The Middle

Hello my faithful blog readers! I know some of you want to hear the story of my time on-set for my first 'extra' job yesterday, so here ya go:

I was told to arrive by 8am, and the location was Taft High School in Woodland Hills, CA. It was about a 15-minute drive away. I drove for the first time by myself on the 101 and did just fine. I arrived at Taft High School with 15 minutes to spare, but I saw no marked lot that I was to park in. No signs, no nothing. I found a nearby security guard and he told me I was to go down Ventura, take a right on one street, then another right, and I would see signs pointing me in the direction of "The Middle". So I drove about 5 minutes away to Pierce College where there was a huge parking lot for us all to park our vehicles. I then noticed a couple white shuttle buses which were there to take us extras over to the High School. We arrived a few minutes after 8am and got in line to get our voucher we needed to fill out and give to them at the end of the day so we could get paid. Getting paid is definitely a nice thing, as you all know. In line, I met a guy named Kurt and another guy named Cody. This was their first time at the extra thing too, so we were all confused and unsure about what exactly to do. But we were given our vouchers and told to head to wardrobe to see if what we were wearing or what we brought was best to wear on set. I was told to put on my brown, long-sleeved polo over my t-shirt. So I was good to go. We then sat in the holding area, otherwise known as "holding" for a couple hours before we were brought in for the first time. In the down time, I got to know and talk to Kurt and Cody and we swapped stories and talked about California, and acting, and moving there, etc. When they finally called us in, they started seating us in different spots of the camera/lighting/people-infested auditorium. They first placed all three of us guys in the front row, middle aisle before moving Kurt to the second row. I was the second seat in from the middle aisle on the left section of folding chair seats. On stage was a high school show choir, but I never actually found out where they were from. In the background I noticed Neil Flynn, also known as the Janitor from Scrubs. He is playing the dad of the Indiana/Midwestern family in this show. He's really tall in person. Anyway, we were all given programs and were told to enjoy the performance on stage. The show choir was performing to "Get the Party Started" by Pink. Needless to say, after as many takes as we had to go through, the song was in my head all day/night. The workers were moving a lot of people around to match up and mesh colors and looks. Luckily I got to stay in the front row. So they went through the first take and we were moving our heads around and bouncing to the beat a little bit. When they cut, one guy came to me and the lady next to me and told us to react and interact more, including 'fake-whispering' to eachother about what was going on up on stage. Everyone in the audience were supposed to be family members/friends/classmates of the kids on stage, just like going to any high school choir performance. After they told me that, I'm thinking that the back of my head and possibly my profile might be seen if they show the angle they had the camera set to. So I won't get anyone's hopes up, but it's possible. We were in there for awhile when they brought in the "first team", aka Neil Flynn, Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond), and the two sons of the family. They were literally 2 rows back from me, so that was a fun site to see.

Anyhoo, we were sent outside to holding and waited a long while before we got to go back inside. Lunch came around at 12pm and we were fed a feast to say the least. (Doo dah, doo dah) It was delicious! Set up buffett style, they had steak tips, chicken, fish, salad, fruits, veggies, spinach dip, and many other things. It's kind of nice getting paid to sit around all day and then get fed a free huge meal like that. When we finally got back inside, they had re-positioned the cameras/lighting/etc. to shoot from another angle. Before we got started, I noticed they brought in another recognizable actor, and sat him on the right section about two rows back. Chris Kattan ("SNL", "Night at the Roxbury"). He's pretty much as funny in person as he is on TV. I didn't expect to see him so it was pretty cool when I did. The family got to work the dialogue more, while we still bobbed and bounced to the music. We were in there a bit longer hearing all the ACTION! and CUT! and ROLLING! and all the other lingo that comes with filming and working on set, so it was a great experience and really fun to listen to.

We were sent outside and brought in again later in the afternoon/evening. By this time, we 8 o'clockers had already hit the 8-hour mark, so we knew we would go into OVERTIME! Overtime = more $$ :)

That third time going in, I got a little excited because I almost had some serious, yet short, on-camera time. I was told I was going to walk in down the middle aisle to the back row of the auditorium and sit in my seat, all while they were taping. So you'd get to see my backside the whole way down the aisle, because of the position of the camera up on stage. Unfortunately, after one take of that, with many others walking to their seats and sitting down, they scratched it because they decided they didn't like the idea as much as they thought. So instead of that, I got bumped back to the back row, maybe not to be seen on camera, but I guess we'll have to wait.

The day was long, but enjoyable. Turned out to be a 12-hr day of work. So I got paid 4 hours of overtime. I would've stayed 16+ hours had they not been done shooting at 8:30pm. I had a blast, met some new people, saw some more celebrities, and gained some experience of what it's like on set. I hope to get more of these jobs in the near future. I just have to keep calling Central Casting and checking to see if they have any open spots for shows that I fit the part for. Oh yeah, another recognizable actor in the show is Atticus Shaffer ("Hancock", "The Unborn"). I think he's playing one of the sons of the family. I didn't recognize the other son or the daughter, but hopefully I can find that out if they ever post more info about the show online.

So I hope you enjoyed this entry about my first day in extra work. It was a long story, and there are a few details here and there I left out, but nothing too important. The only downside of the show, is that it may not air till this fall. So it could be awhile before we get to see it. It's worth the wait :)

Until next time...