Actor Growth

I was sleeping in a bit today since I was very tired from yesterday. When I woke up, I noticed that my background agent had tried to call me so many times in the morning. Apparently, Stargate Universe was shooting and they needed me to replace a person. Here was the funny thing……they said that the person I would be replacing was a female black lady. I was just thinking “Okay, where is the resemblance there?”

I was asked how fast I could get there and mentioned about half an hour. It kind of worked out not too bad as the shoot started right in the afternoon and when I got there the group wasn’t called up to set yet. When I got to set I just had to be the same character that I always am on that show. Was kind of funny as I was joking with the makeup artists that they were going to have to try and make me look like the person I was replacing.

There was one really weird moment on the shoot today. Basically, one of the main actors farted. And yeah, it created a smell in the trail he walked. So many of the other cast members were freaking out in a humorous/playful way as some of them even ran out the room while covering their nose. Took awhile to get the pandemonium down as it was like being in a school classroom where when someone let’s one go every reacts so dramatically to it.

There was so much talk about this being the last episode and that continuation will come down to whether or not the show gets picked up for a second season. It was interesting too as we shot variations of the scene and depending on what happens they will show different footages. So if they don’t get picked up then the season will end one way and if it does it will end up a different way to keep the story going.

As a result of being on set I didn’t get to see how that Smallville footage turned out. I also got an e-mail about auditioning for a short film. This day sure shows how you can’t expect a daily routine type of schedule when you are starting out.

Today I got to work on the show V and it was an early call as my start time was about 6:30am and lasted till about 7pm. It was just simple background work. I actually haven’t had to work a 12 hour day in awhile too. There were quite a few people called to work and I must say there were so many tall women. Guess it is somehow related to the theme of the show.

While on set I actually heard someone who was scolding his agent to others which was kind of interesting. He just mentioned the location that the agency was located in and that it was a male. With just that, I knew exactly which agency he was referring to and sure enough that was the case. Kind of shows you how it can work the other way around for actors too where an agent’s bad reputation can get around fast within the acting community.

I was supposed to work on Stargate tomorrow too but apparently things got changed around. I was joking with a friend on set too as maybe this gives me time to see something potentially funny on Smallville. By the looks of it, for sure you can see me in tomorrow’s episode. I am just wondering about the continuity as I think they used me a bit too much that day where you see me here and then there type of deal. Considering I am one of the few minorities too that doesn’t exactly help the situation. Interested in seeing how they do the editing.

Looks like for whatever reason the scheduling on this show is getting jumpy. I never seen the call times get changed so many times too. The shoot even went past 12 hours which is supposed to be extremely rare for this production. It’s almost like they are in a crunch time mentality. Apparently the schedule changes were a result of having to follow some kind of SAG union guideline when it came to a particular talent that was being brought up from the states or something like that.

I believe that the episodes that are being shot this month are the season finale. To my knowledge at the end of this month it is supposed to be a wrap for the first season of shooting. Was definitely an interesting day yesterday as there were so many people with weapons. They were all fake of course. It looks like the next few weeks a few of us are needed for continuity reasons and so we have to keep our schedules flexible in anticipation that we will need to shoot for a couple of days in a row on this show.

I wonder if that will conflict with the feature film I was acting in. Guess everything is up in the air in terms of scheduling as even with that production they seem to be rescheduling everything and I’m not sure when I will be needed for that. Next week was originally the date that I would do the bulk of my dialogue for that film. Just going with the flow at this point in time.

Got a phone call today about doing some work on a TV show called Human Target tomorrow. I was just trying to do some research about it and it looks like an action show. I never actually worked on this show before. One thing it made me think of was how there are two Fox network shows shooting here in Vancouver which is kind of interesting. Funny enough, the only show I really watch on that channel is 24 and they don’t normally shoot that here.

Sounded like it was for a pretty stereotypical gig too as the first thing the agency told me was that I needed a “casual business appearance”. That usually means the typical Asian business people. It sounded like a pretty last minute call too so I am guessing I am a filler/substitute. One thing that is kind of annoying about these calls is that you don’t know your call time until very late. I hope I won’t get the call time at like 11pm just to tell me that they need me there at like 5am as an example.

I got an interesting call from the agency saying that the production Fringe was looking for people to do a shoot that involves the performer having to go though some things that can be physically demanding where it can take a toll on one’s body. While this is technically classified as background work still, unless for some reason it is going to be integral to the scene, the pay scale is going to be pretty decent to accommodate the demand.

It just made me think a bit on whether or not things like these are worth it at times. Actually, I would be more enthusiastic about this if it was classified as a principal or stunt role as in many ways it’s almost like a stunt considering what you may have to potentially do. For me it is definitely not about the money but rather thinking if the opportunity will help me to get further ahead in my career.

Although, I must admit that one way I have gained opportunities is that I did things that no one else wanted to do and so that naturally opened up more doors for other projects. Another reason I was thinking on whether or not I wanted to do it is that the next day after I have to act in a film as the lead which is supposed to start in the morning. I was told that this work on Fringe could potentially be an all nighter.

For the time being I said that I will be willing to do it as I don’t know if this is a sure thing anyways.

Haven’t worked on this show since the pilot. Today was a doozy too as it was filmed outside in the scorching sun and I would say a good half of us got some kind of sun burn or sun tan by working on this set. The keyword for me working on this set was network circle I thought.

It was so interesting that this is kind of the first day I worked on a set where I knew someone personally in most of the departments through my acting journey thus far. For example, a production assistant that was working on set happened to be the sound person for a volunteer film where I was acting in where his friend and himself was making. One of the actors who is playing a frequently occurring role in this series is a person I know from doing background work. The list went on.

That definitely showed how small of a world it is and in many ways it’s reassuring too that the work and connections I have made from the past definitely do come back up in my future endeavors. There was one funny moment during the day where the lead actor Eric Stoltz flipped us while the camera was rolling. Basically, he was off camera and in the scene we were all suppose to be super mad. So as a joke while we were still yelling and all he decided to do that. A lot of people almost broke character too because of that which was hilarious.