One For The "Win" Column

Shot my first print job yesterday (In spite of laying my forehead open less than two weeks ago), for something I've never heard of called Wimax (A new Internet service - I guess the "new" part is why I've never heard of it).

They were shooting a series of print ads, with a bad/better/best theme (Basically saying "Wifi is like this, and 3G is like this. But with Wimax, it's like this").

So three of us were in the ad I shot - a guy completely bald on top, a guy fitted with a bad comb-over, and a guy with a massive afro.

Demonstrating, I guess, that Wimax is the hairiest Internet provider.

I was "Comb-over Guy" (or "3G Guy", if you want to think of it that way).

My call time was 9:00 a.m., at a location off Sunset I could easily have rode my bike to, which would have been my preference (We went from a first location to a second location, which is why the production person told me I should drive, but the two locations were maybe a mile apart, if that. But anyway...).

My spot didn't shoot till after lunch (chicken taco, rice, salad, and a sliver of pumpkin pie with a teaspoon of Cool Whip), and it was pretty tedious going - no acting/interacting with each other, but just the three of us standing in a row, looking this way and that, smiling and not smiling, as per the director's instructions.

Kind of weird, that the least-fun part of the day involved actually doing what I was there to do.

It was tedious, and thanks to my as-yet-unrepaired hernia, it started to become pretty uncomfortable just standing up for the length of time it took to shoot the three of us (We were basically just standing on the sidewalk on Sunset, in front of an interesting stone wall, so we had to periodically stop for passerby).

After we were done with that, they took pictures of each of us individually (I don't remember if I was the second or third one up for that, but in any case, I'd had a chance to sit down for a few minutes, and happily, it didn't take long).

The shoot was boring and uncomfortable. But unlike the boredom and discomfort I typically experience (in my "civilian" work life), I was very well-compensated for my troubles; the job paid $1000 (Which, after taxes and JS's cut, will still pay my rent for a month, with enough left over for a trip to Subway), so I'm not going to bitch too much about it.

And there were other...compensations; in addition to getting paid, and getting fed, I enjoyed the ministrations of Jenni, my attractive - and I think age-appropriate - English makeup woman (Who, between applying my "comb-over" and dealing with my forehead, had to spend a fair amount of time on me).

So, while I still long for the day I'll be "well-compensated" to actually act, any day where I make $1000 to have my picture taken belongs in the "win" column.

The Wolfman Takes A Dip

Seems my desire to write in here has been blunted substantially now that there's no longer the lure of easy money...

Blunted, but not eliminated altogether.

Not too much going on in my "career" (Ooooh...putting "career" in quotes suggests I'm not feeling too positive about the state of things, doesn't it?). Though I was happy to get a second day of work out of the infomercial; seems they ran substantially short on their running time for the spot, so they needed to write some more pages to "stretch things out".

And Yours Truly was part of the stretching process.

(My initial un-happiness when I got the call about shooting some "pick-ups" had to do with an instant, irrational feeling that I "had done something wrong", that I hadn't been good enough, somehow. Which is stupid - needing to get "pick-ups" is on the director, not the actor - but there it was, hanging out in the stupid part of my brain.)

This second day of shooting was at the Director's house, just off Coldwater Canyon in Beverly Hills (Not a mansion or anything, but spacious and nicely appointed - impeccably decorated, with a pool and a view - representing a lifestyle to which I could easily become accustomed).

My bits were shot in and around the pool, which meant I had to do much of my work shirtless, a prospect I was pretty unhappy about going in (I'm a very hairy guy, something I've been sensitive about every since puberty struck, early and hard, when I was five or six years old).

But I did it, because that's what you do - I'm an actor (A middle aged, funny-looking, and yes, hairy actor), and vanity/insecurity/whatever you want to call it, doesn't really serve you well in that role.

Anyway, shooting the new stuff went very quickly - from call time to wrap, I was there for just two hours - and now I get to look forward to another check for another day's work.

So three cheers for "pick-ups"...!