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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Policing police uniforms

New York Actors warned about carrying police uniforms, according to the Associated Press's David B. Caruso, as printed in the Dallas Morning News:

With security tighter since the 2001 terror attacks, the union that represents TV and film actors is advising its New York-area members to stop carrying police costumes to TV and movie sets.
The Screen Actors Guild said in a statement posted on its Web site on Friday that 'an apparent shift in city policy' may put actors at risk of arrest if they are stopped while carrying anything that looks too much like a real police uniform.

Um, why are actors carrying their uniforms to the set anyway? The costume department should be in charge of transporting the costume to the set so the actors can change there (either in a trailer or in a facility at the set).

I remember an old term from theatre in high school: "actor-proofing." In essence, make something (like a prop or set piece) as indestructable as possible so the boneheaded actor, who will play with it, doesn't break it or mess it up. This carries over to the television game as "talent-proofing."

You can glean from this concept that ACTORS ARE FALLIBLE. (More fallible than most people on the set, possibly.) So why are they being asked to be responsible for everything in their own costumes, from set location to home and other places inbetween?

Even college student productions -- which should be VERY careful when dealing with police officer costumes or props, no matter what -- could be expected to have a costumer in charge of costumes. But that has nothing to do with the Screen Actors Guild.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 8/24/2005 01:32:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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