Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Extra Extra! My Day at Disney...

Par for my journey as an actress/writer/everything-else, is my taking occasional work as a background player, aka... the extra. Being an extra is rather thankless work, as we are largely nothing more than props that have to be wrangled, costumed, fed, herded, directed, and generally put up with (for mostly minimum wage). We're lower on the totem pole than unpaid interns! However I love being on-set, watching professionals at the top of their game, taking mental notes (for my future producer days), and sometimes I get directed, as if I were an actual actress!

There's also A LOT of sit-around-do-nothing-for-hours! What to do with all that time? A lot of people eat their way through the free craft services (if it exists), some bring reading material/computers/etc, but mostly I find strangers coming up to me telling me things that they should reserve for their priest/shaman/guru.

In an effort to add creative sanity to what can be a long long, crazy, draining day...
I'm documenting parts of my trip down the Hollywood rabbit hole.

My first time on the Disney lot afforded me ample opportunities.

My First Badge!
After a year of playing skanky bar whores (why why why?), I got to be a detective on ABC's new show, No Ordinary Family. Here's my first badge ever! It went well with my Marc Jacobs top (from Crossroads Trader) that the costume dept let me keep on. Just cause I'm a cop doesn't mean I can't have style!

What about stupidity?
I think every person with a brain can relate to this.

Sleeping Extra
This guy didn't move from the time we got there to the time we left, six-ish hours later.

Just another day in the dream factory...
After the scene in the studio, me and my car drove to the location for my car's close-up... yeah, my car got the kind of coverage I would dance naked for... or something like that... you know what I mean!

Two Feet and a Parasol
This was my best time yet on-set, sitting in the grass, talking about photography with some of the real nice crew. I was told Danny DeVito likes to take pics of his feet too! Great minds perhaps?

Parasol on Grass
I never go anywhere without my parasol, it preserves my porcelain pale complexion.
The director noticed me enough to call me Mary Poppins (how VERY Disney!)... helllo Mr Director!!!

Just Look Down
Driveway Still Life

Tree Texture
I would love to see if an architect could duplicate this texture on a building.
Can you imagine? But perhaps only God can make a tree...

Until next time... Miss Absinthe

2 comments:

drollgirl said...

ha! i used to work for the museum of contemporary art, and every now and again they would loan out space for film, tv and commercial shoots. it was ASTONISHING to see so many folks just lingering around all the live long day, seemingly doing nothing! such a trip!

and i LOVE the texture of that tree! just divine! and the coloration makes it even more fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Great recap of your day! I used to work in entertainment and at times miss being on set!