Not Getting It. A Public Service Announcement in defense of Background Casting Agencies Part II

A few days ago, I received this email requesting more information:

Hi Christopher,

Your blog is very interesting, and I am glad that I came across it. I am considering working with Acting Reps, and was very relieved to see that you wrote about them on your blog. (Sometimes it is hard to tell from message boards if a post was written by an actual person, but a regularly updated blog like yours gives me more confidence that you are, in fact, a human being. :)) I am not an actor, nor do I plan to become an actor, but am sort of looking for some extra work to do. It seems like you have found them to be reliable in terms of paying you, so I am wondering if you could say anything else about your experience.

Many thanks,
          Suzanne

I emailed back:

Hey Suzanne,

thank you for reading my blog and I'm glad you found it interesting. About background work -- I think it's a hard way to make extra money if you're not interested in acting or working in film or television: it's a long day, usually, you're sitting around allot, and it doesn't pay well at all. However -- if you're interested in acting or working in some capacity in film or television, then it's a great experience.

You say you don't want to be an actor, but something (other than $$) must be attracting you to working on a film set. You should do it -- have fun, talk to the crew (if they're momentarily not busy, which is sometimes rare), and see if you like being there. A lot of people who are now working on film and television sets started out as extras just to see what the hell it's all about, so you should definitely try it!

- Cheers,
       Christopher

I do think it's a hard way to make extra money if you're not interested in acting or working in film or television, but for those who are interested, doing background work is great way to get both experience and money. I've written a few times on this topic, so I'll just redirect the interested reader to these posts.

Bob Fraser, of You Must Act!, gives some excellent advice about the advantages of doing extra work.

Isabelle Palmer also has an interesting post about doing background and the valuable insight she's gotten about the life and working conditions of professional actors by just simply being present and observant on the set. If you're union, it doesn't pay much, but then again, you're not asked to do much, and it's a great education.

Finally, there's a surprising number of books out there about film and television extra work -- they're very good, check them out: