Category Archives: Acting

Getting Myself Set For The Summer (or Union Things And Celebrating)

As I wrote last month, I seem to pick monthly challenges at the perfect time. I pick things that end up being exactly what I need at that time and it really has benefitted me. And sometimes, those benefits have been just to focus on something that I know will be taking up a lot of my time. And that was the case for June.

I set my monthly challenge to be as involved in union service as I could be. There were some limitations that didn’t allow me to do everything I wanted to do, but I was getting a lot done last month. I was continuing to support the strike against the AMPTP as much as I could. I didn’t get out to any picket lines, but that’s just because of my job and not really having the chance to take time off while things are a bit crazy at work. But I was still supporting things as much virtually and sharing information so others could make it to the picket lines.

But the bigger thing I was working on was mainly behind the scenes because it wasn’t announced until the end of the month. Normally during union elections, there are 2 major slates that both have candidates running for various positions. This year, there has been a big sense of unity among union members and that has also changed what will be happening in the elections this summer. Instead of the 2 major slates running their own candidates, we will be having a unity slate with some candidates from each of the major slates. This is a big deal and it took a lot of work to make it happen, but I think this is something that will really benefit the union and could be a refresh for elections that we all need. There are still other candidates that will be running outside of the unity slate and there might be another slate created since there have been talks about some independents doing that in the past, but having the 2 main slates combined is going to make things very different this year. And I’m so grateful I have been a part of the work behind this (although a small part compared to others) and that I will be running on the unity slate.

I will still be doing a lot with union service this month, and likely more than normal since it is still election season. But I have picked another monthly challenge for July that I think will be perfect for me.

July is the last full month of my 30s. I turn 40 at the beginning of August and I’m pretty excited about that. I haven’t really been scared of aging, but I think that I was a bit more fearful of turning 30 than I am now about turning 40. I think my 30s have been the best decade of my life so far and significantly better than my 20s. And I want to celebrate how great my 30s were before I celebrate turning 40. So my challenge for this month is just that simple. I want to spend July celebrating and enjoying the last full month of my 30s. I know that aging is something that some people don’t look forward to, but I think more people now are enjoying aging. And age really is just a number and I believe that there is no guideline of where you need to be in life at certain ages. When I was younger, I believed in that idea more. But now, I am just enjoying my life and I don’t really care about the number attached to my age.

I don’t have anything in particular that I want to do to celebrate the end of my 30s, but I will be making sure that I appreciate what I accomplished in the last 10 years and how I have been setting things up to be even better in my 40s. And I’m thinking I should be doing something bigger for my birthday this year since it is a milestone, so planning my birthday will also be a way to celebrate what my 30s meant to me. I’m excited about this birthday and about being in a new decade of life soon, but I also don’t want to forget everything I was able to do in my 30s and remembering how that time turned me into the person that I have become and will be going into my 40s.

Giving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer)

I feel like I’m picking the right monthly challenges at the right time. I seem to know that I will need to do something in the coming month and focusing on it really allows me to make sure I do what I need to do. Sometimes I don’t know why I need to do something until the month is over, but it’s always a great lesson for me. And this past month was no exception.

The overall challenge I set for myself was to be ok with not being perfect. I wanted to let myself use that idea for different things throughout the month, but it mainly concentrated on one part of my life. And that was how I plan out my blog posts. I’m almost 11 years into writing and until May I wrote a post every weekday. Coming up with 5 posts a week is not easy. Sometimes I have ideas for each day and I can be excited about what I want to write about. But more often, I struggle to come up with ideas and I know that my posts can become repetitive. So my challenge with not being perfect was about being ok with not writing every single day.

As you can tell from the posts I posted last month, I did go down to 2 posts a week. My Monday post was my workout recap and then my Wednesday post was about something else. I debated if I wanted to also do a Friday post because I did have things that I wanted to write about, but I knew that it would be a better challenge if I did limit myself to just 2 posts a week. Sometimes I didn’t write about things as quickly as I normally would. For example, this post would have been on Thursday or Friday last week if I had my old writing schedule. I had to be more selective about what I was going to share, but that also allowed me to not focus on turning things I do into posts. I liked not having that stress and I know that this was the exact thing I needed to do for myself.

Giving myself permission to not feel perfect really did release something from me that I didn’t know I seriously needed. And my plan is to continue to not worry about posting every day. Right now, I think keeping it to twice a week is a good option. Later, I might want to add in a third day, but I want to do another few weeks with just 2 posts a week to see how I feel about it. And maybe it’s something I keep flexible and I write 3 posts if I have things I want to share but only do 2 posts if I don’t feel like I need that third post.

Releasing the stress of having to always think of posts has been great for my mental health. And I think I will need as little stress as possible as I get prepared for a potentially stressful summer. This summer is election season for my union, and that’s what inspired my challenge for June. This month, I challenge myself to stay involved in union things as much as I can and try to help others be involved as well.

I’ve already been working on this with the strike authorization vote. I worked on making sure all the people I knew voted and understood what the vote meant. Most people understood that the authorization vote didn’t mean we were going to strike, but we were giving the negotiating committee the ability to call a strike if necessary. And I’m so proud of the union because we had a really good voter turnout (at least for us) and almost 98% of the members who voted approved the strike authorization!

Union elections are always stressful, but adding in contract negotiations adds to that. We will have our regular elections plus we could be voting on a new contract if one is presented to the members. And if we don’t get a contract, there is a chance that we will strike. This is a lot of information for members to take in, especially if they haven’t been involved in the past. Even for me, things can get overwhelming with staying on top of all the things we should know to be informed voters.

But with all the craziness and potential stress, there are so many ways for me to stay involved and connected with my acting career. I know that I will be stressed (and not having to write as many blog posts will help to not add more stress), but it will be worth it. I know I feel better when I’m involved and active with the union. I look forward to the different opportunities that will be coming during this election season and contract negotiations. I might feel like it’s too much in the moment, but once I get through this summer I know I will be grateful that I did whatever I have the ability to do.

Authorizing A Strike (or I Got My Vote In)

Right now, the WGA is on strike after their negotiations stalled for their new contract. I fully support the writers and what they are asking for. It’s clear that streaming services bring in a lot of money and they should not be treated differently from tv since they are essentially the same now. They want other things in their new contract that are different from what actors would want, but the general idea of what they are striking for is very similar to what actors want in our new contract.

And it’s about to be time for us to negotiate our new contract. It’s not unusual for these negotiations to happen back to back, and the directors will be negotiating soon too. But this time, things really feel different from past negotiations. There has always been solidarity between unions, but this feels much bigger than it’s ever been. Things also seem more organized, which might be partially due to social media but also maybe it’s also due to unions wanting to band together. I think it’s been pretty amazing to see how together everyone seems to be.

Typically, as SAG-AFTRA is getting ready to start negotiations on our contract, there isn’t much for the general membership to do. Once a new contract has been agreed to by the negotiating committee, the membership will vote to decide if we will ratify that contract or reject it. This year, things are different and I have a feeling that the current strike is a big reason why.

SAG-AFTRA has asked all members to vote on a strike authorization. This does not mean we will be going on strike, but it will allow us to quickly go on strike if that becomes necessary. If the membership agrees to the authorization, then the National Board can call a strike and all work on the tv/theatrical contracts will stop. This wouldn’t affect commercials or other categories of members such as broadcasters, but tv/theatrical is a big category.

Striking isn’t something that any of us want to do, but if things can’t be agreed upon, it could become necessary. And while some productions have continued during the writer’s strike because scripts have been written, it’s a lot harder to continue working when actors aren’t on set. I know that when the commercial strike happened years ago, this led to an increase in non-union commercials. But I couldn’t imagine that happening with tv and movies. I think the producer/studio side knows that a strike by actors would be devastating, They have already lost so much money due to productions being shut down from the writer’s strike, which would only increase if actors go on strike too.

As soon as the strike authorization vote was announced, I knew I would vote yes on it. It’s important for us members to give the negotiating committee all the tools they feel they need for this contract negotiation. And if they feel having the approval of a strike authorization would help, then I want them to have that. And I’m encouraging all my fellow members to do the same.

I know that this can sound scary, but it’s important to remember that this might not lead to a strike. Sometimes just having this vote approved can be enough for the other side to want to make a deal and avoid a strike. And if you are a member and have questions or haven’t voted yet, you can go to this website for more information. If you haven’t received your PIN to vote, that can be accessed on the IVS ballot website with your membership number.

Voting will end on June 5th, so there is still time to vote if you are a paid-up member. And I know that if we had a high turnout, that would work in our favor even more.

So if you are in SAG-AFTRA, please vote and I highly encourage you to vote yes. This is only going to help in these negotiations and if it leads to a strike, then that must be necessary in order to get the fair things that we deserve.

Another Virtual Union Meeting (or Getting Ready For What Is To Come)

I have tried to stay as involved with my union as much as I can for quite a bit of time. It hasn’t always been easy and I regret not doing it sooner, but I’m very glad for all the things I have been able to be a part of since I decided to be involved. Some of the meetings I have been able to attend are small groups or committees, which are nice to get to know people who have similar interests. And others have been big meetings like the LA Local Membership meeting which all members in the LA local are invited to attend.

The LA Local Membership meeting used to be a big in-person event that can be fun but also can feel overwhelming. And since the pandemic, it became a virtual event with everyone on a giant Zoom. As much as I love the in-person meetings because I get to meet new people, it is nice to watch the meeting from home so I don’t have to drive to get somewhere and I can be comfortable. And these meetings tend to be several hours long, so being home and able to move around and stretch or get some water and snacks while still watching is a nice bonus.

We had another Membership meeting this past weekend. Because of confidentiality, I can’t share much about what we specifically discussed. But there were a few main topics that came up quite a bit. The meeting started with the reports by different local officers, which is standard. The building that the union headquarters will be moving into was discussed in more detail than what we previously had. But the biggest things that were discussed over the 4 hours of the meeting were the upcoming elections, the current strike, and our upcoming contract negotiations.

The upcoming elections were gone over a bit with the dates and deadlines to keep in mind. But because we are almost in election season, things had to be discussed carefully so they weren’t considered electioneering. I don’t know how many members who were on the call were interested in running for union office, but I’m glad the information was shared because the more informed members are, the better.

The current strike took up a good amount of time because that is one of the biggest things affecting the industry right now. And I’m proud that SAG-AFTRA has been standing with the WGA and the union has been so great at getting information out to all the members about different picket lines and events we can be a part of. I still haven’t had the chance to go on a picket line, but I’m trying to figure out when I can take a little time away from work to do so. Because the WGA contract is not our contract, we don’t know when the strike might end, but we know why it’s happening and why it’s important.

Obviously, the WGA strike discussion lead to a discussion about our upcoming contract negotiations and if our union will strike. That is a decision that hasn’t been made yet and will have steps before it can happen. The leaders who ran the meeting went into the process that will be coming up with the negotiations and what steps would happen if we were to go on strike. I know there have been a lot of members confused about what happens before a strike, and it’s good that was cleared up. And I know others were worried that not enough would happen before we would go on strike or we wouldn’t know when that might occur. I know we get a lot of information via email, but people miss those. There aren’t a lot of other systems to get information out to thousands of people quickly, but I think discussing that everyone should check their emails will help more people to open them and maybe even have members reach out to other members to remind them to do the same.

The meeting was supposed to be 3 hours long, and it was over 4 hours long before it had to end. I was hoping to have a chance to ask a question during the Q&A, but there were too many other members ahead of me in the line so I didn’t have a chance to do so. But I’m ok with that since I have friends who can help me get the answers so I won’t be wondering. And I can share what I learn with other members through social media and other ways if necessary.

Overall, it was another really good and informative meeting to attend. And I think more people attended with it being virtual than could have attended if it was in-person. There are a lot of moving parts happening right now in the industry, and this was a great way for a lot of us to get on the same page with what is happening and to keep us all informed as things change. And I hope that all the members who attended will feel motivated to continue to be informed and educated so we can continue to strengthen our union.

The Importance Of The Writers Strike (or I Support The WGA)

The Writers Guild of America has been on strike for just over a week now. This isn’t the first time they’ve been on strike in recent history, but this time it feels different. The last strike was in 2007 and lasted 100 days. And even though there was social media during the last strike, I think the influence of social media is really showing itself this time.

I remember during the strike in 2007, there were people who were confused about why TV shows were shut down and not putting out new episodes. It didn’t feel like it was a huge news issue outside of LA or those in the entertainment industry. And when it did make the news, I feel like it took longer for those not directly involved to hear about it or understand what was going on. But this time, I was seeing things by friends who aren’t in the entertainment industry posting about a potential strike the week before it was going to happen. And as soon as the strike started, I saw people asking what they could do to support the WGA.

If you aren’t directly in the entertainment industry, there isn’t much you can do right now. I’ve seen some people post saying they should cancel Netflix, but I’ve seen people with the WGA say they aren’t asking for a boycott right now and it’s just a strike. So canceling streaming services isn’t necessary. If you are near where there are picket lines, you can always bring things like water, snacks, or sunscreen for everyone who is out there.

And for those of us in other unions, unless we have a show with a contract right now, we shouldn’t be crossing picket lines. I’ve seen things from SAG-AFTRA saying that if you are in production with a show and have a contract, you may be required to still go in for work and if you chose not to, there can be legal issues. I know that other actors have called into the union to check to make sure things they are doing are ok, and I think that’s a great option if you are confused. And a lot of my fellow actors have been joining the writers on the picket lines since the strike started. I haven’t had a chance to do that, but I’m hoping I can go soon during my lunch break from work since one of the picket line locations is pretty close to me. I might only be able to be there for about 30 minutes, but that’s better than nothing.

It’s never great when there is a strike and when work has stopped, but this is for something important. And the things the writers are asking for are very similar to what actors will be asking for in our upcoming contract negotiations. Streaming shows are not going away, and we need to restructure our contracts to fit that type of work. We have residuals in streaming, but it’s not the same scale we are used to. And having a limited number of episodes in a season has changed so much, but I think it has changed things more for writers than it has for actors. Making sure everyone is paid fairly for their work is a top priority. The work can be sporadic and not necessarily steady, but when someone is working full-time as a writer, they should be able to support themselves doing that and not stress about having a second job to make sure they can pay their bills.

I know most people hope that this strike will be shorter than the one in 2007, but I don’t know if that will happen. It seems like both sides are very far apart in what they want in the new contract, and it’s going to require a lot of compromises to come to a deal. But I know that this strike is important for the industry as a whole and that more than just the writers will benefit from the outcome.

Another Virtual Board Meeting (or I’m Glad I Could Join This Time)

Before the pandemic, I was pretty good about attending the SAG-AFTRA local board meetings as an observer for a few years. I’m a little disappointed that it took me so many years to prioritize going to those, but I was glad that I finally got into the routine of attending and being much more involved in the union. And during the beginning of the pandemic, the local board meetings continued, but they didn’t allow observers into the Zoom meetings. It was sad to see something that I had grown to look forward to and appreciate not available anymore, but I understood that everyone was doing the best that they could.

They finally started to let members be observers for the local board meetings again recently. But they are still limited to a specific number of observers just like with the in-person meetings. Because these meetings are announced in emails and I get a lot of emails every day, there have been times I’ve missed the announcement for signing up to be an observer and I can’t even get on the wait list. But after that happened the most recent time, I told myself that I just needed to read all the emails I get as soon as I can to make sure that I’m not missing anything.

And that plan worked because when the most recent local board meeting was announced and members could sign up to be an observer, I did it right away. I’m glad that I was able to get a spot so I could participate in the limited manner we were able to.

Attending a virtual meeting as an observer is a very different experience from going in person. I have the same rules as an observer so I’m not participating in the meeting no matter what. But there is something different about the pre-meeting stuff when you are there with others as well as just sitting in on the meeting with other people in the room compared to seeing people on a Zoom screen. I know that a virtual meeting is better than no meeting, but I still miss the in-person ones. But I do like that I don’t have to worry about traffic and I can dress much more comfortably when I’m sitting in front of my computer.

As with all local board meetings, a lot of what was said is confidential and I can’t really say what we talked about, even in really board terms. But I can share that something that was discussed was how the union just recently bought a building. This has been a discussion for a very long time, but the timing wasn’t right in the past to buy a building. I know years ago when there was a serious search, the good options were all very far from the main part of LA and that wasn’t something the union wanted to do. I think the timing worked out this time because there are a lot more vacant commercial spaces because businesses have been closing or going fully remote. And I’m sure there were other financial factors that came into play that aren’t public that made now the right time to buy and this building the best option for us.

I will have a much longer drive there when we move to the new building since it is in the valley, but I’ll figure out how to make it work when that time comes. And there aren’t a ton of meetings I go to at the union building, so it won’t be that often. I have a feeling a lot of meetings will continue to have a virutal option, so if I can’t drive over there one day, there will be another way for me to attend or participate.

With the other things that were discussed in the meeting, a lot of them were new to me so I’m glad I was able to learn about more things that will be coming up with the union. I really do try my best to stay informed and educated, but it hasn’t been as easy the past few years. There aren’t as many opportunities to be a part of union events or meetings, so I have to take advantage of the few that are out there and make sure I RSVP in time so I can get a spot.

I don’t know when the next local board meeting will be or if there will still allow observers to attend, but I’m hoping I’ll get another change to sit in and learn. And when they do return to in-person events, I’ll be ready and excited to see everyone in person and feel much more a part of what is going on.

Still Trying To Be More Involved In Meetings (or It Will Be Interesting To See How This Will Work Soon)

Every time I attend the LA Communications Committee meeting for SAG-AFTRA, I wish that I was more involved. I tend to be pretty quiet during meetings for a bunch of different reasons. One is that I just don’t have a ton of ideas for articles, which usually is the bulk of the discussion during the meeting. Also, I know I don’t have a lot of time to research and write articles, so I don’t want to accidentally volunteer myself. But I try when I can and at each meeting I make an effort to speak up if there is something I have to say.

We had our most recent meeting earlier this week, and while I still wasn’t very involved in the meeting, I feel like I spoke up more often than normal. I wasn’t contributing a lot, but I did make sure that I said something when I had something to add or when there was a question among the committee that I had an answer to. It was a busy meeting and we had a lot to discuss outside of article ideas or other things we typically discuss, so I think the change in subject matter helped me have more to say and not feel as fearful about speaking up.

But we are going to have a change in these meetings that might bring my participation back down again. For several years now, all our meetings have been over Zoom. I like this since I have to work at the same time and it’s easy for me to work and stay on Zoom at the same time. Before they were over Zoom, I had to call in and listen via speakerphone, and it was very difficult to hear everything and even harder to contribute to the discussion. Also, since most of the committee members were there in person, there were handouts given that I didn’t always have access to until after the meeting. This was for a different committee than the one I’m in now, but I know that many committees worked the same way.

Our committee had a vote before this most recent meeting about how we want to continue meeting. We have the option for in-person meetings which weren’t available to us. And even though I work a different job now and I might actually be able to go in person, it would still be much easier for me to stay on Zoom. We had 3 options in our vote: only do in-person meetings, only do Zoom meetings, or have hybrid meetings with both in-person and Zoom options. And because of my past experience, I voted for only Zoom meetings so everyone would be on Zoom. I was in the minority for that vote and most people voted for hybrid meetings. And I know that a lot of my fellow committee members will be there in person. So being on Zoom may not be a great way to participate.

I really do hope that it will be different from when I called into meetings in the past. Maybe if there are a few of us on Zoom, there will be efforts made so we can see what’s going on and not feel like just an observer. I also think that since it’s being on Zoom and not on the phone, there will be more ability to participate because of the raised hand function on Zoom. But it will still be different from being there with everyone else.

I know other committees and groups will be doing hybrid meetings before my next committee meeting, so there will be opportunities for the union staff to figure out any technical issues that might come up that prevent people on Zoom from being able to fully be a part of the meeting. And maybe I’m wrong and there will be more people attending via Zoom than in person when we do have the meeting. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

It’s been a struggle for me to be as involved as I wanted to be for the past almost 2 years, and this might add a bit more to that struggle. But I’m still determined to be an active and involved union member and get the most out of the opportunity that I’ve been given.

Oscar Night (or A Very Low-Key Award Show)

After going to the Artios Awards earlier in the week, I was ready for a casual party for watching the Oscars. I was going to go to the same party that I normally go to, and I usually try to wear something comfortable when I go since I spend most of my time there sitting and watching the show. But since it’s also a costume party, I try to figure out something fun to do that also isn’t too awkward to sit in. I seem to be pretty good at figuring out lazy costumes, but this year I was cutting it close with making a costume.

Since I hadn’t seen that many of the movies, I knew it wouldn’t be too easy for me to be inspired for my costume. So I decided to pay attention to the names of the movies and use that for my inspiration instead of the characters and storylines. And I think I figured out something that was really funny and easy. I decided to go as the movie “Blonde”. For my costume, I used a box I already had and printed a photo of a hair dye box and covered the box with that. I know I could have gone out to buy hair dye, but I was doing this about an hour before I was leaving for the party and it was much cheaper to do this. But I think the box turned out ok and my lazy costume came together.

I didn’t wear anything to go with the costume, so I knew that there was almost no chance I would win the costume contest. But I know that I never place in the costume contest so I don’t try too hard. I just like to make a costume of something and this worked perfectly for me.

I got to the party right as it started, which was about an hour before the show started. Since I am in a room watching the show for most of the time I’m there, I wanted to get my social time in during that hour. A bunch of people were there early as well, and we had a nice food spread that was much fancier than what we normally have. Right before the show started, I put together a little plate and brought it to where I would be watching.

There are two viewing areas at this party, the quiet room and the loud room. I’m always in the quiet room since I like to focus on the show. We do talk during commercial breaks and sometimes we say little comments to each other during the show, but for the most part, we are quiet. Most people at the party hang out in the loud room, so we are a small group and I didn’t really see people who showed up after the show started until I took a break to get something during a commercial break. It does feel a bit weird to not be social when so many of my friends are hanging out just one room away, but I think everyone understands that we will hang out a little later in the evening.

I really enjoyed the Oscars this year. The show didn’t feel long even though it was a bit longer than in some past years. I loved the speeches and everyone seemed like they were happy for each other. There was a nice sense of community at the show that I don’t remember seeing in the past and that made it feel more like a celebration of the work that was done in the past year versus a competition. I think there are some things they should still fix, such as letting the winners speak and not cutting them off, but there have been changes that they have been working on making and I think they are paying off.

Once the awards were done, we all gathered to vote on the best costume and see who guessed the most winners correctly. I sometimes do well with guessing the winners, but this year wasn’t my year. I missed so many of them and I think there were 8 people who did better than I did. But that’s ok since almost all my guesses were random and not based on seeing the movies. And I just have fun being around everyone and winning something at the party isn’t something I feel like I need.

I wish I was able to stay later than I did, but I needed to head home to get to bed early so I could get enough sleep before my workout. But even with the limited social time I had while I was there, I still had a great time seeing my friends and I know I’ll see them again at whatever the next party will be. And that next party will be much more social since we won’t have a 3 1/2 hour long show to focus on.

Maybe next year, I’ll have a more interesting costume or will have seen more movies so I can make more educated guesses on who the winners will be. But even if that doesn’t happen, I know I’ll still have a great time watching the show in the quiet room and being in my lazy and casual costume.

Artios Awards (or A Red Carpet Work Evening)

I know I’ve written quite a bit about how I feel very lucky with my main current day job. I do work that can vary from day to day, I know my contributions are appreciated, and I make more than I did at past jobs. Plus, most of the people I work with are either actors or used to be actors so they understand needing flexibility and the entertainment industry. I don’t really get to see my co-workers in person since we all work from home, but there is still a collaborative feeling since we are in meetings together quite a bit. I know they are trying to have more in-person events for everyone, but it’s not easy to organize.

The company I work for has been a part of some really awesome events, sometimes it’s because we are running the social media for the event and sometimes we are a sponsor. I haven’t really had a chance to be a part of those events since it’s a different part of the company than where I work, but I still think it’s pretty cool to know we are a part of something big.

But I got a chance to attend something very cool this past week. The company I work for was running the social media for the Artios Awards, which is an award show for casting directors. The company had a table at the event, and there was an extra seat that was offered to me. I had to double-check with my other job to make sure I could switch around my hours and that I had something that was appropriate to wear (I don’t have a lot of excuses to dress fancy and I got rid of a lot of clothes in my move), but I was able to make it work so I could go!

It was held at the Beverly Hilton, which isn’t that far from me and where the last in-person SAG-AFTRA Convention was. Oddly enough, the outfit I decided to wear for the Artios Awards was the same thing I wore to the Convention gala. As soon as I got there, I met up with some co-workers so we could get a few work things done before the event started. We weren’t able to be a part of the official red carpet, but we were allowed to use the step and repeat before the red carpet opened and I was able to get some fun photos.

Once the red carpet started, many of my co-workers were busy with doing tasks, but I was able to hang out with a few people while we waited for the dinner and award show to start. It was the first time I got to hang out with some of these co-workers, so it was nice to get to know them outside of a Zoom screen.

And when we got inside for dinner, we had a table very close to the front of the stage.

The dinner was before the show started, so we didn’t have to split our focus. And since our table was just for our company, it was nice having time to get to know everyone else and be a bit silly when we normally are doing more serious tasks in our meetings.

The actual awards show was really fun. It recognized casting directors for different types of film, tv, and theater. I had heard of many of the casting directors who were nominated and won, but there were so many that I didn’t know since they are a part of a different side of the industry than what I typically audition for. Even though I was there for work, I did take some mental notes of who was nominated so I could make sure I followed them on social media later.

And this was the first large award show that I had been able to attend. I haven’t been to any of the big award shows (yet), and for some of the smaller ones that I could potentially go to, I haven’t gotten a ticket or had the money if you had to pay for a ticket. I was so grateful that I was invited by my job to this because I had a great time and it was a wonderful experience.

As I’ve said frequently in the past, I have been trying to push myself to be more social and put myself out there, and this was the perfect thing for me to do. I had a chance to meet a lot of new people, see people I haven’t seen in years, and just be around others which is something I haven’t been doing that much. And yes, having the chance to dress up and be on a red carpet was nice as well and something that I hope I will have more opportunities to do in the future.

SAG Awards Time (or I Wish I Had Watched More Movies)

I know that I’m very lucky that I have so many opportunities to see movies, and most of those opportunities are free for me. Things still aren’t exactly the way they were before the pandemic, but there are still free movie screenings at theaters and screening venues, I just haven’t been to one yet. I know that I’ll start going to those again eventually, but I’m still hesitant to go to theaters. But fortunately, I also have the chance to watch things at home when we get screeners for the SAG Awards.

When I first joined SAG-AFTRA, all the screeners we got at home were DVDs. This included TV shows where we would sometimes get an entire season of a show on DVD. There was one year we got a free month of Netflix so we could watch all the Netflix shows directly on the service. And over time, we started to get more and more screeners as either digital downloads or through various online screening services. I liked the digital screeners because they were instantly available for us and we didn’t have to wait on the mail. And once I got an upgraded AppleTV, I was able to watch the digital ones on my tv instead of on my computer.

In the past few years, we were given the option to opt out of physical DVD screeners and just get digital ones. The first year it was offered, I paid attention to what we got as DVDs versus digital options. And everything that was a DVD was digital too, so I opted out of the DVDs since I didn’t need them anymore. I found the online screening services pretty easy to use, so I didn’t see any reason to get DVDs.

Most years, I make a good effort to try to watch everything that is nominated. I don’t usually make it through everything, but I try to get through the majority of them. And this year, I tried to make a plan to figure out how many movies I’d need to watch each week in order to get through all the movies before we had to vote. It pretty much came down to watching 2-3 movies a week, which is a lot but doable. Or at least it seemed doable until I got sick. I couldn’t focus enough to watch an entire movie. I also didn’t feel up to watching anything and just wanted to rest. And after I was feeling better, I had a lot of things I needed to catch up on that were more important than spending a few hours in front of my tv. So by the time we had to vote for the winners, I had only seen a handful of movies and none of the ones that were the front runners. I decided not to vote this year since it didn’t seem fair, but I still planned on enjoying the awards show and seeing what happens.

Previously, the SAG Awards were on cable. But this year was the first year the show partnered with Netflix. In the future, the show will be streamed live on Netflix once they get their live streaming service set up. But this year, it was available on YouTube through the Netflix YouTube channel.

I actually loved this new format. There were no commercial breaks, so the show was shorter than normal. In place of commercials, between awards they had short compilation clips of past winners and past shows. I really liked how that worked out and it felt much more of a celebration of the union as a whole and not just those who won. And I think those who won had a similar feeling as many of the acceptance speeches recognized SAG-AFTRA members who are not household names and are still working hard for their next role. I really felt inspired by so many of those speeches and I have a feeling I’ll be rewatching some of them in the future when I need a pick-me-up.

Even though I don’t have access to the screeners anymore, I hope that I’ll be able to watch several more of the nominated films. I know they’ll be online eventually and I’ll just have to make the effort to find them and watch them. And hopefully, next year I’ll be able to plan watching screeners better or be able to watch more movies over time if I start going to in-person screenings again.