Craft Services

Craft Services

I’ve acted in over 30 commercial and about 20 films. Most of the parts aren’t huge, so I get to spend a lot of time at craft services. If you watch you’ll see craft services listed as the credit roll in most movies, and I want to tell you how important a part they play. It has to do with the long hours shooting commercials or movies, and the tendency of actors to wander.

Let’s talk about the hours. A regular contract day is twelve hours. This means you work for about five or six hours before eating lunch, and dinner is usually about four hours later. If you end up working longer than twelve hours, then everyone starts getting overtime pay, which is time and a half.

The longest shooting day I’ve ever done was 18 hours. We showed up for a combined episode of “Touched by an Angel” and “Promised Land”. This means all of the stars have to be filmed and released earliest since they get twelve hours before they can be called to the set again. So after I showed up and got my cop costume, my fake ID badge and had my face powdered and hair approved, I sat with the other extras for twelve hours.

That’s right. We were ready, but they weren’t ready for us, and we are the least well paid actors on the set. I had lunch and dinner before shooting one scene. Since I had shown up at eight a.m., I started getting overtime at eight p.m. I finally finished my last scene at two in the morning, and the worst news of all is I don’t think any of the scenes I was in was used. It doesn’t matter; I still got paid.

But more important, I got to spend most of the day at the craft services table. As actors, we aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, and we tend to think of ourselves as the most important person on the set. So when we get hungry or thirsty, we start to wander, looking for something to eat or drink. We may wander off just because we are bored.

Enter craft services. Think of all the different kinds of food you may want to snack on. Add a variety of delicious drinks. The best part? Everything at craft services is FREE! That’s right. Lunch and dinner are free, too, but here is a collection of incredibly delicious snacks and you can have as much as you want of anything. Don’t tell the directors, but I would act in some parts just for the craft services.

Sometimes the people who are providing the craft services get a little creative. They try to serve healthy foods. I don’t like that as well. When a free chocolate donut is staring me in the face, who wants some hummus? But don’t get me wrong. I haven’t preserved my girlish figure by passing up free food. If all there is available is hummus, I’ll be eating all the free hummus I can get.

Now let me tell you about the best food I have ever had on a movie set. Henry Winkler and Ricky Schroeder were starring in a movie being shot at the old Jordan High School. I was playing the vice-principal, and again, I don’t think my scenes got used. Again, it’s okay. I still got paid.

But the best news is we were in the final days of shooting. When a film is done it’s called “a wrap”, and the food on the day a film is wrapped is amazing. Here are actors who have been working together for weeks on a film, and as it ends, a real celebration is necessary. The bad news is extras eat last. The crew eats first, so they can be back at the camera first. The stars eat next, so they can be ready for their close-ups. Extras are last, but on this very important wrap day, I had heard a rumor about what was being served. Again, this is free food, because no one wants actors wandering off to Wendy’s.

When lunch was called, I made sure I was at the front of the end of the line. That is, I was the first extra in line. We were being served the largest lobster tails I have ever seen. I can still taste how delicious it was. It may surprise you to hear that the caterers at these events are very, very good. I always look forward to the food at lunch, and if we are lucky, dinner.

Surprisingly, after getting used to the free food available at craft services and from the caterers, I have started to cut back.

After all, there are fewer parts available for hefty actors.

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