American Greed

Hey there! Time for an update. Had a great experience on an American Greed shoot yesterday that I just had to tell you about.

American Greed

To be honest, I have never really watched this show but must have seen it in passing because I had a good idea what it was. But now that I’ve worked on it, I for sure will be watching. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a CNBC show narrated by Stacy Keach. Check out their website by clicking here.

This episode was about Warren and Lyle Jeffs, those polygamist cult guys. I must say, it was pretty creepy playing an FLDS faithful wife. I remember all of that happening in the news but never really paid too much attention. So I was kind of in awe, and not in a good way, about all these two brothers did. You can see in the picture above all of the faithful wives I worked with.

Other than it being a slimy subject to film, it sure was a great day. The shoot was out in the suburbs, close to my house, so no traffic issues getting there. There were only a small number of extras and actors so we had all kinds of personal attention. I met new friends and worked with some previous ones. The producer, Heidi, was super nice and even hugged me when I left. Uhm, that never happens to a background actor! But yes, she couldn’t have been more accommodating. We didn’t arrive until 11 am and were told we would be out by 2 pm. Usually, I have no idea how long of a day I will have so it was awesome knowing it would be a short day. But then, I was having a good time and they needed two of the wives to stay a bit longer. I’m sure you can guess that I, of course, volunteered along with my new friend Lisa. Take a look at our picture here on our diet coke break. And guess what, we still wrapped at 4 pm. So definitely an easy day!

Two weeks ago I worked a commercial with this guy, Bob. And here he was on this shoot too! We filmed a commercial at the Gary, Indiana airport. This small airport is no longer being used for passenger flights which is why the gate could be used for filming. The commercial was for a meditation app. Basically, the flight was delayed and this guy was sitting between one guy sneezing all over him on one side and a grandma loudly face timing her grand baby on the other side. The ten or so extras that were there were busily occupied behind and around the scene. Bob and I had to pretend to run into each other and we had that choreography down pretty well indeed. Then, the guy puts in his ear buds and turns on the app and, magically, we all disappear.

You would be surprised if you knew how long it takes to shoot one 30 second commercial. We arrived at 7 am and didn’t leave until 4 pm. And of course that is the worse possible time to leave that location on a Friday afternoon to return to the northwest suburbs. It had taken me about 50 minutes to drive there and took me over two hours to drive home. Yuck! But that was also a fun work day so my last two jobs in the background have been very positive. I love it!

More News

If you’ve followed this blog, you might remember how upset I was when I wrote this post. I thought I had a short term teaching job covering a maternity leave and it didn’t happen due to the reason of which I am no longer speaking. Well, guess what. I had totally given up on returning to teaching at all, short term or long term. Then I received a call and long story short, I will be working at St. Patrick Catholic High School teaching levels one through four French starting in August. I had kind of thought maybe God was telling me it was time for me to move on to something else beside teaching. Now I’m not so sure. One positive thing, since I will be at a Catholic school, I will be able to profess my faith freely and it won’t be politically incorrect. Amen to that!

It is still a short term gig but I think it will be perfect for me to see whether or not I want to continue my teaching career. I may decide to continue what I’m doing now; working in the background and freelance writing. My freelance business is doing well and I am beginning to make some good money. We’ll have to wait and see what the future brings. But I have to say I am very happy to at least have a chance to change the end of my teaching career to something more positive than what happened to end my last job.

I am a bit sad to be out of the background for a couple of months this fall. I am really going to miss it. I don’t know what it is but once you start doing this, it’s addictive. Maybe it’s the food. I always eat way too well when working in the background. Right now, I’m waiting to hear if I’ll be booked for one of the Chicago shows which begin filming next week. I thought maybe not because I haven’t heard anything but neither had the people I worked with yesterday so I think they just haven’t scheduled all of the background yet. I don’t want to miss the next few weeks because I’ll be busy once school starts!

Thanks for reading about my American Greed shoot, my airport commercial shoot, and my exciting new teaching news. I’ll see you next time–in the background!