Jun 13 2008
They cut my scene out of the film!
You worked long, hard hours for little pay. Finally, the movie is out, and you bring all your friends to the theatre to show them your part. You squint at the screen the entire film, waiting and watching for that crucial moment when you cross the screen carrying a box of Cheerios. Waiting, watching… but then the film ends. You are completely embarrassed in front of your (now former) friends who think you are a liar. Welcome to the world of being a Hollywood extra.
I’ve mentioned a little bit about this before in a previous blog, but there is so much I could say about extra work that it could cover an entire week of blogs. Heck, they even have a TV show about extras now.
Bizarro Extra World
In Hollywood language, the term for it is “background.” Extra is something you say to a “non-Hollywood” person when describing what you do. When you put it on your acting resume, you try to come up with the coolest credit you can for it, like “Energetic Bar Patron.” Well, at least if your resume is mostly empty; thankfully I stopped putting background work on my resume long ago. Many aspiring actors start out doing extra work. It does give you some good set experience and you can see how things work in big productions. Also, if you are hot and sleep with the director/producer, you may get a line in the film!
Allow me to ruin TV and Movies for you
Extras are not allowed to speak in film or TV. This is for one sole glaring huge honkin’ reason: they would have to pay you more. That’s right. So, what happens is they have to create these believable scenes where only the main characters speak. Now, go back and watch your favorite TV show or movie. Note how strange it seems that regular people off the street never talk. Oh yes, we pretend to talk all the time. That is part of being an ex– er, background. You are often instructed to “pantomime” talking in the scene, but God forbid you actually speak. They actually add sound effects of people talking in post production. Not only that, but if you do get a simple line like “hello there,” because of these crazy union and Hollywood rules, they will often use someone else to overdub you talking in the final cut. This happened to a friend of mine, she was a flight attendant in The Terminal with Tom Hanks. She bumps into him and says “excuse me” and leaves the airport. Except it’s not her voice they used. Very odd.
So the next time you see a big group of unimportant people waving, nodding, or gesturing in response to a “main character”, now you know why they are forbidden to speak. Being an extra is so much a rite of passage after arriving in Hollywood I will definitely have to spend more time on it later. But since it is friday you not only are getting a picture, but a Video!
Video of the Week
That’s right, sports fans! My Hollywood life captured on video. How cool is that? So, I was on the deadly crazy Craigslist looking for telecommuting work (work you pretend to do from home) and I found a job for a Hollywood intern to do social networking to help promote an upcoming “big” film. I sent off my resume and oddly, the second part of the application was to post a Youtube video of yourself showing your skills and qualifications. So I did. This is it.
If you are Youtube savvy you can click the video this is in response to, go back and look at the other entries, which are interesting, I do admit.
Picture of the Day
This is myself and my friend Jason Miller, in a sci-fi movie called The Suit. This movie is currently stalled in post-production because Hollywood people love to argue and are crazy.
An added bit about the no talking for extras? You are allowed to cheer and yell and scream nonsense. They just record it separately and use it for like, every scene they need that for. Which in Mighty Ducks 2 was quite a bit. It’s also may or may not be the same audience for all the games. While filming, it’s silence with pretend cheering/screaming/yelling which is not only a little hard to do, but even harder when you’re staring at nothing on the ice.
Hey Steeve your video is down…
So, the vid isn’t down it works fine, don’t worry.
Sparkles - That’s a good point. It is hard to cheer for nothing. Imagine trying to pretend to fire a gun (see the laser gun I have in that pic?) without making a bang/zap noise with your mouth. Just moving your arms slightly. That’s it.
Hard.