In my favourite movie, Barry Lyndon, there are a ton of scenes with huge numbers of extras in the background. There’s a big scene at the beginning with all the Irish townspeople dancing after a parade of British soldiers, then later there are portions of the film taking place in the British army involving lots of soldiers in the background, then later there are scenes taking place in the Prussian army also involving a lot of soldiers dressed up in uniforms, still later there are many scenes of elaborate parties with lots of wigged and dressed-up rich people…my question is, did they re-use the background extras for these scenes? If I looked closely enough would I see the same guys wearing British and Prussian uniforms and maybe later dressed up in fancy clothes wearing wigs? Or did they actually go to the trouble of getting all different extras for all of these scenes involving huge numbers of costumed people?
I guess the big question would be: Are those scenes shot anywhere near the same location? If they’re shooting a ballroom scene in a back lot or on location somewhere, but a shipboard battle off the coast somewhere, it would seem extremely unlikely that they’re going to ship all those extras from one location to the next. Easier to hire locals.
I know that in non-historical films they reuse extras on location. My mother was recently an extra in a film and after her first scene was shot, they wanted her back for another scene. I don’t see why they don’t reuse extras as much as they can, since it’s cheaper to use the same costumes over and you don’t have to go through the paperwork of hiring someone new.
In Peter Jackson’s *Lord of the Rings *trilogy, I’m pretty sure I saw the same batch of kids playing Hobbits in FOTR, playing Rohirrim children hiding out at Helm’s Deep in TTT, and playing Gondorian rug-rats in ROTK.
This is probably a whoosh, but for those who don’t know, those were Peter Jackson’s own kids.
For the 1927 film The General, Buster Keaton used 500 members of the Oregon National Guard. They put on Union uniforms and were filmed going left to right. They put on Confederate uniforms and were filmed going right to left.
Doesn’t even have to be huge scenes, either. My father was in two completely unrelated scenes (taking place in very different locales) in A League of Their Own. His dress and role was different in each one. As a side note, I not only appeared in the movie in several shots, but have a speaking role of my own.
Penny Marshall rocks, by the way.
I was an extra in Spielberg’s Into the West miniseries some years back, when it was shooting here in Alberta; and played one of the mountain men in their tent city. After that shoot, they wanted me to be a prospector panning for gold in another episode of the same miniseries, which was also locally shot. Unfortunately, the shooting schedule and my schedule didn’t mesh. But it does demonstrate that they will re-use local extras if they can.