Introduction

                                                       Introduction

     In the “politically correct” world we live in, some people may object to being called EXTRAS. Perhaps they prefer to be called, ATMOSPHERE, or BACKGROUND ARTISTS. To all of them, I say, “Get over yourself.” When you are seated among 300 cardboard people, because production wants to make the crowd look bigger, you can hardly call yourself an artist. Nobody will see you. Even if the camera looks your way, it will be fleeting, or out of focus. On the film, “Sea Biscuit,” some of the BACKGROUND ARTISTS were blow-up dolls, wearing 1930’s clothing. They were EXTRAS, and they were invisible, and if you were among them, so were you. Once in a great while, a cardboard person makes it past, the film editor. It is considered to be a continuity screw up, unless it is done on purpose. The only movie I have ever seen the cardboard people, that we worked with, was the movie S.W.A.T., starring Samuel L. Jackson. They were needed for the film, and they did their job well.

     If you are a pedestrian, on the sidewalk, a car driving by, a passenger at an airport, or a curious onlooker, you can call yourself ATMOSPHERE. 

     A BACKGROUND ARTIST requires a specific skill, or talent. Can you juggle? Dance a waltz? Toss pizza dough? Anybody can walk across a room, or applaud. Let me see you walk on your hands. Backward.

     It is called Extra work. Not Atmosphere work, or Background Artist work. At least it was, when I was doing it. When I stopped doing extra work, the cardboard people were slowly, but surely, being replaced, by the digital people. There were rumblings, in the industry, about what to pay, and who would own, the rights, to your digital image, and likeness. 

     Perhaps one day, they will no longer need movie extras, so the debate over what to call yourself, will end. No more trying to sound more important than you really are. Of all the people, and things, and events, that must transpire, in order for a movie to be made, you are the lowest, in the pecking order, and the easiest to replace, no matter what you call yourself. This is a fact, and in the words of Mr. Spock, “To deny the facts, would be illogical.”