i've heard it said that working as an extra can provide a decent living in LA, how far from the truth is this? how does a person with no experience get started like this?
2007-01-27 07:45:42 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Travel ➔ United States ➔ Los Angeles
It's hard to make a living at it because of its unreliability. On the days that you do do it, the pay can get good if you go into overtime.
I signed up with Central Casting. Here's their page on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_casting.
You pay a small fee to sign up with Central Casting (I think it was $25), show up in person to fill out an application and get your photo taken. Then you call an automated line any time you want to work the next day and listen to recordings of what jobs are available (they'll tell you what the show is and what physical characteristics or talents they're looking for). When there's a job that fits your description, you call the phone number given to get yourself assigned to it.
The pay was $6.75/hr for the first 8 hours, 1.5 time for the next 4 hours, then "golden time" beyond that, where you get paid around $60/hr. One time, I got selected to be a body double once I was on set, which got me double time. A full day of work got me about $400.
If you get a SAG voucher (which you have to earn; too detailed to get into here), you get paid double, but there are fewer SAG extra jobs (b/c it pays more; but productions are required to have a certain proportion of jobs be SAG jobs).
When I went to Central Casting to sign up, another agency across the street was offering an option where they call *you* with jobs and guarantees that you'll work 3-4 days a week. If you want to do this type of work seriously, it's worth working with them (it was a monthly fee of maybe $40).
2007-01-28 17:37:24 · answer #1 · answered by Pookie 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not really. You need a steady, stable source of income to survive in Los Angeles. Being an extra is a minimum wage job that lasts for a few days if it's a TV production... and only a couple weeks for a movie. People do it to make a little more spending money while they try for actual acting gigs. It is not a career.
The use of extras has also diminished significantly ever since Hollywood figured out that soldiers/large crowds that are too far away to see clearly any way can be replaced with CGI bodies in post-production. It saves them some money, and no one could really tell the difference unless they watched the movie frame-by-frame.
2007-01-27 19:01:40 · answer #2 · answered by SFdude 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Anything is possible, but most people have other work. Establish contacts, get your name out there and with luck you'll manage a living.
As with many facets of the biz, however, it's hit and miss, and there will be gaps in employment, which is why you either need to stash some cash or have another job going.
There's some theater work out there, which gives you great experience and a chance to do some real acting, too.
Good luck.
2007-01-28 02:17:46 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
You can, but I wouldn't depend on it. You have to keep on your toes and go after the jobs all the time. Some are listed in the regular newspaper and some are in the "trade" papers.
2007-01-28 01:17:44 · answer #4 · answered by vickeymcgee 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Most I know have other jobs, acting is very unreliable as a source of income.
2007-01-27 07:49:59 · answer #5 · answered by jeffpsd 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Is it possible? Not really.
How do you get started? Learn this line of dialog: "Do you want fries with that?"
2007-01-27 11:30:49 · answer #6 · answered by Peedlepup 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋