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.