Windfall

I believe this is a new television show airing sometime in the new year. I don’t know for sure, though. All I know is that I almost don’t want to post my experience on this show for fear of coming off like a whiny bitch, but I feel some of it was justified. But, I ain’t gonna lie, some of it was also PMS.

I found the location okay. No surprises there. I was early and opted to sit in my car until closer to call time. When I got out of my car, good grief, it was freezing cold outside. I think that was the beginning of my grumpiness, but I didn’t let it hamper my day because I knew the weather would warm up eventually. I grabbed some breakfast and looked for holding…But there wasn’t one. There weren’t even chairs and tables set up around catering. That was weird, but whatever. I ate standing up. No big deal. It wasn’t the first time.

We were checked in and for some reason the PA hadn’t grabbed my voucher from the office. Okay. Fine. No big deal. I stood by and waited in the wardrobe line.

I was playing a waitress. They didn’t like what I’d brought–nothing new there–so I had to change. Once again, no big deal.

We were herded onto a people mover and taken over to the set. We were all a little worried when we saw that our holding was a dirty, empty storefront, but then glad when we were put to work immediately. I personally never went into holding for longer than the time it took me to put down my backpack.

Now here’s where I started getting a little iggy about this shoot. The crew talked down to the extras. Not just me or certain people, all of us. I was placed next to a table as though ready to take an order. That was fine. I nodded, smiled. I was ready. But then the crew decided that all the tables were in the wrong place on the sidewalk. Why on earth should I be standing next to ‘my’ table if it’s going to move and if there are an army of people walking around. I was in the way, so I took a few steps back.

I was then instructed to stand by my table again like I was an idiot with a short attention span. I didn’t bother explaining. I just did as I was told and then promptly moved away when the table moved again.

Then, I was wondering if props had either a tray or an order pad for me. We were getting close to rehearsal, so I just grabbed my little spiral notebook and pen from my purse and figured I’d make do. Finally the prop guy brought me pad and pen, that was cool. But he also asked me what I was doing standing there. “Uh…I’m ready to take an order,” I replied, wondering why he’d asked, but whatever.

I stood near the table unless people were around. The same AD gave me the ‘get by your table’ look a few times, but if there were too many people, I didn’t go there.

Finally, I guess he was frustrated with me and he reiterated that I should stand there and take an order, but then said that there wasn’t much else I could do now that all but my table had been moved away. I replied, “I could walk into it.” And he seemed surprised–like how could an extra know to do something as smart as that? I dunno. By this time, I’d had enough of the way I was treated and seeing the way others were treated, too. I just wanted to be done with the shoot.

We did a bunch of takes and then they said we could go home. We all replied, “Yeah right, uh-huh.” To which he said that we would, indeed, be allowed to go home once we got back to base camp. So we all piled onto the people mover and were driven back. Those of us who needed to, changed back into regular clothes and waited at the back of the wardrobe truck.

But no one came.

Apparently, we’d been told that we were wrapped, but no one else had been told that.

They’d decided to use us in the other scene.

Some of us did get to go home, but most of us didn’t. A little communication could’ve helped this show a whole lot. Just because we’re extras doesn’t mean we don’t have the right to know what’s going on especially if it relates directly to us. We’re people too. We understand if you want more out of us. You’re paying us for 8 hours, might as well use us as much of that time as you can. We understand that completely. But if you tell us we can go home, reiterate that–causing several of us to line up other stuff to do with our afternoon–but then tell us we have to work…we’re not gonna be thrilled.

So, I stood around–remember, there were no chairs–waiting until they finally decided to use me. I had to go to wardrobe and get another sweater. That was fine, but by the time I got to the set, things were changing. When I walked in, I followed a PA who told me to go talk to an AD. When I went to talk to the AD and make myself available, he started yelling and complaining and I turned right back to the PA and said, “I’m not gonna walk into that.” He broke in and told the AD myself and another woman were ready to be placed and he yelled back, “I don’t need ’em. Get ’em outta here. Get ’em outta here now. Go. Now.” He waved, shooing us away.

And I really didn’t want to be there in the first place! Especially by now. I was ready to kill someone. I didn’t deserve to be yelled at–especially for following directions. The PA then led me to a room and said he’d get me a chair. The other woman had brought hers from home. I sat on the floor while I waited. No big deal, right? the chair came and all was well.

Except that the room was about 55 degrees. I shivered. We were instructed to ‘stay close’, so I couldn’t go outside and warm up. Finally, the PA took pity on me when the scene changed and put me in. Yeah, it was warmer, but not by much. Thankfully, I was playing a patient, so I just used my shiver and made it bigger.

After that, we were allowed to go outside. Most of us were looking at our watches, calculating when we got there vs. when lunch should be. It’s usually right at 6 hours from call time. Well, 6 hours was in about fifteen minutes.

And what did they do? They finally let us go because otherwise, they would’ve had to feed us.

Nice.

See, I told you I didn’t want to come off as a whiny bitch, but it happened. This was the worst show I’ve been on in a very long time. Yeah, I was PMSing and I hadn’t had enough caffeine, but still, just the down-talking to the extras was too much to put up with. Everything else was completely forgiveable. And the PAs were absolutely wonderful. In general, it’s usually the boredom that makes a show bad. This time, it really was a few key people in positions of authority.

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