Extra Work

I am about to do something that no woman is *supposed* to do: I am about to age myself. By that, I mean I'm going to describe events that will make you, the reader, figure out roughly how old I am. It's really not that hard to do anymore, given sites like facebook and what have you (and the description about myself on this blog) but it still is a taboo.

It was ten years ago this year when I left the academy and started my three year-long stint as a full-time non-union extra. Why three years as non-union, you might ask (if you are in the know enough to ask). I owe it partly to my magnetic personality, but mostly to the system.

Being an extra was a very exciting, depressing, angry and funny time for me. Whether I like it or not, it helped shaped who I have become. Also, along with my experience at the academy (which I won't go too much into-- it's just not as interesting), shaped my view on the entertainment industry as a whole.

Sitting in my room in a light blue photo box with water-color flowers on it, that my mom probably bought me from Kmart, sits almost all of my vouchers and check stubs I received from extra work. I think over the course of my "career" I lost maybe two vouchers in my trunk that were never seen again. I've been meaning to "one day" look at each one and remember what happened for each shoot. Then I wanted to either write a book or a screenplay about them.

But, as I previously mentioned, it's been pretty much a decade since all of that happened. I still have all of my faculties, but I'd like to write this down. You never know when something could happen. Some horrible catastrophe could prevent my story from coming out, though most of me thinks that's unlikely. What's more likely is I would prevent myself from telling my story, which has already been the case. When you're an actress completely starting out, there's a lot of things you're told you're not supposed to do. The same things happen in regular lines of work, but as far as I've experienced, never so much as in the entertainment industry. You get told "no" for so many things and soon you'll find you're telling yourself "no" to even the most obvious good opportunities.

And yes, that last paragraph was a bit of a rant without explanation. I'm sorry. All will be explained in the stories ahead.

Also, while this is my life story, this will be a truthful account. I know it's been ten years, but I'm not going to exaggerate. Some of it might be hard to believe, because the entertainment industry is silly like that. But I won't make stuff up like, "I was sitting in my unmoving car on the 405 south, when a pegasus flew down to my driver's-side window and said 'Get on my back and I will take you to the studios!'"

(But I have to tell you, that was one heck of a morning.)

As far a posting each entry is concerned, my goal is to do at least one a week. Maybe sometimes I'll do two, maybe sometimes I'll only be able to do one in two weeks. But I will be consistent. I would recommend subscribing to this blog if you want to stay up-to-date. I will be posting links to my updates on my facebook page, but keep in mind I only accept people as my facebook friends who I know. It isn't hard to become a follower of blogs on blogspot; you just have to set up a google account, log in and click "follow" on my page.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the stories.

Apple Cider Cupcakes

So today, I decided to continue my powdered drink mix adventure and make apple cider cupcakes! These also turned out well, and the house smelled amazing for an added bonus.

Again, I had a hard time tasting the flavor I was trying to add. If any pro bakers out there know of a site or a shop that sells a large variety of extracts, please let me know. Apple cider extract might have worked with this.

I decided to use a spice cake mix with this one. I figured a white cake mix would be to sweet. I also considered a lemon cake mix, but figured the lemon flavor would drown out the apple flavor.

APPLE CIDER CUPCAKES

You will need:

1 box spice cake mix

3 eggs

3 packets (or 3 oz) powdered apple cider mix

1/3 cups vegetable oil

2/3 cups water

1/3 cups apple cider (The non-sparkling, juice kind)

1/3 cups sparkling apple cider

2 cans whipped white frosting (The logic behind this is you don't serve hot apple cider with whipped cream, but it could potentially be foamy. Maybe. And cupcakes need frosting.)

Cinnamon sugar mixed with festive sugar sprinkles (As much as you see fit)

egg beater

large mixing bowl

enough cupcake tins to hold 24 cupcakes

24 festive paper cupcake wrappers

pastry bag with round nozzle

Prepare cake mix according to directions.

Pour apple cider mix into cake batter

Line cupcake tins with paper wrappers

Pour batter into tins

Bake according to directions on box

Remove cupcakes and allow to cool

Frost cupcakes

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar/sugar sprinkle combination to desired taste

Refrigerate remaining cupcakes not devoured

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

This holiday season, I decided to make cupcakes. I flipped through one of my mom's Women's World magazines and saw some recipes. It then dawned on me that you could probably add any flavored mix to white cake mix and get your own unique cupcakes.

This recipe did not come from that magazine, but rather my own mind (I was so proud of my brain). They turned out pretty well (they certainly got a great response when I passed them out-- thanks, everyone). Unfortunately, I couldn't give them out to everyone, but I can post my recipe! I'm going to add my notes as we go along.

HOT CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

You will need:

1 box white cake mix

3 egg whites

1 1/3 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 packets (2 oz) powdered hot chocolate mix

54 mini marshmallows

2 cans vanilla or white frosting

egg beater

enough cupcake tins (or silicone cups) to hold 18 cupcakes

large mixing bowl

pastry bag and nozzle (I don't know the specific name for the nozzle. You'll want one that makes the frosting look like whipped cream on the top!)

18 festive paper cupcake wrappers

sprinkles if desired

Make the cake mix according to directions. Add hot chocolate packets into cake mix.

(You might be wondering why I chose white cake mix instead of just going for chocolate cake mix. I tend to make my hot chocolate with milk and it never turns out super chocolatey. I was going for that with this recipe. That being said, the sweet flavor of the white cake mix drowned out most of the chocolate flavor, in my oppinion. You could try replacing some of the water with chocolate syrup. At the store, I found chocolate-covered mini marshmallows! But they were naturally a little over-priced.)

Line the cupcake tins with paper cupcake wrappers.

Drop 3 mini marshmallows into each wrapper.

(They tend to rise during the baking process, but it's okay. Once they reach the top they melt, and then the top of your cupcake gets crunchy!)

Pour the batter into the cupcake tins.

(I just used a laddle. It was on-hand and simple.)

Bake cupcakes according to the directions on the cake mix box.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Cover with frosting from pastry bag.

Sprinkle with festive sprinkles.

Refrigerate cupcakes you don't immediately devour.

Makes 18 servings.

Baking Cookies

     My dad and I baked some sugar cookies from scratch, last night. As he was pulling the ingredients out of the cupboard, he whipped this out:

     I was struck by how old it looked, and dad said it had been grandma's (who has not been with us for almost twenty years). So I had a look at the can.

     Ooh! Special recipe book offers? Do tell!

     Okay, I know you can't read this, so here's what it says:

TWO EXCITING RECIPE BOOKLETS!

BAKER'S CHOCOLATE AND COCONUT FAVORITES

This beautiful collection offers our 200 most famous chocolate and coconut recipes (many illustrated in full color) for Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Candies, Beverages, and Frostings. To get yours, send $.25 in coin with your name, address, and ZIP code to: (They're old address, which I'm not putting down.)

CALUMET'S TREASURY OF HOME BAKING

To get more than 20 illustrated pages of plain and fancy recipes, pretested by General Food Kitchens, send $.15 in coin with your name, address, and ZIP code to: (Same as the first one.)

     How amazing is that? Fifteen cents for a book? And they wanted you to put the coins through the mail? Who does that?

     On a side note, there is actually a cent sign after the "25" and the "15" on the can, but we don't have that sign on our keyboards anymore. Weird, huh?

     So I did a little research on this product. The can says it's made by General Foods Kitchens, which I was fairly certain no longer existed. It turns out it was owned by the founder of Post Cereals, but was taken over by Phillip Morris (now Altria-- they sound less evil that way) in 1985 and then merged with Kraft foods when they got Kraft. There's some really interesting back-story on all of that, including centuries-old products, biblically-offensive cereals and suicide, which I will let you read on a separate page devoted to it: General Foods History. So this product is at least twenty-four years old, but I would guess longer, considering the prices for the books.

     As for the cookies, we over-baked a tray of them. The ones that were safe seemed a little off. But the good news is no one died from eating cookies with 40-year old ingredients!

Recent Extra Work

     After "House", I worked on "Bones". It wasn't anything super-exciting, but it was also at the Fox lot. It's nifty, because they have murals of some of they're best work painted on the studio buildings. Also, my inner-geek squealed for joy as I walked past an orange piece of paper taped to the column of a building that read, "Futurama Table Read"!

     The next show I worked on was "Cold Case". It was pretty nifty and was shot at Warner Bros. studios (my favorite!). I was supposed to do a car call, but they changed to a cocktail waitress and still used my car as a parked car. There was a Baldwin in this episode! I won't say which one, but we shared this exchange inside the bar while we waited for the shot to be set up.

BALDWIN

(Yawns)

PRETTY

Yeah, I've been doing that, too, ever since the time change.

BALDWIN

Time change? What, are you from out of state?

PRETTY

No... Daylight Savings Time.

BALDWIN

Oh! Daylight Savings Time...

     Yeah. It was pretty special.

     The next thing I worked on was "Sons of Tuscon", which will premier next year. It was shot in Santa Clarita, and I decided to drive there by way of Pearblossom Highway. That was the worst thing I could do, apparently. I got so horribly lost; missing turns or taking them way too early. But at least the scenery was beautiful, and I managed to keep my cool. If you're ever going to get lost, try Soledad Canyon. It's gorgeous! Fortunately, I was allowed to work the show, despite showing up an hour late. I kept in touch with Central, who kept in touch with the studio, and I guess they really appreciate that sort of thing ;) But from now on, I'll be using the freeways.

Halloween

     This Halloween, I went to Disnyland (surprise) with my friend, Hottie*. This was not my first time at Disneyland on Halloween, but it was my first time going at Halloweentime. I was wonderfully uncrowded, until about 6pm (I think) when DCA let out.

     We went as goths. One thing I learned from the last Halloween I attended was Disney does not allow adults to enter the park in costume. That year, I went as a Greek goddess and my friend went as a monk. The security guard wouldn't let my friend in until he promised to buy regular clothes inside (this was back in the day when DCA was still a parking lot. Soooo long ago). As for me, the old man said I "looked cute" and allowed me to go in.

     Going as goths made sense, because it seemed Halloween-appropriate and it was an accepted, normal wardrobe choice at the same time. Win/win. We had barely walked ten cars away from ours in the parking structure when a mom at a minivan confronted us and told us we wouldn't be allowed inside. I told her our strategy of not really being in costume, to which she claimed her family wasn't that dressed up, either.

     "Yeah, we were pirates." She said.

     Now, unless you believe that everything in the movie "Dodgeball" is true, or you live in a renaissance fair, dressing as an 18th century pirate is not an accepted, normal wardrobe choice. Maybe I just don't live in the right town, but I think even she realized she was reaching.

     Either way, we were allowed in.

     Hottie wore these red contact lenses that I like to refer to as the sleeper-hit of Disneyland. Everyone was looking at her eyes. Many asked her if that was her real eye color! One man took her picture (and then took mine, to be polite). One woman, while we were standing in line for the Haunted Mansion, even asked her if she could tell her son that is what happens when you don't eat your vegetables.

     Even after we were inside, people were asking us why we were allowed in the park in costume. We'd usually point to other goths in the park when they asked us. You could tell they were real goths, though. They're wardrobe looked way better.

     Hottie and I had noticed this one girl in the park who was allowed in wearing a slutty halloween costume. Yes, I know I have pictures of me on here wearing my provactive Strawberry Shortcake costume, but the big difference is I am an adult. We encountered this girl later with her parents in line for Indy. The mom swore up and down that she was shocked that her 12 year old daughter was almost not let into the park in her cute (slutty) doughnut shop costume. Okay, 1. The girl had definitley hit puberty and 2. Her nametag read "Kristy Creams". Stupid mom.

     But enough of my angry I'll-tell-you-how-to-raise-your-kids rant. We had lots of fun. My favorite part was taking our pictures with all of the characters.

     The Fairy Godmother was out! How lucky was that?

     Hmm. Hottie took a picture of me doing the Thriller dance with Mickey, but I can't seem to find it. It was fun, though. Mickey, unfortunately didn't know what the Thriller dance was, so he had to copy my pose. ;)

*Hottie is not her real name, but rather her name on my blog. :)

Sorry I've been away for quite a while.

I've been busy. With what, you ask? Well...

Sometimes I do this thing called acting...

...Which can occassionally branch out into singing and dancing...

...And it almost always results in a show.

For those who haven't figured out by the costumes, I was in a local production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". It was loads of fun and it completely took over my life for three months. I forgot how shows can do that :)
(Well that and facebook games. What can I say? I'm a farmer!)

House, continued

This was my lovely outfit for the following scene. It took place after a concert in a hallway of the hotel. I really liked the jacket and the tights had gold sparklies in them! Then they gave me shoes to wear...

These boots are admittedly cute. Unfortunately, I do not possess the skill to walk in heels this tall. The muscle strength isn't there, and I need to build my core. Wardrobe was concerned, but I insisted I could walk in them. I staggered around and was able to walk in them after a while (at least a little better). The biggest pain came when I would stand still in between takes for the scene. It felt sooo good to get out of those hours later!
Other than that, it was a great gig. Apart from one woman at breakfast making a comment about daring to eat half a doughnutand getting glared at after I suggested she eat the whole thing because the crew said they weren't going to feed us for six hours. Also, when we were checking out, I got to see a fellow extra have a freak out moment. This can unfortunately be a common occurance among background, and I've been guilty of having one in the past. They can come in all sorts of forms (I started organizing the chairs in holding very aggressively for mine), but the most popular is lashing out at people. This guy was complaining to the PAs checking us out that they never called lunch, which they did. He then went in all directions and was thwarted at every turn. I think he was aware that he should've just shut up, but decided he was commited and forged ahead. He then complained that there was nowhere else to eat, but was told there was a restaurant in the hotel. Then he complained that some people couldn't afford that, and they told him that the show had provided food (mmm... tuna). Then he complained that there was no vegetarian option, which there was in abundance. Not only was there what I had, but there were also two salad bars, pasta and a build-your-own taco bar! Oh, I was so bummed after I'd loaded my plate and saw that I'd missed that. They were also carving prime rib...
I mentioned that extras tend to judge shows not on the quality of entertainment, but how well they feed you, right? House is an amazing show!
So, I've gone slightly off track. When I got to the front of the line, I thanked the lady who signed me out and told her I had a lot of fun. She thanked me right back and told me that meant so much (brownie points! Next time, I'm going straight for the taco bar!)

Working on House

On Friday I drove many, many miles to work on House. I will not divulge any spoilers (well, not any huge and obvious ones), so I'll just stick to the people stuff.

The first thing I discovered is what a big difference an attitude adjustment can make! When I used to do extra work, I was mainly focused on getting SAG vouchers. That affected the way I viewed everthing: the quality of the show I was working, the crew, the other extras, the food, etc. Obviously, I didn't get me three vouchers, so it made me very bitter. But this time I went with no expectations for that, and it changed my whole outlook on the situation. I was working on a popular tv show, getting dressed in fun clothes (more on that in a moment), eating well and generally having a good time. The upside to this attitude was that I became more aware of the people around my (imagine!) and everyone was very nice to me.

For breakfast I had eggs and tea. For lunch I had tuna steak with mango salsa, seasoned green beans, cous-cous (that's hyphenated, right?) and a pretty pudding cup with a cookie straw for dessert! We ate in the hospital corridor, which is pretty cool when you think about it. One time I did a Saturn commercial and a small part of the 134 freeway was closed off for shooting. While we were waiting as the crew prepared, a lot of us laid down on the road and took a nap. How many people can say they've taken a nap on a freeway?

The first scene was shot at an actual hotel restaurant. I sat with another gentleman with real (questionable) food before us. They asked us to eat, but if my fusion flatbread pizza was bad and they shot us again and again, I'd have to match all of my shots by eating the same amount of food. I know I'm just background, but I think like an actor ;) Fortunately, there was a bowl of (stale sourdough bread at our table, so I nibbled on that during our take. Even better, they only needed to take one shot of that scene, so they sent us back to holding.*

*Holding is where the extras go when they're not being used. Holding can be anything from a separate soundstage in studios, a tent on location or a parking lot with folding chairs and no protection from the elements. This time it was a large conference room on another floor of the hotel.

Once back at holding, we were left alone for two hours. It was then when I realized I'd commited a cardinal sin: not bringing anything to do. I talked with a few people, but we ran out of things to say. I tried to write but couldn't. I took a nap but woke up. I texted and emailed some friends, but received little response because they have "real jobs" (whatever).

Finally the PA (production assistant) came in and told us to go to wardrobe so we could change for the next big scene. I wasn't supposed to in that scene, but I brought clothing options just in case. Out of the clothes I brought, I was allowed to wear my top. Everything else was theirs. Here's what they dressed me in.

Okay. I'm experiencing difficulty adding my pictures from here, so I'll add them in the next post.

Tomorrow...

I will be working on a show that rhymes with "mouse".
I'll be a upscale patron of a fancy New York diner.