The Blog

 I really need to get the blog moved...

But once again I found something better / more interesting to do with my weekend. Anyway, I thought I would take the time this morning to write up my audition for a television commercial the other week, because I've been meaning to do that for a while, and it was quite a lot of fun.

So, this is how it came about: one Thursday my mum forwards me an email from one of her mailing lists. My mum is surprisingly active in the Australian Knitting Blogosphere, which is, as already mentioned, a little surprising. She doesn't blog too much herself, but she comments all over the place, and attends a lot of stitch 'n' bitches and actually it's really good that she's getting out more and making friends. She even became President of Vice in the Knitters' Guild (of NSW), which says a lot about how people adore (who aren't me) her. Anyway, she forwarded me an email.

Attached to the email is an advert from i4 casting (my goodness, what is up with the jpeg artefacts in their website? It's all so very dial-up), saying that they're looking for knitters, male and female of any age for a Virgin Blue (no linkies for evil companies) TV commercial. They were going to be casting on the Tuesday after, shooting last weekend, and, perhaps most importantly, they were going to pay $1,500 for the shoot if you made it through. Golly, in return for losing half a day of PhD I could have a shot at doubling my earnings for the year? *grins*

So I made a phone call. Found out that despite the "all ages" comment they were actually after people 30+, but I'm near enough that I could still try out. They gave me a time slot in the morning to come in, told me to dress in "business wear" and bring some knitting to show that I can actually do it.

The next morning, my sister and I caught the train and bus to Fox Studios, then frantically dashed in the rain to the casting office, in completely the wrong shoes. I got a blister for my efforts, and she nearly killed herself on her heels. But anyway, we stumbled into the place, followed a couple of a4 paper signs directing "knitters / potters ->" and found ourselves in a waiting room that was overfilled with ladies knitting. Most of the knitters belonged to the guild and knew each other from their regular meetings. They were the ones who told us that what we had to do next was fill in a questionnaire on a clipboard and then wait for the casting dude to come back.

The questionnaire was rather odd, and very personal. They wanted to know everything, from height and weight to bust and clothing sizes and whether or not we could skateboard. I thought about that last one for a long time before answering, "badly, and not while knitting." They also wanted to know one's other hobbies (uh, astronomy), musical talents (karaoke and high school clarinet) and whether we were really really sure we'd be available for the shooting date, as no one wants to lose a day of shooting for an extra who didn't show (for $1,500 I would skip my own funeral, dudes).

Eventually, four of us were called into the audition room, where the questionnaires were exchanged for pieces of paper with our names on them. We were told to stand in a line in front of the bluescreen, holding the paper against our chests, and then we were to be filmed introducing ourselves and just talking about "when you started knitting, what you like to do in your spare time, that sort of thing. Something to distinguish you, point out something interesting". Well okay then.

"Hi there, I'm Catherine Braiding and I'm doing a PhD in theoretical astrophysics. I knit to keep myself sane, I've made toys and clothes, and I'll try any pattern or technique once. I'm currently knitting a pair of wrist-warmers for someone whose blog I read, because she's smart and funny and suffers from depression and I'd like to help a little with that."

Oh yeah, points to Catherine for distinguishing herself from the crowd.

From what we were then told, the ad is to have a room full of office people (most likely OLs, I imagine) participating in hobbies (this is where the "potters" come in), not wanting to be disturbed by / ignoring a guy on a skateboard. No idea what that has to do with an airline, but okay.

Our next task to act, which was traumatic. They asked us to sit as if at a reception desk and knit. When the casting agent / camera man, acting as a delivery guy, asked us to sign for a package, we were to look up, think about it, and then refuse as we went on with our knitting. Because who wants to sign for a package when we have cables to cross? Liz did better at that than I, for I'm not an actress, but it was okay. I looked up, slowing down the knitting, looked back down at the knitting, looked back up and shook my head regretfully, and then went on with my knitting.

That was the end of the audition process. We were told they'd call us after easter, regardless of result, and let back out into the waiting room, where there was a very pretty young man with a skateboard waiting. He looked a bit surprised to see us tromping out with knitting in hand, so I smiled and asked him if he was there to knit for the camera. Sadly, the answer was no.

And that was that.

In conclusion, last month I auditioned for a television commercial, didn't get it (though they never called, which was rude), but had a fun morning.

Labels: advertising, internet famous, it's about singing and dancing and making people happy, tv

 Hi, you lot...

So, since my concentration is shot, I have a couple of questions for you all:

• What are your thoughts on job interviews? Advice, suggestions, warnings that I ought to not wear a tshirt to work that day, questions that I ought to ask the bosses are all sought after.
• What is your favourite non-blogger blog provider? Given that blogger will no longer allow me to use ftp to update my website (suggesting instead that I let google host my site or move to blogspot), I need a new solution. Keep in mind that anything we choose will have to vetted by my server guru, and it's unlikely that I'm going to move the archives over to a new system.
• Melbourne?

Labels: accent issues, astronomy, blogger, holy crap they gave me an interview, internet famous, jobs

And continuing the random linkage throughout Saturday...

Baby's First Internet

Labels: Harry Potter, internet famous, linking all over the place, web stuff

Labels: internet famous, reporters, thesis ftl