Yo Ho, Yo Ho, An Extra's Life For Me

So yesterday on Las Vegas, most of the day was spent filming one scene that was only about a minute long. There were special effects involved, pyrotechnics, really cool to watch, from the safety of afar of course. And so my day as a Race Spectator was spent sitting in the bleachers at the drag strip for about an hour while they filmed the preliminary part of the scene, and then sitting in the shade under the bleachers until early evening when they filmed the last little bit of the scene. Only problem with that was they didn't have any chairs for us.

But once again, I used the down time wisely and got myself booked for today, Huzzah! I will be working on In Case Of Emergencies, I am an Airport Traveller. When I called in for wardrobe details, they said "No green, some of the scene will be filmed in front of a green screen." That'll be fun! I'm excited about that! Wondering what that's all about...

My call time isn't until 4:30 pm. Since the stand-in call-times were at 7:30 this morning, I'm guessing my group won't work past 11 pm at the very very latest, that takes the crew to 14 1/2 hours or so. I figured out that the 8 legally required hours between one day's wrap and next day's call time is based on the crew's time in and time out, not the background actors.

Once again, the location is far away, 50 miles, and I will be driving in almost rush hour traffic. Here in Los Angeles, rush hour can start as early as 2:30 pm and last until 6 pm, and it can take you 20 minutes to drive half a mile. Traffic literally inches along. So I am planning to leave at 1:30 pm. And it's really gonna suck if I drive 2 hours to get there, work an hour or two, and then get wrapped. But I'll still get paid for 8 hours even so, so I won't complain too loudly.

Oh, and I tried to get myself booked on How I Met Your Mother again. This time they were looking for standard pedestrians, not young hip NY types. The CD laughed when she realized it was me again, and said, "Sorry, I've booked all the Caucasians I need." *sigh* Most of the shows are very concientious (sp??) about mixed ethnicities on their shows, and also very specific: The'll say they need 3 Caucasians, 2 Asian, 3 African-American, 4 Hispanic, that sort of thing.