Countdown to the T of R, Part 1

Saturday morning was really nice in Pasadena. Too bad it won't remain like that for long.

In just about 24 hours, parade viewers will be able to legally camp on sidewalks and traffic islands to secure a place to the view the parade come Monday morning.

Consequently, businesses are preparing for this public decampment, complete with chain-link fence, security guards, barriers - everything sans the concertina wire (reserved for federal buildings 365 days a year).



Geez. You know it's bad when even the Christians put up a blockade which shouts, "Stay Out!!"

Dueling reviews

One of the last seminars I took in grad school was by Margery Wolf, who wrote a somewhat-famous book on postmodern critiques of ethnographic research, whereby seemingly obvious and objective observations are interpreted, re-imagined, and disseminated through the particular biases of different observers. (See? Too much graduate school education affords one the ability to spew theoretical vocabulary with the best of them.)

I felt a bit like one such observer this morning, as I was bounced back and forth between two competing print reviews of Miss Potter, which opened this weekend in Los Angeles.

A couple weeks ago, I attended a SAG pre-screening with a Q&A by Christopher Noonan, Renée Zellweger, and Emily Watson. Frankly, I enjoyed this movie, and recommended it to my friends, even though biopics tend to bring out the notoriously fickle reviewer in all of us (i.e., “Did so-and-so really do that?” “Did people dress/act/speak like that?”).

Two reviewers - Carina Chocano in the LA Times, and Ella Taylor in the LA Weekly – obviously had their own list of fickle points to hit after viewing the movie.

For instance, gripes about Renée Zellweger:

LA Times

“Thirty-six and unmarried in 1902 (though, unaccountably, the movie makes her 32 the year she published "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," because, let's face it, nobody wants to see a movie about a 36-year-old spinster, there are limits)…”

LA Weekly

“Bronzed and russet all over, with quaintly autumnal production design to match, Zellweger’s Beatrix bustles about, flashing the Zellweger sour-lemons smile, dispensing maidenly charm and no-nonsense practicality as she shepherds her little tales from soup to nuts….”

And, the acting abilities of Ewan McGregor:

LA Times

“Still, the movie is redeemed by excellent performances. McGregor, in particular, lights up the film, and in her scenes with him… His Norman is a pure, puppyish innocent with a bounding enthusiasm for Potter's work.”

LA Weekly

“Smiling nervously as if not to unseat the mustache precariously affixed to his upper lip, this Mr. McGregor does nothing to convince us that the pallid swain is the love of Beatrix’s life….”

Take a read yourself, and perhaps even see the movie, then make up your mind.

On the other hand, I think Ella Taylor had her own Xmas wish-list for this end-of-year movie:

“Unfortunately for her, she has Emily Watson at her elbow, acting up a storm as the independent sister of Potter’s doomed fiancé. Which had me wishing the two actresses would either trade places and have done with it, or run with the promisingly homoerotic current that courses through most close same-sex friendships of that period.”

Oh, well. It is the LA Weekly that has all those costly-per-minute phone numbers listed in the back pages.

A native view of the parade

Since I am a native-born Pasadenan, I get asked questions about the Rose Parade all the time. (The most useful? "How do I deal with the street closures and parking?") That's for another time.

So, this year I decided before the weekend crowds decamp in the Rose City, I would show the readership of this small corner of the blogosphere what the "real" parade route looks like - instead of the one-dimensional example here.

First, the floats line on Orange Grove.



Then, they make the sometimes perilous turn onto Colorado Blvd. proper.


After the long trek down Colorado, they then head up Sierra Madre - on the "wrong" side of the street no less! Bet you didn't know that.



One of the last obstacles for tall floats is the 210 Freeway overpass. If you've ever wondered why all those really animated floats have to collapse down to a certain height, you're looking at it.


Finally, the parade ends at Pasadena High School/Victory Park. Years ago, float viewing was free on the grass at the park, but around 1978-1979 there were massive rainstorms, creating one big, festive mud pit, courtesy of the City of Pasadena.

Welcome to town. Now, obey the signs

There's not too much to report to my readership, given that I haven't been on set since last week.

There is, however, the impending arrival of the Rose Parade in Pasadena. (I'm a native - so please indulge me.)

Last year, we had a deluge of rain on Jan. 1st - causing teenage marching bands to be wet and gloomy, and seeds, petals, and banana leaves on floats to peel off and add to the general accumulation of trash on Colorado Blvd.

I walked to the end of my block and tried to watch for about an hour, complete with backwoods raingear, only to retreat when my fingers went numb, and I was completely soaked from the knees down.

But this rarely happens. The last time it rained on the parade previously was somewhere around 1949 - about the same year downtown Los Angeles had its last recorded snowfall.

But, things might change. Today we had a bunch of rainstorms blow through the LA Basin, and tonight we have (cold) Santa Ana winds gusting at around 40 mph, with occassional gusts up to 70 mph.

Next Monday might be very, very interesting.

In the meantime, the city is going a bit crazy with last-minute construction of bleachers, viewing areas (like this), and the general pandemic of "No Parking" zones, like in the pic above.

Enjoy the view, but just don't park anywhere nearby, or pay $200.

It's hiatus, and the nerds are coming to town...

OK, it's hiatus in the industry, meaning almost all production in town is shut down through the first week of January, cast and crew members go scurrying across the globe on vacation, and almost everyone opens up their unemployment file.

About the same time in Pasadena, Colorado Blvd. starts sprouting bleachers like a poorly tended lawn sprouts mushrooms, Good Sam Club RV's pop-up on side streets, and the No Parking signs go up.

Then, things get weird.

If you haven't heard, the 118th Tournament of Roses has picked George Lucas as the Grand Marshall, to be escorted on the 5.6 mile route by almost 200 nerdy Star Wars fans (courtesy of today's Pasadena Star News).

I'm sure the founding fathers of the city never thought they'd see that (nor, of course, the year that Kermit the Frog was Grand Marshall).

Keep in touch - "bleacher shot of the day" will be coming soon.

Vocabulary on the day

A couple weeks into December marks the beginning of winter hiatus, the inevitable slow-down in production as television shows cease taping over the holiday break, movies may or may not continue filming (one I just worked on wrapped their US filming schedule, and moved overseas), and agencies generally slow down. It's the time when lots of folk in the industry go on unemployment.

So, I was lucky to get a few days this week, including one today on a show I haven't worked for months - and they remembered me (!), which was a nice bonus.

Anyway, a DGA trainee was on set, learning all the ins and outs of a working set, and starting up the steep directorial ladder (Trainee, Production Assistant, Key Set PA, 2nd 2nd AD, Key 2nd AD, 1st AD, and Director). But he was really cool about watching the crosses and timing, no chips on his shoulder, no bossing the background (most of whom have been doing this longer than he has), etc.

And as we chatted between takes (we were deep - a long way away from the boom mike), he admitted that he tried to keep out of his "normal" conversations the peculiar vocabulary that we all pick up on set.

If you use terms like the following with civilians on the street, you know you're too far deep into the industry to change:

"Copy That" Almost everyone in production has a Motorola, and those on set have earpieces. There's an old joke that the AD's always hear "voices in their heads," which is true. So you might be talking to the Key Set PA, who will then cock his head to one side, grab a microphone clipped to his shirt, and say, "copy that" to whomever has asked him to do something. Funny thing is, you do this dozens of times a day, and it become normal, or at least, you think it's normal. On one gig, a PA told me she heard her roommate say "copy that" to her mother on the phone, in lieu of "yes." "

"Flying In" (A personal favorite) When something is "flying in," it's being rushed in."Honey, can you bring the salad from the kitchen?" "Sure. Flying in, Mom."

"Flashing," and "Striking" Wardrobe always wants to take polaroid or digital photos of background in their own clothes or costumes so they can match the shot, if need be. Inevitably, they will always say, "flashing" before snapping the photo. Juicers will also sometimes call out "flashing" or, I am told more commonly for arclights and the big stuff, "striking," before switching them on. (Don't laugh - stages are rigged to go from night to day with the flick of a switch.) One friend told me her boyfriend, a gaffer, has it so ingrained in his daily habits, that he says, "striking" when turning on the lights at home.

"On The Day" (My all-time personal favorite) When the cameras are rolling, and you are acting, it is "on the day." So if the PA says, "On the day, cross over to that desk, make conversation for five beats, then peel off, banana around the principals, and exit camera right" it's crystal clear. At least, to those of us who do this for a living.

It's About Time

OK, so I'm spending my Sunday afternoon doing some serious housecleaning on the blog.

Frankly, it needed it.

Dead Like Me

It's little-known outside the background community that being cast as a corpse constitutes bragging rights (toe tag, versus upper torso, versus whole torso, versus chest-torn-open, etc), and endless discussions in holding about who was the "better" dead fellow.

So it was delightful to hear a piece on NPR's Sunday Edition this morning about this topic. You can listen to it online here.

Weekend Edition Sunday, December 10, 2006 · The number of corpses on prime time television is on the rise -- and it presents a challege for TV's casting directors. Playing the part isn't easy. It requires more than just holding your breath and being able to stay still for a long time.

And as for me? Nah, never been a corpse. Someday...someday.

How not to make movies

Great article in today's Los Angeles Times about the control author Clive Cussler had over the making of Sahara, from his novel.

The best line, of course, is from one of the writers hired to polish the doomed script:

James V. Hart (Steven Spielberg's "Hook" and Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula") was paid about $600,000. He found Cussler difficult, but not unlike many novelists — protective of their material and unable to grasp the transition to cinema.

"I've worked with a lot of live authors," Hart testified. "The dead ones are easier to deal with."

Down the drain

One of the first things you learn on set is that "not all is as it appears to be."

All those nice offices, airports, hospital rooms, and even small town Americana, are constructed for the "look," and ease in filming.

This means that for a certain coverage shot, a whole wall might be unscrewed, unbolted, and moved out of the way so the cameras can get a better angle, usually in a matter of minutes. I've also seen the gaffer make the decision to take a portrait off the wall and have a large hole cut to bounce a light into a shot. Picture goes back on the wall, and no one is the wiser that there's a big gap behind the nice painting.

And other things which you take for granted, such as electrical outlets, phones, televisions, and trash bins are probably just props, and non-usable.

For instance, on show I used to work with an airport set, newcomers would often throw trash into the "official" looking bins, only to have props yell at them - the "real" trash cans were Rubbermaid bins with plastic liners.

But sometimes, even the vets forget this principle.

So today, I watched one of the leads on a show throw a cup of cold coffee down a kitchen sink, only to get yelled at by the crews as if he was a newbie backgrounder.

The sink's plumming was non-existant. That drain poured that bad cup of coffee onto the floor.

At least, today, they couldn't blame the background.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

The British journalist Toby Young once wrote a scathing tongue-in-cheek book, “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People,” about his experiences working for Vanity Fair. He landed a choice job with excellent prospects, and proceeded to take the goodwill of everyone around him, and throw it back in their face.

I recently worked with someone like that.

“I don’t like doing this job.” “

"Don’t like seeing my face on screen when I’m doing background.”

“I got something better to do tomorrow.”

The guy sure tried his best to channel his inner Toby Young. He refused to have make-up applied, until the 1^st AD threatened to send him home. He kept folding his arms during the shot when the AD’s asked him not to. And at the end of the day, props was running around looking for him and his stuff to turn back in - he was nowhere to be seen.

During our downtime on set, they guy kept complaining, “I’ve been doing this for five years. I’m waiting for my career to take off,” then griped about not working enough days.

I said, “At least this time of the year you can see free screenings with Q&A by cast members, or the director, if you’re not working on a given day.” (Which is true: Voting season is approaching and all the PR machines in town are cranking up the buzz quotient to eleven.)

“Nah. That stuff is for wanna-be actors who suck.”

Wonder how our casting director will like hearing back from production that this guy took off without getting de-proped by the assistant prop master?

Oh yeah, and he was union.

Sunday morning on film

Yes, Los Angeles in an industry town, just one without many meat packing plants. So the local papers are full of stories about "the business" that focus on things other than celebrity marriages, break-ups, and awards ceremonies.

Today's Los Angeles Times contains a couple such examples. Hidden away in the Business section is a highly informative article on the recent history of Panavision - one of the major manufacturers of motion picture cameras, including more recently, digital cameras.

Then, after throwing away a few pounds of glossy advertisements, I finally reached the Calendar section, which contains another good article on the travails of working with the new digital technology, specifically on Gibson's new flick Apocalypto.

Now, it's not just the inner nerd in me that likes to keep track on changes in cinematography, such as HD (high def), sometimes when on set, you need to know this is stuff is about.

Friday, I was on a late-night shoot, when the AD pulled out a few backgrounders from holding for the "HD sliver." A couple people asked, "What did he mean by that?"

If you've ever watched a football game on an HD television set, you know that resolution is much wider than "normal" feeds. Hence, when shooting the master shot in HD, the field is much wider than the so-called "Academy" ratio, so you need to fill those section of the room with people, otherwise the scene looks too spread or empty, and lacking in "atmosphere" which is what we are listed as on the daily call sheet.

In fact, if you ever get a chance to peer at the video feed monitor from a camera shooting in HD take a careful look - there will be two vertical lines showing the "standard" resolution covering about 80% of the screen, with the section on either side reflection the HD feed.

Have wardrobe bag, will work.

Sometimes in this business you feel like a medical intern; long hours, little sleep.

Because this week has been particularly slow for me, I went on the overnight rush lines last night (to fill vacancies created by the sick, wounded, or those with last-minute auditions in the morning).

I finally get the call around 2:30 am:

"Want to work today?"

(Duh...) "Ah, sure, why not? What's my role?"

"You're playing a doctor."

Told you.

Thank goodness for the union reps!

There's an old joke among the background community that we are the "cockroaches" of the industry. Most folks will think this stems from being the lowest in the pecking order. But on the other hand, think of this:

1: We will eat almost anything organic left on set. (Just ask crafty!)
2. We are largely impervious to extreme changes in temperatures in holding.
3. We appear, and disappear, into strange corners of the set, such as behind C stands, flags, wild walls, etc.
5. We work in smoke, water, and other maladjusted conditions for extra bumps in pay.
4. No matter how many times you try to eradicate us, we keep coming back.

So, early this week I was on a new feature in downtown Los Angeles. Location shots are always interesting, but on this day, the rain was pouring down.

You would think production would have things under control. Instead:

1. We waited in tents for wardrobe to approve our business attire for a full 45 minutes. You might think, “So what?” But, at first there were no lights inside, then the electricians ran some lines through standing puddles of water after a few complaints. By the time we were done, most of us were standing in a full inch of water, clutching wardrobe bags, purses, etc. Anything to stay relatively dry.

2. We were informed that there was “no holding” area for us, either at catering (across the street) or on set. Originally, they wanted us to stay outside, in the elements – which were now dripping atmosphere. Apparently, they hadn’t bothered to order more tents for the shoot. Eventually, we were shown a small room inside, near set, which would serve as a “temporary” holding. It was the size of a large broom closet, with about a dozen seats to serve roughly 50 union background, and another 25 non-union background. Now, the contract is quite clear on all these things:

19. SANITARY PROVISIONS

The following shall be provided:
(a) Pure drinking water.
(b) A seat for each Background Actor.
(c) A stretcher or cot to be used as a stretcher.
(d) Separate dressing rooms for actors of each sex.
(e) Separate dressing rooms for children of each sex.
(f) Adequate provisions for proper and safe keeping of Background Actor’s clothing during work.
(g) Adequate, clean and sanitary, individually screened toilet facilities, toilet paper, soap, and paper towels, or individual towels. Sanitary napkins must be obtainable.

Background Actors may refuse to change wardrobe if not provided with a place of privacy and comfort. Dressing rooms with adequate lighting to be provided. Buses and restrooms are not considered acceptable places to change. Buses used as holding areas must have lights and proper seasonal climate control.

The final nail in the coffin was the “privacy” concern. Some shootsdon’t want cell phones that can take photos on set. Some A-list actors don’t want to be compromised and production companies, understandably, don’t want plot lines to be released before a movie has been fully edited.

So, we were told, “No cell phones on set.” Fine, “How about in holding, which isn’t on set?”

“No, all cell phones must be locked in your cars.” [This applied to background only – even union – crew was still chatting away their online minutes like a bunch of teenagers on set.]

Minutes later, a good fraction of the call was on the phone bothering SAG Production Services – the enforcement wing of the union for backgrounders – with the following refrain, “Production is taking away our ability to call you from set regarding labor contract violations.”

That piqued their interest.

Now, I was in the shot for most of the morning, but when I emerged, chairs had suddenly sprouted like mushrooms after a good rain, all the PA’s and AD’s were very, very friendly to us (what a change), our 2nd 2nd AD had a copy of the SAG contract stuck in his back pocket, and people were getting called left and right from SAG reps with follow-up questions.

Yeah, we’re cockroaches, but sometimes the union pulls through.

Some weirdness for the day....

This choice piece made into the main section of today's LA Times. Big, bad food companies adultering organic food products, such as guacamole? I'm shocked, shocked that there could be food manipulation in agribusiness.

Try making it yourself.

Ontological Nihilists On Set

Hope all the readers of the AAGH are binging on baked poultry and overly-starchy side dishes today and taking the rest of the week off.

Here in Hollywood land, the industry is basically on hiatus until next Monday, so yesterday afternoon was a busy time for casting directors. In the space of about two hours I was (1): called by my service with details for the regular show next week; (2) then called an hour later and told that day’s shoot was cancelled; then (3) 15 minutes later booked on a feature for the same day; and finally (4) called out of the blue by another casting agency wanting to know whether I owned a dog or not (for the record, I don’t), and whether I was booked for a certain future date.

Consequently, I am enjoying this day of rest in full recovery mode.

But I also need to recover a bit from a thirteen-hour gig on Tuesday on the semi-regular show.

If you’ve ever done background work, you know holding is a bit scary: nervous, twitchy, anxious actors waiting to be called to work at any moment, people dozing away in their Coleman camping chairs (mostly SAG folks who’ve seen it all), or people chatting away and a mile-a-minute pace, who really, really need to switch to decaf.

So, on Tuesday I was stuck listening to a guy going on for over an hour on why his 1970-era car should be used in more auto calls, and how he had calculated estimated payments based on said bookings if he purchased a car from the 1980’s, 1990’s, etc (and this was all the way across the room!).

Just when I thought I was going to get some rest, he then pulled out his outline for a sci-fi script and began to debate – loudly – the finer points of the genre, movie by movie.

That’s when I began to think about looking for a nail gun from the carpenter’s truck.

Luckily, I got called into set, but, as the old adage goes, “Be careful what you wish for.”

The PA set a few of relatively deep in a scene, just on the edge of frame. No hero shot, but then most background work isn’t.

However, just as the cameras and sound were rolling, a loud buzzing sound began to emanate from a woman’s purse on the ground.

It was a damn cell phone going off on vibrate mode!

Since the rest of us knew who the culprit was, we told her to turn off her phone on set. “Oh no, it can’t be mine. No one has my phone number, I don’t give it out.”

Fine. It was a wrong phone number then.

Even after we told her repeatedly to turn it off, she simply refused to it was “her phone” making that buzzing noise coming her purse, on the floor, near her feet.

Thankfully, the gates were good after that take, and sound didn’t make an issue of it.

I can take PA’s screaming at you because they made a mistake (but you get the blame), DGA trainees who set background to make complicated crosses and then cause traffic jams behind some C stand, but this was simply the case of an ontological nihilist: someone who has issues with “reality.”

So, the lesson is, turn off your phone on set!

[By the way, AAGH looks like some type of curse word or anguished cry, but that’s for another post.]

How To Act "Naturally"

There's only been one television series I've made an effort to follow this season - Heroes. So I was pleased to attend a screening tonight at the SAG offices with a Q & A by nine cast members afterwards. Since it's on Monday nights, thought I might miss one episode, but the folks at NBC aren't that mean, so we saw the same episode tonight as everyone else.

The show obviously has a following, and it seemed as if some of the more energized fan base in the union attended tonight. But I and the guy sitting next to me were really surprised to hear about the casting process for those present; most received a callback for their screen test while driving away from their initial audition. One guy was walking back to his car at Universal when he got the call to immediately go over to a wardrobe trailer for a fitting.

Is that rare? You bet. Only one cast member reported having a "normal" experience with his audition. It took him several days to hear back from the producers.

Now a "normal" aspect of background work is that you don't often get to do bona fide reaction shots - that's when you are either asked to express some emotion to actions made by a principal, or interact with them. It all depends on the director and how he/she envisions the shot.

Luckily, for the "regular" gig I work almost every week, this happens a lot, especially with those of us established as regular office people, but sometimes weird stuff happens.

And that's what happened a couple weeks ago.

In one bar scene (now this wacky, screwball comedy), one of the leads vies for the affection, and a date, from a very attractive employee - and so does his archrival, who doesn't stop at hitting on her, or other women in the bar, even after he rips off his shirt to get her attention.

So our 2nd2nd AD told us this hilarious story about the reaction shot that we all thought would survive the cutting room floor.

It was a relatively big call for this show, so holding had lots of background waiting for turnaround shots, etc, most being non-union and new to the show.

When the director changed the scene to include the archrival guy hitting on other women in the bar, he asked the 2nd to "get some nice looking girl."

Therefore, our guy goes marching through holding on a mission to find "the one," and found a young, blonde woman sort of snoozing while waiting to be called to set (don't snicker - we all do it - especially the union folk).

So on set he tells her, "Oh yeah, this actor will come up and ask you something at the end of the scene," but nothing more.

Naturally, when she was waiting to do some pantomiming before the director yelled "cut," she never envisioned having a naked torso guy dancing around in front of her, yelling and singing, "Hey babe, where you from?"

Of course, her eyes popped out of her head at this sight, and the director shouted, "Cut! Print that one! New deal."

She will probably remember it as a somewhat horrible day on set, but I would bet good money her face makes it to Fox TV next year.

PS - In case you always wondered about those crew job terms where in the final credits, Peggy Archer has given a brief summary on her blog. And if you ever do stand in work, you need to know who these people are, since you are helping the DP, CLT (gaffer), and - usually - two camera OPs block the scene.

PSS - Am trying to update this blog before heading out to an early morning call tomorrow with the TV tuned to What About Brian. Great! I finally get to see myself doing a few key crosses and sitting next to William Devane. Funny thing is most of the union background on that call are regulars on the "other" show we work - basically every episode (but more about that when we all learn the airing date). The casting director works both shows, so we were literally picked-up from one set of skins and cast on Brian for a location shot.

Even the lowly get photo doubles....

Last summer, before the series season took off, I was lucky to nab a fitting for a big emmy-winning series, with the promise of a couple workdates when shooting began.

It was only afterwards when I sat down with the key 2nd that I learned they wanted to give me a featured background part (the difference between featured and regular BG roles? If you can recognize yourself on screen, instead of a swoosh in front of the camera, that's kind of featured role).

Nice, but some weeks later I got the call, "Shooting schedule has changed. We'll be in touch."

Eventually they did, some ten weeks later, and when I showed up on set the other guys kept asking, "Hey, where is (Gilan)? And who are you?"

When we got around to filming, it was reshoot and everyone knew where they had been placed the previous week - everyone but me.

And then I learned that I was there to photo double for a fellow backgrounder who couldn't make it that day. Apparently, the two of us look similiar, and surprisingly so from the back of the head.

Consequently, the 1st AD asked me to keep showing the "back of my head" whenever we rolled, which made for some interesting poses (ex: an elevator with everyone looking out, except me, standing with my back to the camera).

Some weeks later, I worked a four camera show, and actually met my mysterious photo double! He had been sick, so couldn't shoot that day, but our heads and hair are close enough for film. He was returning to the other set the next day, so I'm sure that crew had a bunch of laughs about it.

Oh yeah, and when I turned in my wardrobe, they said, "See you soon." Hmm. Ten weeks and used once for somebody else. I think not, and I'm happy to work my other regular shows instead.

Geez, Thank for Your Support....

There's nothing quite like working your tail off on set for 2+ weeks, then finally turning on the laptop only to have a newbie blogger flame you.

I was thinking about putting the Angry Anthropologist on a short-term hiatus when work got busy, but orignally thought against it.

I think it's time to reconsider.

One of the nice things about being a regular on a full-run, or near full-run television series is the constant work and the peculiarity of seeing the same people on set day after day.

That was last week, when we shot a full episode in five days - five days with plenty of OT that kind of burned me out on writing at night. Obviously, this hindered my writing since the vainglorious day of professional background actor last week went something like this:

2 hrs morning LA traffic commute to 20th Century Fox studio
12.5 hrs ave. workday
1 hr lunch
1 hr evening LA traffic commute home
=========================
16.5 hrs total

That leaves a whopping 7.5 hours in the day to wash clothes for matching shot the next day, eat something, and actually try to sleep, and in the battle between blogging and sleep/food, the latter wins out.

On top of that, on Saturday I got to sleep at 12:30 AM, only to get up early, and promising myself a hike trekked up Mnt. Pacifico on the backrange of the San Gabriel Mountains (only 12 miles), rushed down to a wine tasting with friends from high school, then watched the World Series on the couch with one eye proped open to ward of sleep, which I did for much of Sunday.

On Monday? Back to the lot for the start of the next episode. And so it goes. Even as I write this I'm off to a location shot downtown, and expect to be back on the regular gig tomorrow.

Last Friday was also noteworthy in that we worked with a chimp, who I suspect was paid more than the SAG background. For those of us in that scene, we had to negotiate these two conflicting cultural frames:

Trainer: "Don't look the chimp in the eyes - it's a threat."

1st AD: "Be sure to react off the chimp - make sure your eyeline is on the chimp at all times."

Great.

Next time, a story about meeting a fellow backgrounder who I photo-doubled for.

My 10,064 ft. Saturday

Sorry for the dearth of posts this month, but I'm burned out from the last two weeks.

First, I worked most of the last two weeks on a tuxedo, fancy ball shoot which entailed both dancing to the same number repeatedly, or sitting for multiple shots pretending to like the person sitting next to you. Long hours, lots of OT, plus the always welcome formal dress pay bump outlined in the SAG Background Contract. (BTW, "formal dress" for men also includes a "white, Palm Beach suit" although I've never heard of a Palm Beach suit casting call.

It's just that the parental units in town took off on a long trip, and asked your truly to help with watering and other domestic chores, less the little green plants die on them. Others, namely my brother, was also asked to assist, but then had a sudden business trip out of state, leaving me to conduct midnight to 1AM watering sessions in my old neighborhood complete in a formal, black tuxedo.

Someone down the block must have been thinking, "Even the burglars are upscale in this part of town."

Then, I got the call last week for a show which I had been offered a featured, regular background role. Nice. Then the CD called and said, "Shooting schedule's changed - I'll let you know." That was more than ten weeks ago. Upon arriving to set, I then learned that I was photo doubling for another backgrounder. The other regulars chimed in unison, "Gee, you look just like [Bob]! You could be brothers!"

Obviously, Bob got the part weeks ago, but no great loss. Starting Monday I'm back on my regular gig, which bodes well for the rest of the shooting season. And for that day? The 1st said, "Be sure not to show your face too much, since you're another guy in this reshoot"

No what about the figure above?

I've been trying to retrace some of the more spectacular hikes in the San Gabriel Wilderness that I did in my youth. Today, with a storm system blowing through the southland, I trekked up Mt. San Antonio, also called Old Baldy to locals. Thirteen strenuous miles, 3,800' elevation gain, but better yet, blustery wind conditions (i.e., 40-50 mph gusts at the summit), with snow! All the way up to 10,064 feet after traversing the Devil's Backbone.

And what was at the summit, apart from a sign - four very cold, yelling Japanese tourists who insisted on having me snap a phone camera image of them, huddled together and beginning to show signs of hypothermia!!!

And I thought I just worked in a weird industry.