As a few of you know, I have been doing the background acting on and off for a few years now. I subscribe to a service called "Casting Networks", which e-mails the new gigs being filmed in this area. So late last week, the e-mail post description just said "basketball fans needed for an AT&T commercial". The only other details they provided was that it would be filming early Sunday morning in Newark, with a 12-hour guarantee (so a long day). Not ideal for an NFL playoff Sunday, but commercials pay better than a movie or a regular show like "Law & Order", so decided to submit for it. I got confirmation on Saturday that I got it -- was excited because it is tougher to get commercials (this was only my 2nd one ever). The night before the gig, they send out the specific instructions (call time, location, and wardrobe instructions). I was happily surprised to find out that it specifically said "your school is Syracuse and your team colors are orange and blue -- if you have those colors, please bring". Giddy-up! (and the wardrobe dept at the holding area did have many Syracuse shirts and hats for the folks that didn't have any).
I had to report to a college in Newark (NJIT) for a 6am call time (not particularly easy without a car, but got up at 4am and got there via public transportation (a couple of trains). The first couple of hours you don't do much -- they give you some paperwork to complete, a nice breakfast and everyone has to get their official outfit for the gig approved by "Wardrobe". The rest of the morning was just rehearsals on the set with the "stand-ins" for the principals (known as the b-team). The set for this was just the basketball court that NJIT uses for their games (I was one of about 125 or so fans). They kept moving us around depending on the camera angle (so the place looked full). At that point, we didn't know who the principals were going to be, but I thought actually one could be Melo due to one hint-- when Wardrobe was handing out shirts to people that needed orange, they had a few piles of shirts that just said "Melo". (and he had done that funny AT&T commercial in March with Kendrick Perkins and T.J. Ford).
They gave us a nice lunch and had told us we would be begin filming after. But when they brought us back to set, we just sat there for a long time doing nothing (I learned later that Melo was over 2 hours late). But I was able to watch the NFL playoffs on my phone via DVR on the YouTubeTV app. Around 2pm or so, the "big 3" walked in -- Carmelo, Kiyan, and James Arthur Boeheim. Very exciting! (at least for me -- many of the people that were extras didn't even know who these people were, or some knew only Melo). So we filmed the commercial all afternoon, many different takes and angles. I think they had hoped to get us out of there by 6pm, because they had only guaranteed us 12 hours. But because they lost a couple of hours when Melo was late, we didn't "wrap" until 9:45pm -- nearly 16 hours on site, including the meals (but thank you Melo for making us the extra money, lol). And the "big 3" were all out of there by 7pm -- we were just doing other things and angles with one of the other principals for the last couple hours (just happy I was able to watch the 3 NFL games on my phone to kill time).
I think the commercial itself is going to be very good. I hesitate to give too much away, but the one hint I will give you all is that Melo's AT&T commercial in March was very funny. So think along those lines -- and JB was awesome in his part. The three of them didn't appear to talk too much (unless we just couldn't hear them from the stands). But JB stole the show from my view. I am looking forward to seeing the final product -- no idea when it will be released or if you will be able to see me -- will be very exciting when it randomly pops up some day when I am watching a game.
I had to report to a college in Newark (NJIT) for a 6am call time (not particularly easy without a car, but got up at 4am and got there via public transportation (a couple of trains). The first couple of hours you don't do much -- they give you some paperwork to complete, a nice breakfast and everyone has to get their official outfit for the gig approved by "Wardrobe". The rest of the morning was just rehearsals on the set with the "stand-ins" for the principals (known as the b-team). The set for this was just the basketball court that NJIT uses for their games (I was one of about 125 or so fans). They kept moving us around depending on the camera angle (so the place looked full). At that point, we didn't know who the principals were going to be, but I thought actually one could be Melo due to one hint-- when Wardrobe was handing out shirts to people that needed orange, they had a few piles of shirts that just said "Melo". (and he had done that funny AT&T commercial in March with Kendrick Perkins and T.J. Ford).
They gave us a nice lunch and had told us we would be begin filming after. But when they brought us back to set, we just sat there for a long time doing nothing (I learned later that Melo was over 2 hours late). But I was able to watch the NFL playoffs on my phone via DVR on the YouTubeTV app. Around 2pm or so, the "big 3" walked in -- Carmelo, Kiyan, and James Arthur Boeheim. Very exciting! (at least for me -- many of the people that were extras didn't even know who these people were, or some knew only Melo). So we filmed the commercial all afternoon, many different takes and angles. I think they had hoped to get us out of there by 6pm, because they had only guaranteed us 12 hours. But because they lost a couple of hours when Melo was late, we didn't "wrap" until 9:45pm -- nearly 16 hours on site, including the meals (but thank you Melo for making us the extra money, lol). And the "big 3" were all out of there by 7pm -- we were just doing other things and angles with one of the other principals for the last couple hours (just happy I was able to watch the 3 NFL games on my phone to kill time).
I think the commercial itself is going to be very good. I hesitate to give too much away, but the one hint I will give you all is that Melo's AT&T commercial in March was very funny. So think along those lines -- and JB was awesome in his part. The three of them didn't appear to talk too much (unless we just couldn't hear them from the stands). But JB stole the show from my view. I am looking forward to seeing the final product -- no idea when it will be released or if you will be able to see me -- will be very exciting when it randomly pops up some day when I am watching a game.
