EXTRAS NOT INCLUDED

Had COVID hit in 1982, Bruce Willis never would have had the chance
to be an extra in The Verdict (third row, second from right).

We background actors would occasionally "joke" that studios were looking forward to the time when it became cheaper to use CGI characters in our place.

Thanks to COVID-19 speeding up the course of history, that day might be upon us. Drastic changes in shooting movies and TV shows are afoot, according to the Hollywood Reporter, including cutting extras.

Well, there goes my four-year gig. It was fun while it lasted. Most of the time, anyway. But isn't that like any other job? The supreme irony is that just as the industry shut down in March, I was to embark on a week-and-a-half long shoot playing a surgeon -- wearing, of course, a surgical mask. Ahead of my time once again.

From what I could gather, it was going to have at least a hundred  of us extras. The Hollywood Reporter piece states that writers have to start rethinking that kind of thing. So either my scene will feature a lot of clever camerawork to give the idea of a big crowd, or CGI will be used. Either way, it's likely this extra is excised.

Take a good look at this still from Ben-Hur, because you'll never see this many people in one shot ever again.

Burt Mustin doesn't want to hear your crap about
not hiring older actors.

Another thing working against me is my age. Until now, that was never a problem. Unless they're shooting a scene at a rave or the like, people of all ages are needed in this job. In fact, it was the only job I could get after getting laid off. But at 64, I'm in the likely-to-catch-and-spread-COVID category. 

As I said in an earlier piece, I think I caught COVID in January, which means I theoretically have antibodies to prevent a second round. That, sadly, will likely not matter. As with any business, it all comes down to the numbers -- like, the year I was born.

Or CBS can turn Waiting for Godot into a weekly sitcom.

Movies can shoot in countries where restrictions are looser, but TV is stuck in New York and L.A. The former was the epicenter of American COVID cases, and the latter is increasing in numbers, so these two cities are going to take precautions that haven't even been thought of yet. If you've been hankering for your favorite TV show to have two characters on one set for entire episodes, this is your lucky season.

One good thing for what few background actors are used is that, according to the Hollywood Reporter, "the days of doing a dozen extra takes is likely over." We could always tell which shows had a dirigible-sized production budget: each scene would be shot more times from more angles than you thought humanly possible. 

If we were working during the day, that wasn't a problem. But if we were still on set at midnight in the middle of our 15th hour of filming, then a touch of physical and psychological exhaustion would start settling in. 

I confess to missing the occasional cue at those times because my focusing skills would slip. If we were playing audience members, it wasn't  out of the ordinary to hear a colleague snoring during a take. Maybe you didn't hear it because you were snoring, too.

A sloppy triptych of  the holding area of  the next-to-last show I worked on -- and these are just the people I could fit into
 the shots. What was normal then now appears to be a giant human petri dish.

It's difficult to know how long

Not anymore.

this new trajectory in creating entertainment is going to last. One union rep for the movie industry told a reporter that things on set won't go back to normal until there's a vaccine. I seem to remember someone involved in Los Angeles politics positing that life in that city will never be the way it was pre-COVID, vaccine or no.

Either way, studios will likely adjust to the new ways as they did the coming of sound in the late 1920s. And as talkies negatively affected many an actor's career, so COVID-19 will do so for extras. Only there'll be no Singin' in the Rain to mark this time in Hollywood history.

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