenes where I know I was near the camera’s view point, however there’s no way to know if I will actually be visible. Of course, they did various other shots and angles of which I may or may not appear as well. I should be able to send out an email by 9:30 PST on Thursday after I’ve gotten home from rehearsal and had a chance to see it. Let me know if you have any questions, thanks for watching!

Adventures with Mom

My mom came to visit for two whole weeks! (Oct 1-15) The first week she was here her friend and fellow costume designer Erin came along as well. That first day they were here we got a bit of a late start since I had returned home at 5am that morning from filming a tv pilot called “Royal Pains” due to air on USA Network next year. But we still managed to have time to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and then headed into the city in hopes of landing some tickets to a Broadway show! Luck turned out to be on our side as both my mom and Erin’s names were drawn for the lottery tickets to “In the Heights!” It was my second time seeing it but I think I loved it even more this time, I highly recommend this show to everyone! The next two days my mom and Erin went to visit my aunt and uncle out in NJ. Saturday night Mike and I met them back in Times Square and went to see “Forbidden Broadway,” a spoof of current shows and stars that is closing soon after playing for 27 years! Sunday night was tickets to “Title of Show” a small show that started at the New York Fringe Festival four years ago and became a Broadway hit. Sadly, it closed the weekend after we were lucky enough to see it.

Monday was Erin and my mom’s day to live their fabric dreams as they ventured out to all the fabric shops they could find in the big city. They came home loaded with bags of fabrics and costumer’s treasures! Tuesday I had to get up early to attend ‘Fiddler on the Roof” auditions and my mom and Erin got a chance to rest after their day of shopping. Tuesday night was the eagerly awaited concert of “Celtic Thunder” at Radio City … my mom and Erin came back high on Irish music! Erin left Wednesday morning and my mom and I headed into the city to attempt tickets to a “Wicked” matinee performance assuming we’d have better odds with the lottery then. Unfortunately, “Wicked” lottery was the only one we’ve never been able to win but we went to the ticket booth and were able to get discounted tickets on the Orchestra level … Thanks Daniel for our early Christmas presents! I had seen the show when it toured in Seattle and had been dying for my mom to see it ever since, definitely another show I highly recommend!

Wednesday night and all day Thursday I had to babysit for a Yom Kippur event at the Marriot Hotel so my mom was able to rest up and take care of Zoka. (Mike left on Wednesday as well for his Trial Ad competition in Texas). Starting Friday we were back at our Broadway marathon. My mom won lottery tickets to “Avenue Q” (another show I have seen and wanted her to see as well) and then I took her to the After Party which is a late-night cabaret open mic that always has several Broadway stars performing. After failing to get Mama Mia or Billy Elliot tickets on Saturday afternoon we saw a crowd in the Shubert Alley and realized Clay Aiken was signing autographs after the matinee performance of “Spamalot.” Since neither of us had seen the show yet and my mom is a fan of Clay, we went to the ticket window and scored some discount tickets again. We also managed a quick visit with my cousins on the Upper West before going to the show that night.

The past few days I had been fighting a really bad sore throat which was starting to turn into what felt like a sinus infection. I didn’t want it to ruin the time with my Mom, but Sunday morning we started our day by going to the drop-in medical clinic. I was quickly diagnosed with a sinus infection and put on antibiotics. But, I wasn’t going to let that stop us from our last day to see a show … we had decided that “Mama Mia” was the last show we had to see before the end of the trip. I had surprisingly not seen the stage or movie version yet and my Mom had seen the movie three times already but not the stage production. Since the show is still a huge hit there are no options for discount tickets except ‘standing room.’ We had decided we wanted to see it bad enough that we would pay the $21.50 each for standing room instead of the $120 to sit in the far back balcony. Luckily for standing room tickets you get a railing to lean on and have a great view of the stage from the back of the orchestra level and my mom was able to find a chair to sit in for the second act. It was a long time to stand, but definitely worth it … I’m also excited because they are finally having auditions for this show in a few weeks!

My sinus infection was definitely putting a bit of hinder on our trip but we did still manage to get some birthday shopping in for me! For my birthday on Tuesday we spent a couple hours shopping and then my mom came with me to my voice lesson. That evening after Mike finished class we went to the Chocolate Room and ate some of Oprah’s famous favorite chocolate cake!!! Even feeling sick couldn’t put a damper on delicious chocolate!

My mom left Wednesday morning but happily will be back shortly in November to see my production of Joseph…Technicolor Dreamcoat. Wednesday evening Mike and I also headed to the airport to make our way down to Austin, Texas to have an early Thanksgiving with the Popes! That trip will be it’s own blog entry so stay tuned! Also coming this next week … details on how to see me (hopefully) in Thursday’s episode of Life on Mars!