Trading Realities
Jul. 18th, 2004 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eggwardsI'm watching a Tivoed presentation of Trading Spaces:Inside out. It goes behind the scenes of the series, and giving some background on the personalities of it. I'm watching more for the production back ground, and to see how much the crew really does to make the show work.
I loved Trading Spaces. It was a fun show, but as with so many "reality" shows, the premise gets a little thin after awhile. It didn't help that they added Boys vs. Girls and the Family editions, stretching the designers and crew even further. About ever new idea has been used and there's only so many times you can see Laurie use another shade of yellow, Doug do something to spite the homeowners and Hildie stick something hideous on a wall.
Some of the people have moved on, too. Vern is doing his own show, Ty has a home makeover thing on ABC, and half of them do commercials or have a line of products now. I'm not saying they sold out, because it's not like they weren't personalities anyway, but some have done a good job of using their fame, and really, the designer bit was actually not a requirement for being on the show.
It was too much that they teased Frank's segment with, "Frank had a big secret to reveal." Yeah, right. What could the audience be thinking? Funny thing, after watching the show, I don't even remember what it was. No, he didn't say that his marriage is a bigger cover than Cole Porter's. Still, the show seems rather friendly, ad Edward and Vern could be gay too. Personally I'd put some money on the Family edition's host Joe and possibly Doug too. I know, I'm stereotyping because they do design work, and my gaydar is horrible, so I'm likely wrong, but it's just a thought.
It's interesting how many staged segments they do, and how much the seamster and the propmaster actually do. It also seems very hard to work with all of this production staff hanging around, hoping that something will occur. I'm thinking a lot of tantrums and such are now staged, or at least influenced by the cameras since, much like the Real World Casts, everyone knows they are being filmed.
Still, there's a lot fewer reveals (the moment at the end of the show where they show the home owners their new rooms) that are negative. Sometimes you can tell their trying to be nice, but they have reservations, but people don't want to be known as the lady who cried, or the homeowners that got mad. That stuff makes the rounds of internet chatrooms forever.
I'm fascinated by the making of television, all the preparation just to shoot that few minutes of film. All the trying and re-trying of things. Re-writes, re-shoots and trying to make up for when things go wrong, and the times, like on this show, where they do let you see the manipulations that go into making TV, rather than reality.
Television was something I wanted to be a pert of. I went into acting when I was in high school, and my first years of college not to appear on the big stage, but to be on the small screen. I've always been an admirer of the medium. One of my childhood make-believe games was plating that we were the kids of Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers, and after a horrible accident, my character was killed, and Kevin's was in need of Bionic replacements (of course). Kevin's character, being a super-genius builds a robotic replacement for my character (which the parents approved of? - there's a stretch). I was a kid robot way before Vickie on Small Wonder. somehow I thought we could sell the concept someday.
I took RTV classes in college and learned the basics of production, and wished I could take it further, but like Journalism, I couldn't make the whole internship thing work, and never got to pursue it. Still, my current work has allowed me to be in about 7 different productions, most not more than 5 minutes long, and I co-wrote, starred in and produced most of them. We won most creative production when we were in competition with some other departments for our CSI parody we did last year.
In about a week, the company is having auditions for employees to be in a nation wide commercial. While I know it's just the company's way of being cheap not having to pay for actors or for a celebrity spokesperson, the moment the news came out, people were asking me if I would try out for it. Now I'm a ham, but I guess I will, more for them than for me. I know they'll turn me down because I'm not rah-rah about the company, nor do I fit the normal "look" for someone you want on camera. They say they're looking for real people, but you know they really want "reel" people. Again, I choose not to get my hopes up. Nor will I worry about getting the job, it's not like I live for the company.
I remember years ago, wanting to be in television so badly, wishing that the university acting program was geared more to TV and Film, which it wasn't. Theater schools are about "THEATER". All very pretentious, much of the time. Why play down to the masses when you can hope for performing in front of a half-empty house, emoting to the back row? There's definitely a big difference in the approach, and you just don't see that taught. Of course, I eventually decided that moving to LA didn't appeal to me, either. Perhaps I should have just been a local sportscaster - but then I'm a little big for your local news, too. Only the weatherman gets to be fat.
I guess I could always see if Chris wants to do an episode of Trading Spaces, but you have to find someone in the same neighborhood, and just remember, you aren't the star of the show. Frank is, or Doug, or whoever will come in and make your neighbors put feathers all over your walls. Hmm. Maybe not such a good idea.
I loved Trading Spaces. It was a fun show, but as with so many "reality" shows, the premise gets a little thin after awhile. It didn't help that they added Boys vs. Girls and the Family editions, stretching the designers and crew even further. About ever new idea has been used and there's only so many times you can see Laurie use another shade of yellow, Doug do something to spite the homeowners and Hildie stick something hideous on a wall.
Some of the people have moved on, too. Vern is doing his own show, Ty has a home makeover thing on ABC, and half of them do commercials or have a line of products now. I'm not saying they sold out, because it's not like they weren't personalities anyway, but some have done a good job of using their fame, and really, the designer bit was actually not a requirement for being on the show.
It was too much that they teased Frank's segment with, "Frank had a big secret to reveal." Yeah, right. What could the audience be thinking? Funny thing, after watching the show, I don't even remember what it was. No, he didn't say that his marriage is a bigger cover than Cole Porter's. Still, the show seems rather friendly, ad Edward and Vern could be gay too. Personally I'd put some money on the Family edition's host Joe and possibly Doug too. I know, I'm stereotyping because they do design work, and my gaydar is horrible, so I'm likely wrong, but it's just a thought.
It's interesting how many staged segments they do, and how much the seamster and the propmaster actually do. It also seems very hard to work with all of this production staff hanging around, hoping that something will occur. I'm thinking a lot of tantrums and such are now staged, or at least influenced by the cameras since, much like the Real World Casts, everyone knows they are being filmed.
Still, there's a lot fewer reveals (the moment at the end of the show where they show the home owners their new rooms) that are negative. Sometimes you can tell their trying to be nice, but they have reservations, but people don't want to be known as the lady who cried, or the homeowners that got mad. That stuff makes the rounds of internet chatrooms forever.
I'm fascinated by the making of television, all the preparation just to shoot that few minutes of film. All the trying and re-trying of things. Re-writes, re-shoots and trying to make up for when things go wrong, and the times, like on this show, where they do let you see the manipulations that go into making TV, rather than reality.
Television was something I wanted to be a pert of. I went into acting when I was in high school, and my first years of college not to appear on the big stage, but to be on the small screen. I've always been an admirer of the medium. One of my childhood make-believe games was plating that we were the kids of Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers, and after a horrible accident, my character was killed, and Kevin's was in need of Bionic replacements (of course). Kevin's character, being a super-genius builds a robotic replacement for my character (which the parents approved of? - there's a stretch). I was a kid robot way before Vickie on Small Wonder. somehow I thought we could sell the concept someday.
I took RTV classes in college and learned the basics of production, and wished I could take it further, but like Journalism, I couldn't make the whole internship thing work, and never got to pursue it. Still, my current work has allowed me to be in about 7 different productions, most not more than 5 minutes long, and I co-wrote, starred in and produced most of them. We won most creative production when we were in competition with some other departments for our CSI parody we did last year.
In about a week, the company is having auditions for employees to be in a nation wide commercial. While I know it's just the company's way of being cheap not having to pay for actors or for a celebrity spokesperson, the moment the news came out, people were asking me if I would try out for it. Now I'm a ham, but I guess I will, more for them than for me. I know they'll turn me down because I'm not rah-rah about the company, nor do I fit the normal "look" for someone you want on camera. They say they're looking for real people, but you know they really want "reel" people. Again, I choose not to get my hopes up. Nor will I worry about getting the job, it's not like I live for the company.
I remember years ago, wanting to be in television so badly, wishing that the university acting program was geared more to TV and Film, which it wasn't. Theater schools are about "THEATER". All very pretentious, much of the time. Why play down to the masses when you can hope for performing in front of a half-empty house, emoting to the back row? There's definitely a big difference in the approach, and you just don't see that taught. Of course, I eventually decided that moving to LA didn't appeal to me, either. Perhaps I should have just been a local sportscaster - but then I'm a little big for your local news, too. Only the weatherman gets to be fat.
I guess I could always see if Chris wants to do an episode of Trading Spaces, but you have to find someone in the same neighborhood, and just remember, you aren't the star of the show. Frank is, or Doug, or whoever will come in and make your neighbors put feathers all over your walls. Hmm. Maybe not such a good idea.
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Date: 2004-07-18 10:24 pm (UTC)Community theater is fun. Smaller Equity-waiver is great experience. But it's a hard life.
I've seen many people as they've come into acting. Roger left a successful career on Wall Street to become an actor. While is success has been limited, he's gotten a few good roles including one of the leads in "Better Luck Tomorrow." Roger also has a regular job.
I remember John when he was doing every Equity Waiver play he could do, then he became the "Asian guy" in the American Pie films as well as a regular in the TV series "Off Centre." He now has the title role in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." It's something.
Amy made six appearances on the Gong Show. Chuck Barris used to call her up so that she could come up with an act that would be gonged. She played Ms. Kwan in the awful "Cat in the Hat," but made up for it in "First 50 Dates."
Ken was a high school teacher and worked props and costume for theater in his spare time. When he retired he went into acting... and has several film and TV credits. I just saw an Oreo commercial that features him. It's a national! Yeah Ken.
I remember when they couldn't get jobs. Amy created her own demand creating a series of one woman shows. She never looked back. She did every free thing should could to be out there.
You can't use size as an excuse. Amy is a big girl!
My friend Neil is also a big man (about your height and 380 lbs) but he appears in his workplace commercial (he's the one driving the train). You can find that commercial at:
http://members.networld.com/negent/video.html
I have pictures of Neil that prove how big he is, but I think they're all nekkid ones.
Even I've done a local commercial (and I hated it).
You have two things going for you -- You're smart and you have presence.
All of the best actors I've worked with are smart. They're in touch with themselves and they know how make intelligent character choices; they understand the script and they flush it out.
You have a physical presence that works well on camera. It's something that a great many people do not have. If anything you have a face and body that would be great for commercials. You're an unlikely leading man, but, you are the stuff that character actors are made of.
And for the most part, LA is the place to be. For some reason, a majority of the casting -- international and regional seems to be done out of LA. Ben was up for a lead for Sumo Bruno (German) that was cast here; he was also cast for Federal Express Hong Kong, a Texas Chili company, Arizona Lottery and several other regionals and internationals from LA casting. Ken ended up doing a German movie in Shanghai from LA casting. LA also has more theaters per capita than anywhere else in the US. And if you hang in the right circles, you do meet everyone.
The truth, however, is that the vast majority of those who call themselves actors don't work. Competition is tough. Everyone here seems to have a regular job, but if you ask, we're all actors and/or writers. I used to laugh at that and distance myself from that crowd, but the appeal is strong. However, I don't take myself seriously.
I hope you get that commercial! I hope you re investigate your past hopes.
What's so weird is that weekend in Austin. The vibe. It seemed that 90 percent of the group were all creatives. Some, closet creatives... most aspiring writers. Others, talented photographers, closeted actors; but I sense that the talent is there and that it's real. I really hope that they will all progress beyond the walls of LiveJournal... especially YOU!