Entertainment & Music Working as an extra

[Silent Alarm]

The other day, a mate of mine was telling me about doing some extra work. Of course, he said you spend seven hours doing nothing and an hour pretending to chat to someone but the money was good ($350ish for the day).

Now, as someone who can afford to take one or two days a week to make some cash, I'm pretty interested. And as someone who's dream it is, is to work in the film industry... I'm obviously keen to see that secondary benefit.

So has anyone here done it? What were your experiences? How did you get into it? A lot of places are seemingly OTT and ask for s**t like photo shoots after you apply, is this par for the course? Am I getting too put off by an elementary and necessary thing? Basically – how did you get into doing extra work and how'd you find it?

Cheers

 

[JD11]

It's all through agencies these days. Everyone sticking their finger in the pie and whatnot. So, the way it goes down normally is you put in your resume into an agency. They give you a call, arrange an interview, tell you to pay them for a photo shoot (about $100 last I heard, could be wrong though), you get your cheesy black and white profile pic (100 likes on Facey guaranteed, they'll make you look good). Anyway, from there you'll be eligible to actually do some work. It's all pretty mundane and boring as you said, though you meet some interesting types. And, it can be a decent networking source if you're a charming guy, meeting directors/actors/writers etc. though some think they're the second coming of Konstantin Stanislavski and won't give you the time of day.

It can be a bit slow to find work, not a whole lot gets filmed around here and the casting companies can be campaigners; only wanting attractive and/or experienced people in the background of their film. Or maybe you're a good looking kid, I don't know.

I used to do quite a bit over summers and after I graduated from drama school, to try and pay bills. I always found it to be a drag, and not anything that could be relied upon. The other thing I could recommend is promotional work, there's plenty of that around. Talk to people on the street, hand out samples act like you love life for a few hours and take home money and free stuff. It's all much more casual, you'll only need just an average photo and that 'bubbly' personality.

 

[Norwegian Blue]

I did it once for laugh in Kenya in the 80s. Sat around a racecourse all day and cheered along with the rest of the crowd when told to. Pretty dull.

A mate of mine was holidaying in Scotland in 1985 and heard about a job for extras going. Turned out to be for the film 'Highlander' and he got to put on a kilt and charge down a hill waving a sword yelling "Death to the MacLeods".

 

[Borry]

In Sydney advertisements for extras are abundant, but many agencies are dodgy.

Signed up for an extras gig at Sydney Uni one day in 2012, the agency promised good pay. Was told to come to their office on the following Wednesday night to provide bank details. Went to the office and all they did is try to entice me to part with $300 or so to join their agency, and I never saw a cent of pay from the work I did.

 

[Run n Spread]

Done it a few times. Easy work just do what the director tells you. Spasmodic thou and the pay isn't that great unless you land a major role/commercial and they tend to go to professional actors.

 

[grouse mate]

A bloke I played footy with many years ago was doing it on Neighbours, the funny bit was he ended up being an extra as a footy player for the Erinsborough dingoes. Ended up getting a speaking line on one ep, I was always under the impression that somebody in the business arranged it for him, friend of a friend type thing. A chick I went to high school with was on there as well but she was well into modelling and everything at the time so I imagine that was an agency deal.

 

[worbod]

I did extra work briefly back in 1997 and 1998. I became bored quickly with the sitting around waiting for cameras and props to be set up and lighting to be checked. I didn't have any serious ambitions to make it in the industry so gave it away during my second year. I worked on the TV movie One Way Ticket, playing a SOG officer sitting in a police car with Peter Phelps as the criminal. There was a fair bit of sitting around in the car (in Jamieson) and Phelps came across as an easy going bloke. At one point he asked for a drink of water, and someone appeared minutes later with three glasses, one for him and one each for me and the other guy playing a SOG officer. Phelps said, "See what I do for you guys," so I have a good memory of him.
It was early in 1998 when I decided to give it away. I was an extra on an episode of Goody Guys, Bad Guys, and played a police detective walking in the background. I was given two video cassettes to hold and was asked to walk from point A to point B and place them on a desk. When the director decided to go for a second take, somebody came up to me and told me to walk with more purpose. They told me to think in my mind, "s**t, the videos!" to emphasise the importance of my job as a detective. I wasn't annoyed by this, but I thought if I'm required to feel that intense just carrying some videos for five seconds there's no way I can ever be a serious actor in speaking roles.

 

[HARKER]

You can't survive as an extra.............hard enough to survive as an actor these days.

Having said that though, if you put yourself in front of the pack, you'll get more days than others........meaning..........more money.

 

[Nostradumbass]

I was an extra in the ground breaking TV show The Henderson Kids 2.

The only reason I got a gig was because I happened to be in the right place at the right time, they were filming 5 minutes from our house. I got paid $50. For a 12 year old kid that was like winning the lottery back then.