Shooting "Michelin" @ Hayvenhurst Studios, Van Nuys, CA. My call this morning was a very casual 10:30am; which was nice, but even if the call was 4:30am I would've been there with a smile.

So arrived, checked in, got settled and, of course, found the craft services table. Gotta get my junk food fix. After a while it's into wardrobe for client/ad agency/director approvals; then it's "hurry up a wait".

Soon enough, our contracts were presented to me and the other two engineers in the commercial. Ooops…There is an issue on the contract. The “Dealer A” box is checked, but it doesn’t say “National Network” anywhere. It doesn’t usually say “National Network” on the contract, so that didn’t concern me, but it did concern me a bit that “Dealer A” was checked.

My agent, Alicia, explicitly told me what the booking was: National network and cable - intended use; new media to be negotiated (written in the ‘special provisions’ area of the contract); internet, if used to be paid at scale.

Now, in reality, it doesn’t mean much when we actors are told that a commercial audition is for national network, cable, regional, seasonal, foreign use, etc. Why? Because it’s all “intended use”. In the end, they can run it however they see fit – and that goes both ways. After booking my “IBM” last year as a national network spot they added an internet spot to shoot two days later. It paid triple scale and shot on a Saturday which is double pay – I made a lot of money for 2 ½ hours of work.

When I called the ad agency to find out when it would run I was told that it would not be running on network, just cable. In the end, not only did it run a lot on network, it also ran in a whole bunch of foreign territories – THAT was a very nice surprise of a check. I was told that they ended up using it on network because their next campaign was behind schedule. So you never know how it’s gonna turn out.

Anyway, me and the other two actors were on the phone to our agents to figure out what to do. Alicia, was unavailable, so my other agent, Brooke, was right there to help. I told Brooke what Alicia said at the time of booking and what I was going to write on the contract. I did that and faxed it to her from the studio and she approved.

This part was a little funny. After I got off the phone with Brooke I went to the production office to turn in my contract. My fellow actors in the spot were already there. They were talking to the 2nd AD who was handling the paperwork and “another gentleman”. I didn’t know who the “other gentleman” was. Mind you, out of the three actors, I was the youngest looking and probably, based on appearance, the least likely to understand the contract – judging by the cool a** hat I was wearing and phat a** phone I was carrying – no Bluetooth earpiece though, I ain’t THAT cool.

I just remember the 2nd AD saying something to me and me responding “No, I’m going to put what my agent told me to put. I’ve written in the special provisions section “new media to be negotiated”.

Complete silence followed......I could feel everyone looking at me.

Then the “other gentleman” said “that’s the internet”. I said, very firmly while looking him directly in the eye, “No, it’s not. The internet is not the same as ‘new media’. The internet already has recognized jurisdiction, ‘new media’ does not. “New media is webisodes, mobisodes, things playing on ipod’s, etc. That is not the internet, the internet scale rate is, I believe, $1,500 for 1 year, ‘new media’ doesn’t have a scale rate as of yet.

“New media” is covered in the new two-year extension to the commercial contract going into effect at the end of the month, but it still won’t have a scale rate. That is up to our agents to get us the best deal they can get.

I later found out that gentleman was the person listed as “producer” on the contract. He is the Senior VP/Executive Producer for the advertising agency. Ooops!!

Not Ooops, I was very respectful, just firm. I knew what I was talking about. Then the other two actors had more questions about it and added the same to their contracts. I ended having a great conversation about the advertising business with the Senior VP.

Since I didn’t get in front of the cameras until after 4pm I couldn’t help but think “I could have been at Warner Bros. shooting “Ocean’s Thirteen” and chillin’ with Al Pacino”, LOL!!! Just kidding. No, of course that crossed my mind. Would you believe me if I said I never thought about it – trust me, I’ll continue to think about it, just like I think about “Ocean’s Twelve”. It doesn’t have a negative effect on me though.

The shoot went great. The director, Cris Blyth, was wonderful to work with and I had long conversations with the art director and copywriter of the spot. They were very open with their part of the process which I am fascinated by.

The spot has a tremendous amount of special effects and isn’t scheduled to run until mid-February. For some reason I have a really good feeling about this one. I’m not sure why, it just seems that all of the elements are there for it to be one those really good ones.

Gustova Rex, Ajay Mehta and myself.

Getting ready for some green screen shooting.

Well, my work is done. Now, I would love to book more spots before this one airs.