I was recently watching an episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee & one of the guests on the show said making movies/TV shows is like waiting at the DMV but with famous people... and that is exactly what is is like! Here is my 2 day experience of what it was like to be a pole dancer on a movie set... minus the details I have to keep secret for now ;)
THE DAY BEFORE... 9:45pm- I get a call from the casting lady. She tells me my call time for the following day and extra info I need to know. She is super nice and this fills me with excitement! I then proceed to pack my bag, charge my devices and get some sleep!
DAY 1 7:05am- Wake up and waste 15 minutes or so on Instagram...
7:20am- Get up, make tea and a hearty breakfast. I also start painting my nails, take a shower and get started on my makeup for the days shoot.
10:30am- Get in my car and head to the designated parking lot. 10:35am- Get there early and call my mom in excitement! 10:50am- Arrive through the maze of signs directing me where to go. I meet the casting lady & her assistant. I wait and fill out paperwork when it is ready. 11:30am- CALL TIME! 11:35am- Get taken to the wardrobe department to sort out my outfit for todays filming. 11:45am- Get taken to hair/makeup where they will take off my eyelashes and redo my entire face. At one point I was being tag teamed by 3 different stylists. One curling my hair, one doing my makeup and one taking scissors to my eyebrows. 12:15pm- I HAVE BEEN TRANSFORMED! Now I wait until I am needed. The production assistant brings me oatmeal and it tastes awesome.
1:30pm- LUNCH! IT IS TACOS AND I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED! 2PM- Get my makeup retouched. 2:30pm- We start filming! Yay! This is exciting because this is my first time main actors are on set and 3 of them TALK TO ME. One actor even takes a picture with my dancing in the background and if my day wasn't made by tacos, it has thoroughly been made now. I get to do a little "walking in the background" work and dance on the pole while interacting with other cast members. It is fun! At one point during rehearsal, I may have had a wobble on my pole heels and another extra yells out, "She does her own stunts ladies & gentlemen!" 7:15pm- We are told our part is done for the day. I get changed, sign out with the casting team and return anything I borrowed from the wardrobe department. 8pm- Get home. 9pm- Get an email stating my call time for the following day. DAY 2 I start my day similar to yesterday. 9am- Fill out paper work again and sit and wait until you are told what to do 9:30am- CALL TIME 9:35am- Put on costume, cover up costume & head to hair & make up. 9:45am- Hair/makeup do less to my hair and face today but they still manage to make me look awesome. 10:15am- DANCING ON SET! Standing on a platform in 7 inch heels dancing to silence and trying to make as little noise on the squeeky makeshift poles. I didn't realize how noisy movie pole dancing was until this day. 12pm- Dancer Chaunte*trips over an LED light and falls into my ass. Seriously. I have a claw mark on my bum cheek. My ass saved the day! Hurrah! Neither one of us are ending up in the blooper reel! 1:15pm- Go off set expecting to be back on momentarily... but something was taking longer then they thought so we were sent back to the holding area where were given a small snack and a soda. Makeup team keep coming around with powder to touch up shiny faces. We were hoping lunch was soon... 2pm- Back on set for more dancing. 4pm- LUNCH... yes, you read that correctly. Lunch was scheduled for 4pm. We were starving & regretting not eating a bigger breakfast. No tacos today.
4:15pm- Brush teeth and get ready to be seen by hair & make up before going back on set... 4:30pm-... Hair & makeup never look at us and back on set we go for a few more hours of filming! This time I am not dancing but I get to interact with other extras and make friends in between scenes. 6:15pm- Told we could go home or stay for a non-dancing related scene. I decided to stay and changed into a normal outfit. 6:30pm- A tech guy comes in and says I don't have to stay if I don't want to. I take that as a sign to go... 6:45pm- I sign out with casting and off I go to be picked up and taken to my car. The end to a fabulous 2 day movie filming experience! Will keep you updated when it comes out and hopefully you can see me in the background!
NB: All these times have been severely estimated. We weren't allowed to have our phones with us on set.
*Name changed because I don't know if she wants to be in my blog haha