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 ;(

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:)