Extra Work, Amateurs, and Pros

I didn't book much work in April, but I did work a couple of days as a plain old background actor, commonly called an extra. I wasn't featured in any way, I was just in the background. One I did for free; it was an independent film, set in the late 1980s,called "Leaving Limbo." I got to dress up in leggings and lace, and wear my hair big and curly, like old-school Madonna. Really, that's the only reason I did the job, because I still love to play dress-up. The other job was a non-union gig on "Criminal Minds" where I played a patient; I got to wear pajamas, a robe, and slippers the whole time I was on the set, and ride in a wheelchair. I also shot a short romantic film in San Francisco last month done entirely by film students in six hours. I thought I'd write a little about the differences between working as an extra on an amateur vs. a pro set, and working on a student film vs. a professional independent film.

The call time for the indie film was 6:30; it was set in a converted downtown theater in Pasadena that is now used as a church. When I arrived and went into the sanctuary to check in, I saw about 14 other men, women, and girls dressed in the familiar leggings and leg warmers, "Flashdance" cut-out neck sweatshirt look from the 1980s. The lobby had a few posters that had been created in the 1980s style for fake movies, one very "Fatal Attraction," another very "Breakfast Club;" the overall look was very authentic to the period. The Assistant Director (AD), a young woman who appeared to be nervous and not used to power, herded us to the mock theater exit, where we were supposed to be leaving a showing of that late '80s weeper, "Steel Magnolias." I explained to the teenagers behind me that this is a sad film in which Julia Roberts dies, so they would be sad or dabbing tears. I felt 100 years old.

The AD walked us through our blocking, pairing me up with a witty gentleman from the church as my date, and putting us in a group of about seven couples to exit as our leads are talking in the lobby. We are seen in the background behind them. The premise is something about the lead female falling asleep and waking up to find it is 20 years later; hence the title, "Leaving Limbo." It sounded a lot like "13 Going on Thirty" to me but hey, I wasn't asking any questions. So theoretically, all we had to do was come out of the theater, but not like we were in a wedding procession, then go our separate ways as we had been told to do, while the leads had their conversation. And we had to do that without making any noise or running into anything.

But this is not as easy as it might sound. The director wanted to do this in one long take with a wide angle lens on the lobby. This is called a tracking shot, because she started the scene by following the dorky male lead from the corner where we were exiting to the far corner where his blind date, the female lead, was complaining about him to her friends. In the meantime, there are 15 extras in seven groups moving in three different directions behind them, and two others at a popcorn stand. And of these extras, I was the only one who had any acting experience. So there was a lot of running into things during the shots, or forgetting to crossover when they were supposed to, or slamming of the restroom door during the take, so we ended up shooting this one tracking shot for about 90 minutes. Then we had to do close-ups on the leads from each direction, and the shoot ended up lasting nearly four hours, on a scene that will take less than two minutes in the film. The lack of efficiency caused by the amateurism of everybody involved probably doubled the time this should have taken.

By contrast, in the TV show, "Criminal Minds," a CBS crime procedural drama starring Joe Montegna along with others, the cast and crew were models of efficiency. I booked this job through my calling service, Joey's List, which is run by a former employee of Central Casting. Now he has a group of reliable extras that he will market to Central for $65 per month whenever you want to work, saving you the trouble and hours and hours of calling it can take to get through to Central. I usually book work whenever I tell them I want a background job, but this month I only got one day out of eight I listed myself as available. It's never been that bad before.

Anyway, once you are booked, you get a mailbox number on Central's call-in line, and the night before the job you call in to get all the details: call time, location, wardrobe information, and any other details that you might need to know. I was in the hospital scene group as a patient; there were two of us, along with two doctors and two nurses, and we all arrived at 5:30 p.m. When I arrived at a CBS studio in Burbank I'd never realized existed, I went straight to the check-in trailer and was told it would be "a little while" til they used us. The crew had been there since 2:30 p.m., so that meant it might be a late night (usually you can add 12 hours plus a one-hour meal period to get your maximum day; the studio does not like to pay double time as it must over 12 hours). So we settled in to wait.

Usually I visit a lot with the other extras on sets, but this being a late call, we were all pretty tired, so we didn't do much socializing. I had a book, and my new Blackberry phone, so I was able to check e-mails regularly, and the time flew by. Before I knew it, it was 8;30, and the AD told us we were breaking for a one-hour lunch. The food, of course, is one of the best things about a network show, but since we were not on location but at the studio we often don't get a great meal and sometimes even have to buy our own at the commissary. Not so here. They had barbequed a flank steak, and we also a choice of chicken or fish. They had a sushi station. They had a full Mexican food bar. They had a full salad bar. About the only complaint I had was that they didn't serve Diet Coke! They also provide to-go boxes, and since I wasn't that hungry, I got enough of a meal to feed me twice the next day! "Working for food" on these sets really is a perk.

After "lunch," we went back to the set, and waited two more hours while the crew hastily put up the walls of the "hospital room" that our guest star, Linda Purl, would be emoting from. I was amazed at how fast they worked. We finally got started on our one scene; I was pushed by a nurse down the hall past Joe and one of his colleagues, looking exhausted and in pain, which at that point was not too hard to do as it was almost midnight and my back was killing me. We did five quick takes, with the principle actors' experimenting a little each time on their delivery, and then the AD in charge said, "Okay everybody! That's a wrap!" For our part of the show, with two and a half pages of dialogue, it had taken two hours to build the set and shoot the scenes; we normally estimate about an hour per page just to shoot. So this was one speedy cast and crew. Their professionalism was impressive.

Doing student films can be delightful for many reasons. At this point in my career, I usually get to play leads, and the students treat me like a star. This particular film was being shot in a classroom setting, with the teacher working very closely with me and the student director, so for me it is like getting free acting lessons. And of course, if the student does what they say they will, you get a copy of the film to be used in your all-important acting reel, which is the visual part of your resume that you put on the Internet for casting directors to look at when you submit for auditions.

This particular film was a romantic comedy where I was playing the female lead, a woman in her mid-30s. Her age along was reason enough for me to be excited about doing the film. I got to act opposite a handsome young actor who reminded me a little of Matthew Broderick. It was like going on a date with a grown-up Ferris Bueller. I was doing the film for a class at San Francisco's Academy of Art University. It is called "The DMV One;" the premise is that the young man goes in at the end of the day to renew his drivers' license at a small-town DMV office where the young woman is alone. She begins the series of questions that quickly devolve into a series of insinuations about his personal life, which leads up into a sexy back and forth where they both get satisfaction of different kind than what is normally provided at the DMV. It's a very funny film. The standard practice at these shoots is to do a quick run-through of the film first, then begin shooting, and when we did the run-through the class was howling, which is very gratifying.

This film was very complex to shoot because it was full of witty banter, arch glances, and ultimately, a near kiss. I had always heard that romantic scenes were not romantic to film, and now I understand why. As you are gazing into each other's eyes, there is a camera stuck between your faces in the close-ups; the positions you're asked to hold can be excruciating (yep, there's that back pain again); and if you are working with an amateur crew, the biggest problem with working with students, it can take forever to get the scenes shot right. This is due to unfamiliarity with lighting, camera angles, and how to get the best emotions out of an actor. A student film really is a learning experience for all. But these students were as professional as many indie filmmakers that I have worked with. They worked quickly, without wasting time, and were serious without being pompous. We had a great time, and shot ten pages of dialogue, or a five-minute film, in seven hours. Not bad for amateurs!

So. which is best? Well, obviously, I like getting paid to work. But if I could do the type of work that I got to do in this student film (light romantic comedy) and get paid for it, this would be a dream come true. And that's what I'm working toward.