(From May 12, 2008)
Last night I was on a Burger King Commercial directed by Spike Lee. Guess since Obama is running for president and Farrakhan is known as a racist meanie in the media, Spike Lee decided to have some white folk in his commercial to avoid his own labels of being a racist and a short director.
Actually I have to say that working on this commercial, surprisingly turned into a very entertaining experience in more ways than one. Also pending on the way you define "Entertaining".
en·ter·tain·ing–adjective
affording entertainment; amusing; diverting:
Or my favorite....Seeing someone who is a complete fool fall apart and lose out on a great opportunity because of his own blatant stupidity. Thus I shall explain further….
The location was to shoot this commercial was over at the Burger King located in Flushing Queens off of Northern Blvd. Our holding area was approximately 6 blocks towards Roosevelt Ave. Now everyone got the same message on Leah from Extra Mile’s wonderful information line where she basically told us “You have a computer, figure out how to get there yourself”! I agree with her in many ways, however there are some “wayward souls” /idiots that don’t know how to use the computer.
Now, let’s back up a little bit…I am not a computer genius either, though I do know how to send attachments and use Google maps or hopstop.com! My seventy-year old Mother knows how to use a computer or at least call up information to figure how to get to a location. Well apparently everyone in the entire universe is able to find information and get to a call time, save for Gene Roberts and Crazy Al.
Now for those of you who don’t know Crazy Al, he is the Staten Island Patron Saint of “exacting” Menace and disturbance! I will never forget when I first saw Crazy all on the set of “Enchanted” where he acted like a “quality control” supervisor and tested all the bowls of chips and nuts on the buffet table and selectively putting it back with his grimy sweaty palms if it did not satisfy the growling beast’s palette.
After the beast finally satiates his huge appetite and calms the growls of his stomach, he then begins to regale to anyone in fear who will listen to his rants about the 911 conspiracy and how Senator Obama is on it. Some of his rants are outward nonsense, though it is again rather entertaining to listen to the verbiage of such a vile beast.
Now this beast snorted his way to set an hour after the production assistants announced that they were overbooked. To my amazement, the beast knew he did wrong, and the beast nonchalantly whimpered and walked out of the steel iron gates where the rest of us were being held captive for the night, and off he went without a sound.
The beast had now a new place in my heart. No more disdain for this foul creature from the “Island of Staten”. He is now in my good books. He has redeemed himself and his grimy palms from this fate. He was set free and now the beast is beautiful to me. Ok let’s not push it!
Let’s move over as now the fool, known as Gene Roberts, trollops in. Alas the fool who claims he was a big superstar in the 70’s and has a big record deal and will be releasing an album at best buy in the summer. Summer of what year, is still left to be determined.
So there he comes in after all of us already have received our vouchers, and hour late and prancing into the holding area as if he were a “Primed Prince” and he had the royal access to get there whatever time he wanted. Well surprise! Surprise! Oh Prince of Putrid Poo!... and absolute retarded directions probably given to you by your wife/manager known as the venemous VaL, no doubt!
I am really sorry that your horse and carriage arrived at the holding destination an hour late and you were sent home! Not! You deserve it. For the Universe pays attention to those who pay attention and can find their way without too much guidance from the planet Mars!
The universe does not take kind to Pathetic losers, who were born and raised in New York, and STILL can’t find their way to Flushing Queens! Amazing! Leave it to the foreigners, the detectives, and land surveyors to find this new land called Flushing Queens! Again, Amazing. Again, Entertaining to see this all unfold in front of me. What did he think his “UNI-tooth” would get him out of this mess. I think not! Again, entertaining and soothing in knowing the Universe does take care of things and fools.
Enough of that, the rest of the night turned out to be decent. When we arrived we were offered wraps in boxes of our choice which included Turkey, Tuna or surprise. The surprise was three day old macaroni or chick pea salad with a rock hard brownie wrapped in used saran wrap. We all thought that was going to be the meal for the night and that Spike was hoarding all the Whoppers!
Crazy Al and idiot Gene Roberts were gone by the time the darkness of the night set in. Soon there were several nine-passenger vans taking us to set in the groups that were assigned to us.
When we got to set, there were over 200 of us standing around in the parking lot of the Burger King, waiting for some action to happen. Sure enough this was just a “test run” and nothing significant happened, until later.
Basically we stood around for about an hour or so hanging out in the parking it where we felt like “teenage kids” when we hung out in Burger joints as we were too young to drink. It turned out to be a nostalgic kind of actually fun as my good friend Linda had her IPOD on her and we shared the earphones listening to “You shook me ALL night Long” by AC/DC! So there we were belting out the song as there everyone was n their group with the “Slickster” the “talkers” The guys with great cars that always showed off and got the hottest chicks.
Of course there were the lovers. In our group Shari and Mike Bell represented the fresh new lovers. They represented the days of innocence with their unconditional attachment to each other.
They were like “Siamese twins” who are con-joined by the hip. They represented something special and very deep. They told us all a story of something familiar to each and every one of us observing. Even though it was getting a little too wholesome and loving for anyone, we all feigned a tidbit of jealously while reminiscing perhaps of a place that we could re-capture a time, a place that brought us comfort and love at one time.
This was the type of reverie that really made this set stand out from most in terms of acceptance and memories and took us back to that place and time that made us feel real. Myself I was lost in the senses while listening to Linda’s’ IPod and listening to the songs, brought me to that place in time where I once felt alive, and it felt great!
After bringing all of us on the set, just to measure space, they cut for lunch at 9pm and a plethora of people braving the huge trek back to holding, marched back where a decent buffet style meal of pasta, salads and select meat was waiting for us.
The rest of the night was just as fun with the scene we had to do. The PA’s had us positioned on the side, some of us on the other side of the parking lot. Others were on the other side of the BK store in the cars were positioned awkwardly to represent a car jam.
On the mark get set go!!! Zoom!!!! Everyone dashed, sprinted, pushed shoved and screamed to get into the BK store. The acting was really good on this part, mainly because it was chilly outside and people were dashing to catch a glimpse of heat inside the store for some relief. It was pretty funny and wild.
The night didn’t turn out to be that long and considering we were all revved up every time we went “back to 1” , to charge into the store, it turned out to be a decent shoot.
The best part was when they finally called “check the gate” and we wrapped! People stormed back running to holding which was over 6 blocks away.
Linda and I dashed into one of the first vans and like the “A-Team” the van ripped and roared out of the parking lot running over anything in its path. Hey a couple of non-union extras are a dime a dozen.
The best part was actually seeing the idiot Gene Roberts leave! Hehehehe…
Ah…Karma..Thanks again. Also thanks to the Universe as it promises to do the handy work and “FIX” problems for me without me ever having to lift a finger!
A .
Monday, May 26, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
On the set of "Hancock"
(filmed on May 10, 2008)
Last night I was on another Will Smith movie titled "Hancock". This movies trailer is apparently out already and will be released in July, 08. So last night’s movie was basically a re-shoot for the very last scene of the movie.
What a HUGE production it turned out to be!!! Our Holding area was at this highschool over on 46th street btw 6th and 7th which is around the corner of Times Square!
When I got to the decent call time of 6:30 pm, already over 200 people were situated in the auditorium of the building. I went and checked in. I got to the check in line at a quarter to 7pm and there was still a huge line of non-union people checking in.
In knowing how these lines work and that people would still be in the line-up, I took my time getting there. I must make a note that this production was great to work on, though this was the absolute record slow check in and out line of all time!!!!
I may as well have shown up at 8pm, b/c they were still checking people in at that time. I at least got there in time enough for the food, which was good. They had a "Crew only" truck where they were serving hamburger and hot-dogs on an outside BBQ grill fresh!
So you know how Nazi they can be and are very territorial about their meat. I just walked by and headed to the "background only" tent where I expected to get rice and beans or the usual delicacy of skittles!
To my surprise, these Mexican caterers were grilling away burgers, sweating and flipping away burgers to your liking. A good portion of processed flesh on a fresh bun with a wide array of fresh condiments to choose from! The tomatoes were fresh as were the onions and I think the Pickles must have been kosher because the local Rabbi stopped by to bless them just to make them extra special!
Inside the holding area was way too warm to hang out, so I stayed outside by the catering by the stoops, sat down with My Polish friend Basha until we were called to go on set.
The set was right in the heart of Times Square on a Saturday night, so you can imagine what a nightmare it was just to get to the "island" in the middle by the ABC building. What even made it more challenging were the throngs of people lined up over 10 deep on both sides waiting for Will Smith to arrive.
There were so many people that you thought you were at a major event like the Macy's Day parade or at the countdown for a New Years bash. There were So many cops on set to try and keep the people back.
Still that didn't control the overly ambitious fans from sneaking behind the barricades to snap a picture of Will or to get his autograph. As soon as Will Smith's car pulled on the side by the island, he got out and these people went absolutely nuts!
One overly eager group of tourists from Arkansas actually had the nerve to pull up to the side off the island, park their car, get out and attempt to get Will Smiths autograph. These people almost made it up to Will, though the security held them back in time.
I was at the best possible spot on the island and very close to Will Smith. I was on set with my friend Julia's' Mother and her 3 year old son. Julia came by with her Mother who was already booked on this to try and get her son on it. Julia tried to get on it as well, though according to the law, if a child is booked they need someone "off" set to be able to take the child home after the time allotted for a child to work in NY state.
So I basically became "Surrogate Mom" and had to hold her Son up for every scene. Now he is a big kid (45lbs) and it got very tiring and exhausting having to lift up the kid every time they called "background action".
The bonus of having a child with me was that I got right up close in the scene with Will Smith. Since the scene called for other kids running up to him and forming a circle to get his autograph as he is depicted as a superhero in this film where he was wearing this rubber "Michael Jackson" skin tight outfit.
So I ran up to the circle while holding Julia's son and shoved my way through so the kid could "high-five" and make contact with Will Smith. I didn't have to do that much as the kid was aggressively pushing his way in the crowd to get to Will. It worked though because the kid got on camera, which means so did I!
I have to admit it was a really cool feeling being on that island with Will Smith while all these spectators were watching and wishing they could be in our spot! It was a crazy night, though well worth it and for once a good experience on a Will Smith movie, unlike "Legend" where we froze our asses off last year!
Last night I was on another Will Smith movie titled "Hancock". This movies trailer is apparently out already and will be released in July, 08. So last night’s movie was basically a re-shoot for the very last scene of the movie.
What a HUGE production it turned out to be!!! Our Holding area was at this highschool over on 46th street btw 6th and 7th which is around the corner of Times Square!
When I got to the decent call time of 6:30 pm, already over 200 people were situated in the auditorium of the building. I went and checked in. I got to the check in line at a quarter to 7pm and there was still a huge line of non-union people checking in.
In knowing how these lines work and that people would still be in the line-up, I took my time getting there. I must make a note that this production was great to work on, though this was the absolute record slow check in and out line of all time!!!!
I may as well have shown up at 8pm, b/c they were still checking people in at that time. I at least got there in time enough for the food, which was good. They had a "Crew only" truck where they were serving hamburger and hot-dogs on an outside BBQ grill fresh!
So you know how Nazi they can be and are very territorial about their meat. I just walked by and headed to the "background only" tent where I expected to get rice and beans or the usual delicacy of skittles!
To my surprise, these Mexican caterers were grilling away burgers, sweating and flipping away burgers to your liking. A good portion of processed flesh on a fresh bun with a wide array of fresh condiments to choose from! The tomatoes were fresh as were the onions and I think the Pickles must have been kosher because the local Rabbi stopped by to bless them just to make them extra special!
Inside the holding area was way too warm to hang out, so I stayed outside by the catering by the stoops, sat down with My Polish friend Basha until we were called to go on set.
The set was right in the heart of Times Square on a Saturday night, so you can imagine what a nightmare it was just to get to the "island" in the middle by the ABC building. What even made it more challenging were the throngs of people lined up over 10 deep on both sides waiting for Will Smith to arrive.
There were so many people that you thought you were at a major event like the Macy's Day parade or at the countdown for a New Years bash. There were So many cops on set to try and keep the people back.
Still that didn't control the overly ambitious fans from sneaking behind the barricades to snap a picture of Will or to get his autograph. As soon as Will Smith's car pulled on the side by the island, he got out and these people went absolutely nuts!
One overly eager group of tourists from Arkansas actually had the nerve to pull up to the side off the island, park their car, get out and attempt to get Will Smiths autograph. These people almost made it up to Will, though the security held them back in time.
I was at the best possible spot on the island and very close to Will Smith. I was on set with my friend Julia's' Mother and her 3 year old son. Julia came by with her Mother who was already booked on this to try and get her son on it. Julia tried to get on it as well, though according to the law, if a child is booked they need someone "off" set to be able to take the child home after the time allotted for a child to work in NY state.
So I basically became "Surrogate Mom" and had to hold her Son up for every scene. Now he is a big kid (45lbs) and it got very tiring and exhausting having to lift up the kid every time they called "background action".
The bonus of having a child with me was that I got right up close in the scene with Will Smith. Since the scene called for other kids running up to him and forming a circle to get his autograph as he is depicted as a superhero in this film where he was wearing this rubber "Michael Jackson" skin tight outfit.
So I ran up to the circle while holding Julia's son and shoved my way through so the kid could "high-five" and make contact with Will Smith. I didn't have to do that much as the kid was aggressively pushing his way in the crowd to get to Will. It worked though because the kid got on camera, which means so did I!
I have to admit it was a really cool feeling being on that island with Will Smith while all these spectators were watching and wishing they could be in our spot! It was a crazy night, though well worth it and for once a good experience on a Will Smith movie, unlike "Legend" where we froze our asses off last year!
Friday, May 9, 2008
My First SAG Waiver!!!!!
(originally from April 30th, 2008)
Well it FINAllY happened for me, I got my first waiver yesterday on a film shoot out in New Haven, Connecticut!!!!
It's true when they say "life is what happens when you are making plans" because I was on the set of Pelham 123 expecting to have a hellish night being trapped in Grand Central terminal all night long for the HIJack scene they were getting ready to shoot.
Then praise St. Agnes, the church where holding was, because my prayers were answered. All of a sudden, a girlfriend of mine gave me a call while I was in holding and asked "What are you doing tomorrow?" I replied, I am going to be held hostage at 
Grand Central station!" and you???
She then told me about this opportunity and I was not going to let this go. She submitted my name to Grant Wilfley Casting. Seconds later I got a call from them and was booked on this movie “Everybody's fine” starring Robert Deniro. Without knowing how I was going to work out the logistics of getting there, I told her "YES, I'll do it!"
I ditched the Pelham set. Got on the train where they were shooting the scene and kept going back to Queens to get my clothes for the next day. It turned out that the call time was at the sharp early call time of 6am. This meant that I had to be on the move and get to Newark NJ Penn station where my Friend was going to pick me up to drive to Connecticut.
I left Queens at 1am, thinking that would be enough time to get to Newark...I was highly mistaken. When I got to the Path train stop, a train was there about to pull out and I raced to get on it. Unfortunately I have never used the Path train before and didn’t realize that the machine doesn’t take an unlimited metro card.
So I had to go to the Metro card kiosk and buy a $10 dollar card. By the time I did that, the train pulled out. My mouth dropped knowing that now there was NO way I would make it to Newark Penn station by 3am.
I called up my friend who was to pick me up, and she said she couldn’t wait because she had two other people to pick up. My heart was racing, my palms were sweaty and I was panicking at this point. I thought my trip was going to end right there. Then I was thinking to myself, “I already sacrificed a paying gig for this and in NO WAY am I going to lose this opportunity!!” I am on a SAG WAIVER MISSION FROM GOD!!!!!
I went to the nearest ATM machine, and withdrew some money. Thankfully I just got my t
ax return refund in my checking. I went back out to 34th St, and hailed a cab to Connecticut!!!
Then praise St. Agnes, the church where holding was, because my prayers were answered. All of a sudden, a girlfriend of mine gave me a call while I was in holding and asked "What are you doing tomorrow?" I replied, I am going to be held hostage at 
Grand Central station!" and you???She then told me about this opportunity and I was not going to let this go. She submitted my name to Grant Wilfley Casting. Seconds later I got a call from them and was booked on this movie “Everybody's fine” starring Robert Deniro. Without knowing how I was going to work out the logistics of getting there, I told her "YES, I'll do it!"
I ditched the Pelham set. Got on the train where they were shooting the scene and kept going back to Queens to get my clothes for the next day. It turned out that the call time was at the sharp early call time of 6am. This meant that I had to be on the move and get to Newark NJ Penn station where my Friend was going to pick me up to drive to Connecticut.
I left Queens at 1am, thinking that would be enough time to get to Newark...I was highly mistaken. When I got to the Path train stop, a train was there about to pull out and I raced to get on it. Unfortunately I have never used the Path train before and didn’t realize that the machine doesn’t take an unlimited metro card.
So I had to go to the Metro card kiosk and buy a $10 dollar card. By the time I did that, the train pulled out. My mouth dropped knowing that now there was NO way I would make it to Newark Penn station by 3am.
I called up my friend who was to pick me up, and she said she couldn’t wait because she had two other people to pick up. My heart was racing, my palms were sweaty and I was panicking at this point. I thought my trip was going to end right there. Then I was thinking to myself, “I already sacrificed a paying gig for this and in NO WAY am I going to lose this opportunity!!” I am on a SAG WAIVER MISSION FROM GOD!!!!!
I went to the nearest ATM machine, and withdrew some money. Thankfully I just got my t
ax return refund in my checking. I went back out to 34th St, and hailed a cab to Connecticut!!! Yes this was a costly venture, though WELL worth it!!
Since it was really early in the morning, the commute turned out not to be that bad. It was a little scary though on the I95 Interstate with all the trucks racing really fast past you and shaking the car up a bit.
I got there at the ripe early morning time of 4:30 am. When I got there nobody was there, save for the catering truck that just pulled in the driveway to set up his station.
Eventually a guy came to open up the door where the holding area was. I grabbed myself a set inside and waited for the day to begin.
Hours later, people started coming in. We were checked in the wardrobe line and shortly after went to set.
The scene was held at the Union Station around the corner and we were cast to be commuters going to Chicago via Amtrak.
In the scene Robert Deniro is talking to his Daughter as she is 10 years old. We had to walk past them over and over and over again. Once they “Checked the Gate” on that, we thought we were finished though, we had to do the entire same scene over and over again with his Daughter now in her present age as a grown-up adult, played by Kate Beckinsale.
It was an extremely long and tiresome day, though knowing that we were getting SAG wages for this made a huge world of difference. It was nice to know that we were getting paid for lunch penalties, wardrobe, overtime, etc. Put it to you this way, it would take 3 days on a Non-union set to make what I did on that one day.
It was such an incredible feeling that I finally got the one waiver that puts me on that map. I waited SO long for this and I am SO happy that all my hard work has finally paid off. Even though I still need 2 more waivers, I have one now as opposed to having zero.
Just when I was really going to “pack it on” and give this all up, I get blessed with this opportunity.
Now I am hungry more then ever before to pursue this path. Just when I thought this dream was dead, it has revived. My SAG WAIVER MISSSION from God is here. Two MORE to go!!!!!
Since it was really early in the morning, the commute turned out not to be that bad. It was a little scary though on the I95 Interstate with all the trucks racing really fast past you and shaking the car up a bit.
I got there at the ripe early morning time of 4:30 am. When I got there nobody was there, save for the catering truck that just pulled in the driveway to set up his station.
Eventually a guy came to open up the door where the holding area was. I grabbed myself a set inside and waited for the day to begin.
Hours later, people started coming in. We were checked in the wardrobe line and shortly after went to set.
The scene was held at the Union Station around the corner and we were cast to be commuters going to Chicago via Amtrak.
In the scene Robert Deniro is talking to his Daughter as she is 10 years old. We had to walk past them over and over and over again. Once they “Checked the Gate” on that, we thought we were finished though, we had to do the entire same scene over and over again with his Daughter now in her present age as a grown-up adult, played by Kate Beckinsale.
It was an extremely long and tiresome day, though knowing that we were getting SAG wages for this made a huge world of difference. It was nice to know that we were getting paid for lunch penalties, wardrobe, overtime, etc. Put it to you this way, it would take 3 days on a Non-union set to make what I did on that one day.
It was such an incredible feeling that I finally got the one waiver that puts me on that map. I waited SO long for this and I am SO happy that all my hard work has finally paid off. Even though I still need 2 more waivers, I have one now as opposed to having zero.
Just when I was really going to “pack it on” and give this all up, I get blessed with this opportunity.
Now I am hungry more then ever before to pursue this path. Just when I thought this dream was dead, it has revived. My SAG WAIVER MISSSION from God is here. Two MORE to go!!!!!
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