On the set of Dennis Leary's, Rescue Me

(originally from July 21, 2008)

I finally got booked by Barbara Mc Namara castings to work on the Dennis Leary show "Rescue Me" this past Monday. The last time this agency called me was for that shitty movie Duplicity starring the 20 million dollar a movie, Julia Roberts. She makes all this money yet she was too cheap to give us lunch.

As for Rescue me, it turned out to be a quick and painless set. First of all the call-time was for 8:30 am and it was over at Chambers St. in the Tribeca area, which takes only 20 minutes express train to get there from Astoria and transferring on the 2 train in Manhattan.

The holding/catering was over at this brand new Stuyvesant high school.

This was a top grade school with a ton of money that went into it. The type of kids that go there are from parents that make a 6 income figure for sure. This wasn't some run down school in Harlem with ghetto kids.

Plus since it was summer, there were not too many students around. As soon as I got there, I was happy with the location. What was even better was the food truck parked right outside. They had everything from bagel to lox platters, personalized omelet station, sausages, fresh fruits. The works!

I dove into the fresh lox which was garnished with onions, tomatoes and capers. It was great. Plus they had those gourmet coffee machines where you put one packet in at a time for a variety of different flavors. So decadent. I know you would appreciate it.

After the breakfast, we were all called inside to shoot. It must have been only a half an hour from the time I got there. This was the best part, the scene was indoors in the auditorium of this school and it was air-conditioned. There were only a handful of background extras, about 20.

I was cast as one of the faculty members to sit in this auditorium and watch this high school play about the civil war. The kids that were there were dressed in the civil war costumes. The thing is we never even got to see the play. We sat in the seats for about 15 minutes and then they moved on to the next scene.

So we sat outside in holding to wait for the next scene for the P.A. to bring us back in. To my advantage the P.A only selected a few people to go back in and I wasn't one of them. For once I felt good about being rejected!

The best part was that since we were in a high school, this meant that there must be a library. So me and a friend of mine asked the security guard where it was. He told us it was on the 6th floor. Yes, this was one big High school.

One of the other P.A.s was walking around and asked us to stay close to the area if we are needed. I was like "ya right", they won't use us for the rest of the day!" Still it was a risk to take off like that in terms of if you do get caught, they can rip up your voucher and you don't get paid.

So we were very cautious and waited for the P.A. to go around the corner than we quickly dashed into the elevator and went up to the 6th floor. We got there they did not have a library. What they had was called a media center! It was more like a museum hall how spiffy and brand new it looked. It was like a library only there were rows of computers for any ones use in the school. I though you needed a password, though all you had to do was click the Internet explorer icon and you were in!

We sat down at our computers and logged into our casting network accounts to start submitting for roles. Since I don't have an I-phone or e-mail on my phone, I still have to submit this way. We did all our submissions and than we had to sneak back downstairs. I'm sure we weren't suppose to even use those computers, though I guess we actually did look like we were part of the school being white and dressing like a librarian or Biology teacher.

Getting back to one was a little tricky as we had to get off the same elevator we got on and we had no idea where the P.A. would be. What we ended up doing was getting off the second floor, walking down the stairs and getting out the back door where we had to carefully look around the corner and pass the lockers to get back to holding area.

It kind of felt like the movie "Breakfast Club" at the part when they leave the library and wander the halls and carefully walk down the halls trying not to run into the dean. We made it back and it was a lot of fun. My friend said that I like taking risks. Maybe, for fun.

Shortly after we returned to holding, we were wrapped at 2pm and the P.A. said that we could also have the lunch if we wanted. We signed out and had the lunch. It was gourmet lunch with all these great salads, pasta and different types of meat and fish. It was SO good and since there were not too many people there, I took some food home and ate for 2 nights out of it.

Thank-you Dennis Leary and the caterers on "Rescue Me". If only every day on set could be like this. Unfortunately you only get these great sets rarely.

The next day was the total opposite. I was booked on this Serbian Independent movie which shot for 15 hours in Brooklyn. Not a fun day. Plus if I knew it was a “Serbian” movie, I would not have accepted it. More on that in the next blog.

A.

Verizon SeaCliff, L.I.

(originally from July 2nd, 2008)

I got home really late from the Verizon last night out in SeaCliff, Long Island. We didn't wrap until 8pm and by the time we got back in the city, it was already a quarter after nine. The day itself wasn't bad in terms of our holding area and set. Though it was the usual waiting around and NON-Sag treatment making you feel like you are in prison, especially with the box lunches.

I thought the box lunches on Sunday were atrocious, though yesterdays' box lunches (if you want to call that crap lunch) was the worst yet. At least the boxes on Sunday were emblazoned in designer "Gucci" boxes that some people saved to bring home to be used as book ends.

On Sunday's "box O' Lunch" we at least had the illusion that we were getting a "bistro beef" sandwich which included a gourmet cookie wrapped specially in plastic with a cute little bow to seal it.

Yesterday's lunch was a white box and was basically we felt like we were having a"Conway/Rikers Island prison lunch!

Put it to you this way, I really felt like putting on one of those orange jumpsuits that we wore on the SVU episode to really get the feel of being in a prison cell.

Here is a picture of Linda demonstrating the Quality of the non-SAG food:

To make matters worse, there was one huge table in the front with simple hand snacks like chips, crackers with hummus, and some cheese with veggies.



Would you believe that they had a "SAG Food Nazi" guy guarding that table all day long just so NO NO-SAG person would touch it. This guy called "Sag Food security guy" was simply hired to stand by this table and guard it with his life all day!
Not kidding. It's like I understand if you want to guard the buffet lunch line, though to guard chips. It was amazing.

Our deluxe "Rikers Island" box had your choice of "Terrible Turkey or Tuna" and they did have some "V" boxes for those VERY annoying Vegetarians! Actually Vegetarians are one thing, it's really the "VEEgans" who are the most pickiest eaters.



Some people just got completely delirious and in absolute shock when opening up the box to discover the contents inside. Some grew extra arms! In fact here is Sloan demonstrating this phenomenon!








I was fortunate enough to get the "T" for Turkey. It consisted of a whole wheat wrap, a smashed up piece of coffee cake hand wrapped in saran wrap, an apple with a expiry date and yes of course our treats were Halloween "cement" candies from ten years ago. Looks like some Verizon employees contributed their fingers for desert! "Can you eat me now!"
The set itself, when we finally got there after being in holding for 7 hours was actually nice. From where we were in holding at this Catholic church/elementary school.

We all had to get on to the buses for less than a ten minute drive down the street to this beautiful tree-lined suburban residential area.

It was indeed a very quaint, very green, picturesque town of Sea Cliff L.I.

Then we stood there in the Verizon formation for about 45 minutes and were done. Linda did her own version of the "V" formation.






The trees gave us welcome shade to keep us out of the hot sun.


Also the humidity was low, so it wasn't that bad. Instead of sweating immediately, the "beading" of sweat was gradual and started at our feet due to the fact we were all wearing those heavy black Verizon boots. By the time we really felt the summer heat, we were wrapped.

The line for people to get on the bus and stupid people were saving seats for their SAG friends which was absolutely absurd considering the bus was going to take us back down the hill and around the corner back to holding.

When we got back to holding the real mess with returning stuff came. They have this new system now where you have to "Surrender" your license or federal state issued I.D. to get a Verizon shirt from this huge rack from wardrobe.



The reason they are doing this now is b/c the morons on Sunday's shoot weren't organized and people probably took off with their shirts still on in the rains. Still "Can you steal it now"??


What would one possibly do with a Verizon shirt, other than wear it??
I'm sure people take the shirts and climb up telephone poles
or knock on people doors to impersonate a Verizon employee!


For the money we get now and with the cheap lunch, they may as well hire the squirrels and pay them nuts!


A ;)

To view all the picutres taken on that day click the following link:

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc165/Canada_Anne/Verizon_%20SeaCliff_Long_Island_%20June%202_2008/?albumview=slideshow&start=60

Verizon Under Construction

(Originally from June 29,2008)

I was booked on Verizon for Sunday. It has been a while since I have even been on a Verizon. The casting specifically asked for men to be completely clean shaven and NO earrings to be worn at all! This was great because those two factors automatically eliminated, the “UNI-Tooth” Rock Star wannabe/stuck in the 70’s hairdo, Gene Roberts. Gee what a shame!

Our holding area was outdoors by the science building on 26th and1st. The actual location for the shoot was at this construction site. After the rains, it was really muddy terrain. Everyone’s shoes were immersed in mud and one girl almost slipped down the slope/hill where we were to stand to be networkers.

Tension arose when the clouds were getting darker and the clap of Thunder was getting closer for the inevitable second blast of pouring rain. Amazingly enough we wrapped it up by the time the first droplet hit the ground. Then the real terror began....

The signing out process was perhaps the worst part of the day. Due to the rains, the sign out area became the lobby of this building. The maximum capacity was probably 50, not 200 people. The real chaos began when all these people were shoving to get signed out and THEN they announce that you have to give the shirts back to the truck before you sign out.

Luckily I beat the line and was out in seconds. Also luckily I got out of the line of fire where this fight between an extra and one of the P.A.s started heating up. What a mess.

Oh and did I mention that they had this industrial kitchen length grill outside with hamburgers, hotdogs, corn, and you name it grilling on a BBQ. The smells were amazing!

Something to look forward to..... Then Lunch came and the other P.A. was gracious enough to escort us behind this "green water fountain" !

The boxed lunches were secretly stashed behind some bushes in obscurity.

Yes that's right gourmet boxes for everyone! At least non-union. Meanwhile the Sag were already finishing up their BBQ spare Ribs and already using a toothpick to pick out the juicy meat stuck between their teeth.

Meanhwile us non-SAG had to deal with Our wonderful "Puke in a boX" which is demonstrated here:

It wasn’t a terrible time, being the fact that I had my friends to joke around with, though it is clear that the Verizon commercials budget are getting cheaper to serve us box lunches as opposed to gourmet buffet lines as they have in the past. Oh well.

Maybe we got spoiled in the past and now seeing that we get our lunch in a box, it’s not only demeaning though a reminder that you are non-union and are really nothing.


One day I will be in the union. I can’t wait to be in the union so I can complain and someone will actually listen!

A.
Sigh ;(

OREO commerical

(originally from June 16 & 18)


On Monday I was on an Oreo commercial. This was filmed over at Arthur Ashe stadium in Queens, where they have the US open. Serena and Venus Williams were there with two big shot foot ball players.

We were the spectators watching this competition with these athletes on this massive "double-stuffed" Oreo Cookie where they were sitting on bar stools made out of Oreo cookies and they sat down at this "Oreo table" in a arm-wrestling format.

On one side the sisters were ready with their cookies and the footballs stars on the other side of the table with their cookies.

They also had a referee!

As soon as the referee shot the gun to start, the sisters and the football starts begin "licking" the creme as fast as they can off the cookie! This was the premise. Yes a VERY ORAL premise for OREO!!!! We Love DOUBLE StuFFY!!!!!!

It was a very fun day and we got 2 days out of it.

Here is Jeff after making it to the top:


After being on that "ORAL" commercial, I am liking cookies so much more! Especially with whipped cream and milk! That was a great "licking" competition, though who won???? Does anyone? What a fun time it was. Truly.

Libido Linda of course had her own "Oral" fun as well:

To view More pics click the following link : http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc165/Canada_Anne/Oreo_Commercial_June_16_2008/?albumview=slideshow

Here is the link to the slideshow of the pics on day 2:

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc165/Canada_Anne/Oreo_Commercial_June_18_2008/?albumview=slideshow

There is "EXTRA" creamy filling and double stuffing in this batch of pics! My fave pic has got to be "Stuffy" the Oreo cookie guy!

Another great day to remember.

CA =)

Pelham 678

(originally from June 14, 2008)

Yes, I was on the set of Pelham 6-7-8- for the entire Saturday. We started at 3pm and didn't wrap until the dawn at 6am!! We started the day at the City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge station which was a sauna nightmare.

Just my luck as it was continuous thundering and heavy pouring monsoon like rains all night long. Of course I forgot my umbrella on the kitchen table! You would think that being underground would be great with the rains. The problem was getting from the holding area down to the subway entrance.

By the time we made it there, our feet were soaked from running in the streets that looked like lakes at this point and with the heavy rains plummeting down, there was no way to keep dry. Oh and the P.A. 's clever comment was of course,"Try to act dry!"

So they dragged a hundred of us to the BB station and had us sweltering on standby to be cued by the PA to walk by the scenes as a MTA passenger. Well big surprise that they called "cut" before they even got to any of us!

A bunch of us said "screw this" and went back to holding. One PA stops this Italian macho kind of guy and says "you can't leave!" The guy replied "Oh yeah", make me!" With him gesturing an intense rage of anger and his fist ready to clock the P.A. in the eye, the P.A. just shut up. Clearly they were not using us, so why make us suffer in the sweltering subway for no reason.

Finally they broke for lunch, if you want to call rain-drenched plates of food edible. The rains were non-stop all night long. Instead of using the church to bring in the food and set up tables, they had tents and outdoors food in buffet style lines set up.

The problem with that of course was that the rains and winds were SO strong and knocked down half the tents and there was NO light. So we had to scurry outside, and grab whatever food we though was decent. I ended up with Crab Legs, which sounds decent, though there was nothing to crack it open. What a nightmare. By the time we got back to our tables in holding, the P.A. roared out the next set of plans for the night. Things just got better at this point.

The P.A. announces that "The location has changed and now we are grouping people off into sections to 4 different subway platforms!" What this meant that they had to "distribute" 200 extras along the "Green line" for this big scene where the "hostage train" is to bypass each station. They used Grand Central, 33rd, Union Square and City hall.

My stop was 14th street Union square, which I though was great b/c it was the closest to get back to holding by train! So we wrapped at 6am. This was apparently the last day of Pelham. The P.A. Was SO happy that he had a champagne bottle, and popped the Cork and starting pouring a drink for him self and a couple people in the line.

We were also happy to get done. Though I must admit we did have fun!

A:)

Carlos Watson Project

(originally from June 12 and 13, 2008)

I went to the taping of the Carlos Watson Project over at the Chelsea studios. Now the first day it was a taping where I was invited b/c I attended and got paid to participate on a focus group. Little did I know at the time that the guy who interviewed us was Carlos Watson, the host of this talk show.

Carlos Watson was a correspondent for CNN for many years and now he is about to launch a new talk show. I went to the focus group where we were told to tell our opinions of certain topics such as Polygamy, Your tube violence, What Men think of Women etc.

The second day I was booked by Leah at Extra Mile to attend the taping and get paid for it this time, which was nice. Being entertained and paid is always a plus! The show was good, though I think this Carlos is like an "Male Oprah"! Not that there is anything wrong with that, though that is what many people felt as well.

This first picture is at the end

of taping on Day 2 with Carlos taking picutres:

Here I have a Spy cam shot of the "Staten Island Stud" sitting in the audience:

It was a good show, I hope it succeeds and the pilot gets picked up. I also hope I get more work like this!

A=)

Law and Order Criminal Intent

(originally from June 5, 2008)

Last Thursday evening, I was on the set of Law and Order Criminal Intent, taping in Portchester , NY (an hour or less depending on the traffic form the city). We had a bus pick up in Manhattan on the East side by 96th and 3rd. aves.

I was actually lucky to get booked on this as the rest of week had been slow and I was resorting to doing the "judge shows" which pay you only $25.00 per half day taping. You get $50.00 only if you stay the full day which is typically from 9am-6:30pm! At least they feed you donuts in the morning and pizza for lunch!

Actually doing the judge shows are great in this type of heat b/c it is always icy cold in those studios, even in the Winter! I actually prefer going to be a "Seat filler" for these shows and be entertained by these preposterous cases than to sit around for 17 hours on a film set for no waiver.

Back to the set of Criminal Intent, this was through Central Casting. Normally I get nothing from them, so when she called to book me I jumped at the chance. So she, Joyce, tells us the info, the call in number what to wear etc. Everything , except for the call time!!! Thinking that it would be a typical early morning call time, I never bothered asking her. Mind you she should have said something!

As it turns out the call time was for 6pm!!!! I was SO pissed! The reason being was that I cancelled out on the judge show entirely thinking that I would have an early morning call.

The point is that I had the entire day free and ended up doing nothing where I could have been at the judge show and gone directley to the bus location from there. That happened to be only one stop! The judge show tapes at E.103 st. stop on the Lexington line and the bus pick-up was at E.96th stop on the same line.

To top the fact that the timing was off, at about 11am, I get a call from Extra Mile agency (the one I pay $40.00/mos to get work) and Gillian asks if I can get to Staten Island for noon for a Bank of America commercial which pays $135.00!

It's like thanks a lot. I have been sitting around for 2 weeks and heard nothing from them, and NOW they decide to call me! They expect you to drop everything for them. Put is to you this way, if I was informed of a "guarenteed SAG waiver", I would have dropped everything and cancelled out on whatever I had that day!

You can imagine how pissed I was to turn that down b/c I was there was NO way I could get to Staten Island in half an hour and I already confirmed with Central two times, so I couldn't' cancel. Sigh! :(

Below is the link for the pics from Law and Order Crimal Intent:

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc165/Canada_Anne/Law_and_Order_Criminal%20_Intent_June_5_2008/?albumview=slideshow

When in Rome

(originally from June 2, 2008)

I was booked on the movie "When in Rome" for a Rush call on Monday b/c they (production) thought that getting tourists would be cheaper.

The only thing they didn't count on is that once the "tourists" have their fun, they move on and leave set. There is no way they will stay there for 10 hours in the sweltering sun! So at 1pm on Monday I was called to literally "RUN" and drop everything just to get to Columbus Circle for this scene. I got there, and ended up sitting with a couple of my fellow extras in the shade, and they never even used us. Amazing!

My friend Robyn Wohl was there and we ended up staying just sitting down outside in the little cafe area in the park with this man from Argentina named Luis and this other Woman. We sat there all day in the shade. We were NEVER even used! What a joke.

The only thing that bothered me about this was the fact that they were shooting this at Columbus Circle where another productions (Adam Sandlers) were filming "Don't Mess with the Zohan" and that was a nightmare shoot!

The only other terrible factor was seeing the "Uni-Tooth" there with that flaming red-haired awful Christain Rock singer, Louise. Perfect the couple. Both are old and can barely sing. The best part was that I had his crappy CD in my bag. So I stepped on it to crush the plastic case and left it opn his chair, where he was sure to see it.

If anything this year, at least I have learned that being alone and the company of good friends and good conversation, is worth a hell of a lot than some bullshit artist claiming he is a Rockstar and is in Love with you. What a joke. I am SO over that, though it still angers me.

Anyways, the rest of the day went smoothly and we wrapped around 6pm.

The following link is from set that day:

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc165/Canada_Anne/When_in_Rome_June_2_08/?albumview=slideshow

Kings Pilot Shoot

(Originally fromTuesday May 27, 2008)

I had a early call time of 6am to be on this new pilot "Kings". Figures tomorrow will be 80F outside and they want to shoot a fall scene. They shot by this area called "Tudor City". It's an exclusive area for the diplomats as it's near the U.N.

Our holding area was the Tudor hotel on 42nd ST and 1st ave, right by the water. It ended up being a very excruciating long day. Following is a quick synopsis of Kings:

Kings, a contemporary soap drama loosely based on the biblical story of King David that will feature some magical elements, according to The Hollywood Reporter. I Am Legend's Francis Lawrence is set to direct the one-hour pilot, written by Heroes co-executive producer Michael Green. The two will executive-produce the Universal Media Studios project with Lawrence's manager, Erwin Stoff, the trade paper reported. Set in the present day, Kings centers on a small-town guy who gets mixed up with the upper-crust social and political elite of a monarchy and eventually will become the new king. The plot loosely parallels the story of the biblical David, a shepherd boy who went on to defeat the giant Goliath and become Israel's second king.

After being on this set and all the trouble to make a pilot, I don't think it will be good. That's just my opinion. I am bias being on these sets and do base my views on how the production goes. Normally I am right. Let's see what happens with this one.

Below are pics taken on set of our long, ardous day:

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc165/Canada_Anne/KINGS_Pilot_May27_2008/?albumview=slideshow

A.