My wife and I were wondering about the extras in TV shows.
I have seen when movies advertised for extras, and have spoken with folks who did it. But I wondered if things were different for TV.
Are there some people who are professional extras?
Do various production companies have rosters of extras on call, and depending on a given day’s shooting needs, dress them up as cowboys, Klingons, or businessmen?
If you looked closely could you see the same people in the coffee shop on Frasier, as the coffee shop on Friends?
It seems like it would be quite a hassle to have to line up new extras for every episode of every show.
What are they paid?
Must they be union?
Do people compet for these jobs, or have their agents shop them for these jobs?
I know I have seen contests where the winner gets a walk-on role on a show. But it doesn’t strike me as all that demanding of a job. What does it take to be an effective/convincing extra?
Marti Noxon, co-exec on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, talked about this a bit on one of the DVD commentaries she recorded on the Buffy season 2 DVD set. She said that Buffy had a stable of extras they used all the time, as this allowed there to be some continuity from episode to episode – every day the same students wandered the halls of Sunnydale High.
One of the problems with extras, she noted, was that they often had a tendency to overact, so the writing staff tried to make the big dramatic or action moments take place where there were few people around so they didn’t have extras in the rear of a shot ruining an otherwise great take.
One thing I’ve thought about - there’s gotta be a fair amount of extras making cash with very unpleasant appearances. Can you imagine gertting a part because casting calls for a “real ugly fat guy?”
There are indeed professional extras, and most of them “will make it big one of these days, when I get my break!” Casting professionals round 'em up for cattle calls for films & TV and weed out the right types. Some jobs are union; some aren’t. You can’t make a living at it, but it can eke out one’s income.
—Eve (who was an extra in her starving-writer days back in the late '70s–early '80s)
Are there some people who are professional extras?
Yeah, but it’s not a great way to make a living. Paul the stuntman will do extra work if it’s all that’s available. Having additional skills (such as gun handling) means more work.
Do various production companies have rosters of extras on call, and depending on a given day’s shooting needs, dress them up as cowboys, Klingons, or businessmen?
Kinda. The casting director for each show has a list of people willing to work, and rotates through them. It looks strange if you have the same guy dying in the backround on Andromeda every week…
If you looked closely could you see the same people in the coffee shop on Frasier, as the coffee shop on Friends?
I’m not sure, but people on The X-files have shown up on Outer Limits. And Stargate. And Smallville…
It seems like it would be quite a hassle to have to line up new extras for every episode of every show.
Yup. But that’s the job, eh.
What does it take to be an effective/convincing extra?
Mostly patience to sit around and wait all day until they get around to shooting your scene.
If you’re looking for a good movie with a hilarious scene involving extras, check out Lisa Picard is Famous. Its a mockumentary along the lines of Waiting for Guffman.
Barbarian noted that you might see the same extras in the XFiles, Stargate, and Smallville. I believe one of the reasons is that these shows are filmed in Canada - they are making use of local talent. Our so called northern “friends” pulled a fast one on our innocent, trusting, and cooperative government. They negotiated some sort of weasel clause in whatever treaty it was that made it financially more attractive to film in Canada than in the US. So besides the strange lighting, wierd accents, funny clothes and the Canadian Film Board mix of races/ethnic groups, you might see something truly horrible like Toronto used as a double for the South Bronx. This relates to another post - when in Canada, never tip. Or if you feel you really must, use Canadian money.
Hey, it’s no big deal, anyone can do it. All you have to do is make sure that your currency is worthless, relative to the Yankee Dollar. Movie companies will flock in and do business because a movie or TV show that would cost a gazillion dollars to film in California can be shot in Vancouver, Toronto or Halifax for about $1.98. GM, Ford and Chrysler can manufacture a $20,000 car in Canada for about a nickel, and that’s got to have an influence on the old Bottom Line, eh?
My brother-in-law is a cameraman in Toronto. He told me a story about a show that they were shooting, supposedly set in New York City. They were in a downtown alleyway, but the Artistic Director decided it looked too clean and pretty for a New York back alley, so they “decorated” the set with cardboard boxes, bags of garbage from the catering trucks, and loose script pages. But when they broke for lunch, the City came around and cleaned up all the “garbage” and they had to start all over again!