Oh I could write about this for hours.
When you are on set, they have a hierarchy. Are you ready for this? Here it goes:
Principal, supporting, day players = actors
Director, Assistant Director, Camera people, grips, audio, all the way down to the production assistant are crew
Extras are actually "other"
When you are an other, you are basically the dog on set. Extras get basically the scraps or the food AFTER the crew is done eating and actually, I have seen where this was the case. There was one production, I was on and they at least invested something in giving extras snacks (still have to find a project where they did not give extras even that). The first meal was literally a production assistant bringing over ONE hot plate of Quiche. He was like "So basically we were going to throw this out and we figured you guys may be hungry, so split it among yourselves and get to it while it is still warm."
All other times, I was served pizza and wings. There was one production where Jon Voight came to KY and we had make-your-own-tacos. O_o
Still, there were other times where we actually were able to eat with the crew. Well, not really eat with them; however, we were served better. We had breakfast burritos and some healthy kind of food "all salad, vegetables, beans, and rice". The only thing not healthy were these buttered cookies. OMG...they were so good!
While I look up articles on extra pay rates, I come across many where extras, in Los Angeles, get barely anything. Out there, you would be lucky to get a fruit (apple, banana, orange) and bottled water! These probably will have to last you an entire shoot day. For lunch, and this I am guessing is on bigger productions; they may get to choose between various foreign cuisine and this may only be for the extras in a Union (they have to treat people better, who are in SAG).
When you're an extra, COFFEE is a luxury.
reply
share
MortSahlFan (257)
8 years ago
A few days ago, I looked to see how much it would cost the Writer's Guild -- hundreds of dollars..
There's a site called stage32.com -- I wouldn't put too much faith in people considering there's no human contact, but who knows, you might find something?
reply
share
arvin g borkar (2854)
8 years ago
Stage32 is a spammed site, kind of like Backstage. You would be lucky to find anything on there. For me, I found a casting director from a Film Office Website. I have worked as a production assistant and principal on a SAG film (that paid nothing) and fed us nothing. I have done ton of background work on small independent films with some B-list actors and some A-list: John Voight, Kiran Soni etc. and I also did stand-in work as well.
To make a movie though, it is very tough. First you need to get a hold of an executive producer and convince them of why they should invest. Once you have the down payment, then start hiring people.
reply
share
MortSahlFan (257)
8 years ago
I made sure the people were real, trying to get as many people from my area.. Now I just imagine, usually when I see a movie and think "Great foundation, bad script" or other little edits I'd do..
reply
share
arvin g borkar (2854)
8 years ago
You are definitely on the right track. It is always great to get that movie unionized as well. This is so it will appear to the A-list actors and quality crew under the DGA and other crew unions. They also have a variety of different low budget options.
The one SAG production I was in, somehow was able to be accepted; however, they never paid. That was huge!
reply
share