Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

 I booked two jobs for today. 

1. An infomercial selling a mint that is supposed to stop smoking cravings
2. Working as an extra on a music video shoot for 'Dynamite' with Taio Cruz and Jennifer Lopez. 

Great right?.... Sooooo not. I had to make a decision quick. The infomercial was maybe a 5 hour shoot for $150 and 3 days later a 4 hour shoot for $75. The music video was an 'all day shoot' (meaning maybe 10-12 hours) for $150. The better choice was obviously the infomercial. Now, me being a musician I wanted to see a real professional music video shoot, guess which one I chose. BAD IDEA! 

I am currently doing a 2 month infomercial shoot for a workout machine called the 'Total Flex'. I wake up every morning 5 days a week at 430am and at 6am train for an hour with a personal trainer. Kind of like a low budget 'The Biggest Loser'. Well the call time for the music video shoot conflicted with my workout so I had to miss it. You are only allowed to miss 3 days in the whole 2 months and this was my third and final day to miss. I just threw away my 1 day pillow for error.

Now this is my very first experience being a Hollywood extra. I get to the shoot and we are put through wardrobe, hair, make-up... and then? I sat around for 10 HOURS IN THE BLAZING HEAT! Now it is about 6pm. The lunch was late, we're all sweating in a tent, being herded like cattle... I quickly realized that if a music video shoot had a caste system, extras are the untouchables. 

The director then tells everyone that the shoot will go to midnight and that there will be no overtime pay, stay till midnight or no check. Period. I asked some of the other extras if this is the norm with video shoots. They said that it was alot of waiting around but one veteran extra told me that out of about 30 that she's done, this shoot was by far the worst. Knowing that I have to wake up at 430 the next morning, and that I have a band audition at noon the next day, I just couldn't do it. I'm not a machine! 

I told one of the producers that respectfully I just cannot stay, and left. I felt really bad about it, but was more upset that I had wasted a good chunk of my life. Either way, THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME! I came back to a clean apartment, a happy husband, a glass of wine and a hot dinner. Why be an extra in Hollywood when I can be a leading lady at home? :)