Take Two
8:30 am.
I’m a bit more prepared today. Pincurled my hair last night. Check. Remembered to toss my knitting and a book into my bag for today. Check. Go me.

As yesterday, I checked in, retrieved my wardrobe, and got gussied up. Well, as gussied up as one gets when makeup is using red eyeliner to simulate the bloodshot eyes of an opium addict. I then hied my way to the tent with all the other extras. Everyone was a bit more comfortable being there today, guessing by the conversation. I was given the low-down on L.A., working as an extra, and the politics of going union.

SAG, as I discovered, isn’t just something you show up for. While you can work as a non-union extra or actor, more money is gained by going union. To do this, you have to get three Union pay vouchers, and then pay $1300 as your fee. However, union vouchers don’t just fall out of the sky. One of the girls, Karen, said she got her first one ten years ago, and only had one left to go. Not exactly a profession for the weak of heart, acting.

Whiled away another couple of hours. For those of you that know my knitting habits, it was a two square day. However, we got our call to the set before lunch. So off we trundled.

It would seem that today is an ambitious one. The goal is to shoot six and two-eighths pages of film. The first was a speech by the villain of the story. We were each assigned places to move to and from, rather than the random placement of yesterday. I got to move from a little alcove to stand on a trunk while the principal in this scene did his thing. It was all very, very exciting, I tell you.

Then came the rather cool part. Playing with fire! Gunfire, that is. We went to the scene immediately before the speech, and one of the other principals fires a pistol. They walked around handing out earplugs for those who wanted them. I took a pair, but figured I’d wait to see how loud it actually was before I put them in. Surpisingly, it wasn’t worse than a cap gun, and I was about six feet away from the shot. I remarked as such to one of the guys standing near me, and was informed that this was nothing, since the show he’d been working on last week was using sawed off shotguns that were “way louder”. I asked what he’d been working on - seems he’d been an extra on Firefly quite a bit, & had worked there the week before. I laughed, and we ended up having a discussion about the fact that while the show is a solid concept, there are times when someone really should pull Emperor Joss aside to have a word with him regarding his shiny new attire*.
*Note : Having now seen not only the two hour premiere a few times, as well as the episodes in the order they were supposed to shown, I'd like to rescind that opinion, & state that Joss & Tim Minear (along with the cast & crew of Firefly) got screwed. Hurry up so I can get those DVDs, okay guys?

Now, my plan going into this exercise was pretty much to keep my head down, do what I was told, and basically not get my ass kicked off the set. So I was very surprised when Valerie walked up to me as I was going back to the set and asked if I would like a SAG voucher. I believe my response was a stumbling acceptance and thank you, all the while wondering, “Um, shouldn’t that go to like, real actresses?” But yes. Two days as an extra, & I got my first SAG voucher. I guess keeping quiet & moving like a good sheep pays off. Who knew?

On the way out of that shot, I mentioned to one of the other girls, that I’d gotten one, as well as how I felt a little guilty about it, since I knew that Karen only had one left. In an attempt to laugh it off, I joked, “But hey. It’s a nice souvenir, right?”
To which I was immediately told, “Never let anyone else hear you say that. It would be very, very bad.”
Okay then. In the interest of self-preservation, I kept quiet.

Lunch! Catering rocks, man. I had shark for lunch.

As we were waiting to go back up, Valerie walks over and chooses myself and another two girls to go up to do a tight shot. Then we get there, and are asked, “Did anyone sign the nudity waiver?” Negative, Ghostrider, the pattern is full. Turns out none of us did, and they were looking for a nudity shot. However, one of the principals that was a whore was willing, so we were placed in the background while they shot her silhouette as another guy fondled her a bit. Which is how I was in my first nude scene. Um, yay?

Moving on from that, we do some more scenes based around the speech from earlier today, as well as the introduction of the character of Calamity Jane. In this one, we were told to take our places from the first scene of the day. Then they started moving us. So we were supposed to be exactly like before - just….different. Riiight. Continuity’s going to have a conniption when they see the results of that one. For the Calamity scene, I once again got to walk upstairs and hang out. My new man and I made our way up the stairs to the balcony, where I discovered such fun details as the fact that to get a warmer tone in the shot, they were having one of the FX guys hold a lit brazier under the lens of the camera, and the fact that the first A.D. had on cowboy boots that glittered. We decided he was secure in his masculinity indeed.

Thankfully, they didn’t really need us once that set was finished, so we were sent off to change. After extricating myself from my corset and sighing in relief about the blessed miracle that is denim jeans, I headed over to the tent where Valerie would be signing our timecards for the day. She asked me to wait for a minute. I took a seat, and was joined by Karen. She looked at me and went, “Are you waiting for the same reason I am?” It turns out she also got a SAG voucher for the day - ten years, but she now had all three. Suddenly, I didn’t feel a bit guilty at all. Lovely!

Hours worked : 10.8
Hours actually on set : seven, give or take
Paycheck : $128.81 - post taxes

Tip of the day : Getting a SAG voucher doubled my rate for the day. Excellent! Time to go home!