Like most jobs low on the totem pole in entertainment, TV/movie extra work (or "Background Acting") pays practically nothing. But it (can be) fun, it's (mostly) easy, you get fed, and the amount of time you actually spend "working" is minimal. If you're unemployed in LA, like meeting new people, have a car to get around, and want to get an arm, the back of your head, or a shoulder on your favorite TV show or the next blockbuster movie, this might be the job for you!

Central Casting
Central Casting is the largest Background Actor supplier in LA, though there are a few others worth looking into. Some of the smaller ones may have exclusive contracts with certain companies and might offer more pay. But Central Casting is the biggest and easiest place to go to get started. There are specific dates and time during the week for you to go into the office to register. You'll fill out some employment forms, listen to a short orientation where they go over rules and procedures, take a picture, pay them a one-time fee, and you're done. You'll be able to go home and start calling their job line. Visit their website for specific details and instructions.

Getting Jobs
You'll need to call everyday, most likely several times a day. It's basically a message center where casting directors leave messages on what jobs are available. If you match their description (Caucasian, 20s, to be wedding guests), call the specific casting director. They'll ask for your information, check your picture, and tell you if you're in or not. If you're in, you'll get instructions on where to be, when to be there, and what to wear/bring (most likely, this will be another phone number for another message with all the details). Once you've been on a few jobs, you'll understand that some shows are better to work than others. For example, I heard Scrubs was the most rockin' place to be an extra. Unfortunately, the few times I managed to match their requirement, I could never get through before the spots filled.

Available Services
You can also sign up with companies to find work for you. You pay them a fee every month; they call you with assignments. There are many companies that do this, and fees can range from $25-$75 and up. I'd recommend going through Central Casting first, and then chatting up the people you meet on set to get suggestions on where the best places to sign up with are. I did try out one company I found on Craigslist that offered the first month free, and they got me a gig for a two-day commercial shoot starring my favorite hottie, Kiefer Sutherland, for $150 a day. That assignment rocked. Be sure your schedule is open to most assignments you're called for. If you're too choosy or are constantly unavailable, they'll stop calling, regardless if you're paying them or not. There's no shortage of people to fill any job, and you're just wasting their time.

On Location
Be prepared, be very prepared. Bring a book or a few magazines. Bring snacks, water, iPod, and an extra sweater or jacket. Many people will even bring one of those comfy camping chairs. You never know if you'll even have a chair to sit on.

There are two rules you can't break. One is you have to be there on time. Casting directors get a lot of heat if their extras show up late, so they'll be sure to make a note and the next time you call, no one will give you a job. I usually got there about 10-15 minutes early and most of them were already there. That's how serious everyone knows being on time is. And don't even think about asking to leave early. They can give you an approximate time they think the shoot will end, but it doesn't end until you hear "check the gate." The one cool thing about the pay is that you get paid for 8 hours even if it ends early. If you're lucky, the shoot lasts for 3-4 hours, and you go home having made more than minimum wage for the time you spent there. Sometimes you have to stay more than 8 hours, in which case you get paid heavy duty overtime, which is nice too, since by then you're more likely to want to stay and milk as much money as possible for a whole day's work. The worse though, is when they let you go right at 8 hours. Those days sucked.

The second rule is don't bother the actors. Don't think you can start collecting autographs. The worse thing you can do, besides showing up late, is to bother the actors. No pictures. No autographs.

The whole day mostly consists of all the extras sitting around somewhere out of the way, until they call everyone in for the scene. You'll be asked to walk around in the background or sit and pretend to be chatting with a fellow extra. You'd never notice but many times it's the same people walking back and forth in the background during the same scene. I counted four of my own passes on one particular scene in 7th Heaven. Sometimes you're dancing to no music. Sometimes you're sitting in the waiting room of ER with a face mask on. Sometimes you're asked to look sad and solemn because you're at a funeral. Although there usually aren't a lot of details about the scene you'll be in, infer what you can by the information you do get. "College student" or "patron at a club" or "Santa Monica Pier background" gives you a good enough idea. I was at two movie shoots where I was just a part of a huge audience (one outdoor at a football stadium, one indoor at a theater). If it's the middle of summer, know that it's going to hot and boring sitting on the stands of a college football field all day.

Food is almost always served -- the union has strict rules about feeding their members every certain number of hours, although once they didn't anticipate the shoot running so long so they didn't have food ordered. It's a hit or miss whether it's good, ok, or really bad. But it's always exciting to find out!

Union Politics
This is actually what made me leave and never go back, not that I was very satisfied with the minimum wage I was being paid in the first place. But I thought it was fun, it wasn't much work, and gave me some cash to pay the bills. Once I found out that "union" (SAG member) background actors got paid DOUBLE for the doing the SAME work, I stopped calling in for work. The whole situation with union versus nonunion actors is screwed up. In order to become eligible to join SAG as a background actor, you need to get three SAG vouchers. And to get those vouchers, you basically get lucky or you kiss a lot of ass. From how I understood it, SAG requires a certain number of union background actors to be hired each day. If a SAG extra cancels at the last minute or just doesn't show up, they still need to give that SAG voucher away. They can either try to get their casting director to scrounge up a SAG extra to come on set, or they will just give it to a nonunion extra to stand in for the SAG person. If you can get that three times, you are then eligible to pay about $2,000 to join SAG, and each year after you pay a fee + a portion of your earnings.

The double pay wasn't all there was to it. They got treated differently. They had a different line for lunch. They had silverware and real plates. They had first dibs on food. Why? Because they were lucky (or flirtatious) enough to grab three SAG vouchers as a nonunion extra. They didn't necessarily work longer or harder than any other nonunion extra. They just got the vouchers. But boy do they act like they're better because they're getting paid more.

Set Your DVR
Gather your friends and family to watch your performance! Find out when the episode will air and set your DVR to record (you're going to have to because more often than not you'll have to rewind, slow mo it, and then pause to point at your hand caught in the background. You might want to save the big gathering viewing for something more substantial. You might get called for a cooler gig, like a background waitress. I had to manuever around dancing couples at a nightclub w/a tray of (real!) drinks dressed in a short skirt, fishnet stockings and high heels. No, I didn't get paid extra (or get a SAG voucher for that), so it would have been more advantageous to be one of the dancing couples instead. But I was on TV!

Last Thoughts
It was fun. I'm glad I did it. But I wouldn't do it again. Not as nonunion anyway.