Just rewatched Con Air. I was both SEG (Screen Extras Guild) and SAG (Screen Actors Guild and did my share of background work. Lots of good memories of film shot in California, the high desert and of course Las Vegas. Background talent is a vital part of any project. When it is done well you do not notice it, everything seems natural. When it is done poorly it becomes obvious, overdone and can distract from the foreground story. Union talent know how to be professional on the set and how to make the scene seem real. They also know tat the best background talent, the ones who make the most money, are the background or not even in frame. They can be called back for additional days of work, even in other scenes. I had a great time doing background and I still do background talent work (union only of course) occasionally., and enjoy it when I do. Unfortunately LA typecast actors, and you can be typed as background and not taken seriously in auditions for roles.The Las Vegas Casting Directors support this in their casting decisions or recommendations. So you need to decide, at some point, which you are going to be. Personally I believe actors should work their craft, even in the background part of it. Money is money, time on set is time on set and Pension and health income is P&H. But casting directors and mainstream Hollywood disagree, so I tell my students to do some background to learn the set and what it is like, but not to be known as background. Hard to do in Las VEgas where most of the work is background. And now a Hollywood company, Central Casting, has entered the market and imported Los Angeles taking jobs from locals. Support your local casting directors, agents and producers. One mor ethin ong Con Air. No matter what you think of Nicholas Cage, the star, he did testify before the state legislature last year and was a part of winning our first ever state film incentives. Keep runaway production from running away to Hollywood. Film Nevada.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:09:32 +0000
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