Volume 3 Number 10
Copyright 2007 Phillip Moon
Show: House M.D.
Date: February 22, 2007
Episode: Act Your Age
Location: 20th Century Fox
I've talked before about background and the different things they do to make ends meet. Background is not well paying unless you're in the union, and then you have the trouble of getting work. Many of the union people I know work as stand-ins, and the others have been doing it long enough to be regulars on a show, like House. As a result of this need for work, most background, as I've noted before, have other means of making money. Today there was an artist, real estate agent, office worker, web master and others on set. I am beginning to see why that is, because we are looking into the possibility that I will have to find other work as well, just to have time to do the things I need to do to move on in acting.
Show: Suite Life of Zach and Cody
Date: February 23, 2007
Episode: Sink or Swim
Location: Hollywood Center Studios
I have been doing this show for a while now, and this week they decided to set up regular background. The funny thing about that is, Disney has a habit of running these kids shows for three years and then ending production. This is the third year, and they are just now getting around to getting regular background.
Show: BuyCheapSoftwareDotCom
Date: February 24/25, 2007
Episode: Commercial
Location: Santa Monica
This is the first time I am working with my son-in-law Drew. Drew and his partner put this commercial together and shot it in two days. On the first day, I was...background. There were several other background actors I know who were on the shoot as well. On day two, they decided to shoot a second spec. commercial (one done with hopes of selling it to the customer), and I was in the right spot at the right time. Drew enlisted my services as a principal actor. Alas, the buyer didn't buy the second commercial with me in it, but a shorter version in there with me in the...where else...background.
One place on this commercial where you will see my work is in the graphics. An animated web site, with words that jump from the screen is my work. This was done in about 30 hours (with one nap and 3 hours of sleep) and the result was pretty cool, and is on my web site at http://media.phillipmoon.name/movies/BCSdotcom.mov . If you look at the three images here, you'll see the photographs in the first one which were created by me (with Linda help) and you will see me in the background of the first two images. In the third image, you see the cgi graphic I created for the “web page” on the commercial.
Show: Designing Housewives
Date: February 26, 2007
Episode: Liaisons
Location: Pasadena
Today was a day of sitting and little canons. The sitting was done inside and out, for shots of us at an outdoor political event, and an indoor political debate. The canons were streamer canons that fired off hundreds of red, white and blue streamers on cue in the outdoor scene. The wind often carried the streamers in unexpected directions (ie, where the camera wasn't aiming), and on occasion, they were fired into the trees above our heads. Because we were in a public park, the streamers had to be collected up and disposed of properly, so it was rather fun to watch the sound operator using the boom mic to pull streamers from the tree branches well above us.
Show: CSI: Crime Scene Investigations
Date: February 27, 2007
Episode: Big Shots
Location: San Fernando Valley
Our two locations today were in a bar (a real bar, not a reel bar), and a dark location the was made out to be the exterior of a strip club at night.
In the bar, we had almost all men inside, prompting one of the crew to ask if it was supposed to be a gay bar. We got a smoke bump (more money) for working the bar, because they ran a smoke machine to get a bar like atmosphere (this being Vegas). Good thing too, because I was sitting right next to the smoke maker, getting it in the face every time it was turned on.
When the sun went down, we started shooting the outdoor scene that takes place outside the strip club. There was no real strip club, but there was a cool sign that some car was supposed to have hit, and toppled. It was a cold night, and there were a number of young women playing the strippers from the club, and as befits strippers, the young actors were dressed (if that is the right word) in very little cloth. In between takes, the AD would bring them jackets to help them get warm. The reward for standing in the cold and wearing outfits that contained almost as much material as my tie was working on a SAG voucher. The yellow color of the SAG vouchers clashed with the blue of their lips.
