Actor Growth

Just yesterday I was reading an advertisement from a commercial background agency that was looking for new faces for its roster. I was thinking how it might be interesting as all the work I have done thus far revolved around film and tv movies.

From what some people have told me, doing background work for commercials is usually easier and less demanding than film. Although honestly, a movie extra isn’t that demanding in general as you sit around most of the time. I did apply though and am intending to meet the agency this Friday.

Alrighty, so the agent told me that the production decided to use me for The L Word tomorrow.  According to the breakdown, it I suppose to be around the Burnaby City Area.  I still haven’t received the call time though and sometimes they come as late as 11pm at night.

That’s one thing about doing background work where if you say you are available to do it then you have to pretty much make sure that you have the whole day available.  You never know when or how long it will last as this isn’t exactly like a 9 to 5 job.

I was contacted by my background agent today in regards to a possible booking for the TV show The L Word.  This is one of those times where I have heard of the show before but I never actually watch it personally.  The show is supposed to be geared towards a female audience right…..?  Watch me get my heard torn out from some hardcore fans of the show……

I always get to meet interesting people doing background work and so I would expect this to be no different regardless of the show.  I did inform her that I was okay with the booking, so we’ll see what happens.

I thought it would be interesting to keep a record of all the extra work I have done so far since I am keeping a sort of documentary of my journey.  So far, I have worked on the following productions:

Miracle (Movie) – One Day
The Day The Earth Stood Still (Movie) – One Day
The Dim Sum Funeral (TV Movie) - One Day
Battlestar Galactica (TV Series) – Three Days
The Reaper (TV Series) – One Day
Psych (TV Series) – One Day
Caprica (TV Series) – Three Days
Samurai Girl (TV Series) – One Day

Which one was my favorite?  Kind of hard to say as I have fun doing them even though a lot of people dread on how as a background extra you often sit in a tent literally for hours doing nothing until you are called in.

From a performance point of view, I think my most memorable one thus far was The Reaper. While I was suppose to be just a regular background, the assistant director decided to yank me out of the group of people for a specific scene/action where I had a close up and all as a disgruntled customer of sort.  I did do it and apparently they were really impressed on how it turned out.

There are also these people called “wranglers” who basically organize all of the background talent.  She came up to me and mentioned how the scene turned out so well as you could really hear my “angry breathing/sigh” that added such a great effect and she congratulated me.

Since it was a close up too I had to be in multiple takes and the assistant director was calling me by my name which I thought was a great form of respect and recognition.  Usually they just say “Background” or generic stuff like “Guy in the blue shirt, blonde girl”.

As a background extra you usually get fed too and I think the production Psych had the best catering services. I must say though, Samurai Girl was probably the most awkward one for me thus far.  Aside from wearing the business attire on a hot day, our holding area had this really weird smell which wasn’t too pleasant, but fortunately we did a lot of filming and so we were not in there for long hours like you would normally expect.

Not really sure how much longer I can do background work for as I have been told that you should stop doing it eventually if your goal is to become a principal actor.

I was called to be an extra on a TV show called Samurai Girl.  Most of the extra work I have done involves me being some kind of professional with a business look and this one is no exception.  I know this has a lot to do with my headshot as I have a pretty professional business photo as one of the choices that my extra agent uses.

My call time is at 6:30 am at Vancouver downtown today and I’m not really sure what to expect as it is my first time working on this production in particular.  This is going to be one hot day too having to wear business attires such as a suit on such a hot summer day.