Extra Red

I just finished three days on a film set in Black Diamond as an extra, hence the quiet blog. I actually didn't have long days since it seemed they didn't really want to pay us overtime but by the time I got home each day I was wiped out.

Here's the lowdown:

Day 1: Call time 6am so up at 4:45 to get ready and drive the hour. I arrived 15 minutes early, got into my CSI officer costume (pictures to follow hopefully) complete with CSI photo identification and got ready to wait. My CSI partner became a fast buddy since the rest of the extras were dressed up as fundamentalist polygamy folks and actually were in most of the shots, while we sat around. We stayed up at the location for most of the day, where there wasn't much shade until they brought up tents after lunch. We did not get to be in any scenes...

Sidebar: The hierarchy on film sets is crazy to observe. I am now an Actra Apprentice so technically I am considered "on voucher" so I can eat off the crew "craft" table but it's a very tenuous position because I am still just an extra... extras who usually get the scraps and have a separate snack area with only basic water and a few cookies. I wound up eating with the rest of the background rabble, who aren't "on-voucher" and are being paid about $10/hour because I didn't want to step on any toes... sigh - where's that backbone?

Day 2: Call time 6:30am so an extra half hour of sleep - wheee! I arrived 15 minutes early, as usual, got signed in, breakfast, costumes, hair, makeup and again back to waiting. This time I had a different CSI partner and he was a little... how should I put this nicely... full of himself and acting like he owned the set when really he was just an extra like the rest of us. We got sent up to the location but again didn't get in the scene and CSI dude convinced the wrangler to send us back to the holding area if we weren't needed, as if he was inconvenienced being on set. So we waited down at the holding area for the rest of our eight hours and then they sent us home, again without filming.

Day 3: Call time 10:30am woohoo! And another hour drive out of town this time with more traffic on the roads but of course I planned for that so I managed to be 20 minutes early... I figured they wouldn't call us back for an extra day if they didn't need/want us so I had a good feeling. And my original CSI buddy was back so I didn't have to put up with the other guy. We went through the procedure and settled in for waiting... lunch came and went... and finally about 4pm we were taken up to the location. And we waited again... and finally we got into our scene with the dead body. It was awesome - and it only lasted about 15 minutes but at least we got to see some action!

So three days of getting paid to eat and sit around... not bad work if you can get it. I'm hoping my CSI buddy comes through and emails the pictures from set!