[quote name=\'Fedya\' date=\'Feb 16 2004, 11:57 AM\'] [quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Feb 16 2004, 02:34 PM\'] [quote name=\'Fedya\' date=\'Feb 16 2004, 11:09 AM\'] Ah, but did you have to pay the staffers actors' scale for appearing on camera? :-p [/quote]
You may have to wait a long time for that answer! Although kudos to Henry, Michael, Steve, Brian, et. al. for hiring UNION actors as stand-ins during rehearsals!
Randy
tvrandywest.com [/quote]
Am I missing a joke here? I guess that's what I get for not being part of the glitterati like you, Randy! ;-) [/quote]
No glitterati intended ;-)
I don't know how to mealy-mouth it any other way so as not to put anyone involved with producing the show in a bad light - many at HS are valued friends. So I'll just restate my mini-point a whole lot less vaguely:
Silly as it may sound to some, sitting in a square or otherwise appearing on set while a show is rehearsing or taping is technically a union job (stand-in and extra respectively). There are many reasons why non-union staffers are so much easier (no advance scheduling and multiple phone calls) and cheaper (free) to use. And I'd be tempted to do the same as a producer.
But decades from now when the important people at the two corporate giants that run all 1,000 channels are all tired of hearing my voice, when I'm hopefully very old, when I've yelled "Come on Down" a few jillion times and introduced the next 17 people to host "Price" after Mr. Barker, I may be trying to scrounge enough AFTRA covered employment to have some medical insurance.
Some of the union folks who might otherwise sit in those squares for this tiny recreated moment are out of work performers who sometimes are scrounging between jobs to keep food on the table and maintain medical coverage for their familes. And then again, some others who work as extras are embarrassments to the profession.
No, don't start crying for the hungry actors (is that redundant?). And this isn't a telethon ("look at us we're walking, look at us we're talking"). But as the question of compensation for the show's staff members was raised, I felt compelled to respond. Hopefully this won't spark a whole debate about unions and organized workers... that would give us all "labor pains" ;-p
Randy
tvrandywest.com
P.S. Watch the SAG Awards this weekend. We have a proud heritage going back to when SAG founders, including Jimmy Cagney, said that the dancers in those wonderful Warner Bros. Busby Berkeley musicals deserve to go home after 18 hours of straight work in a day. Even though they were expected back 6 hours later for another day, with no day off for weeks until their scenes were done. They danced and smiled until their feet bled. They were then bandaged and danced again until the blood was visible. Truth.