I spent the day staring down luke warm nachos.
This scenario could be seemingly pleasurable for any average joe … but when you are literally being burned by backlight … and the spit bucket to the left of your leg is nearly full … well … things take on a bit a different tone.
anybody will tell you that getting commercial work is sort of a staple for the working actor in LA. The day rates are the highest for any SAG job, the food is usually pretty good, its quick work … a day or two at most … plus it’s a pretty good way to get used to how sets operate and the internal politics of copying live action onto celluloid. Plus … when they air on TV, the risidual checks can pay pretty good. Book a few nationals and you can make a pretty sweet living. i take a small amount of pride in knowing that i made more than twice my mother did last year in her 40+ hours a week job when i only worked … lemme think … 8 days? maybe 10 tops. Sure … it’s kinda silly, some would say sick … but hell .. someone’s paying … so fuck it. i’m in.
One of the things that i find most humorous about commercial shoots is the budgets.
As i write this some poor schlep is peddling his script around hollywood trying to scrounge together a few hundred thousand dollars to make a piece of art, a vision, a communication in aesthetics to the world at large.
Meanwhile, I’m sitting on a set with about 100 crew members making between $250 to $20,000 and more per day, full catering, full Kraft service, nice trailers, and a surplus of just about everything you could possibly imagine. All for a 30 second film that will be pounded into your brain over and over again in the hopes that the next time you have the munchies … you’ll think about a particular fast food chain.
guess it goes to show who really runs the industry ….
I’ve heard that Television is really just a way of keeping an audience watching between commercials … and when you look at the amount of money they put into commercials you start to believe it.
In a way then, we commercial actors provide an important service to the rest of the artists out there. We take one for the team in order to ensure that a platform remains for the vital messages of our time. We sacrifice so that Gilmore Girls and American Idol can be shown.
We few … may just be this city’s unsung heros.
So when somebody asks me how i can justify selling my soul to a multi-billion dollar corporation for an afternoon … first I point out the obvious financial rewards …
and then with pride … i wipe a little fake tear from the corner of my eye, take my 742nd bite of Nacho and and say:
“I do it for the Art.”
see you on the air.
commercial guy.