Cupid Coney Island Times Square Winter Scene

(originally from July 31, 2008)
I have not got too much work from Extra Mile this past month. In fact I haven’t heard from them since the beginning of July and then, finally I get a call from them. I was excited to hear from them and was expected to be booked on something good.

So I get ready with my pen and paper to take down my check in number and information. First I get my check in number and then I get told that I am being booked for the show Cupid, again.

Though this time it was going to be filmed at Coney Island for a New Year’s winter scene! They told us to bring winter hats, scarves, parkas, thermal etc in the 90 degrees ( 40 degrees Celsius)heat! I love it. It was SO crazy.

People came with suitcases full of big HUGE wool winter coats, scarves and hats! This one person brought winter hats and 4 heavy coats they lugged all the way from Jersey! My good Russian friend Natasha looked the best in her coat!

All I brought was a small bag with a leather jacket, the wool hat, and a small scarf. I can understand the outer layer has to look like a winter coat, though this does not mean you have to wear a thermal sweater underneath. I had to help some people out and tell them they didn't have to wear a long sleeve shirt underneath! These Newbies really need to be taught what you can get away with.

The reason they were doing the Time SQ scene there in the Key span parking lot of Coney Island was b/c they were shooting another scene simultaneously over by the Wonder wheel.

So they split half of us into groups for the scenes. I of course get the Times Square scene where they gave us New Years Eve balloons, noise makers, funky 2009 eye glasses, and other accessories to make the scene feel real.

There were also these two crazy gals who really got into character and wanted more accessories. I think they got escorted off set and joined the Coney Island Circus of Freaks!

It was actually fun as we did the countdown and when we got down to one, the ticker tape went off and all this confetti exploded in front of us covering everything up with all the rainbow of colors. I swear after doing the countdown over a hundred times, it was actually starting to get chilly and I felt I needed to put my shawl on!

It was not a bad night at all and the food was outstanding! They had these "Frenched" pork chops that were SO tender and juicy. It was mouth watering. It was So good that I jumped right in a sliced a big slab of it myself! This production was definitely not cheap and had one of the best spreads for food that I have had since Gossip Girls.

The first group that went to the Wonder wheel wrapped at 1am. The Times Square group were there until 3am. Still not bad considering we started at 7pm!

I honestly thought that at least a few people would be "passing out" wearing the winter coats. Only one person to my knowledge had to be taken off set to see the on-set medic. I tell you though for a SAG waiver I would have wore the heaviest parka and walk into a blazing fire! No one got the waivers on this set. Shame :(

The only thing that was horrible was the F train ride home which took one hour and 45 minutes at 4am! At least I can’t say it was a boring ride time went by fast watching the rats on the platform and witnessing a homeless man penetrating himself. Ewwwww.. It was SO gross. At least it was safe. This is why NYC has the "See something , Say something" campaign in effect! Though I don't think it works!

I got home and had to immediately take off my sweaty clothes and jump into the shower. Plus the dirty germs of the late night subway cars. If anything, at least on sets like these where you have to wear winter coats in July, you loose some weight!.

Amazing.
CA ;)

On the set of Cupid at Silver Cup Studios

(originally from July 30th, 2008)

This past week has been really busy. I was booked on this new pilot called "Cupid". This was a show back in the 90's that failed, so I have no idea why they are bringing it back. It originally debuted on September 26, 1998 on ABC. This is now a "new" version of Cupid and supposed to be better. http://tvseriesfinale.com/articles/cupid-abc-gives-second-chance-to-jeremy-piven-series/

I was already booked to work on Cupid for this Times Square scene with Winter wardrobe for Thursday night. I lucked out on Wednesday as my friend was on set and called me up to let me know that there were several people who didn't show up and to call up Central Casting.

The best part was that they were shooting at Silver Cup studios here in Queens!I call up Central Casting and at first she tells me that they can't use me. I basically pleaded with her and told her I can make it to the studio in 10 minutes. She was only going to offer me Thursday night Winter scene, which I was already booked on by another agency. I was like no thanks.

After 20 minutes go by, my phone rings and she tells me that they can use me after all and to get to Silver Cup Studios right away. So I got there in about half an hour and of course you get there and it really is no "rush" call and I ended up going to the crafty and getting some food before I was even needed in the scene.

It turned out to be a decent day. They had this bar set up and a stage where they had karaoke and a mariachi band set up. Being the fact it was a bar meant that it was indoors, air conditioned and places to sit down.

Also the food was amazing! Really one of the best catering that I've had in a while. So we went to holding and had our delicious meal and were pleasantly entertained by the mariachi band playing for us! I guess these Guys were "itching" to play as they couldn't play at all on set. On set they have to "fake" playing it and they put the sound in later. What a great treat that was!

After Lunch, we were on set for about a an hour and then we wrapped. The best part was that it only took me 15 minutes to get home from 23 st. Ely Ave on the V train!

Amazing! CA ;)

CA ;)

Milosevic Movie

(originally from July 22, 2008)

Last week I was on this Serbian Independent film or Should I say "The Milosevic Movie"! If I knew it was a Serbian production I sure as hell would not have accepted this.

It turned out to be a hellish day, right from the start. First of all on the "Casting Networks" where they posted this said it was going to be 75 dollars cash on set. When we got to set, that was changed. It was still the same amount, though it would be in check form. This means it would have to go through Stanley Kaplan's office and it would be a miracle to find a check in that "Katrina Hurricane" of a disorganized office there!

One man was SO pissed about the mis-information that he started fighting with the P.A. and he refused to go on set until this was resolved. After finding out that they were not paying cash as it said on the website he grabbed his stuff and started walking.

I tell you I should have walked away with him. The day was excruciatingly long. The worst part had to have been that they didn't even use me!!! There were only fifteen of us left now and they took everyone upstairs to set, except for this Fat lady, a weird Lady/Biology teacher, and myself. The "weird" lady went outside to smoke every 5 minutes , saved all her cigarette butts and put them in the side pocket of her purse!

I don't mind being rejected b/c the way I look at it, even if you don't get used ,you still get paid. Though it really sucked that we were literally trapped in the hallway of this art Gallery in Brooklyn as they were shooting upstairs and we couldn't even talk or move our chairs! Even when we did go outside, they said we were too loud and had to be quiet. Put it to you this way it felt like a day At Law and Order which is like a Day in Prison.

Just being there on a "Milosevic movie" really got under my skin. Also being the fact that Serbians are born Killers and are animals. Just look at the latest example in the news with the extradition of former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic. He faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1992-1995 civil war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia. Taken from CNN news: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/28/karadzic.deportation/


If that's not enough you have that other "Serbian Killer", Miladin Kovacevic who beat the "life" out of Bryan Steinhauer, who is STILL in a coma after This Serbian "Slaughtered" him to a pulp! Then the Serbian was bailed out , fled the U.S. and is back in Serbia hiding. F'in Serbian Coward!!!
Here is the link to that news report: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/10/serbian.student/

On set, I heard from one of the PA's that they were celebrating when the news story broke out. How these Serbians even got VISAS to work in this Country here in Brooklyn, New York to film this movie is anyone's guess who they threatened or Shot to get their passports!

Amazing! Another thing is why did they have to come ALL the way here to shoot this crappy movie when it was just a simple office scene. Who knows if this movie is not a front to target some U.S. monuments. I wouldn't put it past these "Serbs"!

Enough on this. I am wasting energy on more fun, honest productions. Just hope I get paid in American dollars, not Serbian Blood money!

That's all!

A.

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 ;(