A day on the set for a movie extra.

When the casting agent for the indie

movie Above Suspicion which is now
being shot in Kentucky, primarily in
Lexington, Paris and soon in Harlan
over a period of 35 dayswhich is now
to be re-titled Blood Mountain
recently announced a casting call for
movie extras, I decided to send in my
personal information and headshot
photograph as requested. I had
previously been lucky enough to be an
extra for three other movies made in
part in Central Kentucky: Seabiscuit,
Dreamer, and Elizabethtown.

The first sign that you had indeed arrived at the correct destination
to report to work.

An extra (also known as a background

actor) is a performer in a film who appears in a nonspeaking capacity, usually in the
background, perhaps in an audience or busy street scene or similar role.
Indie films are generally low-budget film productions that are produced outside of the
major film studio system and that is hopefully, eventually, distributed by independent
entertainment agencies. Without the backing of a major studio, ensuring an indie film is
eventually seen by a wide audience is a challenge, but not impossible.
Some of the most successful and memorable indie movies include American Beauty,
The Breakfast Club, The Blair Witch Project, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and
Brokeback Mountain.
Based on the true story of Kentucky FBI agent Mark Putnamthe only FBI agent ever
convicted of homicideAbove Suspicion has a reported $8 million budget and is being
directed by Phillip Noyce whose directing credits include Patriot Games, Clear and
Present Danger, The Bone Collector, and Salt.
In a nutshell, the film has been described as being about the true story of a newly married
FBI poster boy assigned to an Appalachian mountain town in Kentucky where he is drawn
into an illicit affair with an impoverished local woman who becomes his star informant.
Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) and Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) head the cast
with several other notable actors in the mix, including Johnny Knoxville, Thora Birch,
Sophie Lowe, Kevin Dunn, and Omar Benson Miller.
So when I received an e-mail reply from the movies casting agent that began, Please
be aware you were selected by our Director it immediately had my full attention.

I had been selected along with around

thirty others to be a Courtroom
Spectator for a one-day shoot on
Tuesday, May 31st in nearby Paris,
Ky., at the Bourbon County
Courthouse. Twelve other extras were
chosen to be jurors on the same day
for the same scene.
Being an extra means low pay and
long hours. You are essentially a
human prop, or set dressingso most
people are in it for fun; to be a part of
a movie production and perhaps for
the opportunity to see yourself up on
the silver screen or maybe on Netflix.
In the case of Above Suspicion,
extras are asked to be available for an
entire day for what could be 12+ hours
and the call time could be anywhere
from 5:00-5:30 a.m. to late afternoon.
The pay is a guaranteed $58 for up to
8 hours and time-and-a-half for every
hour that exceeds the 8th hour.

Production trucks surround the Bourbon County Courthouse during the

filming of the movie Above Suspicion.

Dont do the math. It doesnt add up to

be very much per hour. But if youre in it for the money, you should probably look
elsewhere for work.
The chosen extras were asked to bring three to five options of simple business casual
attire. Attire consisting of but not limited to slacks, khakis, button-ups, polos, neutral colors
(nothing bright), and closed toed shoes, preferably loafer style shoes for men; and slacks,
skirts, pantyhose, shirts, blouses, cardigans, and closed toed shoes for women. If the
Wardrobe people dont like what you bring, theres a tractor-trailer truck or two filled on
the set with clothing of all types and sizes at their disposal.

The Holding area at 5:30 a.m. where extras waited when not needed on the
set and were seen by the Hair & Make-up crew.

The call time for the extras on this

day was a very early 5:30 a.m.
With my clothing options in tow, I
arrived at the Holding building
located less than one block from
the Bourbon County Courthouse
just before 5:00 a.m. The Holding
area is where the extras will hang
out on the set when not needed
for filming but it also qualifies as a
holding area because you spend
a great deal of time holding your
paperwork and holding your attire
until you have a chance to be
seen by the Wardrobe people.
Extras tend to be wrangled about
on the movie set by a Production
Assistant (P.A.).

The P.A.s tell you where to go and when to be there and how to perform your duties as
an extra. Many production companies hire locals to work as P.A.s while others have a
regular crew they bring with them.
For Above Suspicion, all of the department heads and the Hair & Make-up crew are all
locals for the scenes shot in Central Kentucky. One hairdresser noted that he lives in
Cincinnati. So local is relative. The extras on the day I was on set were from all over the
state of Kentucky and at least one was from Ohio. Dont do the math on also paying for
gasoline to get to the set on an extras pay. You may be working for free at the end of
the day. But not one extra Ive ever met on set was ever doing it for profit.
After completing the customary paperwork which is necessary to eventually get paid, I
was instructed to bring along my clothing options and follow the P.A. over to Wardrobe.
Upon arriving there, a woman who I assume was the movies head Costume Director
greeted me, confirmed which role I was playing, took one glance and my shirts and
remarked, How about the blue one? Done. I stepped into the nearby mens changing
tent and switched my shirt from a basic black polo shirt to the blue onea short-sleeve
blue plaid button-down shirt. I wore khakis but as the most of the day was spent seated
in each scene, the pants didnt matter a great deal.
If you are issued clothing from Wardrobe, they hold your paperwork to ensure that you
return it at the end of the day. If you dont, you wont get paidand they will no doubt
track you down to get their clothing back.
Other things do. Extras are forbidden to wear their own eyeglasses (unless they are
period style) and no watches, no jewelry unless it is gold, and absolutely no logos of any

type that might be picked up while on camera on any clothing. So throughout the day I
had to remember to remove my eyeglasses any time a scene was being filmed.
Water bottles were an issue during filming on this day. Several times the director or
assistant director shouted, Im seeing water bottles (in the camera shot). A crew member
would then scramble to locate and remove the offending water bottle from the cameras
view. At one point the assistant director laughingly but clearly frustrated, offers onehundred dollars to the first crewmember who can find the water bottle visible in the shot.
After getting my attire approved by Wardrobe,
it was time to go back to Holding. Upon my
arrival back at Holding, one of the women at
the Hair & Make-up station invited me to have
a seat while she quickly applied some powder
base to my face and neck and forehead to
prevent a shine from possibly occurring while
on-camera.
No surprise, men tend to take far less time in
Hair & Make-up than do most women. A little
combing, or hair brushing, or perhaps
mustache darkening for men.
You get a wig, one female extra was informed by a hairdresser. Other females did also,
or at least a lot of attention to their hair to match the look of the late 80s when the actual
saga took place.
In addition, no lapel pins or other accessory items are allowed unless given to you by the
Props people, and absolutely no tattoos can be visible. Extras were repeatedly asked,
Do you have any visible tattoos?
The Hair & Make-up and Wardrobe folks are painstakingly precise on this morning as
they strive to ensure that each extras look fits the time period of the movies setting.

Once your look is established,

you will be photographed again
and again for continuity
purposes. Shooting takes place
over a period of hours and days
with breaks and gaps inbetween shots. P.A.s and other
crew members give a watchful
eye to make sure you look the
same in the afternoon as you
did in the morning. Many
scenes are shot from various
(and seemingly all) angles. The
slightest
change
between
scenes could potentially be
noticeable when the various
shots are eventually edited
together in the films final cut.

A member of the Hair & Make-up crew photographs extras in the Holding area.

By 5:30 a.m. I had passed through sign-in, Wardrobe and Hair and Make-up and was
basically ready for filming to begin. But no such luck. A large part of an extras day on the
set is spent waiting around. Today would be no exception.
Not quite two hours later it was finally time to walk-over the courthouse where filming
would occur all day. The extras are given explicit instructions on the dos and donts while
on the setwith strong emphasis on the rule, DO NOT TAKE PHOTOS of the actors and
actresses while on the set or ask for autographs. Those two things are strictly a no-no.
Before leaving the Holding area, a make-up artist offered a cloth to anyone who perspires
a lot.
There will not be any air-conditioning in the courtroom, she announced. And she was
certainly correct.
When I was an extra on the set of Seabiscuit, the temperature was in the mid-20s during
the filming of the movies outdoor match race scene. The extras in that scene had heat
packs tucked into their gloves, hat, and shoes. It was brutally cold all day. Hot or cold or
in-between, its all part of the wacky work that sometime comes with being an extra in a
movie.

Apparently the potential noise of

an air-conditioner poses a
problem for the sensitive moviemaking microphones. So sweaty
actors/actresses
(and
some
sweaty extras) kept the make-up
folks busy on the set touching up
peoples make-up again and
again.
Once in the courtroom, we, the
courtroom spectators were placed
in position in the actual spectator
seating area of the courtroom.
You move to here. You two
move up a row. You move over
Overlooking the Wardrobe area on the set of Above Suspicion.
one seat. Sit by her. No, wait,
move over by him. They knew
what look they wanted for the background and eventually everyone had their assigned
spotbasically for the entire day. Thankfully, we were able to sit for the long day ahead,
but sitting for hours in uncomfortable vintage courtroom chairs is not exactly a day at the
beach. Many extras grumbled to each other as the day wore on. If I dont get to move
around soon I may not make it. The activity of the day for most people who were seated
in the courtroom was fanning themselves to get a little relief from the heat.
At some point a crew member noted, Its the first day on the set for the movies main
actors. We want everything to go smoothly. As far as I could tell, for the most part, it did.
Once the extras and jurors were set, the Hair & Make-up crew moved around the room
touching up peoples hair and make-up once again. Throughout the day you might be
occasionally tweaked by a Hair and Make-up person who would slip upside beside or
behind you and fix whatever they deemed in need of attention. Not even the tiniest detail
is overlooked in the movie-making process. That in part is why it takes so long and so
many takes are necessary once filming is underway.
The scene we filmed for most of the day will most likely last less than a couple of minutes
on screen but took hours to film.
The director and assistant director addresses the actors and extras time after time during
filming, explaining the scene about to be shot. Look into this camera. She just ruined
your sons life. Dont forget to laugh at this point. Sometimes there were two cameras
side by side. So it was truly important to know which camera to look ator when not to
look directly into the camera. In addition, a great deal of time was spent changing out
camera lenses between shots. Use the 18. Try the 25 here. Lets go with a 50 here.

There is a great deal of controlled chaos on the set.

Approximately 200 people are on set for this
particular scene including crew and cast and
extras. It can be crowded, cramped, and chaotic on
the actual set but it simultaneously offers you the
opportunity to literally have a front-row seat to the
movie-making business.
If youve ever been to a house party with way too
many people in a few rooms, you basically
understand what the set was like. You have to use
caution even walking from A to B as equipment is
everywhereand
being
moved
around
everywhere. If youre not dodging a crew person
moving something in your direction, youre
probably navigating your way around the
seemingly miles of cords and cables on the floor.
Sometimes simply finding a spot to stay out of the
way when not in the scene was a challenge.
My seat in the courtroom was a few rows behind actor Johnny Knoxville on this day who
was seated on the front row directly behind the prosecutors table and I could just about
tell you how many hairs are on his head after sitting in that one spot virtually all day.
By my observation, Knoxville never once made eye contact with the extras on the set nor
even looked in our direction but did, on occasion, make small talk with other actors seated
nearby.
Not every extra completely understands how the process works. Movies are tightly
scripted and extras are to be seen but not heard. So on this particular day, when one
extra couldnt help himself and blurted out, Youre a liar during a scene, clearly thinking
he was adding something to the scene, he was quickly informed by more than one person
to not speak nor attempt to add unscripted dialogue to a scene.
The first rule of being an extra is to not do anything that would bring attention to yourself.
When you are a background actor, the background is where you are expected to stay. At
another point, right in the middle of a take, Im sorry, I didnt get that was heard coming
from an extras iPhone when she accidentally hit the button on the phone normally used
to give Siri a voice command.
It seemed as if every person in the courtroom turned and looked at her. A short time later,
an actress who was seated nearby leaned over to her and asked, Did you get that turned
off? It was a friendly way of saying, dont let that happen again.

The same scene is shot over and over again, take after take during filming until the
director is satisfied. Combine that reality with the lack of air-conditioning on the day and
you have a setting that is not for everyone.
You need to have deep patience if you are to survive
a twelve to fourteen-hour day on the set--and
perhaps a granola bar or some other snack food.
On this particular day, they did not make breakfast
available to the extras although the P.A.s and other
crew members openly ate breakfast while working.
I surmised that to be a cost-saving measure, not an
accident.
With a 5:30 a.m. call-time, 8 hours would pass
before the extras were provided with anything to eat.
By 11:00 a.m. some extras began to complain about
being hungry. By noon, many extras had become
flat-out cranky about the lack of food. Lunch would
not be available until 1:30 p.m.
Due to the busy shooting schedule and limited A welcome lunch was served to the extras at 1:30
amount of time to complete the filming of certain p.m. consisting of spaghetti and meatballs, a
scenes in certain locations, stopping for lunch or tossed salad, and chocolate cake.
breakfast is not a major concernat least not a
priority concern. Time is precious and time is money.
On this day, one of the actors is obviously struggling with his lines and with taking
directions from the director throughout the day. Im sorry. Im completely lost as to what
we are doing now. He would forget his line time and again. But the director was patient
for the most part with just a tinge of frustration in his voice.
Many times, the director would be in an adjoining room watching the scene on monitors
and not actually in the courtroom. His direction would come via an overhead speaker,
much like God speaking to the masses. When that wasnt the case, he would come into
the room, give a specific direction to the crew or an actor and then return to the adjoining
room to watch the next take. Once or twice he would walk directly up to an actor, place
his arm around the actors shoulder and speak quietly. I was very curious as to what he
was specifically saying each time that happened.
Between the confusion and the retakes and the temperature in the courtroom, more than
a few extras grew increasingly fidgety as the day wore on. Not to mention that the old
wooden seats in the Bourbon County Courtroom have to be some of the most
uncomfortable seats you could ever sit inespecially when you are sitting in one of them
for hours on end.

The day continued. Retake and after retake. The same lines were heard again and again
and again as the scene was shot over and over. Cameras were repositioned. Equipment
was brought into the courtroom or removed from the courtroom. Lighting was set and
reset and adjusted and readjusted. Something was seemingly always happening. It was
more or less like standing in the middle of Times Square in New York. There is a lot of
activity occurring in every direction around you.
Finally, at 4:45 p.m. the director announced that we
were finished and he thanked the extras. His shirt
was noticeably sweat-stained as he had been
moving around most all day, also enduring the
tropical temperatures that were inside the
courtroom.
Next we filed out of the second floor courtroom and
moved downstairs where it was much cooler to
meet up with our P.A. for final instructions. Or so
many of us thought.

Director Phillip Noyce. Source: IMDB.com.

Before the P.A. could dismiss us, it was decided that

twenty extras should stay to be a part of a final
scene to be shot on the day. If you have been highly
visible in a particular scene, you cannot be used in
a different capacity for a different scene so the
jurors and judge are dismissed at once. Some
seemed disappointed that they could not stay. Even
after a long day and warm temperatures, some
extras wanted a little more of the action.

Our assigned P.A. turned and counted those of us who were left. One...twothree Up
to twenty.
If you were one of the twenty people I just counted off, follow me back to Holding.
I was one of the twenty to remain for an additional scene and back to Holding I went.
The dismissed extras were then instructed on how to turn in their props and wardrobe if
applicable and how to get signed out to get paid.
Once back at the Holding Building we waited. And waited. And waited some more. It had
been a long day and the energy level in the room had understandably dissipated. Some
extras engaged in small chitchat. While others stepped outside to smoke a cigarette or
make a call on their cellphone. A few went for coffee and returned a short time thereafter
so as not to miss the call to return to the set.
At around 7:15 p.m. we were informed that it was finally time to return to the courthouse.

Once there, it was explained that were going to be utilized as walkers. Not the type of
walkers from The Walking Dead, rather, extras walking in the background of one last
scene to be filmed in the main lobby of the courthouse.
Something new and different as opposed to the courtroom scene but there was still no
escaping the lack of air-conditioning on the set. The Make-Up people stayed busy
mopping the faces of the main actors in the scene between takes.
For my final moments as an extra, I along with a few others were instructed how to walk
through the scene as needed. You first. Then you. Then you. Ill cue you. I was to walk
across the shot behind the actors who were ascending a staircase. I was instructed to
walk into the shot and turn and look in the direction of the actors as if to wonder what was
the commotion that was occurring. Im not saying Ill win an Academy Award for my walkthrough-the-shot, but in the history of every movie ever filmed in the Bourbon County
courthouse lobby, I am confident that was the best walk-through by an extra ever.
Consistent with the phrase, Ended up on the cutting room floor, if my shining moment
actually makes it into the final cut of the movie, I will be truly amazed. With so many
scenes and so many angles and so many options in the editing process, it is
understandable how easy it is to not find yourself included in the final cut.
A few takes later, the remaining extras were finally finished for the day. It was just before
8 p.m. Thirteen hours since checking-in. As much fun as it had been, I was a tiny bit
thankful it was over and definitely appreciative that I had an opportunity to be a part of it.
Throughout it all, the crew couldnt have been any friendlier. They were on set long before
we arrived in the wee hours of the morning and Im confident they remained on set long
after we left. The main actors also seemed happy to be there throughout the day.
It was certainly a long day but definitely a fun and interesting day, and a day that provided
a fascinating behind-the-scenes view into the Hollywood movie-making process.
It is estimated that it could be as long as two years before the movie will be available for
public viewing. I look forward to the possibility of seeing the final cut and will certainly
remember my day on the set of Above Suspicion fondly.