So last Friday I had an interview set up by my management company. My management company had never gotten me an interview before, just straight up jobs. The interview, which occurred at the Sunset Gower studios at 9am, an inconvenient time for someone that wanted to go out dancing the night before and a little annoying since I hadn't worked in a while and needed work. Also, it was even clear what the interview was for and if the 9am call time was just for me or for everybody.
I arrived at the studios and pulled into the wrong entrance. For the game shows I did there they always made us park on the street, so I didn't know what entrance to go in. The nice guard had me turn around and pointed me in the right direction. There wasn't any traffic getting there this morning, which was good because the security guard that gave me my pass and pointed me toward the buildling I was going to actually pointed me to the wrong building. I also parked on the wrong floor of the parking structure, but that was simply because it was poorly labeled. Despite all of this, I still walked into the room ten minutes early.
There were only 4 other people in the room, a number that would quickly swell as it became closer to the time. In fact there were probably 40 people (and 15 chairs) at one point. The interview consisted of the AD introducing himself and asking where we were from and the 2nd AD taking a couple of pictures of us. I thought it went fine and was excited to see we actually got paid for 2 hours on the show, but was a little worried about the stats when they said they needed 20 people and then saw how many people showed up just in the first hour. It would be a great opportunity though. At least 10-20 days of work in the next month and if the pilot got picked up then regular work once the season started shooting. It was easily the best opportunity for work I have had since I got here.
Going into the interview I was a little hesitant because the sketch comedy thing was scheduled to shoot the 2nd half of July. The sketch comedy thing represents no money, but great opportunity for me doing something I really want to be doing. However in the short run, obviously working on this show I just interviewed for was what I needed to be doing.
The show had asked all of us if we were free for a fitting the following Wednesday. About 8pm that evening, I was booked for that fitting. My mind went wild with excitement and concern. Finally I had booked something that could lead me there. They had said there would be great opportunity for SAG vouchers and bumps on the show and it would be a great opportunity to be seen. Of course I also started to worry about what I was going to tell Josh, the producer of the sketch comedy show. I didn't have any information on my schedule yet, but I was pretty sure it was going to conflict. I guess I was just going to have to tell him that I would have to do my job, but I would also work around my schedule and work weekends and whenever they needed me. I was secretly hoping the sketch comedy thing would be delayed a few weeks so that I could work on both without conflict.
The weekend was spent going back and forth inventing different scenarios of what would happen and how I might handle the potential conflict, while at the same time being excited to work.
Tuesday came and I was anxious to hear what my fitting time was going to be. Finally around 2pm I received the beep beep of a text and gmail being received at the same time. I looked, excited to find out what my future held, but the crystal ball became murky. The fitting had been canceled. I have no idea what this means. It could mean a lot of things. It could mean they put everyone on hold until they made their decisions. It could mean that I made one cut, but not the next or final cut. It could mean that the production itself was put on hold. I don't know and it is doubtful I ever will. There's no information booth in this business. Either you are inside and you know what is going on or you and your friends spend time on the outside putting together the glints of information that you have lucked upon.
Obviously I felt down about the whole thing. I'm trained not to get excited after an audition, whether it went well or not, but this was more of a tease than I was expected. That was yesterday. This morning I woke up to a text message from Josh that he had become busy with other work and the sketch comedy show was delayed until September.
It is a hard business, we all know that. Hard on the emotions and touch to get lucky with the odds stacked against you. But some days, some days are harder than others.
xoxo,
Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment