On Wednesday I signed up with Central Casting again. It turns out that if I had renewed my status with them every 2 years, I wouldn't have to pay the $25 fee. But then, I didn't think I'd be doing extra work anymore. Three years of full-time extra work will turn anyone off of it, especially if you only get two SAG vouchers and your third one keeps getting taken away from you.
There are some things I'm going to have to explain for those who know nothing about extra work. If you know about these things, just skip ahead.
First thing you should know is why most people do extra work in the first place. It is not for exposure, although that is fun. Extra work doesn't exactly have a very positive connotation in the entertainment industry. It takes no skill, only a way to get there and adequate costume changes. Therefore some people tend to look down upon those who do extra work as simply taking up space and eating all the food.
The main reason people do extra work is for the SAG vouchers. Most people doing extra work are actors and want to get into the union. When you arrive at a gig, you are handed a non-union voucher (presuming of course that you're non-union). Sometimes, for various reasons (nothing illegal) they might give you a union voucher! This is great because not only will you be paid twice as much for the gig, you can also join SAG once you have three union vouchers and pay an obscene amount of money for the initiation fee.
I spent three hours at Central standing in line to register, but everyone was very nice and I was relieved to get through it. I will be working on Friday.
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