In NEED.

Bre14 · Apr 19, 2009

have you tried craigslist?

JMMagana18 · Apr 19, 2009

have you tried craigslist?

oo! not yet but i'll try that too.

Bre14 · Apr 19, 2009

heres the link for your area:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/

lumberjack · Apr 19, 2009

Be an extra on tv shows. I did it for awhile when I was in LA, look up Central Casting online. You get registered with them and then call the work line looking for a gig, show up do the background actor thing, and have LOTS of down time for studying. I never read so many books as when I was doing that. Met some other students who do it as a part time gig, some studying for boards, MCATs, etc. Pay is nothing great, but the schedule is super flexible and the work is ridicoulasly easy.

JMMagana18 · Apr 19, 2009

Be an extra on tv shows. I did it for awhile when I was in LA, look up Central Casting online. You get registered with them and then call the work line looking for a gig, show up do the background actor thing, and have LOTS of down time for studying. I never read so many books as when I was doing that. Met some other students who do it as a part time gig, some studying for boards, MCATs, etc. Pay is nothing great, but the schedule is super flexible and the work is ridicoulasly easy.

No way! That actually sounds soo awesome.

Is their an actual audition?

lumberjack · Apr 20, 2009

No audition to speak of, you fill out a form that lists your talents, ex dancing, musical instrument, etc. They take a picture of you, and that is it. But they only take new talent 2 or 3 days a week, so get there early or you'll be in line for hours. Once you are in, they give you the phone number and instructions for getting work. You call the work line about a thousand times a day and when you hear an assignment that matches you such as "ok, I"m casting for the show "CSI New York" and I need white, latino, and african american men ages 25-35 that can look like prisoners, must be buff, clean shaven, tattoos are a plus." Or what ever. They need all looks and body types and sizes. And I've heard some weird stuff, like photo submissions for a foot double, people that own their own gorilla costume, etc. But anyway, once you hear somthing that matches your "look" you call the casting directors number, and you'll probab;y get a busy signal, cuz 100 other people are trying for the same gig, but keep trying and you'll get through to some of them. depending on how agro you are about calling and if you get a call in service to call for you, you can work almost every day if you wanted. Almost all work is weekdays, only rare weekend gigs. Pay is like minimum wage, but time and a half at 8 hours, and double time at 10 hours, and they usually feed you. Don't harbor any illusions about getting famous. Spotting the back of your head for 2 seconds is a good screen shot, this is not the way to break into showbuisness. But it can be a way to kill time and get paid to study during all the down time between shots. And there is a lot of down time. Central Casting is the main outfit in town that casts extras, but there are a couple others to. CC is located in Burbank, but the shows are shot all over.

Hope this helps!

JMMagana18 · Apr 21, 2009

It has actually! I've been looking it up and it doesn't seem that bad of an opportunity.

I printed all the papers that are required but i have a couple questions.

I've decided to wait till my semesters over to go into it, i'll be taking some online classes so it'll be perfect.

But anyway

Did you have a call in service?

Like will having one really put at a disadvantage/advantage?

Cause I really don't wanna do that. but I'm concerned if I don't have one my chances of getting a job will slim.

And was the commute a problem? meaning did you have to drive far for certain jobs.

Or was it really around the LA county area.

And what were your ratio of like work days a week.

Sorry for all the questions just need some advice, and this looks like a dope job.

I wanna have this like on the side while im looking for a real job. Haha

lumberjack · Apr 21, 2009

I never had a call in service, and was fine, but that meant that I had to spend A LOT of time trying to call in and book work for myself. Lots of busy signals. I was told by others that having a call in service helped them work an average of 4 and a half days per week. I did maybe 2 or three days per week. If you are planning on working a lot, then a call in service is worth it. If this is going to more occasional, then it isn't really worth it.

A lot of it is in hollywood or burbank at the studios, but a lot of it is on location all over the greater LA area. And the food is often better on location.

The nice thing for students is the copious amounts of down time to study.

JMMagana18 · Apr 23, 2009

That's awesome. I'm actually really considering it, but I forgot to ask you when you go in to the set, site, studio whatever.

Do they take everyone? meaning, you find a job that suits your "look" and you head down there, and they pick only one person outta of everyone?

I hope this made sense. Thank you!

lumberjack · Apr 23, 2009

Not sure about the first part of your question, if you mean when do you go to Central Casting to get started, check the website, you want to go on the Non-union days, and get there early, looking like what ever you want your "look" to be. As for when you call in and book yourself on a gig, there is seldom just one of you with that "look." They might have 2 detectives, 5 firefighters, 4 state troopers, a dozen bridesmaids, and 17 college students. Or whatever. If there is only one of a given thing, sometimes you might get it, but often it is done through an agent and the person doing it is SAG (screen actors guild). So on any given set there might be 5 other background (extras) or there might be a hundred. Smaller seems to be better though, cuz then they treat you less like cattle. It will all make sense once you start doing it, just show up early, be ready to do whatever you signed up for, and don't give anybody attitude (there are some big egos there already). Other than that it is easy breezy, bring a book or 3 and a charger for your cell phone so you can call in to book the next days work.

Enjoy.

lumberjack · Apr 23, 2009

forgot to mention, some of the gigs are short, only a few hours (but you still get paid for 8!) and some run really long (15.5 hours my longest, virtually never more than that cuz then they have to pay you double your daily wage.) The point is, you usually don't know how long you'll be on set for any given gig. Average, between 7 and 10 hours, but it varies. You do get paid extra for anything over 8 hours though, so that is nice.