h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've listed all my various jobs before, but the one that is the most fun is being a film extra. I've stopped thinking of it as work, it's more like a fantastic hobby that I get paid for.

So far this year I've travelled back to the 1960s and spent a day with backcombed hair and then there were 3 freezing cold days spent in 1820s Scotland watching a hanging. For the past couple of weeks I've been in the 1930s.

It's the closest thing to having my own !

ooh a hanging in Scotland sounds fabulous!

It's great when your job is so fabulous it's hardly like work!

The hanging in 'Scotland' was perhaps the worst day I've ever had on a set. It was February, at an outdoors location of a stately home in the Garden of England pretending to be Edinburgh in January 1829. When you see the film and it looks like it's snowing - that's because it was! We were so cold! And it was continuous shooting, which means not much on the way of a break all day.

Still, being a film extra is usually a lot of fun. When I retire this will be my pocket money work I think. Don't forget I have many jobs. This year I had 7 separate P60s!

wow, a lessers potted coelacanth again
Sounds like you are having fun though with this paid-for-hobby.

How long did it take your hair to recover from the backcombing then?

By the time I got home in the evening it was too late to do anything with my hair so I just slept on it. Next morning it looked like this : and I could see why women in the 60s just got up and backcombed it again! But I washed it out straight away.

I've being doing odd bits of extras work for about 3 years now, I'm in a few films and some TV stuff, as long as you know where to look!

I shall have to try keeping my beady eyes open a bit more!

"Next morning it looked like this : "
that must have been quite a sight confronted you in the mirror that morning!

That sounds like such fun. Not the freezing weather, but being in a film. Have you met any of the 'stars'?

It's quite thrilling to spot where you are in a scene but the whole point of being an extra is that you're not noticed. I was in a BBC drama pretending to shop, and the back of my head was quite clear for about 2 seconds, but there was a lot of action in the foreground to look at. In the film that's set in the 60s I think I might be quite easy to see, although as well as the beehive I was wearing some horribly unflattering Capri pants, so I might not tell you which scenes to look at, especially as again I've been filmed from behind. Not my best side!

There are a few things that are absolutely forbidden. Talking to the "stars" is one of them. Talking to the director is another. Crowds usually have their own director, who might be listed in the film credits as the 3rd assistant director. But I've certainly been very close to some extremely famous people.

At least on that occasion the freezing weather was authentic. But it's not all like that. The film I'm doing at the moment is indoors and we're very well looked after. But I have to get up at 4am!

I heard somewhere that the less visible you are, the more work you'll get as you can appear lots of times in the same film, has that worked out to be true?

That's an interesting point. All the films I've been on have had a pool of extras that they call on. So they might have 300 people available and mostly each one does a few days so that you get a variety of faces. Not everyone is available every day anyway. Sometimes they will just change your costume or props, eg if at the start you have a green coat they might swap it for a blue one to make it look like you're someone else.

But I could tell you of at least one film where it's clear that the same extras are doing exactly the same thing in scenes that are meant to be months apart!

In Wild Child http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1024255/ set in a school, I know for sure I'm in several places in a scene that is meant to take place on one afternoon - all the extras are. It took a week to film, but you wouldn't be able to identify me in any of the shots. On that film Moonlight was in a pool of 250 people playing the pupils, I think she had about 20 days spread out over the summer and you can see her clearly in one section. Each day the directors decided how many extras they needed for the next. Could be anything from about 20 to pad out a classroom scene, to all 250 of them for the assemblies. One day she said they just filmed the feet of some of them walking up and down stairs all day.

For the hanging in 'Scotland' there were about 150 of us and at one point we were filmed jeering. This was done in blocks, so we were crammed into one section, jeered, then moved to aother section, jeered, moved again and so on. I believe there were 6 blocks, so if you look closely you might be able to see each person 6 times. But I doubt it will be that distinct.

What perhaps isn't clear is just how much of a film is improvised on the spot. The screenplay is very detailed, but often the background action is just the extras being guided and encouraged to respond or act in the way someone would. Or not, if your instructions are to ignore the camera. In real life people would point and wonder what was being filmed!

When you say Moonlight had to climb stairs all day I'm wondering if it's such a good job after all!?

I've been bored with the hanging around and retakes when I've been in my couple of shows with the dogs, but I wasn't being paid so perhaps that takes the sting out of it!

I would think about 90% of my day on a film is walking about or standing up! Moonlight and I once spent an entire day crossing and recrossing the same street for this: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1245539/

Watch people in the background next time you see a film or TV drama. You might think they look like members of the public around when the shot was filmed, but every single one will be an extra. And they will all be walking about. It's very hard on the feet, especially if you're not in your own shoes or trainers. And if it's continuous shooting there's very little down time, and even meal breaks are quite rushed.

I saw some dogs being clicker trained and rehearsed for a key scene last week. That looked like hard work too!

The glam life of the film star.

Clicker training is an easy way for the dog to learn, but works best in short sessions - it is harder on the trainer. Or maybe just me - I get frustrated and my timing is all shonky so I don't really do it much anymore.

Well this film star has to get back to the real world soon, but I've had such an amazing summer. I can still join the filming occasionally in the next couple of months, but the majority of the crowd stuff is done.

The film where I spent 3 freezing cold days in 1820s "Scotland" (actually Kent) watching a hanging was Burke and Hare and it's out this week. I doubt I'll be seen at the hanging, but I'm in the audience of a theatre scene too, watching the "Scottish play".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1320239/

ooooh looks interesting! I'll wait for the DVD so I can slomo.

Thanks for letting us know. I'll look for you.

I'm not sure if I'll get to see Burke and Hare in the cinema, but here's a line from the Variety review:
"Overall tech credits are pro, with budget on display where needed, such as the extras-packed public hangings that bookend the film."

Actually, it's not so much that it was "extras-packed". More accurately the same extras were filmed in about 6 places across the scene! I didn't get the impression that this was a film with a high budget, but clearly the Variety reviewer thinks it was. Smoke and mirrors...

Full review here: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117943928.html?categoryid=31&cs=1#ixzz13siUGW72

I heard an ad for it on telly last night, but didn't look up in time as I didn't realise it was a comedy or that it had Simon Pegg in it, so I might try and squeeze in a cinema visit. Maybe we should do another Bluewater mini-cinema-meet?

Oh I missed that suggestion, sorry! I did ask a lovely young man if he'd like to go with me, and his text said "I'll see if I can free up some time". Now, I know that's not exactly a declaration of undying love, but it's not exactly a 'no' either is it? Except, of course, it was really. So I still haven't seen B+H but will wait for the DVD.

Anyway, my next film will be out in February. Brighton Rock. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233192/
Re-set into the 60s with a dark and stylish look about it. Sam Riley was absolutely delightful and looks so good as Pinky. Here's the trailer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2010/nov/19/brighton-rock-trailer
I did one day, this time last year, 2, maybe 3 scenes in different parts of the film at the same location. There are very close up shots of these scenes in the trailer at 1.09 and 1.15 so I know they're in it. But I think I was mostly in shot from behind, wearing some very unflattering Capri pants. Not my best angle! And my hair looked like this: But I had a nice day on set and I'm really looking forward to seeing the film in February.