Productivity

[raeschae]

So I finally did something sort of productive today! I updated my master lists for the first time since October. Remind me never to wait that long again, btw.

Now I have a question: Anyone have any experience either being an extra or working with extras on a television or movie set? I have a couple of questions for my big bang, so if you have some knowledge, I'd love to pick your brain.

Comments

[kiwiana.livejournal.com]

Hee, yay!

Sadly, I have no experience WRT extras :(

[raeschae.livejournal.com]

I ♥ you, even if you are less than helpful. ;)

[kiwiana.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you love me in spite of my obvious flaws.

[raeschae.livejournal.com]

I love you because of your flaws. (If that's not some bull shit.)

[mizface.livejournal.com]

*tentatively raises hand*

I was a zombie extra on a very, very low budget local film (that has yet to be released, darn it). o I might maybe be able to help? I'm willing to try, in any case.

[raeschae.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I'm sending you a PM!!!

extra extra!

[star-material.livejournal.com]

I was an extra on several big budget movies and a couple of shows. The big things to know are that you come to set, follow the signs that lead to "background holding" (they're mostly bright neon arrows that have BKGD written on them) you sign in, get your wardrobe approved if you're wearing your own stuff (which is most of the time), and then sit around eat free food and talk to people until the Wranglers (the crew who deal with bkgd) tell you where to go and what to do and where to walk and when. And then at the end of the night you sign out and get your time card stamped so that you can get paid. Ta da!

Re: extra extra!

[raeschae.livejournal.com]

EXCELLENT! Thank you so much!

One other question - did you spend any time getting hair or makeup done? (I know it's a weird question, but it's kind of important to my story.)

Re: extra extra!

[fandomfan.livejournal.com]

Er... I don't know what star_material's experience was, but when I've done extra work (not for tv, but for pretty big mainstream movie stuff) there was indeed hair and makeup time, but it was minimal and assembly-line style. They have us pointers on how to prep our hair so they could style it right for the period of the film (like, if you had to sleep in curlers the night before), and then spent about 5-10 minutes on each person getting the hair right on the morning of shooting. And then there was about another 5-10 minutes per person of makeup.

Hope that helps. Feel free to PM me if you want more details.

Re: extra extra!

[raeschae.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Well, I wanted to hear the truth, but I'm ecstatic that it lines up with what I've been writing anyway. :)