Flashing Forward

So there is a problem to getting background work to a show you watch and that is a suspense driven show such as Lost. When I was did background work for Heroes I was lucky to stay in the way back and not really learn much about the plot as it was the second to last show of the season. Today I had that predicament with the ABC Show Flash Forward.

My day began early in the morning with a drive down to Union Station. The beauty of this background work is that I've now been to place in LA I would of never gone to. I mean I did a German car commercial in the old bank district that had the feel of a real midwest or east coast city and was the location that "500 Days of Summer" was shot. The same movie a friend and I took halfway through the movie to realize it was based in LA.

Flash Forward is an AFTRA show which it seems like more and more shows are going. Apparently SAG really hurt themselves with the last contract so where as AFTRA was some minor union a couple of years ago it's becoming a growing problem for SAG. I have heard that majority of pilots this Pilot season are AFTRA shows so if I'm SAG that has to open your eyes. And I wish I was cause it paid more than twice as much than for us second class non union folks.

Anyway back to the fun details. So I'm a pedestrian, nothing special, but in the first scene Joseph Fiennes comes barreling around the corner driving a car. I turn to the girl next to me and say, "did you see him? I figured it would be a stunt driver but he came flying around that corner, screeching tires and everything. If he lost control of that car, we're nailed." Apparently he felt the same way and had us moved. I have to say I was impressed with his driving ability. Who knew? I mean they have had stunt drives on every other show with driving scenes I've been on. Not here.

Also one got the feeling from his interactions that he was definitely not a prima donna. Impressive for a guy that's been in Oscar winning movies. He was thankful to the director for a couple of his ideas. Down to earth guy. In fact no one on set came off anything but in a positive light. The crew was friendly and treated us pretty well which seems to be hit or miss for large calls. There were a few hundred of us today. It was funny watching this one PA who looked really young sheepishly try to keep normal citizens from walking in the shot. I wonder how long she will be that way.

So all I have seen him do is drive a car. No plot ruined. I'm happy. Then they take us inside to walk inside the train station. I'm turned around and after walking around for a couple of hours (yes it's amazing how long it takes for shots to be taken. They have to shoot every side of the scene so they take many many takes) I'm sitting down. All I see is FBI agents running. Superb nothing ruined there either. But I do feel bad for Christine Woods, who plays Janis Hawk, as she's having to run again and again in high heels. That couldn't of been good for the feet. She did a pretty impressive job of running quite fast the first handful of shots as well.

Then they wrap the shot and send us all home. Pretty short day at 10 hours. Yup that's right two scenes takes 10 hours and the second scene took something like 7 hours. It's really nuts how many takes they have to do. Every angle, every distance has to be repeated. The scene is played out again and again and they just have two cameras shooting it from the different angles and distances. Cut, reset, do it again. Wash, rinse, and repeat. On the upside I only learned a minor thing of the plot which I won't discuss here as I don't want to get in trouble should some miracle someone read this or even more important I don't want to ruin the show for anyone. One of the girls was saying she did a couple of the shows before it aired and it lost the steam because she knew several things that happened and we're questions for the viewers at home that wouldn't be answered for a few episodes. That has to suck. Luckily for me that didn't happen.

I'm back and out from the Background

Well I have been horribly slack at updating about the experiences here on the Left Coast. That was for two reasons. When I returned in July all I did was play beach volleyball and become a bum and stayed away from Hollywood. Then when I broke down and signed up for background work I wasn't sure the rules but have seen numerous fb updates and such so screw it. I will start elaborating on life as a background.

This week I was booked for the first time on three different shows which I find shocking because as a generic looking white guy I figured I would get more. Now I didn't sign up till November and was gone for two weeks and then three weeks in December and January and apparently things have been slow since. Now in order to give shorter posts I won't go into great depth but will give some highlights.

Dying is fun. For one show I ran around as a celtic warrior and got to kill Romans and Die myself. Good times had by all. All but one person on the call were men and it was funny how they broke it down. All the Celtic guys were over six feet besides one guy who had long blond hair. I was one of two with brown hair. All had blue eyes. All of the Roman guys were shorter and had darker hair. But we ran into the field with swords and screaming and chopping the guys down and getting sliced up. Easily the most fun I've had on set. Great people, fun and friendly production crew, good weather, and fun work. No complaints there.

Time on the set is all based on who else is on the call. If you have good fellow background people with you, it's a blast. You play card in your down time. You talk to folks. If you don't it can be a really long boring day.

They spend a ton money on extras. Sometimes the call can be 500 to 1000 people. At al hundred bucks a day that means that on a big call, say 500, they are spending half a million dollars a day just background work. Starts to explain the reason why a show costs 3 million to make. Which is sad considering the average salary in this country is hair over 25,000.

That is all for now. Short and sweet.