Negative Nancy and The Floater

Background work is kind of a thankless job. It's a little different if you're doing it on a professional television show, like when I did Rescue Me, or even the work I did on "Girlhattan" a few weeks ago. When you're surrounded by people who really know what they're doing, and manage their time well, it's definitely an easier experience.

But when you're doing background on a low-budget, non-Union project, you have to expect a certain number of things:

1. If it said it's going to be a 4 to 6 hour shoot, expect a 6 to 8 hour shoot at the very least. Don't make plans.
2. You will be sitting around doing a lot of nothing.
3. They might not feed you.

Yesterday I did work on a non-Union film. We filmed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and we were supposed to be hipsters. So I tucked my tightest jeans into some boots, threw on a vest and a skinny belt and I was on my way.

And I'm happy to report that they did feed us. There was quite a spread actually. Water, iced tea, soda and Capri Sun. Chips, peanut butter and jelly, Oreos, chips and a hell of a lot of candy. Our call time was 10am, but the director was shooting a couple of scenes with the principal actors first. So we did end up sitting around for a while before we were actually used. A lot of people were getting frustrated.

I wasn't frustrated. It is what it is. There were like 50 extras, and you don't want that many people arriving while you're in the middle of shooting another scene, especially if it's taking longer than expected. So it sucks that we were just sitting there for a while, but whatever. I ran into a former classmate of mine, so she and I hung out.

This is a picture of me and Flannery, looking bored.

And then we had pizza!

Enter Negative Nancy.

When we finally do begin to set up for our scene, they put me at the end of the bar, next to this older guy, and they give us fake drinks (orange juice and water--yum). So I turn to the guy next to me and try to strike up a conversation.

I say, "What's up, man?"
He says, "I don't want to be here. I want to go home. But I figured, you know, I'll come down and help them out, but this is just ridiculous. It's taking forever."

Blink.

Okay, Negative Nancy. I asked him if he knew the people involved in the production. You know, since he said, "I'll come down and help them out." But no. The reason he sees his being there as doing the production a favor was because he's SAG. (In other words, part of the Union--the Screen Actors Guild)

So then he proceeds to go on an on at length about all the perks he's supposed to be getting because he's SAG. He should have been placed nearer to the camera, he should have gotten better food, they were supposed to notify him if they were going to be using smoke.

And you know what? He may be right, the production may not have complied with SAG rules, but it does happen. And that wasn't my problem. My problem was that he

Just.

Kept.

Complaining.

And every time he complained, he rounded it out with, "but I'm not going to complain." Meaning "I'm not going to complain to anyone involved in the production, but you young lady are going to get a damn ear full."

My saving grace came when they switched to a tighter lens and we were no longer visible at the end of the bar, so they moved us. But he was still right next to me! I could not escape. Luckily, I now had a few more people to talk to rather than him.

And this is when I almost killed him. He walks over to the snack table and puts down his prop drink (a fake rum and coke in a glass with ice and a lime) and picks up a plastic cup and a Capri Sun, and walks back into the shot with it. SO UNPROFESSIONAL.

He continues to complain about what time it is, and how long the shoot has taken, and says "I bet we don't even get that I.B.D. thing."

"That I.B.D. thing" refers to the imdb (internet movie database) credit we were supposed to receive for working on the film. So not only are you the most unprofessional Union actor I've ever met, you don't even know the correct name of the biggest film database in creation?

He said, "But I'm not going to complain" one more time and I said, "Really? Because it doesn't seem like you're doing anything else."

I mean really, you're not doing what we were told to do. He kept talking during shots when we were supposed to be pantomiming dialogue because the mics were picking up too much noise. Just leave! If this were my movie, I would rather not have someone than run the risk that they were going to mess up my shots.

And Negative Nancy wasn't the only glaring example of unprofessional behavior on set. There was also:

The Floater:

This man tried everything to be on camera. Though all of us were placed specifically, this guy decided to walk around the room, even coming to stand in front of me when I was clearly in the line of the camera.

He kept hanging around behind the lead actress, looking like the unpopular kid hanging around the cool people at a party, hoping to become part of the conversation.

When this movie is finished, I won't be surprised if you can see him in every single shot.

Listen people, background work sucks in many many ways. Especially in a scene that's so big you know there's no way you'll be able to see yourself. But it's much, much more important to be professional.

At one point, two of the crew members were talking.

Crew Member 1: "Do you have the number of the woman who coordinated all the background people?"
Crew Member 2: "Yeah, why?"
Crew Member 1: "There's one guy here. He's never coming back to set again."

I can only hope they were talking about either Negative Nancy or The Floater. But they sure as Hell weren't talking about me.

Fit

An important part of being an actor in this unforgiving city is having actor friends around you to be supportive of you. After all, what good is doing a show if none of your friends come to see it?

I've been lucky enough to have some amazing actor friends, almost all of whom are not douches. And two of the most non-douchey friends I have are Harmony and Lauren.

Harmony (left) is my college roommate's cousin. I'd met her once or twice when she came to a party a the house Cate and I shared in New Paltz, and when she moved to the city, Cate gave her my number and I helped get her a job at The Restaurant (a crime I'll always be seeking redemption for).

Since then she and I have become whatever the female equivalent of "bros" is (my first instinct is "hoes" but that doesn't sound right, so I'm just going to go with "bros"). The multitude of Facebook photos of us hanging out has never ceased to freak Cate out.

Lauren (right) and I both graduated at the same time, me from New Paltz and her from Miami, and we both started working at The Restaurant at the same time. Both of us were kind of alone in the city, with our college besties in different states, so we grabbed onto each other by the arm and decided to be Replacement Best Friends.

Since then our "best friends" have come back into our lives, and Lauren and I have graduated from Replacement Best Friends to Actual Friends.

So... I've had cause to be pretty jealous in the last few weeks, because Harmony and Lauren are in a show together right now. I saw it last night, and I have to say I'm very proud of my lovely lady friends.

The show is called "Fit," and it's part of the NY Fringe Festival. They got just a critic's pick on Backstage, and a lovely review (including a big ol' picture of Lauren talking to her baby).

Both of them are doing Scottish accents, and rocking them! The story is about three generations of women, a grandmother, a mother and a daughter, all of whom are twenty years old when the play takes place. Lauren plays Fiona, the grandmother who at twenty years old is a wife and mother in a tiny flat in Glasgow. Harmony is her daughter Lauren (ha!) who at twenty is rebelling against her mother's conventional lifestyle.

It's an interesting thing when you go see your friends in a meaty role with a lot of drama, and realize that they're really good. Both of them made me cry, and I'm planning on seeing it again next week, and dragging The Boyfriend as well!

Here's a review from nytheatre.com!

More Photos from the Urban Dictionary set...

This shot also took place in the Waldorf. It was one of those fancy, dream sequence shots where the camera holds on a face and the room is spinning in the background. Only, we didn't have the right kind of equipment, so we just worked with what we had.

We got a baggage cart from the bellhops, and clamped the camera to one side so it wouldn't move. Then I got on it and hung off the side while Josh and Gary spun it around.

It was a lot of fun, but left me extremely dizzy afterwards.

And I'm pretty sure the hotel staff was a bit suspect about why we needed this. Also why Gary was wearing a gold shirt.

Urban Slang, Episode Two

Gary and I just started shooting the next Urban Slang short with Pete and Josh. And since the L-Bomb got such a great response, I can't wait for this one to be done!

The shoot is a little more complicated. We need to find a bar or a nightclub for one of the shoots, and since we have no budget and are relying only on people who love us, this is a little tricky. But it's a huge amount of fun.

Our first shoot was at the Presidential Suite of the Waldorf Towers. You needed a key to use the elevator. Two of my friends were in the shoot as well, and they saw Ben Kingsley on their way up to the room. I was like, "How did I even get in here?"

It was absolutely gorgeous. And for a small shining moment, I pretended that I was an important enough person to actually stay in one of these rooms.

Last week Josh and Pete screened the L-Bomb for over 500 people. The Youtube video has over 1300 views in 3 months, and the Funny or Die page has almost another 300, with a 96% vote saying it's funny. Huzzah!

So I'm extremely excited that we're continuing with the series, in the midst of shooting and editing the pilot, Max August: Private Eye, which is the entire reason I got involved with these guys in the first place.


After I wrapped, before I left the hotel for the day, I went into the bedroom and jumped on the bed. I figured it was my last chance to jump on the bed in a Presidential Suite.

I mean, here's hoping it's not, but it might be.

Open Calls

Every once in a while I decide that going to an Open Call is a good idea, even though it means waking up at 5am, standing in line for six hours, and then singing for less that a minute, trying to stand out in a group of 700 people.

This morning, the new production of Godspell on Broadway is holding an open call. Like, a true open call. No union affiliation will be given priority. It's first come, first serve, from 10am to 5pm.

10am? I decided to get there at 6am.

Unfortunately everyone else decided this was a Justin Beiber concert, and camped out overnight, and by the time I got out there, there were already over 200 people on the sign-up sheet.

And if I had all day, that wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I have a pilot to shoot today. So I came back home, got McDonald's breakfast, and returned the concept of the Open Call back to the "just out of college" years of my career.