Extra Experience
Most of you know that I’m in love with TV! I give every show a chance… c’mon I even started watching Jersey Shore! (fist pump!) What most people didn’t know was that I’ve been trying to be an extra on TV (or movies) for a little while now. I tried applying with some agencies before the new year but had no luck. More recently I applied again and had gotten callbacks from two different agencies. First was Muse Artist Management, I was with them for about a month and a half with no luck in getting booked for anything so I went searching again. This time I signed with JR Talent Inc, and within the month I got my first extra gig!
Yesterday I was on the set of Fringe! The one thing I wasn’t looking forward to was my call time, it was at 5:42am ugh! First off I was a dumbass for not asking security if there was somewhere on set to park. I decided I’m an extra there wouldn’t be parking for me so I parked on a random side street and walked it. Only to later find out that I could of parked near by! Anyways when I got to the holding area the crew seemed cold and grumpy so I wasn’t feeling it at first. I shrugged it off though because I was grumpy too for being awake that early. After sitting for a while all the extras had to sign in then go see wardrobe. The night before we all got calls/emails about what kind of clothes to bring. A business look, up-scale look, and casual look. I came dressed in a casual look because it was most comfortable look. When I went to see wardrobe they had a look at my other clothes and made me change to my up-scale look. Dress pants, v-neck, cardigan, AND they made me wear my leather jacket because we were filming for April and everyone needed a jacket =( That was the worst thing about the day. I think everyone disliked the fact that we had to wear our jackets. It was so hot yesterday, between takes everyone would run to the shade and take off their jackets! After wardrobe we did some more sitting around waiting to be needed. After a little while they called for background! yay it was time to see how TV worked.
So we were filming an exterior seen on a street, so there were cars, motorcycles, and bikes along with all of the people walking. I like to call myself passerby-er #15 lol. All the extras spread out around the street and our Wranglers (A.D? not sure on the correct term) told all of us what to do when the cameras start rolling. For one shot I got to walk across the street then just keep walking down past all the stores, another one where I got out of a cab then for some reason went straight down into the subway? Walk out of an alleyway (drug deal =P) then walk towards the pub, there were other things too but for the most part I was just walking around the street.
Since for most of the filming there was no dialog the way things would work is they would yell ROLLING (meaning the camera’s started filming) then they would yell BACKGROUND (all the extras start doing what they were told to do) then finally ACTION (the actual actors would do their thing) then of course when the shot was done the would yell CUT, and if they were going to do another take RESET. During resets all the vehicles would just rip it around set so they would get back to their start points. All the extras would run to the shaded areas and take off their jackets.
One of the best things about being there was Craft Services! Every time we weren’t needed anymore we would go back to holding and the snack table would be full! Lol fruit, veggies, donuts, chips, granola bars, kool-aid, pop, juice! For a morning snack there were sandwiches, turkey, ham, pb & j, and chicken wraps! Then for lunch there was rice, penne pasta, chicken baked ziti, tossed salad, potato salad, ceasar salad, dessert, and juice! Lastly for an afternoon snack there were perogies! I’m actually hungry now thinking of all that food from yesterday.
I’m glad that our wranglers (A.D’s?) were such nice girls too. There was Marina and I can’t for the life of me remember the other girls name right now but they were awesome. There was one scene where she(forgot her name girl) would always try to rush me so I could get behind the actor and get on camera. Lol I’d be like 3 steps from the actor every time when they yelled cut! Her goal was to get me behind the guy at least once! It didn’t happen on that scene. I did get on camera (or at least in the shot) in a different scene though. And between takes Marina would walk up and down the street trying to remember everyones names. That is a hard thing to do there had to be at least 100 extras and she totally got every name right! That is pro.
I wrapped around 6:45pm (Thanks Marina I was falling asleep) making it a 13hour day. Even though it was such a long day this was such a great experience I’m glad I got to be an extra at least once in my life. Hopefully it wont be my last. I met some cool people that I hope to see again!
