What does series regular mean

Perhaps a touch-up of hair and makeup. Then you go back to the set on time and do your scene. Sometimes your scenes are spread out. You do one in the morning then another at 6pm. By then your makeup is making the pores in your face so deep you could plant shrubs. Also, hang up your clothes and leave the way you found them. I wake up, take a shower, brush my teeth, and drive to location. Girls and guys arrive with no makeup and looking pretty rough seeing that they are beautiful on screen.

Half the magic happens in makeup. During that process, the stylist is picking wardrobe and checking her continuity book and I always get revisions. I am a quick study, so it is not a huge deal for me, but one thing to keep in mind is memorize but keep it flexible. I get made-up and dressed, and I find my first scene partner. If they are working, I will run the scene.

Since we shoot like a movie, we shoot several partial episodes in one day. This means our director could change hour to hour or stay the same all day. There are four directors on Prom Queen. Since our show is on the Internet, we are constantly asked to grab a partner, grab a camera, and go off during the downtime.

We create histories for our characters at all times. Selections of this are available on MySpace for the fans that want to go deeper. Lunch is always good, but better with less people.

If they are only shooting two actors all day, they break out the really good menus. I tend not to have any food in my fridge at home when I am shooting. All my food comes from craft service on set. At wrap, we get callsheets for the next day. Sometimes we go out and decompress from the day and sometimes we each go straight home to hit the hay.

After shooting the prom sequence into the wee hours of the morning, we still went out and drank. We needed it! I was still emotional and it was amazing to have such a supportive cast and crew family there to help me deal with its after effects.

A really heavy ensemble show, like The West Wing , meant most everyone who was a reg was there every day. On something a little less ensemble, you are off some days, or work part of the day.

For supporting series regs, you can be blessed with several days off, but days on can be extremely long. You will also work with a wide array of directors, which can be good and bad. We shoot in a working supermarket and shoot each episode in three days. We have a four-day work week most Fridays off and due to the deal with the supermarket, we are on a very regular schedule of am to 7pm.

Because the show is improvised, we often have no idea what the scene is until we arrive on set and the director gives us an overview. We learn what plot points we need to know and what information we need to get out in the course of the scene and then within minutes someone is slating.

We shoot with three cameras and within a few takes the scene starts to take shape, although very rarely is any dialogue locked. Personally I love, love, love the job, but I know many actors for whom this routine would be maddening. A usual day on set begins at about am in Whittier meaning I have to make time for the drive. Although it is early, all I have to do on a working day is wake up, brush my teeth, and go!

On set, I can eat breakfast Catering is fantastic! Every day is different, which is something I enjoy. Some days I may have one scene and be in and out. The only big downfall to having a long day is being done by 5pm or 6pm. Meaning traffic on the way home! And depending on the day, when I get home, I just usually relax and get ready to do it all over again the next day. Sometimes we will have night shoots. That means we arrive on set by 4pm or 5pm and could leave as late as 4am!

While premium talent is usually paid far above the SAG minimum, this is the rate actors can expect to make on a low budget studio project or a moderate indie film. Under this agreement, those actors are allowed to work with a Taft-Hartley agreement , as with most SAG agreements. Non-union actors are allowed, while background actors are not covered.

If your film is released directly to a streaming service, like Hulu , your SAG scale rates might fall under New Media. Unlike other SAG day rates, actor salaries are completely negotiable. Films made under this pact can be released at film festivals, on free-streaming sites like Vimeo or YouTube. Here are the SAG rates for performers in television. We should note that these rates are for performers of cable and streaming shows.

For network shows, producers should plan to budget an additional 15 percent. Need an actor for just one episode of your series to say a few lines? Performers under Multiple Programs Agreements is a contract that applies to actors who are shooting multiple episodes of a show within one week. Note that the SAG rates increase the less an actor appears, as those actors will be working less weeks and therefore more less net pay. You'll need to know many cities your commercial will air in - SAG Rates However, a producer must pay a fee to air the ad, followed by additional charges each time it airs.

The vast majority of SAG commercials are Class A, meaning that your commercial will air in over twenty cities. Unlike national or cable ads, wild spots are commercials that air in over twenty specific cities.

Instead of airing on a set network, wild spots only air on specific stations and markets. The 1st use SAG commercial rates are:. The 1st use rates are:. If your project is going straight to the web, start here - SAG Rates But it also is true that it is getting harder and harder to make a living as a TV actor, with series regular roles harder to come by and guest starring gigs regularly relegated to day players.

Meanwhile, guest-starring gigs that would have normally been top of the show are now more and more often done as day stints also at a deeply discounted price, making it virtually impossible for actors to live on guest-starring roles and meet their minimums for SAG-AFTRA health insurance. TV series productions do more boarding of episodes, so if a guest character has three big scenes in an episode, instead of filming them over 3 days, they are squeezed together in one day, and an actor can be hired just for that one day.

Additionally, many out-of-town series rely heavily on local hires for guest roles. And that often goes on for years. Some studios have escalators in place, with built-in raises if a recurring guest star hits 10 or 20 episodes, but I hear those are the exception.