GARY MASON

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gary@gary-mason.com

General

What to Wear to Your First Background Acting Gig

Acting, General

So, you booked your first background role. First of all—congrats. You’re officially part of the business now. You’re getting paid to be on set. And while it might not be a speaking role (yet), don’t underestimate how much you can learn just by being there. This is just how I got started.

Now let’s talk wardrobe—because what you wear on set matters more than you might think.

Unlike audition clothes, which are about suggesting the character, background work often involves dressing for the scene. And yes, sometimes production provides wardrobe. But more often than not, they’ll ask you to “bring options” or wear your own clothes.

Here’s how to show up ready, without overthinking it—or overdressing.

Read the Wardrobe Notes (Carefully)

When you book a background role, you’ll get a call sheet or email that includes wardrobe instructions. This isn’t the time to improvise or bring your favorite Hawaiian shirt “just in case.” Read the notes. Then read them again.

If they say:

  • “Upscale casual,” they mean think country club, not cargo shorts.

  • “Business attire,” they want office-ready, not a blazer over jeans.

  • “1970s casual,” they mean it. Leave your Nikes at home.

They may ask for “options,” which means bring 2–3 variations of the requested look. This doesn’t mean your entire closet. Stick with solid colors, clean lines, and minimal logos or graphics unless told otherwise.

Avoid Logos, Graphics, and Bright Whites

Unless the role specifically calls for it (rare), you want to keep your clothes camera-safe.

That means:

  • No logos or branding—they can’t be used on screen due to copyright.

  • No big graphics—you’re there to blend into the world, not distract.

  • No bright white—it reflects light badly and can be a nightmare for the camera department.

Stick to mid-range solids: navy, gray, olive, burgundy, etc. They photograph well and usually work in a variety of scenes.

Comfort Matters (Even If You’re on Your Feet All Day)

Background work is a lot of “hurry up and wait.” You might be in holding for hours before stepping on set. Or you might be outside in the heat, or standing in heels on concrete for an entire day.

Here’s the truth no one tells you: no one cares if your shoes are name brand—just that they match the scene and don’t squeak.

If you’re wearing “business shoes,” bring inserts.
If they want “casual,” go with comfortable flats or shoes you can stand in all day.
If it’s “period clothing,” be ready to feel slightly ridiculous and wildly uncomfortable—but professional.

Bring Everything in a Garment Bag

I don’t care how minimalist you are—you need a way to carry wardrobe options that doesn’t look like you stuffed them in a backpack next to your leftover Subway sandwich.

Bring a lightweight garment bag with:

  • 2–3 outfit options (pressed and ready)

  • Comfortable shoes if you’re arriving in something else

  • A lint roller (seriously)

  • Neutral socks, belts, and accessories as needed

Don’t assume production will have a steamer or a backup pair of pantyhose. Come prepared. It’s the difference between looking like a pro and looking like someone who wandered in from the parking lot.

Stay Neutral, Stay Flexible, Stay Invisible (In the Best Way)

Background work isn’t about standing out—it’s about disappearing into the world they’re filming. Whether it’s a courtroom, a coffee shop, or a 1970s bar scene, your clothes help sell the illusion.

That doesn’t mean you don’t matter. You absolutely do. But you want wardrobe and production to say, “That person gets it,” not “What the hell is that guy wearing?”

Final Thoughts

Showing up on set dressed correctly tells people you’re professional, prepared, and easy to work with. And when you’re just starting out—especially later in life—you want to take every opportunity to make the right impression.

You don’t have to spend a fortune on clothes. You just need a few flexible staples and the good sense to follow instructions. Honestly, that alone will put you ahead of half the crowd.

Oh—and if you’re still figuring all this out and haven’t subscribed yet, I’ve got a free guide that covers the basics: how to get started, what to expect, what you actually need, and how to avoid wasting money on hype.

Grab it here if you haven’t already.

Heads up: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy through them—at no extra cost to you. Think of it as tossing a tip in the jar so I can keep creating helpful stuff (and maybe upgrade my lighting setup).

Acting: A rough Business

Acting, General

Welcome back!

And thanks for reading! As actors, we are told over and over that in order to be successful, we need to be reliable and easy to work with. If not, productions won’t want to call us back. What we never hear is that productions, and more correctly, producers also need to be reliable and easy to work with! Being easy to work with can be an entire post all its own, so let’s concentrate on being reliable. This week I’d like to spend some time talking about the things producers/production companies do that make acting a rough business.

REMEMBER:

Just a reminder here that when I use the term “actor” I mean it to encompass all forms of acting including voice, stage, and screen.  Yeah, I know I say this every week, but it falls under the heading of “The things that go without saying are the things that most need to be said”.  What follows applies relatively equally to all of these forms of acting.

Reliability

What exactly does it mean to be reliable? Well, just to make sure we all have the same definition, here is what Merriam-Webster has to say about it:

1: suitable or fit to be relied on: dependable

2: giving the same result on successive trials

Both of those describe it well, but we should also take a look at dependable to make sure things are clear. Here is Merriam-Webster again:

                        1: capable of being trusted or depended on: reliable

So, dependable is reliable and reliable is dependable. I love it when they use one word to define another, and then use that other word to define the first one again. Apparently, the dictionary is not a reliable or dependable source of a definition for these words.

In simple terms

OK, so I’ll just make up a definition of both terms based on my understanding of them. To be reliable and/or dependable means, to me anyway, that you will do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it and that the quality of what you are doing remains consistent. For an actor, that means you will arrive on set on time (or ***GASP*** early) and prepared for the work you have agreed to do.

Productions are expensive.

Even the lowest budget productions cost money. There is equipment to buy or rent, locations to secure, a crew to put together and actors to pay. I know there are productions that are done where crew and actors are not paid, but even removing those costs there is still likely some cast to a production. But the projects I am talking about are the ones that DO pay the crew and actors. And those productions are expensive…and on a schedule.

Being unreliable…

An unreliable actor (or crew member for that matter, but we are talking about actors here) who shows up late or unprepared slows down the production and costs money. Sometimes a LOT of money, particularly if the location is being paid for. Imagine having to pay an entire film crew for an extra day (or more) because one of the performers is late? Even paying overtime for a single day can be thousands of dollars.

But what about the producer?

Sure, the producer is paying the bills, so if the production runs over due to something the producer does, he (or she) is paying for it anyway, so their own problem. But an unreliable producer creates other kinds of costs. Time, frustrations, and inconvenience to name just a few. So, let’s talk a little bit about some things I have experienced as a result of unreliable producers.

Disorganized producers.

I’ve been on a couple sets where the production is completely disorganized. And not just small independent sets where the producer/director lack experience, that’s almost to be expected. I’ve been on one set for a major production (you’d recognize the show) that was SO disorganized many of the crew walked away from what would have been a nice paycheck. My experience was that I was called in to work one day, arrived on time, went to wardrobe and hair and makeup and then…sat for 12 hours. I sat all day and never made it in front of the camera.

Why is that bad?

I mean, I got paid, I got fed and I got to network with other actors. Those things are great; however, those things are not why I (we actors) do this. The great thing is they wanted me back the next day (so I would have gotten another day of pay). The bad news is, I wasn’t available. Not only did I miss out on a second day of pay, but I also missed out on being in the production. I don’t know about everyone else, but part of what I love about acting is appearing in the production!

Hold the date.

Here is another one I dislike but think it will never change. You submit, audition, and then get called back. They like you, so they put you on hold. These are very positive and exciting. And then, just before the hold date…they release you. So, you potentially miss out on other jobs around that date. To be sure, the way to handle this is to not avoid submitting for work on that date until you are under contract and if you get offered another role that is in conflict, ask production for a book or release right away. This is a much bigger problem on smaller independent projects that do not offer a written contract.

And my favorite

This one just happened to me on Saturday.  And it is not the first time it’s happened like this. I had submitted for a role in a local, non-union, commercial. Obviously, I thought I fit the specs for the character. At around 10AM Saturday I received a call asking me if I could be on set at 2PM that same day. I asked for 3PM (I had some stuff going on) instead and the producer agreed. We discussed wardrobe, pay and location as well as how long I should need to be on set.

We struck the deal.

I agreed to the pay and duration, location was local, so no sweat (30 minutes from home), and I had appropriate wardrobe. So, an hour before call time, after rushing through what I had to do at home, I jumped in the shower, got dressed and headed out to set. Easy-peasy.

But then…

As I was exiting the highway 5 minutes from the shoot location…my phone rings. It is the producer. I assumed he was calling to make sure I would arrive on time given the last-minute nature of the arrangement. I was wrong. He told me, 5 minutes before I was to be on set, that he no longer needed me. He “had the person they needed for today”.  In other words, the person they originally cast and who may have said they couldn’t make it (there was snow Friday) had apparently been able to make it after all.

Easy come, easy go…

This was not a tragedy, but it certainly was frustrating! What was the cost? To production, nothing. To me? Time…which I consider our most precious commodity. I had to rush through the things I needed to get done before leaving, missed lunch because of that, spent time getting ready and prepared, spent time traveling to set…all for nothing. No work, no pay. And while it is not common it was also not the first time this has happened to me.

Actors beware…

The truth is, I did this to myself. As a caution to other actors, here is my advice: do not accept work without a written contract. Insist that you are paid regardless of whether or not you are actually used in the project, and even if they cancel at the last minute. It was naïve of me to accept the work based on a verbal agreement, although a reliable and dependable producer would have honored that agreement anyway. Rest assured I will not accept work from that producer again.

At the end of the day…

It is, as we are told, imperative that we as actors are reliable and dependable. If not, we can cost the production a bunch of money. I submit that is equally important for producers and production companies to ALSO be reliable and dependable. Otherwise, we as actors are just being taken advantage of. We can probably file this entire post under “Reasons why union representation is important to actors”. I’d love to hear any of your horror stories!

If you enjoyed this, please leave a comment below to let me know.  If you DIDN’T enjoy it, well, I’d like to hear from you too!  And please feel free to share this blog on social media or with other people you think might enjoy it.

If you haven’t already, please feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss anything – and as a thank you receive a free copy of my E-Book: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About getting Started in Voice Over but Didn’t Know Who to Ask!  

A day (week) in the life of…ME

Acting, Encouragement, General, Wisdom

Welcome back!

And thanks for reading!   Here we are in the second week of my renewed writing, and finding topics is no easier than when I started my very long break. I will NOT let that deter me though! This week I’d like to talk about what a typical week looks like for me. Sort of a “peak behind the curtain” if you will. I often wonder how other actors use their time, so hopefully this will help someone else who may be wondering.

REMEMBER:

Just a reminder here that when I use the term “actor” I mean it to encompass all forms of acting including voice, stage, and screen.  Yeah, I know I say this every week , but it falls under the heading of “The things that go without saying are the things that most need to be said”.  What follows applies relatively equally to all of these forms of acting.

A typical week…

What does a typical week look like for you? Many, if not most, of you have full time “survival” jobs. What’s a survival job, you ask? Well, if you don’t already know this; Acting is a tough career to survive on. Typically for anyone who is not an A-list (or even B-list) actor you are not earning enough with your acting to make ends meet. It’s a tough profession, for sure. So, your survival job is what you do to pay the bills until you either give up (Please, don’t give up!) or start earning enough as an actor to pay the bills. It can be anything from the stereotypical waiter/waitress (do we still use that non-gender-neutral term?) to an engineer, or factory worker, mechanic…you name it.  For most, that means a full time 9-5 job somewhere.

For me…

Well, I’m fortunate enough to have begun my acting career at a late stage in life and am retired. Twice actually. Frankly, I don’t recommend this…but we “bloom where we are planted” so no regrets (or as some tattoo artists without a dictionary say it-no regerts). I tell you this not to brag that I don’t need to act to pay my bills, but to say it is never too late to start. Well, and to say that my week will likely look a lot different than yours. You’ll probably have to inject a “Work 40+ hours” in there somewhere. I don’t envy you, but don’t envy me either because there are not nearly as many roles for a 60+ year-old slightly overweight man with greying hair.

One thing I do…

One thing I get to do each day that most of you won’t is I take some time each (well, most) afternoons to relax, watch a movie and maybe take a nap. Hey, don’t hate me, I wake up at the butt-crack-of-dawn every day. And I worked more than 40 years for the privilege.  Presently I am making my way through all the Marvel movies. I also spend at least 15 minutes (that is starting to turn into 30+ minutes) each afternoon practicing guitar. At this stage, it’s not pretty and I definitely don’t want anyone hearing me elicit some really bad sounds on my guitar.

OK, let’s start with Monday.

In my short three year (Wow, has it really been three years!?) acting career one thing I have found is that Mondays are slow days. Especially when you wake up at an ungodly hour like I do. It’s not just Monday either, I wake up between 4 and 5:30 every day. Without an alarm. This is not for the faint of heart and I admonish you not to try this at home. It works for me, though. At any rate, there is very little (read NO) industry stuff happening Monday morning. So, for me Monday looks like coffee and writing my blog. After Wordle of course. I’d love to tell you I write for you, but I’d be lying. I write for me. Hey it’s an outlet. Anyway, the remainder of Monday is dedicated to doing things around the house and now guitar lessons. Yeah, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

Tuesday…

Tuesday starts a lot like Monday with coffee. Honestly every day starts with coffee so I’ll stop mentioning it. I spend the early part of the day reviewing how many people opened this blog and read it, as well as responding to any comments I may get. NEWS FLASH: I love it when people comment on these. It lets me know someone is reading it and also lets me interact with some of you. If you ever think “I should comment…”, please do…I love it. Then I head out to my weekly acting class (9AM-2PM) and when I get home, I have some time to check casting sites for jobs that were posted between Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon. If I’m lucky, there is an audition request in my email, and I prep for that.

Wednesday…

Everyone else calls this hump day, I just call it Wednesday. When I can remember it’s Wednesday. Not having a full-time job means I use my pill case (yeah, getting old aint fun sometimes) to remind me what day it is. After I get done with Wordle and clear out emails I’m back on all the casting sites looking for roles that fit me. If I’ve gotten an audition, I’ll set up and tape it and then do some work on the podcast I am co-producing. By Wednesday, there are usually a lot of jobs posted, so it can be a busy day.

Thursday…

Much like Wednesday Thursday is filled with checking casting sites, working on the podcast and by this time of the week I usually have anywhere from 2 to 5 auditions to complete. Thankfully I have two “built-in” readers, my GF and son, so auditions are pretty easy to get done. It takes a fair amount of time to film and edit them for submission though. One other thing I typically do on Thursdays is head to the grocery store to shop for the week. Not my favorite thing, but I mind it less than my GF does, so I do it. A bonus of being retired is shopping mid-week and mid-day when everyone else is at work. It’s amazing how many parking spaces are available close to the entrance at 1PM on Thursday, and there are almost no lines at the checkout. PRO TIP: I have found Thursday afternoon to be the least busy day at the grocery store. If you can manage it, I highly recommend it.

Friday…

Much like Mondays, Fridays are pretty slow days. By this time of the week casting directors have all their roles posted (mostly) and are just waiting on auditions to arrive. So, Friday is spent finishing any auditions that have come in, finishing any hangers-on from work I need to do for the podcast and clearing my inbox from the week. Friday is kind of a closeout day for me.

THE WEEKEND!

You might think that every day is the weekend for a retired guy, and in some ways that’s true. I surely don’t have anyone else directing my time like I did when I worked full time, but honestly, I stay pretty busy all week, so it still feels like a weekend. Sometimes I feel like I am busier without a job than I ever was with a job. If you haven’t noticed, there is very little industry work going on over the weekend, so I get to spend my weekends relaxing, taking care of stuff around the house, catching up on anything that I didn’t get done on Friday and getting together with family and friends who DO work full time jobs.

Other stuff I didn’t mention…

Of course, this is not a completely comprehensive list of everything I do each week. There are meetings that happen periodically (this week I have a BIG meeting for some very exciting stuff I can’t talk about yet…more on that if it happens), sometimes I actually get to be on set and working, which throws the whole thing off, the inevitable “honey-do” stuff and occasionally being available for tradesmen to come fix stuff around here (our AC is out downstairs and the guy is coming today – yeah I know it’s winter but we are getting ready to sell and move so things have to work). You know, all the normal stuff that happens in a person’s life.

So, there you have it…

A pretty normal week in the life of me. I know you probably have a full time job that puts a major crimp in your acting life, but I encourage you to make time for the things you are passionate about (for me, that’s acting…hopefully for you as well) and keep putting one foot in front of the other so that one day you can do like I do (no, not wake up at some ridiculous time of day); have a nap in the afternoon!

If you enjoyed this, please leave a comment below to let me know.  If you DIDN’T enjoy it, well, I’d like to hear from you too!  And please feel free to share this blog on social media or with other people you think might enjoy it.

If you haven’t already, please feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss anything – and as a thank you receive a free copy of my E-Book: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About getting Started in Voice Over but Didn’t Know Who to Ask!  

And…here we go again….

General, Unplugging

Welcome back!

And thanks for reading!   Again. Hopefully. This week I’ll just ramble on a bit about taking a break writing and what happened over the last 8 months. This one is going to be only marginally about all things acting.

REMEMBER:

Just a reminder here that when I use the term “actor” I mean it to encompass all forms of acting including voice, stage, and screen.  Yeah, I know I (used to) say this every week (and will again), but it falls under the heading of “The things that go without saying are the things that most need to be said”.  What follows applies relatively equally to all of these forms of acting Well, not this week really).

Honey, I’m HOOOOME!

So, here we are about 8 months after my last post. Some of you may have noticed I was gone, some not…but I was. What happened?

A combination of things if I am being honest. Between a writer and actor strike and having a rough time figuring out what to write about a pause seemed the right thing to do. I had no idea when I took the pause that it would last nearly a year, but here we are.

Speaking of a year…

And speaking of a year, it’s a new one and I wish you all the best in 2024! Let’s hope this year is at least a little better than last for everyone. A lot happened in 2023 and for actors a lot of bad happened (which led to some good, but hey…). For us, even us not-yet-union folks, our careers took a bit of a hit. Being non-union for now meant I was able to work some, but if I am being honest the jobs were few and competition was a lot fiercer for those few jobs. Now that the strike is over AND the Holidays are behind us, I notice the number of jobs starting to really climb. Fingers crossed!

So, what did I do last year? 

Well, for one, I stopped writing this blog. For the two of you who missed reading what I write, sorry. For the rest of you, you are stuck with me again!  While I won’t detail my entire year here…I’m not sure I’d want to relive it anyway…I’ll try to hit some of the highlights.

I started a podcast!

Since there wasn’t a lot of outside work, to keep busy I (and a partner) created work for ourselves! I don’t want to give too much away, as the podcast hasn’t been released yet, but in short, we decided that the story of my GF’s brother’s murder was interesting enough to document. For any of you who are contemplating starting a true crime podcast, I can tell you the research is brutal! Also, finding people who were involved in something that happened 20+ years ago is difficult, and time consuming. If you are interested it will be titled “Aftermath of Murder” and you can see the not-quite-ready-yet website here. Tge URL may change, but it’s a start.

Not to mention…

Trying to get people who were involved in a way that may be criminal are impossible to get to cooperate and participate. It makes sense, I mean, why would they want to revisit something that was not only traumatic, but if they said the wrong thing could actually get them arrested? I confess I was slightly naïve going in that some of these people (if you can even FIND them) would be willing to tell their side of events. Turns out…no. One was very clear, with colorful language, that we should leave them AND their families alone.

But…

In the end we did manage to find a LOT of people, and a number of them agreed to participate. We are still trying to get a few more, but thankfully we have enough to begin production, which will happen next month.

I spent some time near the crime scene…

This was probably one of the most interesting (not THE most, but one of the most) periods of last year. Of course, it’s related to the podcast, but we flew out to Utah and Arizona and spent a week interviewing participants, getting some B-Roll footage of locations involved in the crime. And almost got detained at the prison where the murderer is presently awaiting execution.

Almost getting detained…

Did you know that prisons frown on people hanging out filming outside the fence? No? Neither did I. While situated within a city, the prison sits in the middle of miles of open fields. We drove around it on some dirt roads and Two trucks with prison guards stopped us, asked what we were doing, and made us leave the grounds. Thankfully, after calling to see about permission we were told that they had no jurisdiction off the grounds, so we were able to go across the street and get some pretty awesome drone footage of the prison.

I also…

Paused acting classes. This was probably a bad move, but with a focus on the podcast last year and the few gigs I did do it was inevitable something had to give. Turns out that something was acting classes. Thankfully I re-started them last week and I am really happy I did!

I went on an awesome trip! 

For those of you who don’t know, we bought an RV late in 2022. We had some problems with it, but got many of them worked out (at least enough to use it several times throughout the year) and in November, when Karen retired, we embarked on a seven week trip. Seven weeks in an RV seems like a long time, but it was over in a FLASH. 10/10 would (will) do it again!

We hit 12 states!

The trip included: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina again and then back home to Virginia. We put about 5500 miles on the RV in those seven weeks. In essence, other than Orlando where we spent four nights (I mean, Universal Studios AND Disney!?), we spent three nights in each location. The lesson is 3 nights is not quite enough, so felt rushed in some places. We decided future trips will be minimum five nights in each place.

We bought a house!

Now that we are both retired, no reason for us to stick around in the DC area with all the traffic and population density so in 2024 we will be selling our home and moving to South Carolina. We bought (well, still working on ironing out the details, but essentially bought) a home in a 55+ active adult community. I am not a fan of HOA’s, but the amenities of the place (not the least of which is they do all the landscaping and maintenance) outweighs the negatives. It should be built by the end of this year, so something to look forward to!

My daughter got pregnant (and my grandson had his first birthday) …

It’s very exciting to have grandchildren. Watching them grow and seeing the excitement on their faces when you arrive…also having no real responsibility so all the good with very little of the bad part of small kids…is amazing. Only problem is he’s in West Virginia and when our granddaughter is born, she’ll be in South Carolina. Our solution is to find some property in WV where we can live in the RV for extended periods so we can divide time.Still looking for the perfect land…but I’m sure we’ll find it.

I bought a guitar…

Yeah, it was an impulse buy when we visited the Gibson Garage in Nashville. I’ve wanted to learn guitar for a long time, but never really had the time while I was working full time. This time I’ve committed to practice at least 15 minutes a day, 6 days a week. Things are actually progressing pretty well. It’s been just under 2 weeks since the guitar arrived (had it shipped to the house, so I didn’t have to schlep it around in the RV) and I am pleased with my progress. I have my first in-person guitar lesson today but have been following some online lessons since it arrived. Hopefully this time it’ll stick. I’m too old to become a rock star, but looking forward to sitting around the campfire playing some songs one day.

Well….

That pretty much sums up 2023 since my last post. My plan is to begin posting weekly again but will likely change the format slightly to not always feel the need to write specifically about acting and Voice Over. I know that means some of you will likely unsubscribe…and I promise my feelings won’t be hurt (too badly, anyway) if you do. It’ll just make it somewhat easier to find topics to write about, and I promise not to abandon them altogether.

So, till next week!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings, and I’d love to hear how your 2023 went. So if you are so inclined, please leave a comment to tell me about it and I promise to review them and respond with something pithy (OK, I just wanted to say pithy) and maybe even relevant.

If you enjoyed this, please leave a comment below to let me know.  If you DIDN’T enjoy it, well, I’d like to hear from you too!  And please feel free to share this blog on social media or with other people you think might enjoy it.

If you haven’t already, please feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss anything – and as a thank you receive a free copy of my E-Book: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About getting Started in Voice Over but Didn’t Know Who to Ask!  

 

 

To SAG or not to SAG

Acting, General, Resources, Voice Over

Welcome back!

And thanks for reading!  This week let’s talk about the union (SAG-AFTRA).

REMEMBER:

Just a reminder here that when I use the term “actor” I mean it to encompass all forms of acting including voice, stage, and screen.  Yeah, I know I say this every week, but it falls under the heading of “The things that go without saying are the things that most need to be said”.  For this week, however, what follows applies relatively equally to VO artists and screen actors, but stage has its own union Actor’s Equity.  It’s similar, but eligibility in particular will be different.  One note is that membership in one or the the for the course of a year means automatic eligibility in the other.

SAG-AFTRA

If you’ve been involved in the acting or VO industry for any amount of time, you’ll know that 2023 is the year that all of the unions renegotiate their contracts.  And if you are paying attention to that, you’ll also note that this is one of the renegotiation years where there is a bit of angst. What the angst means is that the unions are not presently pre-negotiating, which means there is some risk of the present agreement expiring without a new agreement, which could lead to a strike.  It’s not very likely, since they typically just extend the old agreement until the new agreement is signed, but because of that some large productions seem to be holding off until a new agreement is in place.  That means there are fewer productions ongoing, and fewer opportunities.  Basically, if you’ve noticed a slow-down in available roles, that’s why.  Let’s talk about what the union is and what it does for artists.

What is the union?

SAG-AFTRA, or The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of television & Radio Artists, is the union that represents actors and VO artists as well as broadcast journalists and radio DJ’s.  It, like other unions, is the collective bargaining group that negotiates with producers to establish salaries, working conditions, safety on set and many other aspects of employment.  SAG was established in 1933 to prevent the exploitation of actors and AFTRA was established in 1937.  The two merged recently, in 2012 to form SAG-AFTRA.  Fran Drescher of “The Nanny” fame, is the current President of SAG-AFTRA.

What is the benefit of the union?

There are definitely many benefits to joining the union, which to many is a significant rite of passage, but there are ALSO some drawbacks.  First, the benefits.  In addition to negotiating contracts membership includes things like a health and pension fund, the SAG-AFTRA conservatory offering training workshops, casting workshops with big name CD’s, deals and discounts for things like hotels and car rental, discount movie tickets, voting for SAG awards (which includes free viewing of the films being voted on), and many others.

The drawbacks

SAG definitely provides some benefits to performers, particularly since performers tend to be self-employed freelance artists who wouldn’t otherwise have access to a pension or health insurance (at least not affordable health insurance). But, Global Rule Number 1, depending on what market you live/work in may keep you from working much.  “Global Rule 1 states: No member shall render any services or make an agreement to perform services for any employer who has not executed a basic minimum agreement with the union, which is in full force and effect, in any jurisdiction in which there is a SAG-AFTRA national collective bargaining agreement in place. This provision applies worldwide” (SAG-AFTRA.org)

Why is that potentially bad?

In short, when you join, you are agreeing to never work on a non-union project again.  If you are not in LA or NYC the number of union productions are going to be low.  And unless you have already established a name for yourself within the industry, read you are a recognizable actor with a good resume showcasing your talent, productions aren’t likely to want to pay for travel and will hire someone local instead.  This is slightly different for voice artists with a professional home setup since they work almost exclusively remotely.  Note that Global Rule 1 for SAG does not apply to work on stage projects and vice versa for Equity membership not applying to work in non-union screen projects.

In short…

If you join too soon, you wind up with a pile of awesome benefits you can’t use because you have restricted access to lucrative union gigs.  It’s something to consider depending on what market you live in or if you are unwilling to re-locate to a bigger market.  Otherwise, you can agree to “work as local” which means they hire you as though you live in their market and all of your travel expenses are your responsibility.  That can sometimes mean it costs more to get hired than you are getting paid.

Well, then, when should I join?

Assuming you have qualified for eligibility to join, which we’ll talk about next, the best time to join is really a personal decision. You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons for your individual situation.  The general consensus amongst everyone I have spoken with is this: Join when you have to. Eligibility to join, once achieved, never expires. Some people become eligible quickly, then remain eligible for decades before joining. How will you know you have to join?  Simple, you’ll get hired for a union gig and because of the contract with the production company they will be forbidden from hiring you unless you join.

How to become eligible

In short, working as a principal artist on a single union contract or as a background artist on three union contracts makes you eligible to join.  How can you work a union contract without being a member in the first place?  The Taft-Hartley act.  This act in part prevents unions from coercing people to join and forbids “closed shops”.  Without going into exceptionally boring legal detail, this means that because of Taft-Hartley a union project can hire a non-union employee for 30 days without the need to join the union. You’ll hear people say they got “Taft-Hartley’d” and that’s what it means.

Must-Join

You’ll also hear the term “must join” bandied about and what that means is the union has granted the 30-day Taft-Hartley exemption to a non-union artist and they have reached or exceeded the 30-day limit.  If you ask the union rep what must-join is, he or she will tell you there is no such thing since you can never, by law, be compelled to join.  They call it must-pay – which amounts to the same thing.  At the end of the day if you have been Taft-Hartley’d into eligibility and have exhausted the 30-day work exemption limit you will not be eligible for a union employment contract unless and until you pay your initiation fee and are up to date on dues – a member in good standing.

What is the cost to join?

Well, first, there are a couple different ways to join.  If you join nationally, which includes coverage in major markets like LA and NYC, the initiation fee is $3000 and annual dues are $227.42 plus 1.575 percent of covered earnings up to $750,000.00.  Pretty pricey.  You can however join as a regional member to reduce initiation fees and regional membership is calculated based on the region so you’ll have to check.  You can find out your regional office (based on your mailing address) by going here and scrolling down to the map titled “Locals”, calling the head office in LA (855-724-2387) or sending an email and asking.

Regional membership

Joining regionally is a lot less for initiation (half or less) and covers you for the entire US EXCEPT major markets like LA, NYC, Chicago, and Atlanta.  Major markets may shift from time to time, so you’ll have to ask what markets are excluded when you join as a regional member.  Doing this won’t stop you from working in the major market, but when you are hired in a major market, you’ll then automatically be billed for the difference in initiation fees.

The dreaded FICORE

You may have heard of FICORE.  FICORE stands for “Financial Core”.  Most people think that becoming a member of FICORE allows you to work both union AND non-union gigs, and in a way that’s true.  In essence, deciding to go FICORE means that you are or were a member in good standing but for whatever reason are resigning from the union.  Of course, you’ll still need to pay annual dues including a percentage of your salary for covered gigs, you will not get a refund on initiation fees, but you will not maintain the same level of protection or be able to use the benefits of being a SAG member.

Why is FICORE “dreaded”?

The sad truth is many productions “look down on” FICORE actors and while they would be allowed to hire you, they may choose otherwise in favor of another member in good standing.  Again, this is a very personal decision, and if you want to go this route, I urge you to speak with a SAG rep and an entertainment attorney to fully understand the implications.

At the end of the day

The decision to join or not join the union is a strictly personal one.  The union can provide actors many benefits and not just established pay minimums and good working conditions…but it may also reduce the number of jobs you can book depending on where you live.  The only really solid, steadfast advice on whether or not join is this: Don’t join until you have to so that you can continue to work the largest number of gigs to build your resume. That time is different for everyone, but you’ll know when it’s right for you.

If you enjoyed this, please leave a comment below to let me know.  If you DIDN’T enjoy it, well, I’d like to hear from you too!  And please feel free to share this blog on social media or with other people you think might enjoy it.

If you haven’t already, please feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss anything – and as a thank you receive a free copy of my E-Book: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About getting Started in Voice Over but Didn’t Know Who to Ask!

Useless facts and Trivia

Acting, General, Voice Over

Welcome back!

And thanks for reading!  Let’s just have some fun this week.  Here are some useless facts and a bit of trivia that actors should enjoy.

REMEMBER:

Just a reminder here that when I use the term “actor” I mean it to encompass all forms of acting including voice, stage, and screen.  What follows applies relatively equally to all of these forms of acting.

Behind the scenes

If you’ve ever been on a sound stage, in a studio or on a TV or movie set, it’s fun to see all the things that go on behind the scenes.  The average “civilian” consumers of entertainment have no idea what kind of things go on in making that entertainment.  What follows are just some fun bits of trivia and not a few useless facts for you to digest. Let’s start with a couple big ones. WARNING: There may be spoilers ahead!

Armageddon

Who doesn’t love a Bruce Willis movie about a bunch of hard charging, hard partying oil drilling roughnecks being launched into space to land on a meteor to drill a hole and save the world?  Well, not many people apparently as Armageddon was a very successful film.  But here’s the thing: Did you know that NASA shows this film during management training? Because it is so accurate?  No.  New managers are supposed to see how many errors they can find.  To date more than 160 have been discovered.

The Godfather

It’s iconic.  Anyone who loves gangster movies has seen the first Godfather movie at LEAST once (personally I like to watch it at least once a year.  And I LOVE the seven hour long cut where the scenes are arranged chronologically across all three movies). If, like me, you’ve watched this movie several times, you may have noticed Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) holding a cat in the opening scene.  That cat was a stray found on the lot who apparently took a liking to Brando so he just became a part of film history.  The cat’s purring was so loud at times, Brando had to ADR some of his lines.

Interstellar

I confess I haven’t seen this one, so I can’t comment on the content of the movie, however here is an interesting tidbit.  I think we all know that making a feature film is expensive and time consuming.  Apparently in this film there was a scene filmed in a huge cornfield.  In order to pull off the scene the producers actually GREW a huge field of corn, shot the scene then sold the corn for profit.  Imagine having to plant the field, tend the field and then wait for the corn to grow before shooting a scene.  That’s dedication.

Star Trek (1966-1969)

For all of us who grew up watching William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy conquering the “final frontier” the technology was pretty far out for the viewers in the 1960’s.  Phasers, transporters, communicators…doors that whooshed open as you approached them.  Fun stuff for youngsters like me at the time.  And the recognizable sound of those doors whooshing?  The Foley artist used the sound of a flushing toilet in a Russian train.  Who could have known?

Titanic

Leo and Kate…what a great couple.  The majority of this movie is set in 1912.  Of the total run time for this film…a whopping 3 hours and 16 minutes…the 1912 scenes comprise a total run time of 2 hours 40 minutes; the exact amount of time it took the Titanic to sink. And the scene where the ship collides with the iceberg?  That runs just 37 seconds…the reported amount of time the actual collision lasted.  Attention to detail!

Pulp Fiction

This is, of course, the film that brought John Travolta back out of semi-obscurity.  In one scene, his character Vincent plunges a needle on a syringe into his scene partner Mia’s (played by Uma Thurman) chest to revive her from an accidental overdose.  The film was shot with Vincent violently pulling the needle out and then it was run in reverse in the final cut.  My question is:  Did they actually insert a needle into her chest for this scene?  Since every scene is shot multiple times from different angles and with different lighting, I’d say having a needle inserted and removed from your chest over and over is true dedication.

Psycho

This classic movie depicting a hotel owner who keeps his mother’s dead body in the attic to talk to, and who tends to snuff out his guests, was rife with controversies at the time of its filming.  One of the many was a flushing toilet.  Yep, prior to this somewhat shocking film it was considered taboo to show a toilet being flushed.  It was only three years earlier (1957) that a toilet was shown on screen at all in the TV series Leave it to Beaver.  Like slashing Janet Leigh’s character Marion Crane wasn’t quite shocking enough!

Star Wars

We can’t mention Star Trek without also mentioning Star Wars. Casting shows and movies is a bit of a fine art.  The writer, producer and director definitely have a character in mind for each role, and they sift through (sometimes) hundreds of auditions to find just the right person to fill each role.  The lovable character of Han Solo was one role that was tough to fill…they searched for seven months.  As part of the audition process the casting team uses a “reader” to feed lines to the auditioning actor and at one point Harrison Ford was called in as a reader.  They liked his delivery of dialog so much they cast him as Solo, and the rest is history!

The Matrix

A complicated computer program plugged directly into people’s brains to keep them from realizing they are just a set of biological batteries for the machines that run the world.  Keanu Reeves as “The One”.  What’s not to love about this classic movie?  And Sushi too.  That’s right, those scrolling characters depicting “The Code” that runs to hide reality from humans are Sushi recipes from the cookbook of the wife of one of the production designers.

007

OK, this isn’t A movie, but a movie franchise, and we are only going to focus on the part of the franchise where Sean Connery plays the dashingly handsome and debonair Bond…James Bond. Since the actor began balding at the ripe old age of….17…Connery wore a toupee in every James Bond movie where he played the lead actor. This may disappoint some of the ladies for whom Connery was a heart throb.  Sorry ladies, I warned there may be spoilers.

Fight Club

Some of you probably already know this one, but it’s kinda fun so here ya go.  A meek, stressed-out automobile recall specialist played by Edward Norton (does that job even really exist) who is never named (although he does adopt a number of aliases in the film) creates an alter ego, Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt). They go on to create a “fight club” where men pummel each other in basements and warehouses across the city.  Beyond the little-known fact that both Edward Norton and Brad Pitt both learned to actually make soap as part of their preparation for their roles, watch closely and you will see a Starbucks cup in every scene (with permission from Starbucks).  The director, David Fincher, was poking fun at the chain because he thought the ubiquitousness of a Starbucks on every corner was a bit much.

Gone With the Wind

Vivian Leigh, Clark Gable…a love story for the ages.  Strange, since love is pretty much destroyed in the film… “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” and all.  It’s a great movie, but here is the fun bit.  When the film depicts the burning of the plantation, Tara, as part of the Civil war General Sherman’s “March to the Sea” it was ACTUALLY the first scene shot for the film. Huh?  How can that be?  How did they burn down the plantation BEFORE filming?  Truth is, the scenes that depict the burning of Atlanta, including Tara, were actually old movie sets that needed to be removed before building sets for this film.  So they burned them and filmed it…all before the first actor was cast.

Well, there you have it

Some fun little bits of trivia and little-known facts about some of our favorite films.  I hope you had as much fun reading about them as I did researching them to write this.  I know, not a lot of “meat” this week…but hopefully you’ve had some fun.

If you enjoyed this, please leave a comment below to let me know.  If you DIDN’T enjoy it, well, I’d like to hear from you too!  And please feel free to share this blog on social media or with other people you think might enjoy it.

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If you haven’t already, please feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss anything – and as a thank you receive a free copy of my E-Book: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About getting Started in Voice Over but Didn’t Know Who to Ask!