I just got home from my first day of paid work in LA. It was for an independent mockumentary. I'm not sure what the final title will be since it hasn't been sold yet, but Rock Barnes was the main character. It is basically the story of an inspirational speaker. The scenes I was in today were all about the good times, the packed theater times. How we packed the theater involved some camera trickery, which was kind of fun since we had to switch seats a bunch of times, so I got to sit next to a variety of people. The only problem with that part was that everyone was all energized from lunch, so the more obnoxious extras and I do mean extras, not background, were especially distracted for that part. Along those lines and since I've been thinking about it all day of course, I would like to start a list of things that you should do if you want to be a bad extra:
1. Talk or make loud noices while the cameras are rolling.
2. Complain about how hard it is to be an actor because of your age, sex or race.
3. Don't listen to or choose to ignore instructions.
4. Talk or clap when you are told to pantomime.
5. Make up your own lines and shout them out.
6. Try to stand out in any way.
By following these simple rules, you can force extra takes to take place, which means more time and less pay per hour for you my friend. Thumbs up!
It actually wasn't that bad of a group and for the most part things went smoothly. I actually lucked out in that I got to sit next to one of the scripted characters today and got a lot of face time. So much in fact that the director pulled me out of a later shot because I had been too noticeable early on. Plus it was nice because the scenes required a lot of energy, so we all got to be really animated.
I'm really enjoying getting back into the acting thing with my audition last week, today and another audition later in the week. Every time I do it, I am reminded of how much I love it. Now if I could just master all the stuff that gets me there.
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