Tag Archives: acting

Almost Getting To Act (or Being On The Other Side Of A Self-Tape Audition)

Posted on November 24, 2020 | Comments Off on Almost Getting To Act (or Being On The Other Side Of A Self-Tape Audition)

I’ve had a few self-tape auditions during this pandemic. Even though there are a few more in-person auditions these days, self-tape auditions are still more common. It’s an easy way for casting directors to set up auditions and to keep themselves safe. And I think most of my actor friends have gotten a pretty decent system down for how to do the best self-tapes. I know I have. I might not have all the equipment I would like to have, but I’ve got a way to do decent work and I know that casting directors aren’t expecting something to be perfect in terms of film quality.

One of the weirdest parts of doing self-tape auditions these days is having someone to read the other lines with you. Before the pandemic, I would invite someone to come over to help me do a self-tape. They would run the camera and read the lines with me. But now, it’s not really safe to do that. And I think most people have done the same thing: we have our readers on a phone or video call.

I’ve figured out a way to have my reader on my phone while I record my audition on my iPad. And I set up my phone to be in a place where my friend can see the screen of my iPad if they are on a video call. That way, they can make sure that I’m still in frame and things look good. It’s a weird system, but it works. And I think most casting directors understand why our readers might sound tinny.

And this past week, I had the chance to be a reader for a friend’s audition. I hadn’t done that before and it was fun to do. I know it wasn’t my audition so I wasn’t really acting much saying the lines I had to say, but I also tried to make them sound a little more lively than if I was just reading them. My friend had a commercial audition with 2 scenes he had to do. So we had a couple of takes with each one until he felt like they were what he wanted. He had a camera recording him with a screen he could see, so he didn’t need me to be checking the frame. I just was seeing things off to the side to help him with an eye line.

There are so few opportunities right now to do any acting, so being a reader for someone else was a treat for me. It was a fraction of what I get to do when I book a job, but it’s much more than I normally get to do. It really made me so happy to do it. Plus, I was helping out a friend and that felt amazing too. I don’t do a ton of video calls because I think most people are a little burned out on them, so it was nice to get to have a quick catch up with a friend and actually see them and not just hear them. Honestly, it really was a highlight of my week last week. I don’t get to do much that makes me happy, so this was just much more special.

I’ve got my fingers crossed for my friend to book it (I think he did a great job with the audition). And I hope I get more opportunities to either do a self-tape myself or to help a friend record theirs. I crave any type of acting related work I can do and I hope I can do more of them. I know that eventually, things will be safe again to do in-person auditions more and more. They might still keep self-tape auditions. They’ve been a thing before, just not that common. And there are pros and cons for having them. But they are still auditions and they are still fun for me. And I’m grateful whenever I get to have any part in one, even if it’s just to help a friend with their audition.

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Default ThumbnailAudition Horror Stories (or Sometimes I Like Things To Be Boring) Default ThumbnailMaking My Acting Bold (or Feeling Great From An Audition) Default ThumbnailAn Isolation Audition (or Working On My Self-Tape Game) Default ThumbnailAnother Self-Tape Audition (or So Grateful For Anything Related To Acting Right Now) Default ThumbnailHelping Out A Friend (or Getting To Act) Default ThumbnailSelf-Tape Saturday (or Turning A Video Shoot Into A Photo Shoot)

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Helping Friends Make Progress (or An Evening Of Feeling Like I Have A Purpose)

Posted on October 16, 2020 | Comments Off on Helping Friends Make Progress (or An Evening Of Feeling Like I Have A Purpose)

There are so many things I’ve learned about myself during this pandemic. One thing I learned was how important having a purpose is to me. I’ve always kind of known this and that’s one thing that pushed me into union service. But now more than ever I understand how having a purpose is something I need. When I don’t have a job and feel like I’m accomplishing things, it’s more obvious than ever when I don’t have a purpose. I feel like I’m just floating along in life and I’m not grounded. So whenever I have a project to do, I go for it because it gives me a purpose and makes me feel so much better.

And sometimes, I get a purpose out of being helpful. And that’s exactly what I got to do this week. Someone that I did improv class with reached out to me on social media. I don’t think we’ve seen each other since finishing the class, but we’ve stayed in touch over social media so we both know what the other is up to. So he knows I’m pretty involved in the union. I don’t think he exactly knew what I do with the union, but since he had a question about the union, he reached out to me.

He is still not in the union yet, but he wanted to make a union project to put online. This is actually one way that someone can become eligible to join the union and is a very common type of project that people do. But he wanted to make sure that he was doing everything correctly so that he can hire union actors and he didn’t want to make mistakes. So he reached out to me for more information.

I’m not an expert in self-producing and haven’t done it much. But I did have a little background information on what he needs to do. I also know people who know a lot more than I do, so I was able to reach out to them to answer his questions and connect them so he can ask them more. It was a very productive conversation with him and I think he feels much better and confident about the project he’s going to do. He’s still in the beginning stages of getting things ready, but that’s exactly when you need to start getting the union paperwork together. So he did it perfectly because he is going to get all the paperwork done with plenty of time before he is planning on filming.

These days, it’s a little more complicated than normal because you have to have more safety protocols in place. But it’s still possible to film. And my friend who knows more about this than I do is going to help him make sure he gets everything that he needs to make it completely compliant with our new protocols. And he does understand why things have to be this way, so he’s very willing to work with the protocols. It’s always good when someone gets why things are the way they are and I’m glad that he’s willing to work with the rules and figure out how to make it work.

The entire call I had with him went so well and I am so excited about the project he’s working on. It sounds like he’s really passionate about self-producing and taking advantage of the free time he has right now. I can’t wait to see what he creates!

And even though this is a little selfish, I’m so glad he asked me for help. It did make me feel like I was useful and it gave me something to do that I could accomplish. He did give me a purpose that day. And I needed that feeling. I’ve totally been feeling lost lately and he helped me focus on something, even if it was only for a short time.

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Default ThumbnailMaking My Acting Bold (or Feeling Great From An Audition) Default ThumbnailFriends Helping Friends (or Not Being Afraid To Ask For Support) Default ThumbnailAn Evening Out With Friends (or An Excuse To Dress Up) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Progress (or Feeling More Like Me) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Progress (or Olympic Workouts) Default ThumbnailFeeling Better About My Progress (or Coming Back From The Dri-Tri)

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

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Enjoying The Emmys (or This Awards Show Will Be A Bit Of A Time Capsule)

Posted on September 22, 2020 | Comments Off on Enjoying The Emmys (or This Awards Show Will Be A Bit Of A Time Capsule)

The Emmys were this past weekend. As I usually do, I watched them live so I could also live-tweet them. I love watching awards shows, I always have. But as I have gotten more and more involved in my union, I have gotten to know people who are up for various awards. This year, there were a few people I’ve met up for Emmys and some people I would consider acquaintances. It made things even better. Also, I had watched “Schitt’s Creek” this year with the Movie Club I helped to start, so I was so excited to see them up for so many awards.

Watching the awards this year wasn’t that different from how I normally watch them. I was on my couch, alone, and I ordered some delivery food. That actually felt really normal to me and having that feeling was something I needed. But the show was definitely not normal.

Because of the pandemic, there was no audience watching. Very few presenters were at the show. There were some that were done by Jimmy Kimmel, who was the host, and there were some that were pre-taped by actors and essential workers (which was a nice touch). And the nominees were all watching on their own with cameras live-streaming their reactions into the show. I saw some behind the scenes stuff about how the Television Academy sent all the nominees cameras and lights so they could do this. It was pretty incredible to see how it turned out and I think it was really good. The cast and crew from “Schitt’s Creek” were watching together and having a mini-party and so did some of the team behind “Watchman”. But they were following protocols and staying safe.

I am so glad that “Schitt’s Creek” was together since they had a clean sweep of the comedy awards! Seeing everyone be so excited for each other brought me so much joy. And anything that brings joy these days is so special. And even watching people win and have to give their speeches alone in a room was fun and joyful to watch. Honestly, I think we all needed an awards show at this time since there hasn’t been anything like that lately to watch. Some may feel like it was frivolous, but so are a lot of things that people are excited about. And to me and I bet so many others, this was something we needed to feel like not everything is gone because of the pandemic.

I hope that this is the only time that the Emmys have to be this way and that by this time next year things will be back to normal and people can be together. I actually didn’t mind this new format and would love to see how it could be incorporated in the future. But I also love it when things are held in a single space and you could see everyone there excited for all the winners.

No matter what, this show was very clearly held during a pandemic. People were wearing masks (and many had ones to match their outfits or found a way to make them stylish). The awards were given to the winners by employees in hazmat suits. People were isolated and not together. One day, looking back at this show, people will instantly know that it was held during this time. It’s a moment in history. I wonder if other award shows in the next year or so will be the same. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

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Default ThumbnailBeing An Active And Interactive Viewer (or SAG Awards Live-Tweeting) Default ThumbnailA Night Of SAG Awards (or Watching Union Unity) Default ThumbnailEnjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners) Default ThumbnailA Night Of Oscars (or Last Minute Costumes and Enjoying The Show) Default ThumbnailThe SAG Awards (or I Am An Actor) Default ThumbnailSAG Awards (or Watching After Knowing The Winners)

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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Another Self-Tape Audition (or So Grateful For Anything Related To Acting Right Now)

Posted on September 17, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Self-Tape Audition (or So Grateful For Anything Related To Acting Right Now)

Things are starting to slowly reopen in LA. There are a few shows that are back to filming after some safety guidelines are in place. There are a lot of things that have to be done in order to have a safe set, such as regular testing and having actors wear masks or shields except for the brief time you are filming (everyone else on set has to keep their mask or shield on). I know a few people who are series regulars on tv shows, and they have been able to start working again. I’m so happy to see things starting up again, but I also know that they aren’t fully opening. Even with the shows that are back, I wonder how many actors that aren’t the regulars will be in each episode. I know things are still being figured out and things can and will change, but each step forward is positive.

There have even started to have auditions that are held in casting offices. I haven’t had an in-office audition yet, and I’m not sure how safe I feel going to one. Fortunately, for people who are nervous going into an office, most casting directors are still allowing actors to submit self-tapes. And more often than not, all of the auditions are being done as self-tapes. So that makes things easy.

For most self-tape auditions, you have at least a few days to get them done. Sometimes, if they are a general audition like my other pandemic audition, you get several weeks to do your audition. I appreciate having the time so I can get my lines memorized, find a friend who can help me with my self-tape (now, having help over a video call to have someone be my reader), have time to film a few takes, and then editing it and submitting it. Rarely, for self-tapes and in-person auditions do you have a same-day audition. But they do happen. And that’s almost what happened to me this past weekend.

Technically, it wasn’t a same-day self-tape audition, but it was close. The audition notice came in very late at night. I was actually asleep when I got it so I didn’t know about it until the next morning. And it was due by 8 pm that day. So I had to quickly figure out who could help me so I could get this done and submitted. I was lucky that another actor from my union slate was able to help me out. And it wasn’t a long audition so I quickly had it memorized.

I still want to improve my self-tape setup, but it’s not too bad. I have a good tripod for my iPad (which is my best camera) and I have a place in my house that has good natural light. I struggle with my current setup with doing full-body angles (which are typically needed for audition introductions), but that’s not too bad. And I think most casting directors understand that home self-tapes might not be perfect. But even with the improvements I want to make, I think my self-tape auditions look pretty good.

I’ve been doing more video editing lately since I have to do minor edits to the livestreams I help to run, so editing my self-tape was pretty easy. It was made even easier because every take that I did was actually the same video clip. I just started my camera when we started and kept it running through all my takes and adjustments. I just had to watch it to figure out which take was the best one. And while I don’t like watching or hearing myself on camera, I’m getting better at it and it’s not as difficult for me to do the editing.

I was able to get my audition edited and submitted a few hours before the deadline. I had a few issues getting it submitted, but the casting director gave us a few options of how we could do it so I was able to use a different method from what I originally planned on using.

For a self-tape audition, this was quick and easy. I’m shocked how fast I was able to get it done, but it really just fell into place. And having the chance to audition made me so happy. I don’t believe I booked the commercial I auditioned for, but that doesn’t matter. I had the best day having an audition and it really made my time being isolated a lot more fun.

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Default ThumbnailSelf-Taping At Home (or Auditioning In Yoga Pants) Default ThumbnailAudition Horror Stories (or Sometimes I Like Things To Be Boring) Default ThumbnailAn Isolation Audition (or Working On My Self-Tape Game) Default ThumbnailMaking My Acting Bold (or Feeling Great From An Audition) Default ThumbnailUpgrading My Self-Tape Set Up (or 2 Auditions In 30 Minutes) Default ThumbnailAudition Friends (or The Kindness Of My Competition)

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Celebrating A New Contract (or Feeling Good About This Accomplishment)

Posted on July 24, 2020 | Comments Off on Celebrating A New Contract (or Feeling Good About This Accomplishment)

I wrote about my union contract ratification vote before. This is something we do every 3 years for our TV/Theatrical contract (we have ratification votes on contracts every 3 years, but they happen often since we have so many contracts). But this time, it felt different. I don’t know why it got as contentious as it did, but it was a very odd feeling. I know that there are some people who had heard misinformation about the contract (for example, hearing that we lost all minimums on the contract when it was only for a very small and specific category), so some people were being very vocal against the contract and then changed their minds when they looked more into it.

And educating members so they would look more into it was something I took seriously. Even though I was for the contract, that didn’t mean I didn’t look into it and investigate every part of it. There were parts that I didn’t love as much as others and there were a few things that I wish we could have gotten more into the contract. But overall, it was an amazing contract. We are really working toward putting residuals in things that are more common, like streaming. And we got a lot of protections on set for actors who are doing more vulnerable scenes like nudity or simulated sex. And whenever I heard a member saying they were voting no for a reason that wasn’t factual, I gave them the facts. I said that I understood if they still wanted to vote no, but I wanted them to make that choice on what the contract really said and not the misinformation.

I’ve never been this involved in a contract ratification vote before. And part of that is due to my work with running our social media. Every day, multiple times a day, I would check Twitter and Instagram to see what others were posting about the contract. There were specific hashtags I checked constantly. I wanted to share posts about people excited about the contract or answer questions that some people might have had. But that also meant I would be seeing the posts that were against the contract or were negative. And seeing those every day wasn’t easy. But I tried to keep my focus on the positive ones.

The ratification vote was due on Wednesday, and we all were working hard up until the last minute. Since the voting was done online, we didn’t want to miss a minute to make sure that members were making an educated vote. Of course, I was hoping they would vote to approve, but I also wanted everyone to be educated even if that meant they voted no. And when voting was done, we really had no clue if it would pass or not.

It felt like we waited a long time for the results to come in. I was on a Zoom call with some of my friends from the union about 2 hours after the end of the vote and we were still waiting to hear what happened. And maybe 2 1/2 hours after the end of the vote, we finally saw the press release with the results.

The contract passed! It was 74.22% to 25.78%. And while that was exciting, what I was most excited about was the number of members who voted. In the past, it’s usually between 15-16% of the membership that votes. That number is really low and we have worked hard to try to get more members to be involved and to vote. And this time, we had about 27% of the membership voting! Yes, I know that number is still really low and 2/3rds of the membership did not participate, but we still almost doubled what we typically have. As much as I would have liked to have over 50% participating, this is a good step toward that and hopefully, we will be there in the future.

After I found out the contract passed, I was a bit of an emotional wreck. I worked harder on this vote than I have on any other. I was very involved and very aware of what both sides were saying. I didn’t feel certain it would pass even though I was extremely hopeful that it would. And this wasn’t just my effort. Hundreds of people worked hard to make this happen. I am so grateful to everyone who got the message out and voted. This was huge. And I am so proud of what we as a union accomplished.

Now, we just have to hope that we can reopen things soon so we can start working on this contract. I hope that I have a chance to do that soon. We worked hard for this, and I can’t wait to get to use it!

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Default ThumbnailAnother SAG-AFTRA Election (or 318 Million Reasons To Vote Yes) Default ThumbnailElection Campaigning (or Being A Captain And Getting Out There) Default ThumbnailUnion Working Town Hall (or Getting Close To The End Of Election Season) Default ThumbnailAnother Union Meeting (or Getting Into The Routine Of Things) Default ThumbnailGetting Informed About A Contract (or A Union Meeting Before A Vote) Default ThumbnailLearning So Much From Union Working (or Getting Ready For Contract Negotiations)

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Another Amazing You Are The Union Livestream (or Learning So Much About Being A Better Ally)

Posted on July 23, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Amazing You Are The Union Livestream (or Learning So Much About Being A Better Ally)

Every one of the You Are The Union livestreams that we have done so far has been incredible. I am so proud of what we have accomplished with them so far and the engagement we have been getting from people who are watching them. I’m so lucky that Amir and I were able to figure out how to make these happen and I think both of us are so excited to see what we can do in the future with it.

One thing that we have focused on is bringing attention to different parts of our industry. We did that with the BLM livestream that we did. And we did it again a week ago when we had a livestream about performers with disabilities.

Even though I have an invisible disability with my hip issues, I wouldn’t call myself a performer with a disability. I don’t know much about that world and the challenges that PWDs (performers with disabilities) face. So when Amir and I discussed doing this topic for our livestream, I was excited to do it but also nervous because I didn’t want to accidentally offend someone.

Fortunately, the panelists that we got for this livestream, Anita and Christine, were amazing! While we were getting everything set up and ready, we explained that we didn’t have a lot of knowledge about this part of the industry and we apologized in advance if we said the wrong thing. They both said that they appreciated us giving them a space to have an open chat with all members on how to be better allies for PWDs because many are afraid to ask the questions that might not be the most appropriate thing to ask.

The other thing that I’m so proud of with this livestream is that we were able to make it accessible for anyone hard of hearing. We would love to have live captions for our livestreams, but right now that isn’t feasible due to the cost (but if anyone knows of pro-bono organizations that do that, please let me know!). But we reached out to some of our friends who have studied ASL and they were able to connect us to interpreters who were able to do live ASL interpreting throughout the entire thing! We knew if we wanted to do a livestream about PWDs, we couldn’t leave out an entire community of performers. We didn’t know how we were going to accomplish this, but we were so lucky to have Elizabeth and Diana be our ASL interpreters and they did an amazing job.

Whenever we have these livestreams, I don’t get to fully pay attention because I am running all the behind the scenes stuff. But I always do get to watch a little bit. And every time I watched this one, I was just in awe. The conversation was incredible, we got some really good questions from the people watching, and seeing the live ASL interpreting happening made me so happy. Amir and I had a goal to make this livestream fully accessible, and through connections we had and the generosity of several people, we were able to do just that. Sometimes I’m just amazed at what we can get done considering we are just 2 members doing a livestream.

Since I can’t always focus on the livestream completely when it happens, I always watch it after (I also have to do some editing to add cards to the beginning and end for the replays). And this one I made sure that when I watched it after, I gave it my full attention. I wanted to make sure I heard all the lessons and advice that was shared. We did this livestream to not only educate other members but to educate ourselves. And I didn’t want to miss out on that opportunity. I learned so much and I can’t wait until we can have another livestream on PWDs because I know there is so much more for me to learn.

If you have not had a chance to watch this livestream, please watch the replay. You can learn so much about how we all can help our fellow members. And helping each other succeed is so important.

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Default ThumbnailMore Virtual Union Meetings (or It’s Funny I Wrote About This Not Long Ago) Default ThumbnailSharing My Union With A Friend (or Continuing To Be Inspired And Involved) Default ThumbnailLearning So Much From Union Working (or Getting Ready For Contract Negotiations) Default ThumbnailYou Are The Union (or Finding More Ways To Educate Other Union Members) Default ThumbnailAnother Successful Livestream (or Fixing Issues And Working On A System) Default ThumbnailMore Union Education (or Making Sure Ads Go Union)

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Continuing To Find Ways To Be Creative (or Podcasts and Online Shows)

Posted on July 10, 2020 | Comments Off on Continuing To Find Ways To Be Creative (or Podcasts and Online Shows)

Even though I wasn’t working a lot of acting jobs before quarantine, there is no question that things feel different for me right now. I feel a lack of opportunity to be creative or to advance my career. In reality, I’m not living that different than before as far as my acting career goes. But it’s just not the same. I don’t know if I can explain it. It’s just how I feel and it’s not fun for me.

I know there are things I can do at home alone to work on my acting career. I haven’t felt that motivated to do online readings or record myself doing random audition sides for practice. I might start doing it, but I don’t want to force myself to do them just to get a sense of being able to act.

But recently, I’ve had a few chances to be creative, even if it’s not necessarily acting. A friend of mine is somewhat new into the dating world after a divorce and she’s already seen how crazy things are. Plus, she has heard a lot of my stories about my adventures in dating. So she asked me if I’d be interested in doing a show with her on Twitch where we are just being ourselves and talking about dating. We would be sharing stories, playing games while swiping, and maybe doing profile critiques.

We had a quick test of our show because the systems we were using were new to us. Plus, neither of us were that familiar with Twitch. So we wanted to have time to try things out before we publicize doing this show and having a real audience. The test was only about 10 minutes, but we had fun and I think we both feel comfortable with how to make things work. I’m not sure when we will officially start or how often we will do the show, but I’m excited about it. It’s not exactly acting, but it’s fun and I get to be creative with what we do on the show.

And then this week, I had another non-actor creative moment. I was a guest on Brianne Davis’s upcoming podcast Secret Life. This podcast is all about the secrets people keep and what it has meant for their life. I had an opportunity to be anonymous on it, but I decided not to. Being open and honest about secrets I’ve kept in my life is one of the better things I have done. I don’t want to hide or keep them a secret anymore. I’m not sure if I should say what I talked about because I actually am going to be a guest on the podcast again to discuss another secret!

I’m excited to go back because I had so much fun in the first interview! Brianne and I hadn’t met before the interview (I know her husband through a few different groups I’m in), but she instantly made me feel comfortable and supported. Even though I wasn’t scared to share what I had to say, it was still nice to feel like I was talking to someone who wasn’t going to judge me or make me feel ashamed. I can’t wait until her podcast premieres next month because I know all the guests she will have will feel the same way I did and it should lead to some incredible interviews! I promise to share the information when I know more about when it premieres and when my episode (or episodes) will be going live.

There is no way to know when the entertainment industry will be back to full production. I know my union along with many others are working on procedures and policies to be able to work and keep everyone safe. We will come back, it’s just an unknown timeline for now. I do hope it’s soon, but I also hope that we can feel comfortable that if we are on set that we are safe. But in the meantime, I’m glad I have had a few chances to be a bit more creative than I normally get to be. It’s not a replacement for being able to act, but it’s been a big help to make me feel like myself again.

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Default ThumbnailFinding New Ways To Be Creative (or Almost As Good As Acting) Default ThumbnailLearning From Listening (or Another Great Podcast) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Be Inspired By Podcasts (or Turning A Passion Into A Paycheck) Default ThumbnailUsing Podcasts To Better Myself (or Continuing To Be A Podcast Addict) Default ThumbnailFinding More Ways To Help Via Social Media (or Continuing To Share Good Things) Default ThumbnailPodcasts and Twitter (or An Evening Out With Some Actors)

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

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Another Successful Livestream (or Fixing Issues And Working On A System)

Posted on June 25, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Successful Livestream (or Fixing Issues And Working On A System)

After the first You Are The Union livestream, Amir and I knew we had room to improve. It went really well, but not everything that we were hoping for happened. Mainly, we had technical issues with trying to get the livestream up on YouTube at the same time. And then after we were not able to save it so we could have a replay. We want these livestreams to be available at any time, so we knew we had to work on fixing it.

Once we had our next one scheduled, we took extra time to make sure we were clear on the process of how to make the livestream work. We did multiple test runs and made a checklist of every step that we have to take each time to make sure that it works. It’s not the easiest process, but it’s worth it to make it happen so we are willing to do the work. Plus, I have a feeling that as we do these more often, they will get easier and easier for us to set up.

We also wanted to make sure that things just ran smoothly and easily once the livestream was started. This mainly was stuff I needed to be able to do. Since Amir is hosting live, I want to run all the behind the scenes stuff so he doesn’t have to think about it. We tried a system of me texting him the questions from the guests the first time, and that didn’t exactly work. This time, we decided on a Google Doc where I could change the list of questions if we were getting a lot about the same topic or if something needed to be next instead of another question. So on my end, I needed to have a lot of windows open to keep it all together. I had the Google Doc with our questions, the Zoom window with the Zoom chat and participant lists popped out, the YouTube page to make sure the video was still streaming there, and the YouTube chat popped out. This is what my screen ended up looking like while we ran the second livestream.

It was a bit crazy, but it really worked for me in the end. I did switch between windows a lot, but it was easy enough to monitor everything at once. I monitored the chats on Zoom and YouTube to pull questions, looked at the participant list to see our Waiting Room, and tracked any raised hands in Zoom if someone wanted to ask a question on video. The first livestream, we didn’t have many people interested in asking questions on video so we debated removing that option. But this time, more people wanted to do that so I’m glad we allowed for both video and text questions.

Our second livestream was about diversity, inclusion, and Black Lives Matter. We had Tiffany Yvonne Cox and Michelle Hurd as our guests and it was so incredible. I was thrilled that the livestream went so much better than the first one did, but I was even more thrilled about the conversation that happened during it. This was exactly what we hoped would happen and I’m so glad that our audience seemed to feel the same way.

And because we were able to run everything smoothly this time, we also were able to create a replay of the livestream. The replay is pretty much the entire livestream, we just edited 1 minute at the beginning and 1 minute in the end when we were still getting things set up. But all of the discussion, questions, and conversation was kept in. We didn’t want to censor or edit our guests in any way, and I’m glad we were able to keep the full thing up for anyone to watch at any time.

I’m so proud of this livestream. I was crying at times while it happened because this is exactly what Amir and I dreamed of creating. And we never thought we would have exactly what we wanted by the second livestream. We thought we might have some more things to work through. But I think all of our practice runs and preparation paid off and helped us make all the improvements we were looking to make.

We are working on planning our next one. We have had a bit of a delay due to some timing issues, but we are hopeful we will have another one happening in a week. And we have a few topics in our lineup that we are considering, so we should be creating a nice schedule over the next few months. And we do want to do another one on diversity because we know this is not a one and done topic. This is an evolving discussion and we want to create a space for people to discuss it and get answers. That is so important and being able to provide it makes me so happy.

I’m still so excited that I have helped to create this livestream and how quickly it has been embraced by so many people. So many of the viewers were people who are not currently involved in union service and it was a great way to get to meet new people and to hear what they are hoping to see from the union. And we have a few people who have expressed interest in union service and asking what steps they can do. That is amazing and not something I expected. But like I’ve always said, all I want to do is to educate other union members and to make sure they understand what is going on. And maybe that does mean getting more people involved in union service so they are an active participant and able to help educate others in their social circles.

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Default ThumbnailYou Are The Union (or Finding More Ways To Educate Other Union Members) Default ThumbnailSeeing Actors Supporting Actors (or An Awesome Union Working Project) Default ThumbnailBack To Union Working (Elections, Contracts, and More) Default ThumbnailFinal Union Working Meeting For 2017 (or A Commercial Roundtable) Default ThumbnailUnion Working Support (or Celebrities And Middle Class Actors Unite) Default ThumbnailAnother Amazing You Are The Union Livestream (or Learning So Much About Being A Better Ally)

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You Are The Union (or Finding More Ways To Educate Other Union Members)

Posted on June 11, 2020 | Comments Off on You Are The Union (or Finding More Ways To Educate Other Union Members)

I’ve been passionate about union service since I started being involved in it. I might not have had all the right things to do when I was first elected as a delegate, but I have always wanted to be more involved. Before the pandemic, I was getting more and more involved in things. One of the things that I had been enjoying a lot was being an observer at the local board meetings. As soon as those are back, I will be continuing to be an observer because it’s such a great way to see my union at work. And of course, I’m also pretty involved now in the Union Working group and all the action that they have been taking.

But I am always looking for more ways to be involved in union service. And the thing within union service that I am most passionate about is union education. I want the members of the union to understand what is going on and to not feel as powerless as some of them do. Some members feel like the union is a separate entity and they have no voice, which is very far from the truth. This union is run by the members. We do have staff, but they work for us. We are in charge of the path that the union takes.

I was talking with some of my friends who are also passionate about union service, and my friend Amir and I started talking about doing some type of livestream event to answer questions that members might have. We started running with that idea and after about a week of brainstorming, we had a real plan for what we wanted to do. And while we weren’t looking to make this political or just about our slate, we knew we needed our slate’s help with a few things so we brought the plan to some of the leaders. They understood that we were looking to make a non-partisan event and really encouraged us to go with it. So we did.

And a week ago, we had our first livestream event! We are calling these You Are The Union because that is the big idea we want anyone watching to take away from these events.

We want members to be able to join the livestream and ask questions, give feedback, and have a clear understanding of what is going on. While we know we can’t answer every question that members might ask, we know we can explain to them why we might not have the answer or what is in the works. For example, I know some people have had questions about healthcare eligibility since we aren’t working right now. We don’t have the answer to that, but we can tell people that the healthcare trustees (who are in charge of our healthcare plan) are meeting and discussing this. And when they can say what the plan will be, they will tell us. We just want to make sure that people who watch our livestream don’t feel confused about what is going on if they ask us about it.

Our first livestream had some really great things about it. We had a good turnout, especially considering we didn’t have as much time to promote it as we would have liked to (this was partially my fault as we were trying to get things set up before promoting it). The questions we were asked were good and nobody was being negative or accusing anyone of things. And we were able to cover a wide variety of topics. We did have some technical glitches that caused us to not be able to run the livestream the way we were hoping and made it start late, but people understood why this happened and they were patient with us.

Amir was hosting it along with 2 guests, and I was working the behind the scenes stuff with managing the questions that came in and making sure everyone was able to access the livestream after the glitch. I was kept pretty busy doing that, but I was so glad I could help. I’m not sure if I want to be on-camera for these, just because I don’t feel like I have enough information to comfortably host. But that is now a goal of mine and something that is pushing me to continue to educate myself so I can feel like I could be a good host in the future.

This is not just a one-off event. We are already planning our next ones and we are hoping to be able to have them on a regular basis. We are still working on improving upon the first one, so hopefully, we continue to just get better and more efficient. We may start focusing our livestreams on specific topics, while still allowing any questions about other topics. But from the feedback we got, having a bit of a focus would be helpful for the audience. And having topics is also helping us plan, so I’m glad we were told that it could be a good thing.

If we weren’t in isolation during this pandemic, I don’t know if we would have created this livestream. I want to think that we would have, but I think being forced to have virtual meetings as a regular part of life really made us see what we could do. Even when we could have in-person meetings again, I think this is going to stay as a livestream as it allows so many people around the country to join in. And it gives us a bit more flexibility with getting guests because people don’t need to be local to do it.

It’s been a while since I’ve helped to create something I’m this excited about. And it’s a great feeling. I am doing this to continue my union service and help other members, but selfishly it has also helped me find a bit of purpose in a weird time and I’m so grateful for that.

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A Virtual Town Hall (or Getting Some Answers About My Industry)

Posted on May 14, 2020 | Comments Off on A Virtual Town Hall (or Getting Some Answers About My Industry)

There have been so many things that feel up in the air right now. Nobody knows when things will be back to normal (or even when we can start to figure out what the new normal will be like). People don’t know when they will be working again. The entertainment industry is at a complete halt and there is no timeline for when we can start working again. It’s overwhelming and scary.

On top of that, there have been many issues with people who don’t have a traditional job to get unemployment. If you were only an independent contractor, they did create a new system to be eligible. I’m so grateful for that since all my income is 1099 and I don’t qualify normally. As easy as it was for me to apply, I’m still dealing with issues as they never asked me how much I made and my unemployment amount is not what it should be. But my issues are much easier than others. Some people who worked both W2 and 1099 income can only apply for unemployment under the standard system. So if they made $50,000 last year and $49,000 was 1099 and $1,000 was W2, they have to file with the $1,000 of W2 income (which makes the amount they get significantly less than it should be).

There are also issues with people who have incorporated and are dealing with small business options. I know the government is doing their best and this is not what they ever expected to happen, but it’s still hard when there are so many people depending on things to be fixed so they don’t have to worry how they will pay the bills.

A lot of these unique circumstances are unique to people in the entertainment industry. So when I heard that our union president, Gabrielle Carteris, was doing a town hall, I knew I wanted to watch. And the town hall was also hosted by the president of IATSE, Matthew Loeb so it was going to discuss issues that other entertainment industry employees would have. But it wasn’t just SAG-AFTRA and IATSE, Congressman Schiff was going to be a part of it so we could hear what a representative of our government thinks and we could share some of our concerns to him.

I didn’t submit a question, but I was very interested to hear what others were worried about. And a lot of issues I expected, like the split income for unemployment, was covered and Congressman Schiff seemed surprised that we had that issue as the bill they passed was supposed to prevent that. And it was good to hear someone who felt very strongly about us needing to get back to work but needing to be cautious so things don’t get worse. There was no sugarcoating things, our industry might be one of the last ones to come back due to the large number of people that would be on set or the fact that actors work very close to each other (and that’s not counting intimate scenes). But it was hopeful to hear that Congressman Schiff does want to figure out how we can work and get back to making the entertainment that so many people have been spending their days watching.

I know that acting work won’t be coming back soon, but I hope it will be not too far away. There are so many things I miss about the entertainment industry and I know they can’t start up again until it is safer for us to gather in groups. We had no clue that things would get like this as quickly as they did, so there is a chance that things can get better just as quickly. But I don’t want the government to rush it and force us to go back into isolation to stop another surge.

I guess the unknowns will just have to continue for a while longer until more is understood and can be known.

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