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!
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