Since my last blog, I have had a birthday. I refuse to use the expression "celebrated." Given my fragile emotional state at this particular time in my life-- a period of unemployment and detachment from my family-- I would rather not celebrate another year gone by.
The woman who cast me for the MTV spot emailed me saying she needed extras for a taping of Unplugged. So here we go again:
The woman who cast me for the MTV spot emailed me saying she needed extras for a taping of Unplugged. So here we go again:
Wed. July 22. This event took me to a charming area uptown. The call time was 7:15 p.m., with a check-in time of 7:30. So I arrived at 6:45. I walked into the building, which clearly held several more offices and places of business than just the studio I was searching for, and met with an intern (who could have been my daughter, but that's another age reference and we won't go there...) who asked me if I was "with the band or for the audience?" Like I couldn't do her job..... After I finished laughing at her, she informed me that I was in the right place, but "we" were running an hour behind schedule because of Katy Perry--whose taping of Unplugged preceded the one I was invited for. (which was for the band Vampire Weekend, who I had never heard of.) --Side note: I use a LOT of prepositions..that can't be good.
I took the necessary documents that Junior asked me to sign outside on a clipboard (ALWAYS with the releases....yesssss you can use my face on television--PLEASE DO!) As time went on, people started to congregate in groups or pairs-- all the while I am standing there thinking two things, both very typical of aspiring television personalities: a) this is good, only 12 ...16.... 18....28.... 36 people here.. I still have a healthy probability of getting air time... oh good, only 42... 58...6....damn it. and b) is the humidity making my hair frizzy?
Then Katy Perry, leaving from her recording, came out with one woman who appeared to be controling the situation. I stayed put.. already located close to the door (also, not one to get star struck, not really a huge fan of Katy's, and wanting to impress the MTV staff with my calm demeanor.) A few of the bystanders clamored and swarmed her, asking to take pictures. That's when I snapped the quick pic of her up top... I mean, when you're standing 6 feet from Katy Perry and your camera is [as always] within reach, you might as well click it, right? Thennnn the moment I had been waiting for..................
COURTNEY THE CASTING PRODUCER came out!!!!! [to people like me, casting producers are OUR celebrities..they have the POWER to directly make our dreams come true and validate all of our work and sacrifice with the snap of their fingers] This was the first time I had seen her since the call-back audition. It was not entirely her decision to cast us, the producers and, most importantly, NIVEA REPRESENTATIVES, reviewed the video tapes and chose us..also making the final decision on who to cut and who to proceed with.. Anyhow, she raved about the weight loss, and most importantly reported to me: "Everyone loved it! The president was skeptical in the beginning, he was like 'you won't see any change in 4 weeks'--but at the end he was like "wowww the girl looks great!!!" etc etc ...she went on like that for about a minute..I didn't stop her :-) I let her know that I quit my full-time job to persue television full-time. She volunteered to send lots of castings my way...without ANY coersion from me ;-) That went well, it was important for her to see me there. As she put one of those bracelet tag thingies around my wrist she said, "I'll put you down front, we'll get lots of shots of you--you'll be our go-to-hottie" She then went around to the other people and gave them the bracelets.
2 hours later--I kid you not-- but I didn't mind, as long as I'm doing something productive, waiting around doesn't bother me. What else would I be doing? Well, in this case I was missing the staff party at the country club I work at, which I actually really regretted...but there was never any question which I was gonna choose. So yeah; 2 hours later (9:15) Courtney came out with post-its. She numbered and distributed them--I got number 9. She then announced-- "1 through 10 inside." We all piled into the elevator and went down to the basement, where we were asked to line up single-file down a narrow hallway. It's times like this I love being clustrophobic. What really confused me was they brought everybody downstairs and lined us ALL up--all 70 of us in the hallway...before letting the first set into the studio. Whatever..we all stayed in order. A half an hour later we were directed, in groups of 5, into the studio and strategically placed by Courtney. There were seats stacked to to the back of the studio on ONE side, and maybe two or three rows to the left of the stage. Lastly, there were big pillows around the stage. Everyone who is familiar with Unplugged on MTV knows that it is an intimate, accoustic set. I was placed on the big pillow literally RIGHT in front of the lead singer's stool. perfect! The photos I took were from where I was sitting. I had to be a little sneaky because they made a big speach about TURNING YOUR CELL PHONES OFF. "it looks like shit on TV to see audience members texting, and furthermore if we catch anyone recording any part of the show we will be forced to ask you to leave AND confiscate your phone." Heavy... I got by on the technicality that they either forgot to mention NO PICTURES/CAMERAS or mabye it's permissible, but no one else was taking photos so I had to be quick and discrete. I turned the flash off and snapped a few from where I sat while they arranged the other audience members. The orchestra and Vampire Weekend came out. The lead singer was literally 3 feet away from me sitting on his stool... it was like a BJ angle. We'll call it the "Monica Lewinsky angle." Awkward. I didn't take any pics during the set. For all the waiting around (going on 3 hours by now,) they sure got down to business REAL quick. They began playing, and the lead singer kept messing up the lyrics to the first song. He tried 3 times, then decided to skip it and go on to the next song. The director would say stuff like, "hold for us please" and "you guys ready?" and in between songs he'd always ask "is that good with you?" Only once did the band say "we can do that one better" and requet a redo. The director came out with printed sheets of paper and whispered in the lead singer's ear.. he then placed the LYRICS (hahaha) at the foot of the stool, to which the lead singer jested, "that's ..nothing.... ignore that." Embarassing. It was cute though, he said, "as hard as we try to be professional, at the end of the day we're just 4 guys..." So that was endearing and redeamed him in my mind. After 20 minutes, they stood up and said "thanks for coming guys!" The director said the same and told the band members to stick around for interviews afterwards. They then disappeared into the back wall of the set, which I thought was just a wall, but apparently it leads to somewhere because they vanished... just like that. The pictures I took of the band standing on set was after the show just before they melted into the background. Then they shuffled us out into a traffic jam in the narrow hallway. It ended very ubruptly. I got back on the street at about 20 to midnight or so.
I took the necessary documents that Junior asked me to sign outside on a clipboard (ALWAYS with the releases....yesssss you can use my face on television--PLEASE DO!) As time went on, people started to congregate in groups or pairs-- all the while I am standing there thinking two things, both very typical of aspiring television personalities: a) this is good, only 12 ...16.... 18....28.... 36 people here.. I still have a healthy probability of getting air time... oh good, only 42... 58...6....damn it. and b) is the humidity making my hair frizzy?
Then Katy Perry, leaving from her recording, came out with one woman who appeared to be controling the situation. I stayed put.. already located close to the door (also, not one to get star struck, not really a huge fan of Katy's, and wanting to impress the MTV staff with my calm demeanor.) A few of the bystanders clamored and swarmed her, asking to take pictures. That's when I snapped the quick pic of her up top... I mean, when you're standing 6 feet from Katy Perry and your camera is [as always] within reach, you might as well click it, right? Thennnn the moment I had been waiting for..................
COURTNEY THE CASTING PRODUCER came out!!!!! [to people like me, casting producers are OUR celebrities..they have the POWER to directly make our dreams come true and validate all of our work and sacrifice with the snap of their fingers] This was the first time I had seen her since the call-back audition. It was not entirely her decision to cast us, the producers and, most importantly, NIVEA REPRESENTATIVES, reviewed the video tapes and chose us..also making the final decision on who to cut and who to proceed with.. Anyhow, she raved about the weight loss, and most importantly reported to me: "Everyone loved it! The president was skeptical in the beginning, he was like 'you won't see any change in 4 weeks'--but at the end he was like "wowww the girl looks great!!!" etc etc ...she went on like that for about a minute..I didn't stop her :-) I let her know that I quit my full-time job to persue television full-time. She volunteered to send lots of castings my way...without ANY coersion from me ;-) That went well, it was important for her to see me there. As she put one of those bracelet tag thingies around my wrist she said, "I'll put you down front, we'll get lots of shots of you--you'll be our go-to-hottie" She then went around to the other people and gave them the bracelets.
2 hours later--I kid you not-- but I didn't mind, as long as I'm doing something productive, waiting around doesn't bother me. What else would I be doing? Well, in this case I was missing the staff party at the country club I work at, which I actually really regretted...but there was never any question which I was gonna choose. So yeah; 2 hours later (9:15) Courtney came out with post-its. She numbered and distributed them--I got number 9. She then announced-- "1 through 10 inside." We all piled into the elevator and went down to the basement, where we were asked to line up single-file down a narrow hallway. It's times like this I love being clustrophobic. What really confused me was they brought everybody downstairs and lined us ALL up--all 70 of us in the hallway...before letting the first set into the studio. Whatever..we all stayed in order. A half an hour later we were directed, in groups of 5, into the studio and strategically placed by Courtney. There were seats stacked to to the back of the studio on ONE side, and maybe two or three rows to the left of the stage. Lastly, there were big pillows around the stage. Everyone who is familiar with Unplugged on MTV knows that it is an intimate, accoustic set. I was placed on the big pillow literally RIGHT in front of the lead singer's stool. perfect! The photos I took were from where I was sitting. I had to be a little sneaky because they made a big speach about TURNING YOUR CELL PHONES OFF. "it looks like shit on TV to see audience members texting, and furthermore if we catch anyone recording any part of the show we will be forced to ask you to leave AND confiscate your phone." Heavy... I got by on the technicality that they either forgot to mention NO PICTURES/CAMERAS or mabye it's permissible, but no one else was taking photos so I had to be quick and discrete. I turned the flash off and snapped a few from where I sat while they arranged the other audience members. The orchestra and Vampire Weekend came out. The lead singer was literally 3 feet away from me sitting on his stool... it was like a BJ angle. We'll call it the "Monica Lewinsky angle." Awkward. I didn't take any pics during the set. For all the waiting around (going on 3 hours by now,) they sure got down to business REAL quick. They began playing, and the lead singer kept messing up the lyrics to the first song. He tried 3 times, then decided to skip it and go on to the next song. The director would say stuff like, "hold for us please" and "you guys ready?" and in between songs he'd always ask "is that good with you?" Only once did the band say "we can do that one better" and requet a redo. The director came out with printed sheets of paper and whispered in the lead singer's ear.. he then placed the LYRICS (hahaha) at the foot of the stool, to which the lead singer jested, "that's ..nothing.... ignore that." Embarassing. It was cute though, he said, "as hard as we try to be professional, at the end of the day we're just 4 guys..." So that was endearing and redeamed him in my mind. After 20 minutes, they stood up and said "thanks for coming guys!" The director said the same and told the band members to stick around for interviews afterwards. They then disappeared into the back wall of the set, which I thought was just a wall, but apparently it leads to somewhere because they vanished... just like that. The pictures I took of the band standing on set was after the show just before they melted into the background. Then they shuffled us out into a traffic jam in the narrow hallway. It ended very ubruptly. I got back on the street at about 20 to midnight or so.
I sent Courtney a follow-up thank you email, letting her know I had a great time and I would surely be interested in feauture events of the like. I also emailed the casting producer from the Fine Living Network's show Bartender Wars that I had been an extra for Monday night. I asked her if they had any Production's Assistant jobs available. She told me that there were no openings, but to send her my resume and she would keep it on file. I did this. She replied saying that they were taping another episode on Friday (July 24) and it would be 'great networking.' So I went... it was fine. nothing really to report..no pics because it was exactly the same as the first taping, no new scenery.
Still unemployed. Just unemployed + 1 year older. My birthday fell on a Saturday this year (July 25.) I worked all day at the country club. The chef got me birthday cake and sprinkled special chocolate allll over it, put it on a tray with 4 other pieces for the rest of the hostesses, and the boy I've been dating from work came in with a biggg bag of presents! I felt special <3>
Then my landlord gave me a bag of gifts and a card and took me out to dinner. Very nice.
FML of the day: I called "home" (which, as we all know is my grandparent's house.) My grandma told me I had the wrong number.
On that depressing note, goodnight.
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