SALT- Angelina Jolie Feature Film ( 3-16-09)

Just when I thought I didn't get enough of "SALT" on Saturday, I got booked for Monday as well. The thing is that Central Casting was SO adamant in their posting that IF you worked on SALT at ALL on Saturday, YOU CAN NOT WORK IT DURING THE WEEK!!!! Well I guess things change, or they have NO idea what they are doing.

So I took the booking and had to cancel something else last minute just to do this. The call time wasn't bad which was announced on the voice messaging center as 7:15 am for my group. The other difference was that this time we were indoors and the entire day was taking place inside of the St. Bartholomew's church on 51st and Park.

Being inside plus you get to sit down, sounds like a treat; but not so much. We had to enter that church quietly and maintain the "Church mice" feel without a peep or we would be thrown out! So we got our positions and sat down in the pews.

The first 5 rows were filled with the dignitaries, military, and of course SAG people. The rest of us, Non-Saggers filled up the edge of the rows at the end or beginning of the rows, and the rest of the pews were filled sitting beside dummies! These Dummies got better treatment than we did!

I'm not even kidding! While I was sitting there, one of the hair and makeup people come by and walk by my row, and looks down the row examining. Then she leans over and I thought she was going to fix my "frizzy" hair. Instead she totally ignores me like I'm not even there and she fixes the Dummies hair and also give it a puff! I'm like "Wow, these must be SAG- dummies!

This dummy that I was sitting beside, was really life-like. Maybe I was hallucinating from lack of sleep, but I could swear that dummy touched me! Those dummies were creepy beyond belief. It was very "Twilight Zone". My friend Laurie was so tired that she even started making out with one of the dummies!

So while I am sitting there bored out of my mind, for hours on end you start talking to the dummy and I spent the rest of my time reading "Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth. In fact I could have read "War and Peace" and finished that novel from front to cover with how many hours we were trapped in there.

After hours of our butts aching from sitting in those church pews for hours, they advanced to the next scene which involved a choir. Let me tell you, this was the absolute best part of the entire day. The actual instruments were on playback, but the vocals were all live, and it was magical.

The song that this choir sang filled up every inch and crevice in that church and every sound was immaculate and Angelic. It made you feel sad, yet at peace. It was probably a version of some Requiem or "Mass of the dead". All sung in Latin, of course, gave you shivers up and down your spine.

It's amazing music can uplift a person. People who were nodding off and falling asleep, people who were counting the minutes to when we would wrap. Even that Woman that was making out with the dummy, halted.

All of a sudden were captured by the sweet "Arias" and dimension of sound that drew us in and woke up our senses. Everyone was touched by this. Some were so encapsulated by this and overwhelmed, that their eyes were welling up with tears and they had to leave the room. AH..the power of music.

Of course once the music ended, the background assumed their rightful positions which was of sleeping....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Back to one!

A.

SALT Angelina Jolie Feature Film

After two months of not getting ANY background work, finally the long awaited "Cattle Call" for background had arrived! This was for the booking on the feature film "SALT" starring Angelina Jolie! NO, Brad is not in this one, Sorry Girls!

I submitted to be cast on this movie numerous times on Casting Networks, never to get a reply. The only reason I even got this was because while we were on the "Hirosaki Theater Players", our friend Mike got the call from Central Casting, and we overheard him on the phone getting booked for this. So luckily we got in on the action and before you know it Mikes Iphone was passed along to seven of us sitting there in the theater and talked to Jamie at Central which got us all booked right there on the spot.

So of course you are thrilled to get a booking; any booking. Though when I got my "check-in #421", I knew this was a huge casting call and they were booking everyone and anyone that can breathe! Being the fact this was for a Saturday, it didn't interfere with regular work week, so I didn't think it would be that bad of a day.

The week went by and throughout I kept getting text messages and phone calls of so many people that I haven't heard from in ages that they were booked on this movie as well. I was actually looking forward to this, as it was not only a job, it was going to be more like a reunion for my friends in the background world which I have not seen for ages.

The much anticipated call times and location was to be released Friday afternoon by 3pm. Well that soon changed to 10pm at night with a 20 minute message telling us basically to wear black and be somber as it was going to be this mass funeral scene.

A month later when she finally got to the call times, you felt like replaying the entire message because you couldn't believe your ears when you heard that the call times were for 5:30am!!! Oh the Horror!

Yes this is correct..Repeat NOT an error....You waited ALL day long to get the call times and location just to be inundated by this massive description to what to wear for a funeral scene, just to be side swiped and left in shock and dismay. This meant that after you hung up the phone, and used up all your minutes just to hear this message, you had to quickly grab some black clothes, shower, shave, and try to get at least 2 hours sleep and make it on time! Unbelievable!

The holding area was over at the Marriott on Lexington between 48 and 49th streets. For myself this was a decent location to commute to, though being the fact it was a Saturday, the trains are at "turtle" speed and the "E-vil" train is swarming and reeking of the homeless parking their make-shift "bedroom in the corner of the train. The only good thing about that is there are plenty of seats to choose from if you don't mind not breathing.

I arrived to the lobby of the Marriott and immediately recognized over 20 people who I have not seen for ever! We quickly acknowledged each others presence and then were directed our designated floors. All reporters had the room on the bottom floor which seated about 200 and the rest of us Spectators/mourners went up to the second floor room which had the seating capacity of over a thousand.

The first part of the day consisted of lines. The first one of course was a huge line wrapping around the stairs to get checked in and to get our voucher. The second line up was of course to get food. The third was to get our wardrobe checked.

Now I really love this part, especially when this is for a funeral scene, exteriors, which means we will be wearing our coats. Yet, you have to go through this unnecessary line to get more "black" clothes, because your clothes were not "black" enough. This really made sense as we were to be stationed outdoors for the entire day wearing our coats where our clothes underneath would not even been seen at all.

I also love the fact that they were giving people costume jewelry to wear and had to hand in their vouchers for it. What a complete waste of time. For one thing, no one is going to see you and secondly to have to go through another line-up at the end of the day to return a pair of earrings is absurd. But you see wardrobe has to make it look like they are doing their job, so they will give these items out and call it a day meanwhile you are stuck with this piece of crap all day long and responsible for it.

...On to the scene of the day....

This was a huge production of a funeral scene. I mean this was massive. It was the type of production of a funeral that would be fit for a KING or some other royalty. Not a president, though. Presidents, especially when Bush jr. finally kicks the bucket will get an unceremonious ceremony involving a sack and some dirt for messing up this country so badly.

The entire stream of the funeral had a somber yet respectful approach to it. The funeral procession stretched from the front doors of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel,

to the doors of St. Bartholomew's. The procession itself was lavishly decorated with a band of marching bagpipe players, sailors, military, followed by police motor cycles, Police cars, and of course the hearse and the immediate family members following in limos behind the parade.

We were the spectators along the sidewalks of the streets and somberly looking on. This was to be the longest funeral procession of all time. For those of you who were around to see Princess Lady Diana's funeral know how many hours that procession lasted. I think this one beat the record. Every time the director shouted "Action", within seconds, "CUT"- "Back to one!" was yelled out. For us spectators it was easy to reset, though not so much with the marching band and the police cars, and the hearse, and limos ALL had to reverse back to their "ones".

Sounds easy, but not so much as a couple of times, the drivers nearly slammed into each other a couple of times while reversing too much. As for us "general" background, standing there for several hours became challenging in terms of the pin in our feet and the weather forecast which where we were standing, got directly into the winds which made it feel a lot colder than the actual temperature for the day.

The only good thing about where I was positioned was that we were right by the front entrance of the Waldorf, where we went inside to seek refuge every time they said "CUT"! In fact we had our little room on the side, where the concierge actually put out chairs for us ladies to sit down on. That was really nice of the guy to do.

On the other side of the street a group of people crammed into a "Capital One bank" vestibule to seek refuge from the frosty air.Still those little spurts of running into the building everytime saved us somewhat, but not when they were rolling for longer takes.

Here is a brief synopsis about the film:

Angelina Jolie takes on her role a raven-haired femme fatale Evelyn A. Salt as she films her upcoming spy flick with costar Liev Schreiber in New York City on Saturday (March 14).

Salt is a CIA officer who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy. Liev plays Salt’s boss and friend on the Russian desk at the CIA. The film was originally developed with Tom Cruise in the lead role, centering on Edwin A. Salt.

Now you would think that with such big star names, would mean a BIG budget. Well yes it's a BIG budget an paycheck for the SAG players and the principal actors, though for NON-SAG, not so much.
The worst part of the day was standing outside for 9 hours and not getting any food or water save for a basket of Rugalach cookies and a box of Poland Spring for a thousand extras.

I grabbed a couple of waters and though, well "they are going to have some kind of lunch soon, so I can hold out until then!" Well I was right about one thing, we did get lunch. However, it was a WALK-AWAY lunch! Unbelievable. You tell me that with such a big name production, you couldn't give us at least a measly boxed lunch. You have got to be kidding! How cheap is that??

Here is a big name player, Angelina Jolie who is know for adopting and feeding starving children around the world, and yet us starving and sleep deprived extras get NOTHING!!! As Linda Rhodes, fellow background star put it ".."hey Ang- tell your African daughter there are starving people on Park Avenue!" This is actually Columbia Pictures fault for sure. It seems to me that the "bigger" the STAR power, the smaller the treatment is to the background extras.

I do realize that they don't have to give us any meal. I have been on bigger productions such as "I am Legend" starring Will Smith and the background count was 1500 people. Still we had a "army tent serving of slop as food which was horrible, though we at least got that much. In this case they should have mentioned this in the 25minute long message, than perhaps we would have come better prepared and not to deal with the chaos that later ensued.

After our "Walk-away lunch", we got back to our original "ones". OK great just another 5 hours to go!! Our wrap time was based on the fact that the sun goes down now at around 6:30pm. So it was the same thing that we were doing in the morning. This time however the vehicles moved inched closer to the church. Though every time they shouted out "CUT" they had to reverse even further back.

The difference between the morning and now was that there were so many more regular people and tourists by the Waldorf who wanted to see if they could get a glimpse of Angelina. This of course made it more difficult for the Pa's to try and stop traffic going by into the scene. On top of all the you had the paparazzi waiting to get the perfect shot.

Here is everyone trying to get as close as they can to this superstar, and who happens to be right beside her is "Crazy AL", the BEAST of BACKGROUND. This guy is such a menace. He is a loud mouth, looks like an oversized walrus, and is an absolute obnoxious miscreant. Yet he gets into the scene. Shoot me now! Who did he threaten to even get booked on this??? Moving on... Sigh ;(

I guess with all this going on, and the throngs of people getting thicker, some people get sick, just can't take anymore and shut down. In the midst of all this about 10 people away from me, and incident occurred where a young Lady had a mild seizure and physically dropped down, almost to the ground.

Luckily a friend of mine was there to catch her fall. Within seconds, the PA was called to hold people back and an ambulance came on set. Within seconds, they got her on the stretcher and rolled her into the ambulance. My friend Linda and I looked at each other and thought "Well that's one less non-union to sign out!

I thought "This is a good time to wrap!" Not so much. Within seconds, they continued the scene as if nothing had happened. About an hour after that, they yelled out our favorite words "It's a wrap!" Yippee!! All the pain and fatigue vanished as we ALL super-charged and scurried like mad dogs to get back to holding to sign out so we could go home.

What a long day it was..Back to One, next Saturday!

A.

Hirosaki Theater Players

Got booked on the "Hirosaki Theater Players". I got this booking through Amy Gossels casting which proves even casting agencies that normally specialize in Principal roles are hurting in this crestfallen economy. The pay rate was something that is not appealing to announce, though I am doing it for comparison sake. Our rate was $35 dollars USD, not Japanese Yen.

Too bad it wasn't in Euros, it would be worth a lot more. Doing the judge shows back in the days, we would get $50.00, Dunkin Donuts coffee for breakfast, and pizza for lunch. Plus great entertainment factor especially how more twisted and "Ghetto" the plaintiffs/defendants were.

Though for the "love of art", or more like "love of money in my wallet", you make sacrifices and surrender your pride for culture and some "yen" to get through the next day.

Our location was at the Harry De Jur Playhouse at the Abrons Arts Center 466 Grand Street @ Pitt Street. The closest subway stop is the F train (Essex/Delancey stop). Getting to the location was a huge trek from the Essex/Delancey St. considering I was coming from Astoria Queens. Not a bad location if you live in the Lower East side.

After about an hour and a half commute, I got to the lobby of the building and was told to sit down where there were only two chairs. Actually I was "gestured" to sit down as they all spoke Japanese and the only guy who knew any English , or "broken English" , had a thick Russian accent and we needed an interpreter just to understand him.

I was the only one there at the time, or so I thought. I saw the craft table which had two urns, one with coffee, the other tea. On the table beside they had three paper plates. One had crappy butter popcorn, the other were filled with pretzels and restaurant tortilla chips, plain and without the dip. I was thinking "great, they did say there would be a meal, I guess this constitutes as a meal for a rat!"

When I was directed to the actual holding area, there were already a few friendly faces sitting at tables:

There was a spread of spaghetti and meatball dishes on the side that smelled real good, though we were not aloud to touch it until it got cold and all the crew members had their fill.

Of course we were directed to sit in the theater and drag all our stuff with us where they were to perform so the crew and cast could eat without our presence. Later on as the day into evening progressed, they did give us some "Asian sandwiches" with Surprise meat. By the time the sandwiches came, I was SO hungry and didn't care if it was made with "Dog" meat. I didn't care if it was an Asian , I was so hungry at that point. LOL. It was pretty good considering their budget. We spent most of our time indoors

The play itself is some kind of a Japanese theme play with lots of monologues. It wasn't that bad, long though. I think it’s about a troupe of Japanese actors who come to this country. What I found out later was that the director’s father is in the troupe, or something like of that nature. I didn’t get the whole story but that’s what I heard.

We finally got to see the act and it was interesting, especially if you knew Japanese, as there were no subtitles. The stage was very simple set with a wooden cabinet with wooden bowls where a beautiful Japanese Woman dressed in a fancy white dress, could have been her wedding dress, was fixing the dishes. On the side there was a Japanese school girl what appeared to be making or cleaning a bowl.

A Japanese nurse stood by the entrance/doorway to what was believed to be the home of these people.

The two main characters, another beautiful Japanese Woman though more despondent and serious in demeanour, gave a monologue. You did not have to be Japanese to understand that she was in despair and you got the impression that she was woman with purpose and fought to keep her family together through the war or something like that.

Cut to...the old man doing the monologue. As she finished, he continues with another monologue of hope for mankind. We really did not get it at this point. Though the old man did remind us of the actor Pat Morito playing Mr. Miyaggi as the mentor to the actor Ralph Macchio in the movie "The Karate Kid", as the character, Daniel Larusso. "Wax on; Wax off".

Then we were hearing the soundtrack to Karate Kid, "The Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera in our heads. Thankfully after the initial rehearsal, they did only a couple of takes.

After that we were sent back to the holding area to literally hold ourselves up from boredom. There was word that there was a "second location" which we were not informed of, and did sit well with some people because it was NOT indicated in the e-mail that we would all be in another location.

This meant that if you lived in the LES area, you got a raw deal. The second location was in Chelsea over by 23rd and 8th ave. The word was "they" would not go back to the first location.

In the "second" location is where the only exterior was shot and that was 20 minutes of being outside and over 4 hours of waiting inside for something to happen.

This was the exterior scene depicting us coming in to the theater and barely getting in to the sold-out "Hirosaki players theater" show.

I got home around 2 am taking the "E" train back to Queens, which really reeks at that time with the designated homeless marking their territory for the night.

All in all, it was a fun night. Probably would have been better if we were paid more, though still better than sitting at home watching the time go by.

Tell you though, after working for peanuts, a nice shot of "Hiro-SAKE" would have been a nice night-cap.

Sigh :(
A.

The LAST AIRBENDER OPEN CALL for ASIANS only!

The entire Month of February has been a complete write-off in terms of background work. Actually...it's been a VERY bad month for getting other job/income as well. What a huge struggle. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

So when you see Craig's List postings such as:

**BE IN A MOVIE!!** a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE filming in Philadelphia “THE LAST AIRBENDER” Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, “Avatar”, the PARAMOUNT PICTURES & NICKELODEON MOVIES live-action feature film, THE LAST AIRBENDER, directed, written, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, is set in a world where human civilization is divided into four nations: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. NOW CASTING… MARTIAL ARTISTS, CRAFTSMAN, ARTISTS, DANCERS, GYMNASTS, FAMILIES, & GRANDPARENTS**

The part that I omitted from the original posting is this :Searching for… ASIAN-AMERICANS MEN & WOMEN, BOYS & GIRLS AGES 5-85

...yes not CAUC-Asian..JUST ASIANS!!!!

Though being the determined and resourceful person that I am, I went anyways. Actually it was my friend Steve who is now SAG, that mentioned this to me. So I figured, "I got nothing better to do on a Sunday, why not!"

I headed out to Roosevelt avenue subway stop and I picked up the "7" train. It was a nice and pleasant trip. I got a seat on the train and it was not jam-packed with ASIANS, as it is on the weekday. I got to Main Street in Flushing and I was in absolute shock. This area is literally Canal Street times a thousand!!!

WOW! I have never seen SO many Asians and Asian stores than on Main Street. I think they may have more Chinese than in China! Well okay maybe not, but close!

Part of the intrigue to going to this casting call was this posting on the Internet of a protest being held there: last airbender casting call protest in flushing.

The protest was because this "Avatar"/animated series consists of ONLY Asian characters. There is not one single white person in the series. However, when Hollywood produces a movie, they are the big money shakers and in order to sell tickets, have to make it as marketable as possible.

So in this case, they, "Hollywood People with 'deep pockets' to produce such a big budget film", decided to cast a female and male lead that are of "Caucasian persuasion", not ASIAN... NOT going to make the ASIANS happy , considering the original animation was cast as all Asians and gave the Asians a brand name. Now this "brand name" is being tainted all for the 'almighty buck', so to speak. Mess with the Asian product, you mess with the Asians.

Mind you it turned out to be a very mild protest with a turnout of only two brave souls and die hard fans of the avatar to stand out there in the cold and hand out fliers. Still these two young individuals stood their ground and maintained their space and proved they had a purpose. This was of course until they got booted off the premises and had to go across to the gas station sidewalk to continue their brigade.

As for this cattle call, I guess it was funny in a way that My friend and I were the only Cauc-Asians in that room on the 2nd floor of the Flushing Town hall where we had to fill out the forms. For once I was the minority and not just another thirties blond/white soccer "mom" type. When they called out "SAG" my friend was the only one out of about 100 Asians in the room that raised their hand. Still there is no way me or my friend will get cast on this movie.

We explained this to the casting person. As sad as things have got, you have to try everything in terms of the economy in crisis and lack of film and TV productions, you have to try everything.

Desperate Times indeed...

Sigh :(

Grant Wilfley Cattle Call for two feature films

I swore to myself that I would not waste my time going to one of these cattle calls. Last time I went to one of these, I had to stand outside for hours in a huge line of people just to fill out some forms and get a quick digital snap-shot taken. So it was no surprise to head out into the city and see hundreds of people with headshots and resumes in their hands, shivering in the cold waiting to get inside to the doors of the church where they were holding the "auditions".

This cattle call was at least at a decent location over by W.59th St and 9th avenue at the church of Saint Peter the Apostle. it's definitely a huge area to hold a throng of people, though there were just TOO many people to bring in at once.


I recall being in this church before when I was on that movie "Don't Mess with the Zohan" starring Adam Sandler and ended up being a horrible experience. I knew that the location of the church sounded all too familiar and when I got to W 59th and started walking across Columbus Circle,the flashbacks of the horror became all too clear. I will never forget the 3 days/nights on that shoot with NO food and No respect at all. Oh did I mention NO waivers for being out in the cold miserable rains...The list goes on, though I will stop here on that "Zohan Mess"!



I really know how things work too well and how to work the system. Why in the world I still don't have my SAG Waivers...Ask the "GOD of SAG Waivers" I wish I knew why I am still a non-union loser after all this time.



Moving on...So I got there and luckily I saw my friend "D" in line as soon as I crossed the street. Talk about luck b/c this means I avoided having to wait in the line wrapping around the end of the block. Eventually after standing outside for about a half of an hour, which wasn't too bad, we got inside to the church where there were rows of chairs for our next step to sit down and fill out a form which consisted of everything from your name to your bra size. Oh yeah don't forget color and make of your car, if you have one. Very Important information...



The two movies that they were "auditioning" for was an untitled "Nancy Meyers Project" and oh yeah...the movie that I auditioned for on a callback which I didn't get and would have meant a feature role and instant SAG..Named "The Sorcerers Apprentice" . Yes, I auditioned for the role of a Russian Woman and was really close to getting it, though it didn't happen.

Here is the original blog of my devastating failure and how I blew an opportunity of a life time:

http://annietalentsearch.blogspot.com/2009/01/call-backs-for-sorcerers-apprentice.html

So you can imagine how I felt even going to this cattle call. It's humiliating and embarrassing at this point. There I was offered a "Golden Opportunity" and it was stripped from me in an instant.

I'm sure the entire New York Actors Roster will be called for the one thousand people scene that they plan to shoot in April of this year. I'm sure I'll get a waiver for being in a crowd scene. Lord knows I was right beside Julia Roberts in "Duplicity" which is showing on Movie Trailers right now and I got NOTHING out of that.

Life is a long lesson in humility by --- J.M. Barrie --- I think I have humiliated myself enough and need to move on..

Sigh ;(

Taping of the "NEW" Newlywed game

Work has been really slow and you know times are bad when you accept game show tapings from Actor's Reps for income. The only way you can look at something like this is that it's money coming to you as it takes over 2 months to get paid the BIG $30.00/taping. Let's not forget the 10% commission. Times like this I really wish I continued higher education and got a masters degree in something.


On the other hand these days everything lacks originality anymore and ALL these supposed NEW shows are trying to capture the essence of the original success it had back in the 70's. They figure it's a safe bet and guaranteed recipe for ratings. In order to make it appear like it was an original thought, they put a twist to it and try to sell it off as a brilliant idea, when it is nothing more than a copy of a safe blueprint.


The "twist" in this 2009 version of the Newlywed game, they have only 3 couples as opposed to 4 as in the original one. Also the new host is a Woman now. In fact she has been a celebrity for decades and became famous back in the 80's with her hit song "Hold on to one more day!" Yes it's Carnie Wilson from Wilson/Philips. She was a great hostess and very friendly. She was also as big as a house being 5 months pregnant and all.

The segment that I thought was ridiculous was this segment at the end for a bonus round. The Newlyweds who win end up playing a bonus round with the "Goldyweds". Yes that's right, original Newlyweds back from that were on the show back in 1974. This is however not going to be on CBS, it will be aired on the GSN Or "Game Network" now.

Now the concept sounds great, though I was thinking as I'm sure many people were and that is how many couple from the 1970's could they possibly find that are still together after 34 years, still look good, and are still alive??

Not only that but it is really confusing as the Newlywed couple wins but then they have to play one more round and answer 5 questions to win a coffee maker or digital camera. The original ABC version was such success because of it's outlandish replies to the questions and catch phrases such as " Making Whoopee" referring to sexual intercourse.

The huge difference between now and the 70's is that we didn't have so much media and Internet at our exposure. Things have changed significantly and times are not as innocent as they were back then. Sure you had the "Watergate scandal" with Richard Nixon while he was in office, but still the times were simpler.

Now with all the new infrastructure and Internet, cell phones, texting, Facebook, My space, and of course the biggest change ever, a Black President. Who would have ever imagined a black man would get elected to office?? Well it happened.

As for this show, it may be a "neat" idea to bring it back, though not a great idea. You just can't bring something back 34 years later and expect the same results. It's a totally new era and it's a shame that there is lack of originality in these interesting times.

A.