Lipton and NBA

Two night shoots back to back. The Dixie Chicks one was for a Lipton Iced Tea commercial. The Christina Aguilera one was for an NBA promo that I did see myself in believe it or not. There was a great shot of my back with my arms raised. But it was quick and probably I’m the only one who knows it’s me…’cept maybe Jen if she remembered the gold velvet 60s coat I was wearing.

The following is an excerpt from an email I’d sent shortly after this shoot:

On Thursday, I was on a Lipton Iced Tea commercial with the Dixie Chicks. Sounds, nifty, right? Read further…

It was up in the mountains of Chatsworth on the property of the old Spahn Ranch–some folk will recognize that as the home of the Manson family. Yeah. Nice place to start with.

It was an all night shoot. Exterior. 40 degrees outside. There were 500 of us. The wardrobe people were picky even though there were no changing rooms. I didn’t actually change clothes, I just added over what I was wearing. 3 shirts, 4 pairs of pants including leather and tall boots. I really was not interested in freezing.

There was hay and mud everywhere and holding was about a quarter mile away from the set so we were only allowed to go back when it was time to eat.

Anyhow, it was miserable. The Dixie Chicks were sweet and nice and even sang a capella for us once. However, the camera crew must have had their heads shoved so far up their asses that they lost track of them. It took an average of 30 minutes for them to move two cameras each time they moved. So, that amounted to standing there in 40 degree weather until 3AM to work in spurts of 30 seconds divided by lapses of 30-40 minutes.

Yeah, even the most experienced extras were saying that was the worst shoot they’d ever been on. The union extras were all incredibly full of themselves and production kept trying to put them where they’d get the best camera time. I had been literally front and center in the same exact footprints for 10 hours when one union chick started to give me hell.

I was not in the mood for it at all. She told me that I was in her spot and that she was going to get the director to move me. I told her to go ahead and do that. He could ask all of the ADs, the stage crew, the extras around me as well as the Dixie Chicks themselves where I had been standing for “continuity purposes” as she’d said. I didn’t move. Yeah, she hated me the rest of the night, but I was waaaay too cold to care.

And three hours later when they made the non-union extras back up to make room for the union extras in the front, I didn’t care about anything anymore and I backed up quietly and she tried to get another rise out of me which didn’t happen. Then, as my luck seems to have it, the Director brought out the principal actors and placed them right directly behind and to the side of me. Yeah, I ended up with more camera time than that mean union chick. I’ll bet she didn’t get any at all because she was in the front at that point.

Yeah, I know I shouldn’t have, but I actually kinda felt good that for once, the good girl who was always honest got the last word. So, if you see a Lipton Iced Tea commercial with the Dixie Chicks… Look either front and center for the back of my head or look to the right of the bright red headed girl in the audience. That’s me.

As further irony would have it, the commercial got pulled because one of the Dixie Chicks said something controversial. I don’t even remember the whole thing, I just know it got pulled.

On to the NBA promo:

I figured I’d be having to go through the same thing the following night because it was going to be a similar situation–a concert. But, it was wonderful.

Friday night was a NBA Playoff promo with Christina Aguilera. It was at the Staples Center. There were 900 of us this time, but at least there was lots of food (including M&Ms) and not only were there lots of chairs, but they were comfortable.

It wasn’t 40 degrees and the camera crew had their shit together. We’d film for 90 seconds and then wait about 10 minutes in between. The only camera time I got would be from behind. I’m wearing a fuzzy gold coat center in front of the camera and bebopping along to Christina’s song.

We worked for 5 hours and were released… We got paid for 10. It was nice. It was such a switch from the night before that I felt like I could have worked the full ten and even put in overtime. It was great.

I wish all of my huge calls had been this nice. I guess juxtaposed with my worst-gig-ever the night before, anything would’ve been fantastic!

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