Tag Archives: on set

That’s A Wrap!

31 May

This past Thursday I had the most amaaaaazing experience!

I shot my first…dun-dun-dun…commercial! πŸ˜€

<insert happy dance here>

I had the best time, I don’t have enough descriptive words in my vocabulary to properly describe how it was, think of every word that means amazing/stupendous/awesome/over-the-moon, string all those words together and that might come close to how much fun I had…maybe! lol

A paid acting job – can’t get better than that! πŸ˜€

It is a commercial for a local company and it is an online commercial so you won’t randomly come across it when watching tv but if I find a link for it once it is up online trust me when I say I will for sure share the link lol

The director and camera guy and sound guy and make-up lady and well, everybody that was there was nice, super friendly, gave me great feedback and was so much fun to work with! Couldn’t really have had a better time. πŸ™‚

The commercial was set in a grocery store so that is where we filmed, first in the parking lot of a grocery store then when the shop was closed we were inside. Some random things I learned about grocery stores are:

– they never ever ever turn the music off

– the produce misters randomly mist during the night

– they are creepy when there is only a small group of you there and you know the store is closed

– the staff bathrooms are nasty

Some things I learned about myself after extended time in a grocery store:

– the longer I am standing in an aisle the more interesting the food in that aisle becomes

– I didn’t know you could buy iced tea in such large jugs

– it is instinct to want to reach out for items that are on sale so I can buy them, even though there is no staff to buy them from lol

We shot three different scenes, meant to take place on three different days, I am not sure if they will pick one they liked the best and use that for the commercial or if they are creating three separate commercials, that is not the type of information I am given. There were four actors total for this section of the commercial, there were others scenes being shot today that those of us that filmed in the grocery store won’t be in. I had to be on set for 5:30pm and be ready for filming by 6:30pm, that gave me enough time to do wardrobe and make-up and discuss with the director what I would be doing, oh, and also for meeting the other people I’d be in the scenes with. Some of the actors didn’t have to come till later in the day because the scenes with them in weren’t until later. I wrapped (that means I finished on set) a little after 4am, so a 10.5 hour shoot which is about right. It could have been a little shorter, well, a lot shorter I suppose, but after the sun was too low and we couldn’t film outside anymore we had to wait for the grocery store to close at 11pm before we could start setting up and filming inside. That gave us a nice break where we could get a hot drink, get fed (they feed you on set), hang out, do whatever. I didn’t go anywhere because I looked horrible lol My character is this really tired, defeated mom so my make-up was smudged and my hair was messy and my outfit was, um, not attractive lol Perfect for the character but nothing I’d want to go wandering around in…though I was quite comfy. πŸ™‚

I got exceptionally awesome feedback from the director, he said I did a great job, he loved working with me, he said all kinds of good stuff but it’s rude to brag so I’ll stop with that lol

When it was all over I got home and arrived to this at my door…

large, pretty and nameless lol

large, pretty and nameless lol

They are from my landlord and his wife, they are from the garden. I don’t know what they are but they smell quite nice. I was reluctant to bring them in because the last time they gave me blooms from the garden there were ants in them and well, yuck! I carefully inspected these ones and they seem to be bug free, I’m hoping I didn’t miss the little buggers, I can’t abide insects in my place, *shudder*. Even though they weren’t left for me as a “good job” or “congrats” for the acting job I sort of pretended they were, well, for about a minute lol, then reality set in and I realized they wouldn’t remember that was the night I was filming and they were just being nice, shrug.

Oh and get this, as if getting to be on set wasn’t enough to make the day awesome prior to filming I had an audition, so it was a day filled with acting, acting and more acting! πŸ˜€ Oh how I wish all my days were like that, sigh.

I am determined that this is the beginning, the first noticeable step, from here on out it will be bigger and better and one day I’ll be making my living from acting, not just squeezing it in between day jobs!

A Little Down Lately

18 Jan

Do you ever have days where for absolutely no reason you can point to you are a bit down? I’ve been having days like that lately and when I have the energy to care it pisses me off, mostly I don’t have the energy to care though lol

This evening I am a bit down but I know why. I got booked in a non-union no-pay commercial that is filming tomorrow. The plan was I would rush after work to the set and film, yay! Even though I wouldn’t be getting paid it would be good exposure and I looooove being on set. Plus, it is my first official booking with my new agent and it seemed like a great sign for how the rest of the year would go, so soon in the year getting a booking? What a wicked start!

Well, sigh, I got an email that the time of the shoot has been changed to tomorrow at 11:30am, I can’t make it because I will be at my day job and it wasn’t enough notice for me to swap shifts. Ugh. Luckily, because it is a no-pay gig I won’t get in trouble for not being able to go anymore but there goes my exposure, double sigh.

Since I got the email with the change of time I’ve been down. On my drive back to my apartment after work this evening I was actively thinking about getting a milk shake, as if drinking a ridiculously high in calorie drink would somehow make me feel better. Taste good suuuuuure but do anything good for me long term? Nope. Short term though…well, that’s a different matter since some days a person just wants to eat/drink their feelings lol

Instead of buying a milkshake I made a drink at home that I love but rarely have because it isn’t all that great for me (though there are a lot worse drinks out there lol) but also because I like saving it as a treat.

these two added to warm milk = deliciousness

these two added to warm milk = deliciousness

You take milk, warm it on the stove, while it is heating up add a couple tablespoons of the almond powder that is in the pink tin, stir for a bit, pour in to a mug and sprinkle some nutmeg on top.

It’ll look like this…

Warm Almond Milk topped with Nutmeg

Warm Almond Milk topped with Nutmeg

If you are like me you have a mug you use for special comfort drinks (hot chocolate, warm almond milk with nutmeg…um, those are my only comfort drinks lol) which is why my drink is in that snazzy Star Trek mug that I got in Vegas. πŸ™‚

I haven’t been working out a lot lately, read between the lines and that translates to “I haven’t been working out at all lately” 😦 Bad me! *shakes finger at self* Mostly because of the hip and a small part because of my being lazy lol I went for a walk last Wednesday and am embarrassed to admit that was my only form of activity for all of last week. Laaaaaaame!

So now I’m trying to decide which way the correlation goes, do I feel down and as a result haven’t been exercising or have I not been exercising and that has me feeling down…either way the result is I am not exercising. *rolls eyes* I had a day or two last week where if I had wanted to push the hip I probably could have done something active but didn’t go because (get this!) I felt fat! Yeah, you read that right…I had a day where I didn’t go to the gym because I felt too fat to go to the gym, I felt that everyone would be staring and judging me as I failed on the treadmill, as I tried to lift weights, as I looked ridiculous stretching…you get the idea…

I am well aware of the faults in this logic…I can’t get in shape if I am not exercising but I was feeling too down and fat to want to go exercise. This is not a situation I am used to and I’m not really sure how to get out of it…*confused face*

I’ve decided I’m fed up with myself. Hell, I am irritating myself. So tonight before I go to bed I am going to pack a bag with my work out stuff in it and hang it on the door knob to my front door, that way I can’t possibly forget it tomorrow when I leave for work. Then after work no matter what I am exercising! I may go to the gym, I may go for an outdoor run, I dunno, but I am damn sure I am gonna do something cause no way I’ll start feeling better about how I look if I just keep doing nothing.

get out of your own way