Category Archives: Acting

Another Delayed Brunch (or I Wish I Had More Accomplishments)

Posted on April 24, 2018 | 1 comment

I’ve been doing my meeting with my WIF mentoring group for a few years now. At the beginning we were really good about meeting every other month as a group (when we started, the alternate months were meetings with our mentors). When we were on our own, we still were pretty good about maintaining our every other month meetings and they seemed to be much easier to schedule. But lately, we’ve been having some issues with scheduling which is fine. The reasons have been because everyone is getting very busy with some awesome career stuff, but we are still trying to make an effort. So after a few reschedules recently, we finally had our 2nd brunch of the year this past weekend.

I’ve struggled a bit lately in our brunch meetings with what I have to share with the group. I always feel like I’ve had a lack of progress compared to everyone else, but I also know that it’s not good for me to compare myself to the others. We all are on our own paths and are at different stages in our careers. So there’s really no way I can look at what someone else is doing and compare my accomplishments to theirs. Even so, it was a bit frustrating that I didn’t have really anything related to acting to share with the group this time. I know that the point of our meetings isn’t just for me to share what’s happening in my life but for me to support the others in the group, but there is almost a sense of feeling left out when I don’t have good things to share.

I did share about some craziness that’s been happening with my day jobs and how I’m doing social media management as a side job right now. I know that sometimes I think that there isn’t much happening in my life until I look back at various blog posts, but I think this time there really wasn’t much related to my acting career since the group met back in January. I’ve started to wonder if I haven’t been focusing on it enough, but I know that I’m staying involved in the union and other actor related things with various groups and meetings I’m attending. That counts for something even if I’m not auditioning a lot. I would like to get back into class eventually, but until I’m in a better place financially I can’t afford to do that. But maybe this feeling of left out will help kick my butt into gear into figuring out what else I can do that is not dependent on me having auditions.

Even with my negative feelings about my personal accomplishments, I was so happy to be at our brunch so I could hear about the accomplishments that everyone else had! Because we’ve been meeting for so long, when someone has a big breakthrough it sometimes feels like I’ve had the breakthrough too because we’ve been going on the journey with them. I love getting to hear that someone had an amazing meeting with a producer, is getting financial backing for their project, or that they just had fun on set. I’m not feeling jealous of any of them at all. My feelings of being left out are more to do with my lack of accomplishments and not at all about their successes. I guess if I must have any negative thoughts, I’m glad that they are just a me issue and it’s not about anyone in the group.

The other thing that made me so happy with this past brunch was that we had almost everyone in the group there. We were only missing one person and it felt amazing to have all of us who could make it at brunch. Of course, we all would love it if we all could make it but we know how tough that is with our schedules. But getting to see everyone I did see and seeing how excited they all were to see each other really made me so happy and grateful for the group that we have.

We really are striving to have another meeting in 2 months, but we are also aware that we may need an extra month or two to get everything scheduled. At least we all understand the situation and nobody was upset that we missed having our brunch last month (they are all just grateful that I am willing to schedule and organize our brunches so they continue). And while I can’t control if I have any auditions or bookings before our next meeting, hopefully I can figure out something else to move my career forward that I can share next time.

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Continuing To Be Inspired By Podcasts (or Turning A Passion Into A Paycheck)

Posted on April 5, 2018 | Comments Off on Continuing To Be Inspired By Podcasts (or Turning A Passion Into A Paycheck)

I’ve written about how much I love podcasts on here before. Podcasts are one of the main forms of entertainment in my life along with tv shows and reading. And while many of the podcasts I listen to are educational, there are some that I listen to just for how fun they are. But the best ones seem to be the ones that mix fun and educational.

I was listening to a new episode of a newer podcast, Bossed Up, yesterday and the most recent episode really stuck with me. Bossed Up is all about empowering yourself in whatever you do for work. For many people that means branching out on your own and becoming your own boss. But you can still be a boss at work even if you aren’t a boss by title. And a lot of this most recent episode was about feeling unqualified in a position you may hold at work. But what really connected to me was a brief part of that interview that discussed doing what you love for work.

They were talking about how sometimes you have to take chances and go for a dream job and other times you need to take a day job while you figure out what your dream job is and how you can accomplish it. You may need time to figure out how to turn your passion into a paycheck and there is nothing wrong with that. While some people are ashamed about having a day job while they are pursuing their dreams, pretty much everyone has to have a day job at some point. It’s extremely rare to not need to have a way to make money between jobs at least for a little bit of time.

I’ve never been ashamed to have day jobs. I’ve talked about them on here before and I’m always happy to talk to other people about what I do for work to support myself while I’m pursuing acting. But at the same time, I do feel like I’ve been settling in my day jobs a bit. I’ve gotten into a relatively comfortable space where I know what I need to do each day and I’m good at doing them. But things aren’t in my control like how one of my day jobs had to cut back my hours significantly. And when that happens, I’m in a bit of a tailspin trying to get out of the situation and making sure that my budget isn’t totally screwed up or that I am struggling.

This podcast episode reinvigorated me and made me really think about what I want to do as day jobs while I pursue acting. I have no intention of leaving any of my day jobs soon. Even if I found another job to do, I’d try to find a way to keep my current jobs so I could have more money to put toward paying down my credit card debt. But I would love to transition my day jobs at some point in the future.

It would be nice to have a day job that I enjoy doing instead of just tolerating at times. While it’s nice to have a ton of downtime and I can goof off while I’m getting paid when there are no customers to help, it would feel amazing to feel productive and know that I’m working. But at the same time, I need a day job that is flexible and would allow me to continue auditioning and doing other actor related things. That is not an easy combination to find which is why I am so grateful in my current situation.

But maybe it’s time to think about what I could do on my own to support myself. I do have skills that I’m not using to their full potential that I know others would probably pay me to do. I need to be a bit more aggressive about those things and seeing who would hire me. And I probably do need to strengthen those skills a bit more as well so I could be at the top of my game. But with those skills, I’m still a bit unsure on how to combine them or how to market myself to try to find work doing that.

While creating my own day job right now probably isn’t going to happen, that doesn’t mean I should just sit back and keep doing what I’m doing. I should work on building those skills and seeing what jobs are out there that are similar to what I could do. I might need to start networking myself with those skills (instead of just marketing myself as an actor). And maybe there is something I haven’t thought about or considered that I will discover and it will take me down a path I never imagined.

I really have no clue what my future holds, but I do know that I want to be more proactive and try to make some more changes to my life and my work situation. And I’m so grateful that I was listening to a podcast episode that inspired me to get my butt in gear about this.

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A MOVE Mixer (or Learning More About What I Can Be Involved In This Year)

Posted on April 4, 2018 | Comments Off on A MOVE Mixer (or Learning More About What I Can Be Involved In This Year)

I’ve said it over and over again on here, but I really just want to make sure I’m as involved in my union as possible. I am taking advantage of different opportunities that have come my way and I’m so glad that I am not feeling as nervous about being involved as I was before. And I’ve been adjusting my schedule so I have more free time to be involved in different events and that’s been making me really happy too!

Last week I went to the MOVE LA mixer event. MOVE stands for Members Organizing Volunteer Efforts, but besides organizing volunteer events they have some really great panels and social events. They are the group that organizes the NextGen Performers committee too. This mixer was a great chance to hang out with friends, get some information about past events, and learn about the events that are coming up over the next few months.

When I got there, the first hour was the social time. They had food there (I wasn’t feeling so great so I wasn’t eating anything) and I got to see who else was there. Several of the MOVE committee members are friends of mine and it was great to have some time to see them. Even though I saw several of them a few days prior at the Union Working event, we always seem to have only a few minutes to catch up at various meetings so we take what we can get.

After the social hour, it was time to sit down to have the educational part of the evening. First, the background of MOVE LA was shared with everyone and what historically the group has done. Past volunteer events were shared and it was also discussed about how the group supports other unions in their strike efforts (like the grocery workers have gone on strike). Also, the big volunteer event of helping the post office with the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive was shared because that event is coming up soon.

Next different committee members came up to talk about events and panels that either just happened or will be happening soon. There have been panels on diversity, sexual harassment and prevention, voice over, producing your own work, and other topics that are important to actors and the acting community. And coming up there will be panels on diversity in abilities, supporting broadcasters, editing demo reels, and other things like that. I probably should have taken better notes so I could share the upcoming things with you all, but I was just listening and taking it all in.

The best way to get information on the different MOVE LA events is to follow them on social media and to sign up for their email list on the website.

Many things they do are just for union members, but there are some opportunities that are open to everyone. But I’d only recommend getting on their email list if you are a union actor (you also might have to be signed into the website to access the link to sign up for the email list).

But even if you aren’t a union actor yet, it’s so good for people preparing to join the union in the future to know what opportunities and groups there are for them when they do join. I didn’t know about MOVE or other groups when I joined the union and I really wish I had. There was so much time wasted not taking advantage of these opportunities but I think I’m making up for lost time now. Again, I’ve said this several times but being educated about the union and union opportunities is something I am striving for myself and trying to get others to do as well.

The education part of the mixer was a little over an hour and then it was time to be social again! I loved that this mixer really was a social mixer along with an educational evening. It’s the perfect blend of having fun and learning and I got to meet several new people to MOVE who are interested in similar opportunities as I am. I’m not always a fan of networking, but at events like this one it didn’t feel as networky and was more like just getting to know like-minded people who I will probably see at future events.

I couldn’t stay too late after the education part of the mixer, but I did make a round saying goodbye to everyone I had met that night before heading back to my car. And I know that I will be at another MOVE event before I know it!

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Learning So Much From Union Working (or Getting Ready For Contract Negotiations)

Posted on March 29, 2018 | 2 comments

I know I’ve said this so many times, but I’m seriously so grateful that I’m a part of the Union Working group. Every time I’m at a meeting, I always walk away with so much knowledge and a better understanding of what is happening in my industry. There is so much information out there and it can be tough to figure things out on your own. So to have a group that can explain things and help you figure out what you want to focus on is so important to me.

And the meeting this week was another one full of information and I left feeling so empowered and ready to get to work on things. While we did have some of the standard discussions that we have at all Union Working meetings, the focus of this meeting was a mock W&W session. W&W stands for Wages and Working Conditions and these are meetings that the union has leading up to contract negotiations. These meetings are formal events for union members to come and discuss what changes they want to see in the next contract. We have these meetings for all different contracts but the next one coming up will be our commercials contract.

I have not attended a W&W meeting before. I have wanted to but I’ve had a few things stop me. Sometimes, my work schedule just doesn’t work with when the meetings are. I really can’t take time off work right now to attend, so if there aren’t meetings that are when I’m not working I can’t go. But also I’ve been scared to attend. It seems a bit overwhelming and while I want to be more involved in the union attending these meetings seems like a huge step. And I’m aware of how silly that probably sounds because I can always attend a meeting and just observe. I don’t have to propose any changes but I could hear what others think need to change.

But I think the team at Union Working get that the meetings can be overwhelming so they created this mock W&W session. Because W&W sessions are closed to the public (and our mock session was closed to all but paid union members), I can’t share too much of what was discussed. But I can share that we went over how to present an idea at a W&W, the rules for discussion and debate, and the feedback we may get when presenting an idea or debating one so we don’t get thrown off if it happens. All of these things were really great to learn about because you never know when you might be inspired to present something at a W&W and you want to be prepared and able to maximize your time that you are allowed to speak.

We didn’t get to do too many different ideas in our mock W&W session because the one that was presented was something that so many people in the group wanted to discuss. We didn’t have the time limits that you would have in a real session and some people were given opportunities to rephrase what they were saying to make sure they followed the guidelines of how we need to present them. I didn’t speak during the mock session, but I was paying attention to everything that was happening. And the more I listened the more I realized that all my fears about attending a W&W session in the past were silly and that I should have attending them before.

I still can’t guarantee that any sessions will be during times that I’m not working, but I’m going to make a much better effort to look into it so I can hopefully go at least once. I still don’t have anything I want to say about changes that I think should be in our next contract, but I do what to hear what others think. It’s also a great time to get even more educated about the current contract because when people propose a contract change, one of the first things that is discussed is what the facts are about the current contract. There is always a chance someone is proposing something that is already in the contract so you would learn about that. To me, so much of being a good union member is being an educated union member.

While I wasn’t feeling physically the best at the meeting, I’m so grateful I was there. There were so many things discussed that I am glad I got to hear about. I left feeling physically low but mentally on a high note. I know that there were some great ideas that others brought up that have given me things to think about. And like I said, the biggest thing to me is being as educated as I can and I know that being in a room with so many incredible people really are helping me understand as much as I can.

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Oscar Party Time (or Feeling Inspired)

Posted on March 7, 2018 | Comments Off on Oscar Party Time (or Feeling Inspired)

This past weekend was the Oscars and as usual I was at the party that my friends Marie and Chris do each year. This party is one of the best parties that they do because not only do they have amazing decorations but we get to watch the Oscars! I love seeing the awards being given out and I’m always happy to have an opportunity to figure out a fun costume.

I’ve been doing much more low-key costumes the past few years and this year that trend continued. I actually had this costume figured out last year when I saw “The Disaster Artist” for the first time. I had read the book first (which I recommend reading if you haven’t yet) and in the book as well as the movie the green screen almost became a character. It was so weird to create a green screen setup for a set that was right next to them. It makes no sense but that’s what they did. So I decided that I wanted to be the green screen from the movie as my costume.

I thought that there might be a chance someone else would get their costume inspiration from “The Disaster Artist”, but I was so excited to see that a friend dressed up as James Franco playing Tommy Wiseau so she could post the same way he is posed on my fake green screen!

And I loved the costumes that Marie and Chris wore (he was Pennywise and she was Tonya Harding).

And as more people arrived to the party, I was loving all the costumes. Some people went for costumes that made them look like characters from the movie (“Lady Bird”, “War For The Planet Of The Apes”, and “Get Out”) and others were more puns on the movie (the one with the name tags is “Call Me By Your Name”).

And before the show started, I also was checking out the decorations for the party. Marie and Chris had been posting online that they would be doing small this year and we all just figured that it was because they always go over-the-top and they needed a bit of a break. But it was more of a pun because they were inspired by the movie “Downsized” and did miniatures for all the decorations.

Once it was time for the Oscars to start, I hung out in the quiet room (where talking is only done during the commercials). More people hang out in the loud room, but I really do like to watch the awards and hear the speeches. I tried to go out of the quiet room during the commercials to socialize with people, but I pretty much stuck to my spot on the couch talking with the others in the quiet room between awards.

And since this was a live show, there was no way to forward through the commercials. Usually that bugs me, but this time we were noticing that the commercials were all pretty awesome. Most of them were about being creative and producing your own work. The commercials were very focused on inspiring those of us who were watching the Oscars from home but one day hope to be there. And they did inspire me. I was getting a little annoyed when we kept seeing the same commercials over and over again, but the inspiration I felt was more than the annoyance.

As far as predicting the winners, I didn’t do as well as I have in the past. I didn’t see as many of the nominated films as I hoped and I decided to guess the winners I wanted for some categories versus the winners that were more likely to happen. But that’s ok with me because there are some people at the party who take the guessing very seriously and do see pretty much everything that was nominated. I just like being around people who are as enthusiastic about watching the show as I am.

And most of the winners were what was predicted even if they weren’t necessarily the ones I picked. But it still made me so happy when I saw some of the winners like when Jordan Peele won for writing “Get Out”. That was one of my favorite movies of the year and I love how he has shared how hard it was for him to write it and how he quit so many times but just kept going. And I loved when the winners for live-action short film talked about how they got the money for their film by crowdsourcing. That’s something I’m familiar with and it’s a good reminder that as long as you have an idea, there is always a way to make it and you never know if it will win an Oscar.

After the show was done, everyone headed outside for the costume parade and voting. I knew I wasn’t going to win because there were so many amazing costumes, but I was hoping for at least a vote. And I did make it to the honorable mentions so that means someone voted for me (and it wasn’t me)! The winners all had amazing costumes and they totally deserved to win.

As soon as the winners for the costume contest were announced, I had to say goodbye so I could drive back home. I wish I could have stayed at the party longer, but I rarely can do that because of my schedule. But at least I got to spend Oscar Sunday with awesome friends and feeling like anything is possible!

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Staying Educated With Union Things (or A Meeting Of The Minds)

Posted on March 6, 2018 | Comments Off on Staying Educated With Union Things (or A Meeting Of The Minds)

Recently I was at a meeting with several of my friends who are involved in SAG-AFTRA. Most of them were people who were at the union convention with me last fall, and it was great to get to see people again since I hadn’t seen everyone since October. And I was so happy to have a meeting like this after a vacation because it helped to get me focused and out of vacation mode quickly. Sometimes it can take me more time to get back into my normal life after a trip and I was so glad to have a meeting like this to ground me and bring me back to what I should be focused on.

It’s not election season yet so we weren’t really discussing the election or the next convention. But just because the next election is still about a year and a half away it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot happening with the union that we should all be informed and up to date on.

One of the biggest things that has been happening lately is the plan to help to prevent sexual harassment and to have better ways for union members to report it. This has been a huge issue for a long time, but it is only getting the attention it should have been getting recently due to some brave women and men coming forward and sharing what happened. While sexual harassment was never allowed, now we have a clear code of conduct for our members to refer to. And this code of conduct has been shared with studios, directors, casting directors, agents, and managers so others in the industry are aware of what expectations we have as a union when we are on set.

There have also been meetings lately for members to attend to learn more about how we can report sexual harassment and panels for people to discuss what they’ve experienced or what they have questions on. It can be tough sometimes when you are doing an intimate scene to know what is appropriate and what is not. If you are in a nude scene, having a director touch you to move you into where they want you to be or to make sure the camera is seeing what it should be seeing is a gray area. In any other workplace, your superiors should not be around you when you aren’t clothed or touching your body. But in our industry, there are weird situations that need to be discussed so everyone is on the same page. As an actor, you could say you are ok with that or that you don’t want anyone to be near you until you have the chance to put a robe on.

It reminds me of a project I worked on years ago where I was in a bra and underwear for my scene. There were other actors in the same state of undress as I was and we all had different ideas of what was ok. Between takes, even though I had a dress I could put on to cover up, I really didn’t bother doing it. Nobody on the crew was looking at my body in a way that I felt uncomfortable and I really didn’t care since I felt like it covered the same that a bathing suit covered. There were other actors who rushed to cover up and didn’t want to be given direction until they felt more comfortable. We were all lucky on that set because the director and crew all respected us and none of us felt weird for having our own limitations. But not every actor gets that experience on set and we need to make sure that we work toward making that happen.

Another big topic that was discussed was the commercial recapturing initiative and the upcoming commercial contract negotiation. This is something I have been much more involved in lately between attending union meetings and being a part of the Union Working group. Not everyone at the meeting was aware of Union Working and I’m glad we were able to share more about the group and what they have been doing. I know we want more actors (both union and non-union) to be at the meetings so we can make sure that everyone understands what is being negotiated and the opportunities they have to speak at the union about what their concerns are. And if you are in LA and are a SAG-AFTRA member, there is a meeting of the Commercials Organizing & Recapturing Initiative coming up on the 12th that I would encourage everyone to attend!

There were also other issues that we discussed like the New Media contract and how we are trying to make it easier for actors to create their own work, the current plan with the IMDb age lawsuit where the ages of actors and other industry people are being posted on a site that many people use when considering if they will be hiring us or bringing us in for a meeting, and the MOVE committee and the events and union support for all unions that is happening right now.

I know I say this all the time, but my biggest takeaway of all union meetings that I go to is that we as union members need to make sure we are staying educated and we are educating others. I did spend my first few years in SAG-AFTRA not really understanding what is going on and not taking advantage of what was being offered. But I’m for sure making up for it now. And my goal is to help other actors become more educated as well since I know how much more empowered I feel when I understand what changes I can help to make and why certain rules and policies are in place. That is why I keep sharing on here each time I have a union event. I know that not all of you are actors, but for those of you who are I hope that you are learning something. And for the non-actors, hopefully you find all this behind the scenes stuff interesting. There is so much more to being an actor than just acting and I know that most people don’t realize that!

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More Union Education (or Making Sure Ads Go Union)

Posted on February 15, 2018 | 3 comments

You may have noticed that I am posting more and more about union events. I’ve been saying for a while that I wanted to become more involved in the union and I’m finally taking advantage of that! My schedule is fairly regular so I can make plans to attend different meetings and events and I love how this makes me feel continuously involved in union happenings and not that I’m on the outskirts. And this week was another week where I was at union headquarters for another meeting!

So many of the meetings and events I’ve been going to lately have been about commercials. This is a pretty current issue for a few reasons. First, the union will be negotiating the new commercial contract next year so we are getting prepared for that. But also, commercials have always been both union and non-union, but we are starting to see more non-union than before. Many jobs are still union, but we want to make sure they stay that way and that we get even more union commercials.

SAG-AFTRA has an entire committee dedicated to keeping commercials union and that was what this meeting was about. Members of the committee as well as union staff were there to explain more about the plan to get more commercials to be union work and what things have been happening so far.

While I’ve been at several events regarding union commercials, I learned new things at this meeting. These meetings are a response to the growing problem of non-union work and because of what members say in them the union can know what our specific issues are and how to remedy that.

I’ve been pretty lucky. While I don’t audition for commercials a lot, my agents have never asked me to violate union rules and audition for non-union work. In fact, when a commercial lied about being union and when I found out, my agents told me to leave because they didn’t want me to run into any issues. Not all actors are that lucky and they were discussing how their agents are encouraging them to work non-union even though they are union members.

But even though I’ve been lucky since becoming a union member, I know the issues of non-union commercials from before I joined SAG-AFTRA. When I was non-union, I did a commercial that paid pretty decently. It was super easy work and with what I made I paid my rent and bills for a month! I was so excited! But I didn’t realize that because my contract allowed the ad agency to use the commercial in perpetuity (which is common in non-union work), I had no idea then that I would have something that has been on tv for 11 years! It’s a haircare commercial/informercial and I see it on tv all the time. If this was union, I would be making residuals and still be getting paid. But because it was non-union and I didn’t have the protection of SAG-AFTRA and the contracts we have, I only got that 1 payment that doesn’t seem that much when you think about it being split over 11 years.

Because of my experience with non-union work, I’m passionate about making sure that other actors don’t have the same issue. If they aren’t in SAG-AFTRA and chose to do a non-union work, I want them to know what things to look for in a contract so they are making an educated decision. But I am even more passionate about helping commercials be union so that actors will have the protections that we have in our contracts. And that’s why I love getting to know more about the Ads Go Union campaign in meetings and being able to share what I learn with you all. This time, we got more information on recent things that the campaign has done and promoted to other members.

Even if I don’t book another commercial in my entire career, this issue is going to be an important one for me. I know first-hand how easily actors who don’t know better can get into a contract that they may regret later. And I want to see more union work so that my union brothers and sisters have more opportunities to do what they love. For me, my union dedication is all about education and seeing others succeed. And hopefully I will succeed as well.

I am looking to branch out a bit more and find union events about other issues so I can learn more about other union things I may want to get involved in. But for now, I’m just so happy that I’ve been able to get involved in the commercial recapturing initiative and that I will be able to find ways to help out other actors. I do plan on attending more and more events and I will keep finding ways to be involved and to make sure that all actors are educated on the issues.

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First Union Working Meeting Of 2018 (or Union Strong For All)

Posted on February 7, 2018 | 1 comment

It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve had a meeting with the Union Working group, but I think that’s because things have been so busy for me lately! But at the same time, it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long because I’ve seen so many of the other group members at other events (both social and union related). I feel so connected to this group and I love that.

But since the group hadn’t had an official meeting in a few months, I was so glad that we had a meeting this week. There have been so many things that I have learned about the union that I wanted to connect to my knowledge that I get in the group and I was so antsy to see what I was going to learn this time. And because I love the group so much, I am always trying to get more people involved. I wish that there was a group like this when I joined the union because I was scared to be involved when I first joined. But a group like this is a great way to ease into getting involved in union issues.

I invited so many actor friends to go to the meeting and a bunch of them were hoping to make it. I totally understand how tough it can be to schedule around day jobs to attend events, so I also tried to let people know that we try to live stream as much of the meeting as we could in the Facebook group. But I was so excited when my friend Sarah said she could make it! Sarah and I were in the UCB class together and I don’t think we had seen each other in person since class! And she’s going to be joining the union soon so I thought it would be perfect for her to attend the meeting and hopefully get more involved in the group.

Before going to the meeting, my friend (who is one of the core members of the group) asked me if I could help out a bit more at the meeting. I’m always happy to help and he needed me to run the live stream on Facebook for the group. I figured it was a great opportunity to use my newish tripod and iPad stand and I could live stream from my iPad. It would be easier than doing it on my phone (and would keep my phone free for me to take notes). So I spent a lot of the meeting making sure that the live stream was working (we had some WiFi hotspot issues), but it still allowed me to pay attention to what was happening.

This meeting was really interesting for me. With the special guests we had, a lot of the discussion was about influencers and how that affects union work. This was almost the other side of the event I was at last week where it was mainly influencers learning about the union. This time, the union members were learning about influencers.

We also had a guest who discussed how to maximize using Instagram. I’m not the best at Instagram and I’ll admit that I don’t always have the prettiest photos up there. It’s a wide variety of photos and that’s fine if I want it to be that way. But there is a better way to represent my life on social media that could benefit me as an actor (and probably as a blogger too) and I’m going to be more aware of that from now on. I’m not going to make my social media only show the best things of my life because I do believe in staying honest. But I do want to make it look more like the professional that I feel I am in my career. The guest really gave me a lot to think about and I love walking away from our meetings with a little bit of homework so I stay involved and active.

Besides all the amazing guests we had at the meeting, the leaders of Union Working shared this incredible video that they created. While Union Working has been about SAG-AFTRA a lot, we want to be pro-union for all unions. The group is supportive of all unions and we want to make sure that unions are protected. In this political climate, many politicians are anti-union and trying to encourage workers not to unionize. But we know that as a group we are stronger. Unions protect workers and allow us to have collective bargaining to make sure that everyone benefits from contracts. I’m so excited that Union Working is expanding their reach and I can’t wait to see what unions we are able to partner up with.

I know I’ve said this before, but if you are an actor in Los Angeles I highly encourage you all to check the Union Working website, social media, and hopefully attend a meeting. You can also check out the YouTube channel for more videos. If you are an actor somewhere else in the country, still check out the group and maybe you can start a chapter of Union Working where you are. And if you are a member of a union and want to connect with Union Working, reach out on their website and social media. We are all working together to better unions for everyone in all industries.

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Another Educational Union Event (or Merging My Acting And Blogging)

Posted on February 2, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Educational Union Event (or Merging My Acting And Blogging)

As I continue to work on my union education, I seem to find more and more events that I really want to attend. Some of them are events that they have from time to time at the union that I’ve never attended before and some are new events that I’m so excited to be a part of. And this week, I was invited to attend an event that was brand new and perfectly suited for me!

SAG-AFTRA and Tubefilter came together to co-host an evening to discuss influencer marketing and the FTC guidelines we need to follow. While I don’t do a ton of sponsored posts on here or on social media, I do have them from time to time (I try to limit them to only things that I really believe in). And I know that there are some rules I need to follow in order to follow what the FTC requires and I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything properly. And since many sponsored posts can be under union jurisdiction, I loved that the union was involved in this conversation to answer questions.

I’ve learned a bit about some of the rules I need to be aware of because of other union events I’ve attended. Until recently, I had no idea that things I did on my blog could be under my union’s jurisdiction. I think this is something that most actor/bloggers aren’t aware of yet and I know that SAG-AFTRA is starting to get the word out now that guidelines are starting to be a bit more clear.

At this event, there was a panel that had a lot of amazing panelists. They included a YouTube creator, an employee of the FTC, and a union representative. While there was a lot of back and forth because some rules are still a bit unclear, I think the tone of the entire event was that we all want to work together to figure out how to create policies that protect us as creators and still follow FTC guidelines.

The meeting really reminded me of the Union Working events with how people may be coming from different sides of an issue but we understand that by working together and being strong as a group it will benefit us the most. And while not everyone has the answers to everything, people are bringing up questions that are helping those higher up to understand the issues we are facing and the concerns that we want answered. Sometimes, the answers to questions was to say that they didn’t know, but I highly respect people who aren’t afraid to say that they don’t know (instead of making up an answer).

The panel was about 2 hours long (and they probably could have gone for another 2 hours and I still would have been fascinated) and then there was a bit of a social mixer after. I was sitting at a table with some of my friends so I had a chance to be social before the panel. And after the panel, we came together to discuss what we had learned and what issues we are concerned about. We had a chance to speak with the National Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA and I got to express some of my personal concerns or confusion over the rules. Influencer marketing is still a pretty new system so I think there is a lot of confusion by a lot of people. And since I don’t do it that often I think I had extra questions. But I did leave the meeting feeling much better about the situation and knowing who to contact if I needed to get something specific answered.

I don’t know how big the overlap is with actors and bloggers (or other types of influencer marketers), but I’m very excited to be someone who fits into both categories. I’ve already talked to the union about how they can reach the blogger community to help those who are not in the entertainment industry understand what is happening and what the union is doing for them. I think it’s going to be a very exciting time to see those two worlds come together and I love that I get to help connect them and bring them together.

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Surprising A Friend Headed To Broadway (or I Have More Motivation To Plan My NYC Trip)

Posted on January 30, 2018 | Comments Off on Surprising A Friend Headed To Broadway (or I Have More Motivation To Plan My NYC Trip)

I’m sure there are some people who get jealous when their friends have amazing accomplishments, but I’m not one of them. I love to get to celebrate people’s successes and it makes me more motivated to create successes myself! My friend Matt got a job as an understudy on Broadway and he’s about to move to New York! I’m so excited for him and I know he’s going to do amazing in NYC. And to celebrate the move and his job, Matt’s wife Carolina organized a surprise party for him!

I love surprise parties, but I haven’t had the chance to be at that many. So I was super excited to get to be at this one and I knew it would be a great party. We were all supposed to arrive at the party about 30 minutes before Matt and Carolina were going to arrive. I got there a bit earlier and was able to help with some of the set up. There were some really fun decorations to celebrate Matt and his job on Broadway and I helped with filling in some letters on the giant chalkboard.

Right before Matt and Carolina arrived, we were warned so we could get into place. We were all near the gate they would be walking in and we were crouched down so he wouldn’t see our heads peeking over the fence.  It was pretty funny waiting for the gate to open because we were all waiting toward one gate and then I guess the plan changed for them to walk in another gate. One of the hosts was singing and talking loudly so we would get that they would be coming in a different gate and we all turned around and repositioned ourselves.

The story Carolina told Matt about why there were coming over to the house where the party was being held was that they were dropping off a table there. So when we all surprised Matt, he was carrying a table inside. 

Surprising Matt from Jen Levin on Vimeo.

He had no clue this party was happening and it was so great to see how surprised he was! Carolina worked so hard to make this party happen and I am so happy that it went off exactly how she wanted it to be. I was just so excited to see how happy Matt was that we were all gathered to celebrate him!

There were a bunch of people I knew at the party so I spent a lot of time chatting with them. We were all catching each other up on life and other random things and we all did get a chance to talk to Matt a bit. But there were a lot of people there who wanted to talk to him and none of us wanted to dominate his time.

I know we are all going to miss Matt when he’s in New York. He’s one of the leaders of Union Working and his leadership at the meetings will be missed. But maybe he’ll have the opportunity to start a chapter of the group in NYC while he is there!

My sister-in-law and I have been talking about doing another NYC trip soon and we both know we need to do it! And now that I’ll have another friend living there it’s extra motivation to plan the trip! There’s no guarantee that when we do plan our trip that Matt will be performing (as the understudy he won’t necessarily know what nights he performs in advance), but it would be amazing if the timing worked out so we could see him in the show! But even if that doesn’t work out, I know it will be great to get to see him and Carolina again.

I wanted to stay at the party longer, but I was only able to stay a few hours because I had to get home for some work and errands (being a responsible adult stinks sometimes). But before I left, I needed a photo with Matt! And of course, other friends joined in because as actors we can’t resist a camera.

Congrats again Matt on your amazing gig in NYC! I know that everyone is so excited for you and can’t wait to see what other accomplishments you’ll have on your NYC adventure!

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