So, maybe I was a tad hasty in my complaints about my extra work on The Surrogates. I got paid yesterday (which is pretty quick for Hollywood) and the check was way more than I expected. It came out to more than two weeks at my old Harvard job, and a little less than half of what I would make here in a week (with all the taxes and stuff taken out), for one frikkin' day. Of course, it was a long day, which almost equals half a week here at BU, so it almost balances out. But, needless to say, I'll be on the look-out for calls for extras when that Mel Gibson movie comes to town soon. I'm such a paradox.
The funny thing, I really do not enjoy the actual work. it's so far from actual movie-making that it's ridiculous (as I've stated a billion times before). It obviously bugs me more than it would an average person because of my film background, but that's just another part of the Curse of Film School, I guess. Still, film degree or not, I hate the whole "Hurry Up and Wait" culture on a movie set. I hate the boredom between takes. I hate the way everyone on the crew is seemingly having the worst day of their lives. I hate the disorganization. I hate the pretentiousness of some of my fellow extras, some of whom think that this will actually get them somewhere in Hollywood. But I like the mon-aaaaayyyyyy. I'm such an American.
I did realize something about movies after seeing Wanted this weekend. It was a totally ridiculous movie based on a pretty interesting graphic novel, and I expected nothing less, so i didn't actually hate it. however, I saw it with my brother and his wife, and my brother is the eternal optimist, so he tried to explain to me the intricacies of the plot, which I am going to talk about now, so you may stop reading if you don't want it spoiled. First, though, let me assure you that there were no intricacies to this plot, so feel free to read on.
The book (if I remember correctly) is set in a futuristic kind of world where this fraternity of bad guys pulls the strings behind the scenes and basically controls everything in secret. So, every one is basically a bad guy except working stiffs. So, when Wesley (the main character) starts killing people, he knows he's killing bad guys because everyone is a bad guy. No moral ambiguity. The movie seems to take place in our world, so the bad guys who need to be killed are determined by this bizarre weaving device that spits out threads in some kind of binary code that somehow gets translated into names. These names are people who will apparently do something terrible down the road (like kill Angelina Jolie's dad), so they have to be rubbed out in the classic "Ends justify the means" thing. I don't really get it either, but the point is you have to believe this stuff or the whole point of the movie is down the crapper, and guess which handsome blogger wasn't buying that premise.
Right on.
My brother the optimist (Bless him) was trying to legitimize this movie for me, but really, there was no changing my mind. I didn't buy the whole fate/weaving business, so the moral core of the movie was gone for me. I didn't mind the action sequences and liked seeing Angelina's ass for a few seconds, but the point of the movie, the moral center, kaput. After discussing this fact the entire ride home, I finally asked my brother why he was trying to make lemonade out of this somewhat sour lemon, and he said, "I don't know."
Therein lies the rub. most of the movie-going public is optimistic, and they want to be entertained, so they'll take films like Wanted as it comes and accept it for what it is. I myself cannot. And it's not just the film background. It's mostly the pessimism.In my mind I know that Wanted wasn't meant to win any Oscars, and I know that the thousands of rat-bombs that Wesley apparently made over-night were a completely unrealistic, yet stylistic, choice that most people will just swallow (Truly, it smacked of a writer sitting in his house and thinking, "What's never been done before? I got it! Rat-bombs!"), and I know that we are not meant to analyze Wanted for any more than two minutes after the thing ended.
But I must.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
The Mystery of the Empty Ebay Auctions
If you don't know what I'm talking about, and you read this in the next few days, here's what I'm talking about.
These people (and there are a few of them on eBay) are selling empty Coke cans and Dorito bags for large sums, and promising a "free gift" which just may happen to come inside the item. Obviously, this gift must be a violation of eBay policy right? Kind of like those guys who sell tickets to baseball games for exorbitant prices, but try to get around by saying that you are actually bidding on a baseball card that happens to have two tickets as a free gift. So, what illicit gift could be at work here? Drugs? Sexual favors? Hmmm, one of those auctions was only selling for $20. That seems a little low, even for a hooker.
My second guess was that it was some kind of pyramid scheme, trying to get people signed up for something ridiculous to make money by doing nothing, or even one of those auctions just there to bump up the seller's feedback. Either way, the free gift can't be anything good. The only good that may come of it is if there was Dorito dust at the bottom of the bag. Mmmmm... Dorito dust.
Alas, because I am a curious guy, have nothing better to do, and have a weird obsession with eBay, I did some research, and uncovered this page. if you don't feel like clicking, the gist of it is that the "free gift" is cash. Apparently, they refund the money you spent on the auction, plus twenty bucks. The hope is that these weird auctions (which receive thousands of hits) will drive people to the seller's other auctions, which are usually things that people who browse ebay all day may want or need. This one guy claims that he made over a $1000 on his other auctions because he got tons of hits on his auction for an empty can of Diet Coke and people clicked over, so giving away the twenty was a small price to pay.
Honestly, there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, receiving cash is a good thing. It just seems like an odd way to get people to bid on your stuff. As a big eBay guy (well, 897 positive feedback rating), I'm always trying to figure out ways to get people to look at my stuff (like putting that link in there. Bid, fools! Bid!). I mostly go the old-fashioned way, like good titles and pictures, but this is totally bizarre. Who even comes up with this stuff? "I've got an idea! I'll sell people trash with $20 in it, and with any luck, they'll also bid on my Starman Movie Poster."
It's kind of interesting, I guess, that people would be so curious to bid a candy wrapper up to $172 just to see what the free gift was. I just don't know if I agree with going to these extremes to sell old crap. Then again, I'm not above trying anything. And this is where some morals come into it. I've sold bootleg cd's and videos in the past, and when ebay finally caught up with me and stopped the auctions, I sold them in one-day auctions, because sometimes it would take them a couple days to catch me. When they started stopping those, I began selling the cd's at fixed prices, and those would usually get snatched up pretty quick before eBay would catch on. And when I would get caught, they would make me take a really easy quiz on copyright laws before I could sell again. Seriously. This is all they are doing to try and stop the criminals.
BUT, just because bootlegs are technically illegal, does that mean I was doing something really wrong? All those songs on the cd's I sold were songs I downloaded for free from Kazaa or Limewire, and I just happened to put them on a cd. Illegal, sure. Immoral? Who knows? Now, I also once sold a lot of textbooks on eBay that I had been trying to sell elsewhere for years, and I knew they were utterly worthless, and yet in my description, I made it seem like whoever won this auction could make a ton of money on the secondary market selling these books individually. I've done stuff like that before, but this was the first time I've out-and-out lied about the value of one of my auctions. I've sold old toys that were worthless to most of the population of the world, but the (no doubt) collector's who bought them probably felt like they got a bargain (These folks don't over-pay for anything. They do their research.) So, I didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong there. Old toys usually set their own price. But those books were garbage, plain and simple. Did I feel bad about it? Maybe a little, but really, I've been scammed, too, and what goes around comes around, I guess.
These people (and there are a few of them on eBay) are selling empty Coke cans and Dorito bags for large sums, and promising a "free gift" which just may happen to come inside the item. Obviously, this gift must be a violation of eBay policy right? Kind of like those guys who sell tickets to baseball games for exorbitant prices, but try to get around by saying that you are actually bidding on a baseball card that happens to have two tickets as a free gift. So, what illicit gift could be at work here? Drugs? Sexual favors? Hmmm, one of those auctions was only selling for $20. That seems a little low, even for a hooker.
My second guess was that it was some kind of pyramid scheme, trying to get people signed up for something ridiculous to make money by doing nothing, or even one of those auctions just there to bump up the seller's feedback. Either way, the free gift can't be anything good. The only good that may come of it is if there was Dorito dust at the bottom of the bag. Mmmmm... Dorito dust.
Alas, because I am a curious guy, have nothing better to do, and have a weird obsession with eBay, I did some research, and uncovered this page. if you don't feel like clicking, the gist of it is that the "free gift" is cash. Apparently, they refund the money you spent on the auction, plus twenty bucks. The hope is that these weird auctions (which receive thousands of hits) will drive people to the seller's other auctions, which are usually things that people who browse ebay all day may want or need. This one guy claims that he made over a $1000 on his other auctions because he got tons of hits on his auction for an empty can of Diet Coke and people clicked over, so giving away the twenty was a small price to pay.
Honestly, there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, receiving cash is a good thing. It just seems like an odd way to get people to bid on your stuff. As a big eBay guy (well, 897 positive feedback rating), I'm always trying to figure out ways to get people to look at my stuff (like putting that link in there. Bid, fools! Bid!). I mostly go the old-fashioned way, like good titles and pictures, but this is totally bizarre. Who even comes up with this stuff? "I've got an idea! I'll sell people trash with $20 in it, and with any luck, they'll also bid on my Starman Movie Poster."
It's kind of interesting, I guess, that people would be so curious to bid a candy wrapper up to $172 just to see what the free gift was. I just don't know if I agree with going to these extremes to sell old crap. Then again, I'm not above trying anything. And this is where some morals come into it. I've sold bootleg cd's and videos in the past, and when ebay finally caught up with me and stopped the auctions, I sold them in one-day auctions, because sometimes it would take them a couple days to catch me. When they started stopping those, I began selling the cd's at fixed prices, and those would usually get snatched up pretty quick before eBay would catch on. And when I would get caught, they would make me take a really easy quiz on copyright laws before I could sell again. Seriously. This is all they are doing to try and stop the criminals.
BUT, just because bootlegs are technically illegal, does that mean I was doing something really wrong? All those songs on the cd's I sold were songs I downloaded for free from Kazaa or Limewire, and I just happened to put them on a cd. Illegal, sure. Immoral? Who knows? Now, I also once sold a lot of textbooks on eBay that I had been trying to sell elsewhere for years, and I knew they were utterly worthless, and yet in my description, I made it seem like whoever won this auction could make a ton of money on the secondary market selling these books individually. I've done stuff like that before, but this was the first time I've out-and-out lied about the value of one of my auctions. I've sold old toys that were worthless to most of the population of the world, but the (no doubt) collector's who bought them probably felt like they got a bargain (These folks don't over-pay for anything. They do their research.) So, I didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong there. Old toys usually set their own price. But those books were garbage, plain and simple. Did I feel bad about it? Maybe a little, but really, I've been scammed, too, and what goes around comes around, I guess.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
The Glamourous World of Hollywood Movie-making
On Sunday, I served as an extra on a movie filming in Boston called The Surrogates. Now, those that know my history probably know that I declared I would never do that again after my horribly boring experience in The Great Debators. However, my friend Brom was also going to do this one, and he convinced me that it may be fun. plus, after seeing myself for a split-second onscreen in The Great Debators, I thought, "What the Hell?" Oh, and I'm broke. I know that seems like an odd reason for a film major to want to do a movie, but seriously, that's pretty much why I do anything.
Anyway, in order to fully illustrate the whole experience, I need to take you through the events step-by-step:
* - Several weeks ago, Brom suggested we go on this casting call for this Bruce Willis they'll be filming in Boston this summer. While there, we were told the premise of the film; in the future, everyone has a robot surrogate (played by us) who does everything for them, while the people sit around, presumably getting fat. At one point, all of the robots get turned off, so our job as extras was to pretend to fall as if we had been turned off. It was actually kind of fun, especially when one of the female surrogates who was wearing a rather short dress was turned off, and we all learned that apparently surrogates don't wear undergarments. Anyway, we were told that we fell well, and we would be contacted for shooting on June 29th.
* - On June 26th, we received an e-mail saying that filming was on. Nothing like giving us some notice. Brom texted me to say that I needed to respond quickly because it is first come, first served. However, I know a little about the film business, and I interpreted the e-mail more like this: "PLEASE COME! PLEASE HELP US! PLEASE!" We were told in the e-mail that we would receive another e-mail on Saturday evening with the call time and location. Yeah, because I live for this and have nothing better to do. We were also told to wear business/casual dress.
* - The ungodly call time was 6:30 a.m. and the location was down by South Station. Brom picked me up down there and then we drove to what we thought was the set. We were given knee and elbow pads and (when necessary) business attire. Apparently, this time we would be falling on actual cement. Glad I wore my nice jacket. We were also given a number according to their notes on how good we fell. Brom and I received "1's," which was apparently only second to an "X." I thought that boded well for us. I was wrong.
* - We then stood in line for awhile for hair & make-up. As is usually the case, the longer this line is, the more they weed out people who really don't need hair & make-up done. A lady walked through the line and on her second pass, tells me I look good and to go sit in extras holding. Damn straight. We were then bussed to the actual set in Liberty Square, and told to wait in holding, unattended, in a bar called Central 37. Holding was in a bar. I found this interesting, except for the fact that it was still about 8:00 in the morning and I'm not that much of an alcoholic.
* - Around 9:00 or so, they called us together to give us very little information. We were then given different designations (A, B or C) according to where we happened to be standing at the time. The 1's and X's suddenly meant nothing. Oh, no. My dreams of stardom dashed.
* - Finally, around 9:30, we were brought to set. Brom and I were given empty briefcases so we could look like we were heading to work, and told to stand against a wall while they place everyone. While there, we were both actually crapped on by a bird. I admittedly overreacted to this as I screamed to the heavens, "Sons-of-bitches!" I was half-joking, but I was honestly kind of afraid that nobody would bother doing anything about it because we were just extras. I don't think the crew got the joke, because they were trying to calm me down while we waited for some help. Eventually, a nice wardrobe guy came over to wipe the shit off. He was very pleasant and rather gay and when I remarked at what a crappy job this must be, he said he's seen worse, having washed extras' underwear. The glamorous world of Hollywood movie-making. (At this point, I remembered my experience of making that movie in Indiana, where one of my tasks was wiping birdshit off of a tombstone for a shot. I seriously wanted credit for that one.)
* - For the next several hours, until lunch, we squatted for rehearsals and actually pretended to fall for actual shots. I really wished I had stolen a beer at that point. During one fall, Brom fell backwards and landed on my briefcase, and we started laughing uncontrollably. I wonder if in the final cut you'll be able to see two dots in the background laughing.
* - After lunch (which wasn't bad), I sat around holding and socialized with several fellow extras (Brom is much better at this than I am, which is probably why he had a better time than I did.) I even did sneak a quick nip of Bass into a coffee cup before the actual employees of the bar showed up and made sure people weren't doing that. I found this part of the day quite extraordinary, actually. You meet so many people who are aspiring actors, models, filmmakers. You rarely meet people like me, who just need a little easy cash. I know if you try you may meet someone who can introduce you to someone who knows someone who might actually give you a break one day, but I can't help thinking that being an extra in a movie is about as far away from actual film making as you can get. It's sort of like me saying I'm a professor just because I work at a university. There's something sort of inspiring about it, however, to see these young-ins trying to make it in the fucked-up Hollywood system, despite living 3,000 miles from Hollywood.
* - As the hours wore on, my interest started to wane. Around 6:00 or so, the skies opened, and I thought that would finally be it. Surely they won't film in the rain. Well, in fact, they waited it out, and asked anyone who was completely in clothes that belonged to the production company to hang out and fall some more. At this point, I lost all interest, and even when the ground pretty much dried and they called out my group, I declined. Instead, I ventured to the bar across the street (still wearing knee and elbow pads) and had a quick beer. As I announced my destination, a few extras who were out front smoking asked, "Is that allowed?" I told them I didn't care, and a few minutes after I got there, I they entered. Seriously, for these movie people to assume that they can keep 200 people standing around for 15 hours and we would never leave for a few minutes for a quick libation is just ridiculous.
(I actually have heard that this is a problem in LA with extras, where they apparently show up, sign in, go to the easily accessible beach and sleep for awhile, and then go back and sign-out at the end and get paid for a day's work. Honestly, if it wasn't for the stupid elbow pads, I would have done it. No wonder these movies are all over-budget.)
* - Finally, sometime after 8:00 p.m., we wrapped and were very slowly bussed (and vanned) back to wardrobe to turn in our crap and sign out. This, of course, takes forever, because while they stagger the call times in the morning, they let everyone go at the same time at night, so 200 people are all trying to get their pay vouchers signed at once. Also, they apparently are required by law to feed us every 8 hours, so they broke for the day at around the 7:45 mark and let us go without feeding us. Other than a few crackers, basically nobody ate from the 1:00 lunch break until they let us go. My voucher reads that signed in at 6:30 and signed out at 9:30, with an hour taken out for lunch. Cheapskates.
I'm not really sure how I feel about all this. I want to hate it and say that I'll never do it again, but there are worse ways to make money. As a would-be filmmaker, however, it makes me a little sad. I look back on almost every movie experience I've ever had, and some of them make great stories, but what does it amount except a pile of unhappy memories? Hours, even days, of sitting around, waiting for something to happen, and then when something happens, usually nothing happens. At least if you're on the crew, you have some idea when something may actually happen and when you can sit back and relax (although, most of them seem like the least relaxed people I've ever seen.) I guess it's that sheer disappointment that film making is not nearly as cool as I thought it would that taints the whole experience. Brom had fun because he enjoys the people and it's something new and different. All I get is a little depressed that this what I went to school for and wanted to do with my life and I always find it incredibly disorganized and boring. I wish it were different, but it's not and so now I plug in laptops all day long.
Honestly, I think Dursin came out ahead on this one.
Anyway, in order to fully illustrate the whole experience, I need to take you through the events step-by-step:
* - Several weeks ago, Brom suggested we go on this casting call for this Bruce Willis they'll be filming in Boston this summer. While there, we were told the premise of the film; in the future, everyone has a robot surrogate (played by us) who does everything for them, while the people sit around, presumably getting fat. At one point, all of the robots get turned off, so our job as extras was to pretend to fall as if we had been turned off. It was actually kind of fun, especially when one of the female surrogates who was wearing a rather short dress was turned off, and we all learned that apparently surrogates don't wear undergarments. Anyway, we were told that we fell well, and we would be contacted for shooting on June 29th.
* - On June 26th, we received an e-mail saying that filming was on. Nothing like giving us some notice. Brom texted me to say that I needed to respond quickly because it is first come, first served. However, I know a little about the film business, and I interpreted the e-mail more like this: "PLEASE COME! PLEASE HELP US! PLEASE!" We were told in the e-mail that we would receive another e-mail on Saturday evening with the call time and location. Yeah, because I live for this and have nothing better to do. We were also told to wear business/casual dress.
* - The ungodly call time was 6:30 a.m. and the location was down by South Station. Brom picked me up down there and then we drove to what we thought was the set. We were given knee and elbow pads and (when necessary) business attire. Apparently, this time we would be falling on actual cement. Glad I wore my nice jacket. We were also given a number according to their notes on how good we fell. Brom and I received "1's," which was apparently only second to an "X." I thought that boded well for us. I was wrong.
* - We then stood in line for awhile for hair & make-up. As is usually the case, the longer this line is, the more they weed out people who really don't need hair & make-up done. A lady walked through the line and on her second pass, tells me I look good and to go sit in extras holding. Damn straight. We were then bussed to the actual set in Liberty Square, and told to wait in holding, unattended, in a bar called Central 37. Holding was in a bar. I found this interesting, except for the fact that it was still about 8:00 in the morning and I'm not that much of an alcoholic.
* - Around 9:00 or so, they called us together to give us very little information. We were then given different designations (A, B or C) according to where we happened to be standing at the time. The 1's and X's suddenly meant nothing. Oh, no. My dreams of stardom dashed.
* - Finally, around 9:30, we were brought to set. Brom and I were given empty briefcases so we could look like we were heading to work, and told to stand against a wall while they place everyone. While there, we were both actually crapped on by a bird. I admittedly overreacted to this as I screamed to the heavens, "Sons-of-bitches!" I was half-joking, but I was honestly kind of afraid that nobody would bother doing anything about it because we were just extras. I don't think the crew got the joke, because they were trying to calm me down while we waited for some help. Eventually, a nice wardrobe guy came over to wipe the shit off. He was very pleasant and rather gay and when I remarked at what a crappy job this must be, he said he's seen worse, having washed extras' underwear. The glamorous world of Hollywood movie-making. (At this point, I remembered my experience of making that movie in Indiana, where one of my tasks was wiping birdshit off of a tombstone for a shot. I seriously wanted credit for that one.)
* - For the next several hours, until lunch, we squatted for rehearsals and actually pretended to fall for actual shots. I really wished I had stolen a beer at that point. During one fall, Brom fell backwards and landed on my briefcase, and we started laughing uncontrollably. I wonder if in the final cut you'll be able to see two dots in the background laughing.
* - After lunch (which wasn't bad), I sat around holding and socialized with several fellow extras (Brom is much better at this than I am, which is probably why he had a better time than I did.) I even did sneak a quick nip of Bass into a coffee cup before the actual employees of the bar showed up and made sure people weren't doing that. I found this part of the day quite extraordinary, actually. You meet so many people who are aspiring actors, models, filmmakers. You rarely meet people like me, who just need a little easy cash. I know if you try you may meet someone who can introduce you to someone who knows someone who might actually give you a break one day, but I can't help thinking that being an extra in a movie is about as far away from actual film making as you can get. It's sort of like me saying I'm a professor just because I work at a university. There's something sort of inspiring about it, however, to see these young-ins trying to make it in the fucked-up Hollywood system, despite living 3,000 miles from Hollywood.
* - As the hours wore on, my interest started to wane. Around 6:00 or so, the skies opened, and I thought that would finally be it. Surely they won't film in the rain. Well, in fact, they waited it out, and asked anyone who was completely in clothes that belonged to the production company to hang out and fall some more. At this point, I lost all interest, and even when the ground pretty much dried and they called out my group, I declined. Instead, I ventured to the bar across the street (still wearing knee and elbow pads) and had a quick beer. As I announced my destination, a few extras who were out front smoking asked, "Is that allowed?" I told them I didn't care, and a few minutes after I got there, I they entered. Seriously, for these movie people to assume that they can keep 200 people standing around for 15 hours and we would never leave for a few minutes for a quick libation is just ridiculous.
(I actually have heard that this is a problem in LA with extras, where they apparently show up, sign in, go to the easily accessible beach and sleep for awhile, and then go back and sign-out at the end and get paid for a day's work. Honestly, if it wasn't for the stupid elbow pads, I would have done it. No wonder these movies are all over-budget.)
* - Finally, sometime after 8:00 p.m., we wrapped and were very slowly bussed (and vanned) back to wardrobe to turn in our crap and sign out. This, of course, takes forever, because while they stagger the call times in the morning, they let everyone go at the same time at night, so 200 people are all trying to get their pay vouchers signed at once. Also, they apparently are required by law to feed us every 8 hours, so they broke for the day at around the 7:45 mark and let us go without feeding us. Other than a few crackers, basically nobody ate from the 1:00 lunch break until they let us go. My voucher reads that signed in at 6:30 and signed out at 9:30, with an hour taken out for lunch. Cheapskates.
I'm not really sure how I feel about all this. I want to hate it and say that I'll never do it again, but there are worse ways to make money. As a would-be filmmaker, however, it makes me a little sad. I look back on almost every movie experience I've ever had, and some of them make great stories, but what does it amount except a pile of unhappy memories? Hours, even days, of sitting around, waiting for something to happen, and then when something happens, usually nothing happens. At least if you're on the crew, you have some idea when something may actually happen and when you can sit back and relax (although, most of them seem like the least relaxed people I've ever seen.) I guess it's that sheer disappointment that film making is not nearly as cool as I thought it would that taints the whole experience. Brom had fun because he enjoys the people and it's something new and different. All I get is a little depressed that this what I went to school for and wanted to do with my life and I always find it incredibly disorganized and boring. I wish it were different, but it's not and so now I plug in laptops all day long.
Honestly, I think Dursin came out ahead on this one.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)