Quiet day but productive

I had been promising myself to pick up some soil to start the herbal container garden. I finally pushed myself out the door today and kept my focus, despite the grey and rain, to pick up fresh soil from the store. Got a check in the mail today from my 'non-work' on Mercy. Fast check, despite the disappointment.

After finishing off my errands, I got home to check my email and phone and then wandered onto IMDB and updated my page, it's been some time since I've done so. This brought me some positive feelings, because I felt a sense of accomplishment on all the background work I've done. I updated several pages, so I'm feeling good now.

Tomorrow I have Easter Sunday dinner with friends and family. I count myself lucky and blessed to be able to do so. I'm also bringing over a couple of bottles of wine, so it'll be all good.

I've been cheating a bit with my diet but will end my vacation from it starting Monday. Summer's just around the corner and I'm looking to be more marketable.

cheeky bastids -- feelin' a little persnickity

Just finished getting off the phone regarding a Mercy gig. Turns out as I suspected, that once they give your name in, whether they actually use you for the shot or not, you can't be used again.

If I had known that I would have never applied for this.

What I find interesting is how I met two people who are non-union who have worked on it twice, this past gig being their second time. How they got around that little rule I don't know. I've a feeling they did not get in there through Central. Who else could be casting for this, I wonder?

I know Central keeps a list as I was asked, and I didn't lie, I did state that while I was called for it, they never used me for the shoot, I was never in the scene. But apparently that didn't matter. I think I heard them say they'd get back to me regarding future gigs on this but I'm not sure it matters if that rule is in place.

I'm sure all rules have their reasons.

Meanwhile, watching Fringe. This is the show that's moving to Vancouver to film. All for a 16% tax credit.

It annoyed me hearing the head of the Silvercup Studios talk about New York City having a 'no cap' in order to 'stay competitive'. Okey-dokey. We are at 30%, plus 100% of any surplus goes back to the production company within the year they film, AND we have the Made in NY program that gives them an additional 5%. 35 plus percent is NOT competitive? How? How is Vancouver topping us?

And it's not like these film companies have to pay for permits in order to film -- permits are FREE! So WTF???!

Some of my fellow BG actors are not seeing the whole picture, just how it will affect them, which is understandable. Maybe I just tend to see the bigger picture in all this and know it's not that easy to just blame one person for everything going on in the city and the country. The days of knowing who the good and bad guy is have blurred considerably for many years.

Throughout this, I just went online and researched. Could not find one instance or shred of evidence of actual pullout or end of the tax credit -- just a lot of speculation on blogs and union articles and, I hate to say it, they were all doing a crying wolf.

I'm told I'm just missing the whole point. Hmm. We all know the tax credit isn't forever, just dedicated to the next several years, up to 2012, supposedly, according to the governor's site itself. There's no law set in stone that this goes on in perpetuity. The sense I get is "well, we'll see how it goes." Yet there's all this whipping people up in a frenzy. That's what worries me. It's like a bad social experiment. Anyone who disagrees or isn't caught up in the frenzy is deemed 'not getting it' or gets the 80's Molly Ringwald. You know, the eyes rolling over, mouth slightly open look.

To the business men -- you got your tax credit. Be nice and respectful of it. If you push too much, it could simply be pulled off the shelves altogether. Then what? Everyone goes to Vancouver or L.A and film a LOT of close up shots and use footage from a film library and CGI, baby! Like that won't cost a fortune. Yep it will.

Ohhhhh....Mercy Mercy Me

Worked one day on the NBC pilot called Mercy which is about three nurses working in a hospital. Why three, I wonder? You know, Charlie's Angels had three, Charmed had three, I just found that kind of curious, making a connection like that. Hmmm...

Anyway, today was pouring rain yet I made it to my bus to meet the transportation van that was going to take us to Jersey. When I got to the meeting place, there were already some background actors there waiting, and we huddled under one of the business canopies to stay out of the rain as best we could. Unfortunately, one of the background cluelessly blocked the door to the business we were standing by, and the irate owner came out to tell off the person. We couldn't blame the owner, the owner had no idea why six of us were hanging out in front of their store and an explanation was just too much of nothing to discuss.

I'm thinking a van is coming -- turns out it's a bus they rented, and we pile in. There's a toilet in the back, and I saw John, a fellow BG castmate from a Russian film we worked as background in, and we hugged and said hello.

I was really excited about the trip and when we got there, we filed out and went to holding within the hospital -- yes, a REAL hospital, but it was apparently empty -- there was a 'for rent' sign emblazoned on the side of the hospital building. So it was a little weird working in a place that obviously still looks much like a hospital within.

We picked up our vouchers and got checked by wardrobe in an orderly fashion. There wasn't a lot of us so things picked up quickly. I was one of 3 people who were marked as 'visitors' and yet we found ourselves NOT used. Can you believe it? They called all the other people to set, we were called to set, but they had us sit in a corner behind the camera, and so we just observed and sat quietly as they went through several takes.

Then it was over. We were sent back to holding. Then word filtered through that they were done for the day. It was barely 3 pm and the call was for 11 am this morning. I was surprised. I had assumed, wrongly, that just because we were a small pool of people, that we would all be used and featured. But we weren't. I then wondered if this was going to be like 'Damages' (Glenn Close show on FX) was -- that you only work one assignment and then can't be utilized for the rest of that season.

I saw the AFTRA rep there, it was the same rep as last time. Friendly guy, knows his stuff. But he was an omen that my suspicion might be on the mark.

I politely said hello and with the other woman who played a visitor, chatted and asked a few questions of him then took his card.

We waited about a half hour for the bus to come and take us back to NYC. I so wanted to ask the head PA about my concern about not being utilized but they work in mysterious ways and I am not to question.

So I dutifully head back to the bus with John who apparently wasn't used either even though he was in scrubs provided by wardrobe. I felt kind of guilty being paid for a gig I didn't even work, but I heard a couple of people were major late which may or may not have affected why the visitors weren't used. They had us sit behind the camera but sit in the room where the rest of the background was filming. At least I don't feel like a dope -- I wasn't the only one, so I can relax a little. I get home and the sun is doing its best to peer through the clouds. It's stopped raining. I check my emails and lo and behold I see a casting notice for Mercy, and a notation stating they're looking for people but you 'can't have worked it already'.

OH NO!!! AUGH!!!

Here is John looking spiffy in the scrubs provided by wardrobe. And to think, I own my own scrubs and brought them with me and showed to wardrobe. They hardly blinked and told me to stay in what I had on, that it was perfect for the 'visitor' role:

I decided to submit to it anyway. I made a notation in my submission for it -- "was submitted but was not used". Hopefully that won't be held against me. Weird. Meanwhile, another check came in from SALT -- deposited it. Pick up another check from another project next week. For now, I continue to hunt for more work while waiting for word on others.