You enter the lobby of Warner Brother Studios and look around.
You see a receptionist who sits behind a desk. A man paces in the lobby having a heated discussion with his phone.
The elevator dings. The doors open and a business woman walks out. She walks past the pacing man and sits in the lobby.
The man hangs up his phone and walks towards you with a sketchy look on his face.
[[Who is this guy?]]You smile. He squints at you. "You look a little out of place son. Is there something I can help you with?"
[[Oh, I'm sorry sir. I didn't mean to intrude. I just moved to town.]]
[[That depends on who you are.]]The man looks you up and down with a snarky grin. "Yeah, you look a little bit like fresh meat. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna help you out. Someone helped me once and it's my turn to pay it forward." What brought you out here to La-La-Land?
[[I've always wanted to be a famous actor.]]
[[I want to make movies!]]"Excuse me, son? Who I am?" The man snaps his fingers and two security guards appear and escort you out the building.
[[Start]]The Production manager crosses his arms. "I see. Well, I can't help you, but see that women sitting over there? Go talk to her."
[[Thanks, so much!]]
"Eh, can you be more specfic son? We all wanna make movies."
[[Production. Anything to do with it. I eat, sleep and breath it!]]"Well today is your lucky day. I happen to be a production manager, I can make your wildest dreams come true. But since I don't know you, you gotta pass a test for me first. Take this ticket and go to this address."
[[Yes, sir!]]You don't know where you are going but you pull out your phone GPS and direct a route. Walking swiftly you arrive in under three minutes. The sign on the building says, "Leo's Dry Cleaning."
[[You run in eagerly and grab his dry cleaning, then speed back to Warner Brothers.]]
[[You take one look at the sign. Forget that, I have people to meet!]]
You rush through the doors ar Warner Brothers holding three clean suits proudly.
The man, who is now sitting in the lobby, stands and looks at his watch. He smiles. "That was pretty quick kid. Perhaps you have a future in this business. I'll tell ya what. Go to this address tomorrow and ask for Ryan. He's the second AD. Be there at 6:00 a.m. sharp."
[[I can't wait.]]
[[Actually, I already have plans tomorrow. Do you have anything another day?]]You arrive home and realize you are no closer to your dream than you were this morning.
[[Start]]The man shakes his head. "I thought I saw something in you kid. Maybe your just not ready." The man walks into the elevator and the doors close.
Better luck next time.
[[Start]]You arrive at the Warner Brothers lot. After a rigorous argument with the security gaurd, he finally lets you in.
You arrive to studio A. There are so many people. How will you ever find Ryan? It's almost six. Don't be late!
You look around at everyone, some people have headsets.
[[You stop the first person you see. They are dressed oddly fancy to be part of the crew.]]
[[ You talk to a guy with a headset on.]]"Why are you talking to me? I told the director that NOBODY is to apprach me." The nicely dressed Actress storms away. "Security, make this guy disappear!"
Security appraoches and escorts you of the lot.
[[Start]]The guy with the headset's face lights up. "Oh, you must be one of the PA's."
He calls into the headset "Ryan, I got a PA for you. Where should I sent him?"
The guy looks back to you and says, "He is going to meet you in the production office."
[[Cool, thanks!]]
[[Where is the production office?]]The guy with the headset runs off. You stand there and realize you have no idea where you are supposed to go? Should you talk to another person?
[[Sure, the first guy was so nice!]]"You must be new around here..." No worries. Follow me. You follow him to the back of the studio. He knocks on a door. Ryan emerges. "Here ya go man, I got you a newbie."
Ryan groans. "Alright, come with me."
[[Sorry to inconvenience you. We all have to start somewhere.]]
[[Hey! I'm so excited to be here! Anything you need, I'm your guy!]]"Why are you talking to me? I told the director that NOBODY is to approach me." The nicely dressed actress storms away. "Security, make this guy disappear!"
Security approaches and escorts you off the lot.
[[Start]]Ryan, emotionless, goes back into the production office and closes the door.
The guy with the headset looks at you dissappointed. "Bad move, man."
Security arrives and escorts you off set.
[[End.]]
Ryan smirks. "Maybe you're not so bad kid. Follow me, I'll introduce you to someone. Shadow him. If your good, Ill give you another shot tomorrow."
[[Thanks so much for this opportunity. Whatever you need, I'm here.]]
You've been blacklisted.
Hollywood is built on relationships. If your rude to the wrong person, your career is over. Always smile, say yes, and figure it out later.
It's the end of the day. The crew is wrapping the set. Ryan approaches you. "I heard that you were quite the asset today. Good job, kid. I'm going to hire you as a permanent P.A."
[[That's awesome! See you tomorrow!]]The next day, you arrive fifteen minute early on set. The crew is having breakfast. The official crew call isn't for fifteen minutes.
Sweet, you have time to eat. You are walking up to the food table when a Producer approaches you. He carries a tray of food in his hands.
"He kid. Grab me a coffee, will ya? I'm sitting over there."
[[How many sugars?]]You fill a cup with cofee. You consider what to do next.
[[I better hurry. If I impress this guy, maybe I'll get promoted.]]
[[Slow and steady...]] You power walk over to the producer. The coffee spills over the rim of the cup. The producer looks around for you, he grows impatient. You walk faster.
You close in behind the producer. You trip over your own feet. The coffee spills all over the back of him.
"What the hell!"
[[In a state of panic, you run away and hide before he can learn your name.]]
[[You appologize perfusely and offer to bring his coat to the cleaners immediately.]]You walk over to the producer carefully holding his coffee. Just a few more steps. You trip over a wire that hasn't been taped down yet. Coffee spills all over the producers back.
He jumps to his feet. "What the hell!"
[[In a state of panic, you run away and hide before he can learn your name.]]
[[You appologize perfusely and offer to bring his coat to the cleaners immediately.]]You are hiding behind a trash can. Two security guards appear behind you. The tap you on the shoulder and escort you off of the lot.
[[End.]]He hand's you the coat. You rush to the dry cleaner and hope to work another day...
[[Not all endings are bad.]]You approach to women sitting in the lobby. She looks at her phone intently.
[[Excuse me, Ma'am? I was wondering if you could help me become an actor?]]
[[You sit next to her. "Is it gonna do a trick?]]
"Be an actor? You must be new. Look kid, you need experience. She takes a piece of paper and writes an address down.
Show up here tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. Bring an I-9 and two forms of I.D.
[[Yes, Ma'am. I can't wait!]]
The agent looks up at you. She scowls. Get away from me kid.
Go back and think about what you could have done differently.
[[Start]]You show up at the address. The building says "Central Casting." A line of people wait to see a Casting Director sitting at a table. You step into the line.
You approach the front of the line and stand before the casting director. "Please hand me your paperwork, and two forms of Identification, please."
[[You hand her what she asks for.]]
The casting director takes the documents from you. She scribbles something down, places the paper aside and hands you your I.D's back.
"Alright, show up at this address tomorrow, and bring three changes of clothes." She hand you a piece of paper with an address on it. "Call time is 4:00 a.m.
[["I'm just curious, why does it start at 4am?"]]
[[I think I know where this is.]]Doesn't really matter. We don't really need any more people. She takes the address from you and tears it up. "Next!
You arrive home and realize you are no closer to your dream than you were this morning. You fall into a deep depression because Hollywood is hard.
[[Start]]The next day you arrive on set. You look around at a group of people surrounding a table of gormet food. It's breakfast time. What do you do?
[[Approach someone with a headset and ask for directions to your reporting location.]]
[[Ask them if it's okay for you to grab some fruit.]]
[[Walk up to the table and eye the breakfast.]]You arrive home from a long day of work and think to yourself. "I'm really doing it. This is awesome."They look you up and down. "Oh, you must be background."
[[Background of what?]]
[[I don't know what that means.]]They tell you "Yeah, dig in. This is what we do in the morning." There's hot choices as well as vegetarian choices.
[[You grab a plate.]]Everything looks so good. Your so broke, you can't help yourself.
[[You grab a plate.]]You are standing there shoving eggs in your mouth like you haven't eaten a hot meal in years. You happen to see a sign labeled "extras holding."
[[You walk over to your reporting area.]]
You walk through the door to reveal a room full of people. You stand there with your plate of food and everybody turns and stares at you like you just commited a felony. Someone chimes "That food is not for us. What's wrong with you."
[[You drop the plate in the trash and slink to the back of the room.]]
[[You run out of the room, embarrassed.]]Yep, definitely background. See that sign over there, labled "Extra's Holding?" Go check in there.
[[You walk over to the extras holding area.]]Yep, definitely background. See that sign over there, labled "Extra's Holding?" Go check in there.
[[You walk over to the extras holding area.]]
You walk in the room. A PA greets you with enthusiasm. They hand you a form. You fill it out and have a seat with the other extras.
You get to meet alot of people, see some celebrities from afar, and you got paid at the end of the day. This wasn't so bad.
I can't wait to do this again!
[[Not all endings are bad.]]The PA walks up to you. I'm going to have to ask you to leave.
[[End.]]There's so many rules that nobody told me. Maybe I'll choose a different line of work.
[[Start]]