FSTDT Forums
General Category => Forum Games => Topic started by: Her3tiK on March 10, 2012, 05:42:25 pm
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I'm asking because I have an interview to be an extra in a "TV crime" pilot on Monday, and would like some advice from anyone who can offer some. What to expect, how to act/dress (despite my limited wardrobe), that kind of thing.
Strangely, I've been doing a lot of work as an extra lately, though this is this first one that will be paid; the other two have been for friends' music videos, which I'll probably post elsewhere if I can find myself in the footage. If I keep this up, I may be able to turn it in to some sort of semi-stable job.
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If you don't blink.....you can spot the sandman in a crowd scene in the new "Avengers" movie coming out this summer.....
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When I was really little, my family got to be used as part a background/voiceover shot in a commercial for a local pizza place. I don’t think the place lasted more than a year, though.
But they would have talked to my parents about setting that up. I don’t know how they got that. So I really don’t have much practical advice from that.
I did get a role as a supporting character for a web series once, but that tanked when half the footage for the first episode was lost. But for that, I auditioned personally.
Anyway, did they give you any instructions? They should tell you if they want to see you “in character.” Otherwise, I would just say just dress nice-casual, and be prepared to improvise
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You can see me in the audience for game shows. Our fraternity did them for fundraising. My sister was in Lupe Fiasco's music video. She was trying to get out of the apartment and into her car but they were blocking her.
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When I was really little, my family got to be used as part a background/voiceover shot in a commercial for a local pizza place. I don’t think the place lasted more than a year, though.
But they would have talked to my parents about setting that up. I don’t know how they got that. So I really don’t have much practical advice from that.
I did get a role as a supporting character for a web series once, but that tanked when half the footage for the first episode was lost. But for that, I auditioned personally.
Anyway, did they give you any instructions? They should tell you if they want to see you “in character.” Otherwise, I would just say just dress nice-casual, and be prepared to improvise
That sucks. Losing footage like that is never any fun.
So far, it's just an interview on Monday, so I'm assuming they'll give me instructions if/when I get the part, though the ad said that they're looking for background roles, probably not much more than what Sandman described.
You can see me in the audience for game shows. Our fraternity did them for fundraising. My sister was in Lupe Fiasco's music video. She was trying to get out of the apartment and into her car but they were blocking her.
That shit is the worst. Was there at least warning beforehand, or did they just unpack and yell "surprise!" as people showed up?
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You can see me in the audience for game shows. Our fraternity did them for fundraising. My sister was in Lupe Fiasco's music video. She was trying to get out of the apartment and into her car but they were blocking her.
That shit is the worst. Was there at least warning beforehand, or did they just unpack and yell "surprise!" as people showed up?
She woke, open the door to her apartment, and *BAM* film crew was there impeding her commute to work.
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That sucks. Losing footage like that is never any fun.
Yeah. I would have been willing to re-shoot the whole damn thing, too. Even though that would have meant downing almost an entire plate of chocolate brownies all over again.
Plus, I was embarrassed that I accidentally filmed one background shot wearing sandals when my character had been wearing sneakers throughout the rest of the show. I was always worried that that would be visible, even though the director didn’t think it would be.
So far, it's just an interview on Monday, so I'm assuming they'll give me instructions if/when I get the part, though the ad said that they're looking for background roles, probably not much more than what Sandman described.
Well, then I suppose it may not be so much an issue of if you get the part so much as them telling you when you need to show up. I have never heard of filmmakers being that picky about crowd and group shot extras. Closest I got is when they were shooting Public Enemies in my neck of the woods, and they were recruiting locals. In this case, they only wanted people who already had period-appropriate hairstyles and preferably also had their own period clothing. I didn’t have the clothing and didn’t want to bother with the grooming, so I didn’t bother with that.
You can see me in the audience for game shows. Our fraternity did them for fundraising. My sister was in Lupe Fiasco's music video. She was trying to get out of the apartment and into her car but they were blocking her.
That shit is the worst. Was there at least warning beforehand, or did they just unpack and yell "surprise!" as people showed up?
She woke, open the door to her apartment, and *BAM* film crew was there impeding her commute to work.
How thoughtful.
Now, I would expect they had permission from her landlord. In which case, I think it would be appropriate to have words with said landlord.
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Not personally, but my sister, and her husband have been the audience of the new version of "Let's Make A Deal". Also on a side note part of Nobody's Fool (1994) was filmed like a block away from my house.
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Yeah. I would have been willing to re-shoot the whole damn thing, too. Even though that would have meant downing almost an entire plate of chocolate brownies all over again.
Oh, the sacrifices one must make... :(
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You do begin to get sick of them after a while.
Actually, the most annoying part was having to occasionally cram two half-eaten brownies together to make them look like one so that they would be approximately the same size as the previous take. And also: the character was a slob, so I had to keep a mess of chocolate on my face pretty much all night.
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I went along with a friend to be filmed in a crowd scene for some movie or show (can't remember the details) when I was a kid. All I remember is that there was a lot of waiting around, and that it got boring fairly quickly.
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I went along with a friend to be filmed in a crowd scene for some movie or show (can't remember the details) when I was a kid. All I remember is that there was a lot of waiting around, and that it got boring fairly quickly.
Yeah, that’ll happen when the director is more interested in the actual stars of the show. ;)
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You do begin to get sick of them after a while.
Actually, the most annoying part was having to occasionally cram two half-eaten brownies together to make them look like one so that they would be approximately the same size as the previous take. And also: the character was a slob, so I had to keep a mess of chocolate on my face pretty much all night.
Yeah, I know; I've been there myself. It was a joke along the lines of, "You had to sit around eating chocolate all night? Oh, poor you!"
[/derail]
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I went along with a friend to be filmed in a crowd scene for some movie or show (can't remember the details) when I was a kid. All I remember is that there was a lot of waiting around, and that it got boring fairly quickly.
I was a "background artist" in the made for ESPN move 3, The Dale Earnhardt Story, which starred Barry Pepper as Dale Earnhardt and JK Simmons as Ralph Earnhardt and was filmed back in 2004. And I am recognizable in a few scenes. The part of the movie I was in was filmed at a dirt track over a period of 3 days, but the timeline of those parts covered about 15 years. Of course, there was a lot of other footage that was filmed elsewhere that was edited in.
Other than the whole bunch of sitting and standing around, the one thing that was hard to get used to was nothing was filmed in sequence. The first scene we shot on the first day took place the day Dale won his first race. The very last scene we shot (at around 1:30 AM no less) was one of the first race sequences in the movie and was about Dales father, Ralph, racing when Dale was around 10 years old. If you're hired for general background work, you'll have to be there ready to go at any time. If you get a specific part, then you may be able to get away somewhere so you can relax between the scenes you'll be in.
It was an interesting experience. I found out a lot about the movie making industry I did not know or had even thought about.
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Once I was in New York City when they closed down one of the streets because they were filming something. It might have been Law & Order, I don't remember.
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You do begin to get sick of them after a while.
Actually, the most annoying part was having to occasionally cram two half-eaten brownies together to make them look like one so that they would be approximately the same size as the previous take. And also: the character was a slob, so I had to keep a mess of chocolate on my face pretty much all night.
Yeah, I know; I've been there myself. It was a joke along the lines of, "You had to sit around eating chocolate all night? Oh, poor you!"
[/derail]
Well, it is a bit of a “First World Problem” complaint.
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You can see me in the audience for game shows. Our fraternity did them for fundraising. My sister was in Lupe Fiasco's music video. She was trying to get out of the apartment and into her car but they were blocking her.
That shit is the worst. Was there at least warning beforehand, or did they just unpack and yell "surprise!" as people showed up?
She woke, open the door to her apartment, and *BAM* film crew was there impeding her commute to work.
I was watching Die Hard with the commentary on. One of the scene designers was talking about how awesome it was that, due to few major on location, take over the neighborhood shoots, there were no hurdles they had to jump over to get permission to shoot around the clock.
He then pointed out, grudgingly, that the neighbors were "rightfully" not happy, and it's a good thing all the laws are in place... but man, was it great! ::)
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Whoo! The temp agency called back, and they've decided to audition me! I'm going back to their office this afternoon to get my headshot and audition resume taken care of.
It may not be a full-time gig, but I'll take it! :D
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Just a quick word of advice....if they want to charge you anything, anything at all, from "fees" for their booking services or "agency fees," if they insist you get (and purchase) your head shots from them, if there are any "required" or "standard" fees at all....WALK AWAY.
There are a ton of casting and booking agencies like that which make their money not by booking clients jobs, but by nickle and dimeing their clients to death with fees. If these people want you to pay any kind of fees at all they are a clip joint and not a legitimate agency.
Just a word of warning, lots of people get burned by organizations like this all the time.
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It seems to be legitimate from what I can find. They recommended a separate company for headshots, and the casting agency itself has a listing on IMDB, which has a considerable number of (B-list) films to it's name. So far, I haven't been able to find any words of warning about either company online.
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Awesome! Hopefully the audition will go just as well.
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If you don't blink.....you can spot the sandman in a crowd scene in the new "Avengers" movie coming out this summer.....
The Avengers? Aww man, you shat all over my Game of Thrones appearance. Although I'm very noticable in a few shots (assuming they edit the scenes in my favour) so maybe I'll still win this round of extras one-up manship lol.
As for advice for the OP, I can't think of much. Just be prepared for 12-14 hour stints of mostly waiting around not doing anything. After the 10 hour mark you may become tired, pissed off and just want to go home but the next day for some reason you will still be excited as fuck to get back on set. On GoT I was often miserable by the end of my 14 hours of standing literally up to my ankles in horse shit in the freezing cold at 3am, wearing the worlds heaviest costume and boots that would have been more comfortable if they'd been made out of barbed wire. But it was still awesome and i'm really really hoping for season 3.
Also, make sure you pay attention and listen to what you're told to do.
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I was a paramedic and a policeman in a documentary about a murder called 'Married, Single, Dead'. I had to perform fake CPR on a dummy for half an hour straight, which was exhausting. Unfortunately the producers had neglected to inform the local constabulary about the filming, so I was given a good talking to by some real Police when they turned up in a squad car and tried to take me away for impersonating a Police Officer
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Unfortunately the producers had neglected to inform the local constabulary about the filming, so I was given a good talking to by some real Police when they turned up in a squad car and tried to take me away for impersonating a Police Officer
Were all the cameras, lights, mics etc and all the production crew not a clue for the cops that they were on a set? And if they knew but were still pissed, then why have a go at you instead of the people actually responsible?
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I was an extra in Up in the Air, with George Clooney. Could see myself in the theater, dvd cant really see me. In case you wanted to know, when they are supposed to be in Wisconsin in the winter, they are in fact in St. Louis in the late spring at the semi-famous Cheshire hotel - where its so British, in the parking lot and garage you drive on the left side.
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I was an extra in Up in the Air, with George Clooney. Could see myself in the theater, dvd cant really see me. In case you wanted to know, when they are supposed to be in Wisconsin in the winter, they are in fact in St. Louis in the late spring at the semi-famous Cheshire hotel - where its so British, in the parking lot and garage you drive on the left side.
I'm not even sure the nicest Milwaukee or Madison hotels would even look like that, ;D
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Unfortunately the producers had neglected to inform the local constabulary about the filming, so I was given a good talking to by some real Police when they turned up in a squad car and tried to take me away for impersonating a Police Officer
Were all the cameras, lights, mics etc and all the production crew not a clue for the cops that they were on a set? And if they knew but were still pissed, then why have a go at you instead of the people actually responsible?
It wasn't much of a set, I was standing outside the house they were filming in. To be fair to them, all you could see from the road was somebody dressed as a policeman who clearly wasn't a policeman fixing warning tape to the outside of somebody's house. I would have been suspicious too.
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Unfortunately the producers had neglected to inform the local constabulary about the filming, so I was given a good talking to by some real Police when they turned up in a squad car and tried to take me away for impersonating a Police Officer
Were all the cameras, lights, mics etc and all the production crew not a clue for the cops that they were on a set? And if they knew but were still pissed, then why have a go at you instead of the people actually responsible?
Ah, well fair enough then.
It wasn't much of a set, I was standing outside the house they were filming in. To be fair to them, all you could see from the road was somebody dressed as a policeman who clearly wasn't a policeman fixing warning tape to the outside of somebody's house. I would have been suspicious too.