 I'm a little disappointed. Casting networks has been doing a lot of things to improve. They just came out with an app, which means I would be able to do everything much easier on my phone. It's only for iOS, so I have to have an iPhone in order to do that. I went to go download the app for Casting Networks and I saw that I couldn't because it didn't exist. I'm disappointed in Casting Networks for that. But just for that, I mean, the primary reason for Casting websites is so that I can submit to jobs. I got that in the mail. So if you've been watching my channel, you know that I have like, oh, most of them are being blocked. I have a bunch of savage paper backdrops and savage. I contacted them and I was like, hey, I would love to try these other colors to see how they look. And I thought these would be really fun for self-tape auditions. So let's open these. Actually, let's open one of them. I ordered Pecan and Thunder Gray, which is a gray, but like a dark gray, but I wanted it in 86 inches for myself tapes so I can get nice big, like wide shots. So I'm gonna be giving away the 53 inch paper backdrop at an in-person event though. So I'm trying to look for some kind of mixer, either in LA or San Francisco. So this one is the Pecan one and this one's the Thunder Gray. I'm gonna leave this closed so that it's nice and protected because I'm leaving for mine. They're gonna send me the 86 inch so I can try it out, but I don't wanna have like two sizes. I feel like that's overkill. I prefer 86 inch paper backdrops for my auditions because I can get a wider shot, but it is a lot easier for me in the space that I have to set up a 53 inch by myself. Very cute. Should I put it up? I should just put it up. I love it. Let's see if I get a self-tape audition in the next day or so so that I can show you guys what this looks like. And I'll film in that little window of time where I actually have natural light in my bedroom. Okay, I just turned the camera off and I checked my text messages and ORA Casting sent me a message that I got booked in another Covered California commercials at the beginning of the year I was booked for a Covered California commercial in Spanish. Covered California means I did an audition a few days ago and I got booked as a mom. The commercial won't come out for a couple of weeks at least, but I did want to show you the audition that I did to be able to get booked in this. It was very simple. The directions were you're lying in bed and your daughter brings you breakfast in bed for the first time and you have a broken ankle. So this is what I sent. Thank you. Hi, my name is Benjika Rodriguez. I'm in San Jose 510 with MDT agency. I just checked my email and I also got an email from my agency to confirm the dates and I have to put those days as booked out on my casting website. So Casting Networks and Sky Bolt for them in San Francisco because this is with MDT agency in San Francisco. Do you guys want to come along and like see every step of the way? So right now what I did was I sent in an audition yesterday. Oh, you know what I like to look at? What I really like to look at because most of the time with Aura Casting, they ask you to send in an unlisted YouTube link of your audition. So instead of putting it in like Dropbox or something, they ask you to send in a link. You upload it to YouTube and then you click unlisted. Okay, five times. They only saw my audition five times and actually one of those was me because I always check that my unlisted link actually works and that the whole thing got uploaded. I uploaded it onto YouTube, put unlisted, checked it and that means they only watched it four times. I love when they ask for auditions through unlisted YouTube links because I can actually see if they're watching it again and again. If I see that they watched it once and then left it alone, that means they didn't pass it on to anybody else. So they were like, thank you, but no thank you, next person. And the same Casting Office, Aura Casting last week or the week before I was on hold for a job. That one they watched nine times. So that one they did watch it a bunch of times and I was on hold and then they released me. This time I got booked. So right now I just emailed my agency back. They asked me for confirmation and for my vaccination card because a lot of the time you do have to be vaccinated in order to even audition for jobs. And they asked me to book out the dates on my casting website. So right now I have to go to Casting Networks and Skybolt to book those days out officially hired. So I don't wanna get booked on a different job because I'm already booked on one. And that's all I'm gonna do for now. And then I'm just gonna wait and hear back from either the production company or in general or hair and makeup specifically. They're going to give me directions or wardrobe is going to call me or text me and say, hey, can you send us options of what you have? But filming this is going to be next week. I got an email from production and they wanted me to send a couple of wardrobe options. For this commercial, I'm playing a mom who has a broken ankle. So they asked me to send over sweatpants and leggings and then long sleeve shirts. They gave me a deadline by tomorrow night but I wanna send it today so that I'm not hurrying last minute. This is the only long sleeve shirt that I have. These are the only sweatpants I own. These literally, I have one pair of sweatpants. For the other photo, I'm gonna send these leggings and this cardigan just with the same shirt that I have on right now. Good morning. It's the day of the shoot and I just got home from the gym. Luckily my call time is really late. So I'm able to have like a whole morning before I even need to go to set. They did tell me that they're gonna be putting a cast on me and my toes and why this might be in the shot. So I have to make sure that my toes are nice and trimmed and ready and then I'm gonna shave my legs. I also don't need to worry about doing my hair or my makeup because they're gonna be doing it there. So I love that because it takes me way less time to get ready to go. You should know the data analysts. Once I got to set, they had me try on a few wardrobe options and then we decided on this red one because it would look the best on the couch I'm gonna be sitting on and then I had a little bit of a lunch and finally got my cast on. This was really cool. One of the producers and the makeup artist put the cast on my foot and I had to be really careful to make sure that it dried in the right position and they had a cast from the day before where they were seeing how it was done the day before to be able to make mine and they smoothed it out and then I got on set. And of course, since I'm a mom, I had to have a bunch of drawings on my cast then we shot it. Super easy. Just sat on the couch. Once I'm gonna sit down. Okay. Mom. Yes. Daughter. Um, are you okay? Am I okay? Yeah, I feel so much better. I feel so much better that I'm gonna get this taken off. I thought since we just did this ourselves, it would be so easy to cut off but it did take some help to be able to take it off but I finally got it off and then I went off to put my regular clothes back on and went home. It's the next day from the shoot. Yesterday was, it was like the easiest shoot I've ever done and the team MVP is always so amazing. Let me tell you what's next in this whole commercial process. So now that I've shot it, I don't have to do anything because this was a job that I got through my agency in San Francisco, Marla Dell Talent. So they're going to handle the rest of this for me. They do handle most of this for me but as far as payment, they will get 20% and then the rest will be mailed to me in a check but other than that, I don't have to worry about anything until tax season. I just make sure that I get this payment included in my W-2 from my agency. So come February is when I have to make sure I have the W-2 and that this specific project is included in there so that I'm making sure to pay taxes on everything because I did not have to fill out a W-9 for this job. Sometimes if you get booked for a job, you will fill out a W-9 for them to either take taxes out of or you can also fill out a 1099 which I haven't done that one in a long time. Of course it's different for every production company. Sometimes you don't fill out anything. This was a non-union job and regardless of it being a non-union job, this production company and my agency, they are really, really good at making sure I get a payment soon. For sure before the end of the year, the soonest will probably be the first week of November. I did over here that they're looking to publish this commercial in November. So that's another thing that will happen after booking this job is that I will get to see it. It is a covered California commercial unless they completely cut out this campaign and decide, nope, we're not gonna use this part of our campaign. Then we're definitely gonna see it. So I'll show it to you guys. As soon as it comes out, I will share it on Instagram and I'll share it on here. But since we're here and since we're surrounded by backdrops always, I wanted to show you the other backdrop because it didn't get here last week. I haven't gotten a self-tape request yet. I did do a voiceover and I did a couple of Zoom auditions, but I haven't been able to film in front of this new backdrop. I got thunder gray in an 86 inch. So it's as big as that blue one. And this is a 53 inch and thunder gray. This one I'm gonna keep closed because I do wanna give it away in an in-person event. So let me know of any events either in LA or in the San Francisco Bay Area because I'll be in both places all winter and I'll contact people and see if I can come and give this to somebody in person. If not, hey, maybe I'll make a little event where we can all hang out and I'll randomly give this to somebody. This video is not sponsored by the way. They've sponsored a video before, but I just, I always have these paper backdrops and I always use them. It's so dark. Ooh, I love it because this is gonna make my auditions feel a little bit more moody and more dramatic. So excited. This is so pretty. It's like such a dark. It feels like winter, fall, gray. I can't wait to own a house and have a room where I can have it dedicated to filming my self-tape auditions or filming my YouTube videos and just having so many of these. Honestly, I would have more of these already, but my bedroom's about 10 by 12 feet and I have a lot of stuff in here. I have my desk, my bed, I have a bunch of plants and way too many backdrops. No, not too many backdrops, a good amount of backdrops. Love it. This is the Thunder Gray. Obviously, I still need to work with the lights a little bit because I just have my ring light over there and then another light that I use over here for a little bit extra lighting. I wanna show you these two grays side by side. So this is the fashion gray that I have been using for a long time, like 2018, I think. But I wanted something wider but still gray because it's a lot easier to wear a bunch of different colors in front of a gray versus the blue one, that really long, 86 inch blue one, which is Studio Blue. So I wanted something else that was a little bit more neutral. Both are good options, but this dark one, ooh, I like it. I mean, it's new, so I'm like super excited about it, but I really do like it. If you wanna learn more about how I do my self-tape auditions in case maybe some of it might be helpful, you should watch this video because I have made so many videos about self-tape auditions.