Booking My 1st AFTRA Job!

On Thursday, 3/11, while I was filming a commercial for an electronics store in Canarsie called VIP Pro Audio, I noticed that I had received two phone calls and a voice message from a "212" number. Since they called twice, I figured they really wanted to talk to me, so when we took a short break from shooting, I called the number back. It was from The Onion News Network. They wanted to know if I wanted to work background for a segment on Friday. I BOOKED MY FIRST AFTRA JOB!!! :-D

In case you didn't know, AFTRA stands for American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and is a performers' union that represents television, radio, internet, voice overs and various other facets of the entertainment industry. It's an "open" union, which means that anyone can join if they fork over $1600, OR an actor can basically "earn" it through booking an AFTRA job.

A few days prior, I actually had a dilemma with whether or not I wanted to join AFTRA. Some AFTRA actors I've met on various sets to have said to me "Join as soon as possible!" and some people have said "NO! Don't join a union until you HAVE to! There's a lot more non-union work out there!" I knew that I wanted to be a professional working actor, but I didn't know if I should try to merit the union status, or to just save up money to join it.

There are many pros and cons. I decided to make a list in my head of them. And here they are: Pros:
- Better pay: A non-union actor working background on a shoot earns $80 for 10 hours of work, and then overtime after the 10 hours, so that's basically minimum wage. After taxes, that's $64 for 10 hours of your time. An AFTRA actor, on the other hand, could earn $139 for 8 hours of work, plus overtime after 8 hours. Also, a lot of non-union work is NO PAY.
- Better Conditions and Treatment: You are now a union actor, which means you're protected by the union, and they'll fight for you, as with any workers' union. If you ever feel that you're being treated unfairly on any set, you just write a letter to AFTRA and they'll take care of it for you.
- Potential to get SAG-eligibility: This is a BIG one for me, since I that's my next goal. Once you're a member of SAG (Screen Actor's Guild), you know that you have reached a milestone in your acting career. People earn SAG is different ways, such as collecting 3 SAG waivers for background work (I don't have any yet), getting booked for a principal role on a SAG production (happens VERY rarely!), OR booking a role with a line in an AFTRA project, and being a member for a year. The last one definitely gives me hope in attaining SAG status within a year or so, however, I'm still going to go into auditions and hopefully book something prior to that! Also, you can "buy in" to Equity after a year as an AFTRA member, but for that, I hope to merit my equity card!
- Being Labeled a "Professional Actor": 'Nuff said.

Cons:
- You CANNOT do non-union work: I've been working like crazy since mid-January, and it's thanks to a lot of non-union work that was lo-pay/no pay. Some of the work I booked were great resume-builders, and once you're union, you can ONLY work union jobs!
- Competition: Once you're union, you're now competing with the "big dogs" who have a lot of experience and have put in a lot of time to get where they are.

I had been thinking it over, and over, and over again...."Should I join, or shouldn't I???" I decided that I was going to enjoy booking as much work as possible, and then joined when I absolutely HAD to. So a few days after my dilemma, I got the call, so my problem was solved for me! So now, for the next 30 days, I can book and work as many AFTRA jobs as I can get and get paid the union wages before I have to shell over the $1600 for the one-time initiation fee + $63.90 for 1st period membership dues. Another great thing about booking an AFTRA job is that I can be put on a payment plan, as opposed to paying it all at once. I've never felt so hopeful in paying $1663.90!

I'm also very glad that I've been doing so much non-union work in the past month and a half to beef up my resume, and I can still work non-union jobs for the next 30 days, and I intend on taking full advantage of being non-union for now! After the 30 days, I think that I will feel like I've learned a lot, and have done a lot to feel like I really deserve to be union, and that was a major thing for me. And I feel EXTRREMELY fortunately to book so many gigs in such a short time. But I also have invested a lot of blood, sweat and tears into submitting, auditioning, doing the research and my homework, in order to get to where I am now.

And about my first AFTRA job, I actually didn't submit specifically for what I was booked for! I actually was called in for a principal role audition a few weeks back. I hadn't heard anything, but I had kept on submitting for other roles for The Onion News Network. I guess there was something they liked about me, so they booked me to do some background work, and I earned my AFTRA-eligibility.

I'm not gonna lie though, when I was filling out the AFTRA voucher and paperwork, my heart was racing and I nearly peed my pants from my overwhelming excitement. But obviously, I had to remain cool, calm and collected. On the inside, I was jumping up and down and screaming with sheer joy!

I was cast along with 5 other ladies as "Oprah fans" who were building a necropolis for Oprah. It was a really funny script, and we provided the sight-gags. We were COVERED FROM HEAD-TO-TOE in movie dust. Seriously, I'm not kidding when I say head-to-toe! That stuff was all over our clothes, our hair, our shoes, etc. We also had some fake sweat applied on us to look like we were really working hard, all for the love of Oprah. We actually got a mini-bump in pay to cover our wardrobe, since it was completely covered in that stuff. Fortunately, it all comes off once you put your clothes in a washing machine! And they supplied baby wipes for us to remove the "dirt" off our faces and skin. (Though I had to take a looooooooooong shower to remove everything else!!!)

As for the sight-gags, we had to carry "boulders" and "logs," and pulled rope as if we were hauling a very large marble statue. It was definitely a VERY physical background job, and we all were featured in some way. We all had 3 wardrobe changes, and had to change very quickly (and get completely dirtied-up for each one!), because we had to play different people! It was definitely the most physically demanding of ANY background work I've done, but it definitely felt very rewarding in the end. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Friday, March 12th, 2010 will go down as a milestone in my acting career for getting my very first union waiver. It took me 44 days from my first background gig to working my first AFTRA job, so I need to keep up this momentum! Here's to infinity and beyond! There's no stopping me now!