Aaron Marcus walks background actors through five essentials for set: ID, pen, paper, headshots, and snacks. He covers union meal breaks, overtime pay rules, networking without being annoying, and why you shouldn't photograph the set or ask for autographs.
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In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you what it's really like doing extra work and the 5 things you absolutely need to bring. Now, if you watch this to the end, I also have a special bonus for you. It's a great video sharing with you an acting technique that I used that got me upgraded from being an extra to a principal. Okay, let's get started. Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center, where I share information with you from my 38 years of working as a full-time actor. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button, the notification bell, so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. And if you like it, give it a thumbs up. That helps let other people know about the video. I've got a lot to share with you today. I also have notes just to make sure that I don't forget anything. So the very first thing that I want to share you is when you first find out that you're going to be working as an extra, be prepared to wait until the very last minute before you get a call time. Hopefully you'll know where you're going ahead of time, but a lot of times they're not going to tell you what the call time is until they finish shooting the previous day. For union projects, they typically will have a 12-hour turnaround time, meaning that that actors can't work without a 12-hour rest period. And there are, by the way, there are some exceptions to the rules. There are some ways around it, but typically that's what happens. So you might not get an email until kind of late the night before telling you. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time getting to the set. There could be traffic. You might get lost. It might be hard to find. They will have signs up on the street. Sometimes they have information upside down with a name with arrows pointing that will tell you where extras parking is. Sometimes you have to get shuttled to a set depending on where they're shooting. There might not be any parking available where the shoot is actually happening, and they'll put all the extras on a bus. So give yourself time. Also, with wardrobe, they will tell you what kind of wardrobe You need to bring— I mean, typically they're going to give you that information unless there's some very specific wardrobe that is needed. Maybe it's a period piece and you will have already gone to a wardrobe fitting prior to that, in which case you don't necessarily have to bring anything. But if they do ask you to— let's say you're a business person. They might say, why don't you wear business attire and bring one change? Give it to them. We're all a team here. We're all working together. I know you might be thinking, well, I'm just an extra. Yeah, but you're really important because the TV show or the movie wouldn't work without extras in the scene. Once again, there are some exceptions, like if you are a union person, what you wear you don't get paid for, but if they ask you to bring a change, you do get paid for that. Non-union folks, I don't believe you get anything. But look, Just try to be nice to them and help them out. Before you go, the very first thing that you absolutely need to make sure that you bring, you've got to have some kind of identification. And that's going— and you need to bring 2 out of these 3 things. So it might be a driver's license. It might be a Social Security card or a passport. Because when you're filling out forms, they are going to look at it to make sure you are who you say you are. So make sure you bring 2 out of the 3. When you do arrive on the set or wherever, not necessarily the set, but an extras holding or something like that, first find out where you go to sign in. That's really, really important. You can ask anybody, where do the extras go? Where do we sign in? Where do we go? There is something they call extras holding. It's where all the extras hang out. And so, and look, it could be a very small room. It could be a huge tent. Depending on how many people are there that day. You want to sign in as soon as possible because then you will be given a voucher. You'll be— or something. Look, and it varies. Look, by the way, everything that I'm saying to you today, it can change from set to set and project to project. Sometimes you just do everything on a tablet. Sometimes you are still writing. Stuff down on a piece of paper. But anyhow, you want to fill out the forms, and then if they do send you over to wardrobe so that wardrobe people can take a look at what you brought, if they give you something, they're probably going to ask for your voucher. Sometimes they ask for— if you're in the union, they ask you for a SAG card. They might ask for a driver's license. They just want to make sure That you bring it back. And the same thing holds true with props. They might give you a prop to use. A prop could be anything from an umbrella, maybe it's a camera, you know, maybe it's a briefcase, maybe it's a newspaper, maybe it's a cup of coffee. And they won't have actual coffee in it, it'll be empty so you don't have to lug something around and worry about spilling things on yourself. They want to make sure you bring things back to them. So that's the first thing you absolutely need to bring, and you want to find out where you need to go. Then you, you know, you can either ask or wait for them to tell you. They might— and once again, depends on the project— they might ask you to go to hair and makeup. So that's going to be an area or maybe a trailer where the hair person or the hair people are, the makeup people are. Just to make sure you look okay. Once again, if it's a period piece, they might do stuff to your hair, or maybe it's just a certain look that they need. They might change things. They might ask, hey, can we trim things a little bit? Which I typically like because they normally do a really good job, and then I don't have to go out and get a haircut so soon. And so that was always good. Now, I haven't done extra work for a while, but I used to do a fair amount of extra work. And there's a whole separate video about doing extra work, and you can watch that on the channel. But personally, I think it can be helpful, really helpful to do, to learn a lot. But that's for another video. The other thing that you want to make sure that you bring, number 2, is a pen, something to write with. Now, I know a lot of times we can just put information on our phone. Once again, if everything is being done on tablet, but let's just say you're talking to somebody, you don't have your phone with you. Maybe the folks have taken your phone, or maybe you're on the set and they've said you can't bring a phone onto the set, and that happens. And the reason for that is They are concerned because some people have done this. So please don't ever, ever, ever, ever do this. Some people have taken their phone and taken pictures, and you can't do that. You can't do that. Sometimes people have done videos of what's taking place. So because of those things, they will sometimes ask you not to bring it. I remember being on a set once and they had everybody put their cell phone in a bag. There was a special bag, they locked it up, and you didn't have access to it all day long. And so let's say you meet somebody and you want to exchange numbers with them and you don't have your phone. So bring a pen, bring something to write with. Or if they do give you a voucher to, to fill out, a production report, you've got something to write with. You don't have to ask people for it. And the third thing is bring something to write on. Maybe it's a piece of paper. Once again, I understand, you know, most of the time we do things on our phone, but you might not have access to it in that moment. So, you know, bring a piece of paper. If you meet somebody, you want to take notes. Somebody's giving you information about agents in the area you might want to contact, or new projects that are coming up, or headshot photographers that they recommend. You know, whatever it is, you can easily do it. Hey, here's something I forgot to mention. And I looked at my notes later and I wanted to share it with you. Always bring a couple of headshots if you can, or business cards. I don't bring headshots, or I didn't bring headshots, only because they were just too big and I didn't have anything to carry them around in. But I would bring business cards that had information about some work that I've done, contact information, email addresses, websites, things like that. So that way, as you are networking, you can easily give things to people. So anyhow, I forgot to mention that, but I am now. If you haven't really done this before, if it's not a big project, bring a snack, whether it's just some kind of energy bar or just something. Now look, typically if it's a big project, there's going to be something called craft services. And they have separate craft services for the crew and principal actors and the extras. And once again, if you're a union person, there are some exceptions to that, and you will have access to the same craft services as everybody else. But if you're non-union, they will have something else, but you don't know when it's going to be set up. Maybe you're getting hungry, there's nothing around. You could spend a long time On the set. You could— maybe it's only 2 or 3 hours for the day. That's highly, highly unusual. I have spent as long as 20 hours on a set. I remember once it was 21 hours. And by the way, on a separate note, I know there is— and I don't know that much about non-union rules because I've been a union actor for over 30 years— but for union actors, there is something called golden time. And as of right now, and once again, things change all the time, but as of right now, to help discourage productions from working people too long, because there was a case where some people had long, long days, they fell asleep, there were just tragic things that happened. So they try to have productions not go quite that long, but Look, sometimes you are in the middle of a shoot. They're not going to want to stop and try to bring everybody back the next day, and they continue shooting. So if you are in the union and you work over 16 hours, every hour that you work after that, you get a full day's pay. So anyhow, you know, you might want to bring a snack just because you don't know When you're going to get a chance to snack. The other thing too is for union rules, it's every 6 hours we need to be fed. It's kind of like we're at the zoo and you got to feed the animals every 6 hours because we get hungry and grumpy. And so typically, you know, the extras will get fed at the same time period. You know, they do have things set up where— and there is a real pecking order. And once again, things can change, but a lot of times it's people who are— I'm trying to remember the union's name. I'll think of it later and I will tell you. It's a very powerful union and it's the drivers, and a lot of times they will go first. Sometimes the principals or the crew might go next. Then you've got the union extras. Teamsters. Sorry, that was the name. Those guys are powerful, so they, they go out first because they also— they have to be ready to transport the principal actors and maybe the director and, and, and some of the crew as soon as they break. So, so it's the Teamsters who go out first, and then you've got— it goes down to the union extras who go into the meal line first And then it's the non-union extras. But count on a long day. Please don't go to the set and think, well, you know, I've got something at 5 o'clock that I need to get to. If you don't have the full day to give them, then don't sign up for that day because those things can happen. The other things— so let's say you've gone through hair and makeup, you've gone through wardrobe, and now you're going back to extras. The extras area. Find out where the restrooms are. And I know that sounds kind of silly, but let me tell you, it's important because you want to make sure that you take care of whatever you need to take care of prior to going to set, because you could be on the set for a very, very long time. So just ask. And by the way, if you do need to go to the restroom and you're in extras holding, please walk over to one of the PAs, the production assistants. There's always going to be a PA there With all the extras and ask, hey, is this an okay time for me to go to the restroom? And, or just say, hey, I'm going to be going to the restroom, I'll be back in, you know, 2 minutes. They need, they need you to do that. It's very helpful to them. So that way, if they get a phone call saying, okay, we need, you know, these extras right now, and now they're looking for you because you went to the restroom, you didn't tell them where they were, it creates problems. So just as a courtesy, You know, always be in contact with them if you need to leave the set. Cool. Some other things you might want to consider bringing— look, some people bring books. I don't like to bring books to the— when I was working as an extra, only because when you leave extras holding, you know, I know they tell you there's always going to be someone there watching everything. It's not necessarily the case. And yeah, look, if you're out in the middle of nowhere, you don't have to worry about people coming in and stealing things. But sometimes you could be in a building, you know, it could be open to the public and people could be walking around and seeing a big area. I just didn't want to bring anything that if I lost it or it didn't come back with me and I couldn't find it, that I'd be upset. So if I do bring anything to read, which I typically don't, it's going to be a newspaper or a magazine. And I typically recycle it at the end of the day. And if for some reason somebody takes it, it's not that big of a deal. The other thing too, I don't do this, but some people bring toothbrush and toothpaste and dental floss so that after they've eaten, if they're hanging around with people, it's not an issue and they don't have things stuck in between their teeth. Just something. To think about, you know, if that's something you would like to, you know, like to bring. Especially at the very beginning of your career, you do want to try to get on set if you can because it is a great learning experience depending on the situation. Now look, if you are one of 10,000 people in the stadium, you might not get a chance to see that much, but you also might be one of 4 people In a restaurant or a bookstore or a coffee shop, and you are, you know, your table is seated right next to one of the principals where the scene is taking place, and you really can watch rehearsals and you can watch things, you know, as things are being set up. This is an opportunity for you to really learn and have a better understanding of what takes place. And as you will see, It takes a long time. Every scene takes a long time. And quite often— once again, yeah, there are exceptions to the rule— but quite often there is going to be a wide shot where they shoot everything and then they do close-up shots over the shoulder of the principals or they are going to be switching back and forth between the 2 principals. So it can take a long time just to get a very short scene done. Once again, expect it. It's not as exciting as it sounds because when you see all the work that goes into it, these people work incredibly hard, especially the crew. I mean, the extras, I mean, those are typically the easier jobs on the set. The crew, they're moving lights around, they are moving cameras around. It is a lot of physical work. It might be incredibly hot outside and they are lugging things around. It can be a very, very long day. And look, if you are working outside and it's sunny and it's hot, bring some suntan lotion. There is always a medic on the set. And so if you are feeling faint, if you are feeling really hot, feel free to tell the PA and say, you know, I'd like to see a medic and have them look at you. I remember once, it was a great gig. I was an extra on a feature film for 2 months, and it was a football movie. And so we shot in a stadium, and fortunately I was a reporter, so all I had was— I didn't have to lug a camera around. I wasn't a cameraman. I just had a little notepad and a pen, and that's what I did for 2 months. We worked at an NFL field. It was a wonderful experience, but they were shooting Scenes that were winter. There was a Super Bowl scene and it was probably in the 90s, and there were people in the stands, a lot of extras, and those people were wearing heavy jackets and scarves and gloves and hats, and people were passing out. And also some people were drinking, which was not, not a smart thing to do. But make sure that you really, really stay hydrated. And if If for any reason you're not feeling quite right, say something to somebody. And that's why the medics are there. They are there to take care of you. The other thing too is just to give you some— a little bit of terminology. If they say, okay, back to 1, so what that means is let's say you're walking down the street. Okay, so you'll be given a starting position and that's where you always start. Make sure that you Take a look and be able to hit that mark every single time. If you're walking down the street, maybe there's a car that's parked for you, and that's, that's right to your left. So, and you're standing, you know, right at the, you know, the front of the car. That's your mark. That's where you're going to start every time. They'll say background action. That's when the background, the extras start walking. And then you'll hear action. Those are for the principals. So when you hear background action, You move, and then when they finish the scene, they'll say, back to 1. What that means is go back to your original position, and then you keep doing that for as long as they want you to do it. Once again, that's another reason why you want to make sure you go to the restroom before you get onto the set, because you could be doing this for hours and hours and hours. And at the end of the day, when you are being released, they will take you back to extras holding typically, and you will You know, put your out times. They'll tell you what your out time is. You'll write it down or do it once again on a pad. If you do have any props, you need to bring it back to the prop masters and give it to them. You have to go back to wardrobe and they will give you your clothes back, or if they didn't take it, they probably have your voucher. And then you go and you finish signing everything, and then you Take off and you head back home. But here's the key thing: while you're there, this is a time for you to learn and make connections. You want to find out who are the players. What does the director do? What does the first AD, first assistant director, do? What does the second AD, second assistant director, do? What do the gaffers do? What do all the lighting folks do? And you can ask. You can ask people. And the other thing too that I think is really, really helpful when you're doing extra work is when you're an extra holding, find somebody or a couple of people to talk to instead of just sitting there by yourself the whole day, which you can do if you want. But to me, this would be a be a great opportunity to network and talk with other people, and there could be a lot of really interesting people. And like, I'm going to be completely honest with you, sometimes when I used to do extra work, there would be groups of people— I'm going to say it— all they would do is talk about themselves. Oh yeah, I did this job and I did this. And, you know, hey, how you doing? Oh great, man, I just, you know, I finished working on this project. And I would typically be thinking, I'm not asking for your resume. I asked, how are you feeling? Is your family okay? Are you guys doing okay? Are you good? Those are the people I typically don't like or didn't like to hang out with. I would want to find somebody I can actually have conversations with. And I'm not saying you couldn't talk about the industry, but it wasn't just me, me, me, me, me. Kind of stuff. Hey, hey, by the way, do you know of any projects that are coming to town or any suggestions of things that you might know of that are happening out of town? Are there any ways that— because I know you work a lot— are there any ways that you market yourself that you can share with me? I'd love to do that. Are there any new agents that you know of or any agents that you can recommend that I might want to contact? Those are the kinds of things you can do and just talk. You know, you can talk about your life, talk about the other person's life, make it a really nice day for yourself. Once again, it can be long. Uh, sometimes it can be boring, but it can be an unbelievably great, uh, day, an educational day. People that you might stay in contact with for years and years and years and share information with. Hey, and, and by the way, sometimes people do like to share rides. to the set. I wouldn't recommend doing that. I mean, unless you need to and you don't have access to a vehicle. And the reason— because sometimes people say, hey, why don't we just go together? Well, that's a nice idea, but what happens— because people might get released at different times. Maybe the scene that you are working in, they finished, and now they're going to bring in some other people for another setup, and they released you and you signed out. Now you might have to sit there and wait for hours for, you know, these other people to get done. So I'd be a little, a little careful about that. Let me just take— oh, oh, I'm glad I took a look at a couple notes here. Look, never, ever, ever, ever, ever take pictures on the set. And I mentioned, you know, videos before. Once again, I'm going to tell you a real story. Many, many, many years ago, doing some extra work, and this was a SAG Actor, union actor, and it kind of surprised me. He walked over to me and handed me his phone, and he was standing next to one of the principals. It was a big star guy, had his own TV show and stuff. And the guy said, hey, would you take a picture of us? And the star— once again, I don't want to mention his name— he seemed like he was okay with it, but You're not supposed to do that. You know, you just don't do that. And I looked at him and I just said, I'm really sorry, I'm just not comfortable. And he got angry with me, and actually I think he stayed angry with me for quite some time. But, you know, those are the kinds of things you can get thrown off of a set. You know, you don't— there are legal issues, you know, showing the wardrobe that is being worn. You just don't want to do that. You don't want to ask for autographs. I know people do this stuff all the time. I've even seen people, they'll post things on Instagram or their Facebook page of them in their wardrobe on a set. You don't want to do that. It's just— besides the fact that it's illegal, but it doesn't make you look like a professional. You know, it's kind of like It's kind of like football players. It's like you get a touchdown, well, act like you should get a touchdown. And so when you're taking pictures as an extra on a set, I don't know, to me it doesn't make you look as polished as you should. And so please don't ever do that. Let me just see if there's anything else. Yeah, so that was pretty much it that I wanted to share with you. The days The days can be really fun. Sometimes the days are hard if somebody is not treating you well on the set, and that might happen. Sometimes the PAs are just not very nice. And just keep in mind, you're not married to this person. You can go home after this day and be surrounded by people who you really love and people who care about you, and it's not personal. Somebody's just maybe having a bad day. Maybe the person is just a miserable human being. I typically find that it starts from the top. If you have direct— a director who's really nice, then it flows down to the PAs, production assistants, and they're really nice. Those are the sets that I like to, to be on. Even as a principal, I find that to be true as well. And so if you do have a bad experience that day. Don't think that this is how it always is and how it has to be. Sometimes there are just people who are curmudgeons and are not very nice, and they treat other people poorly, and that's just who they are. Just remember, it's not you, unless you've done something really crazy, but it's not you. And, you know, hopefully the next time you'll have a much better experience. Hey, if you've done extra work and you can share some information about what it was like for you, please share it in the comments below. Once again, if you, if you haven't done this yet, please subscribe, click the notification bell, and if you like the video, give it a thumbs up and please share this with other people so that way we can build this channel into a place where there are lots of fellow industry professionals who are helping each other. I'd really, really appreciate you doing that. And by the way, I did mention— and I don't have to point my finger, you know where, where the little link is— this is where you can find this great video of this acting technique that I used that actually got me upgraded, and it was a national TV spot. Pretty cool. Anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya. See ya.
