Is extra work a credit?

Andie , I would say NO .

• 15 years ago
• 1

I never put extra work on any CV - the closest I've come to it is work as a supernumerary with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. However, that was paid "acting" work at Equity rates so I felt ok to add it on my CCP CV - still wouldn't put it on my paper CV though.

• 15 years ago
• 2

When you say "non speaking role" what do you mean? Was there individual characterisation (dare I say acting) or were you just a body in the crowd? Who directed you - the director or the 3rd AD? :o)

Oh, were Laurel and Hardy, and even the great Charlie Chaplin only extras?

• 15 years ago
• 3

If you have no speaking part DO NOT PUT IT ON YOUR CV.

To be honest its hardly acting if you're not speaking just face expressions in the background so If I were you I wouldn't do it if I'm to consider myself an actor.

Reuben Liburd

• 15 years ago
• 4

Thanks guys...yes there is individual characterisation and I am only with my son in the pushchair, not a crowd scene (scene is: I am off to a prison with my son) but I haven't got any lines to say.

Cheers

Andie

• 15 years ago
• 5

You don't need to speak to have a good part. Many non-speaking roles are 'featured' and some are even lead roles!

Perhaps you should look at Samantha Morton in 'Sweet and Lowdown' or Alan Arkin in 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' (for which he won a Best Actor Oscar). Both were non-speaking roles! However they were lead roles.

What you need to figure out is whether the role is a 'featured' role. And by that I mean some good screen time with some specific task to do. Not just a blink-and-you'll-miss-it camera shot.

• 15 years ago
• 6

I neglected to mention that if the 'part' is classed as extra work then do not add it!

• 15 years ago
• 7

I had a part as a burglar in a Paul Merton thing,(name in the credits) nice long scene creeping around his flat while he was asleep, nicking his clothes etc but obviously no lines so there is still some silent movie acting available...but I don't think pushing a push chair is really going to be worth a mention on your cv. Sorry. Even if you're directed by the director himself and it is mentioned in the script it hardly makes it to walk on 2.
Don't want to be a party poop but as someone who got well typecast as an SA I feel qualified to answer this one.
:-(
better luck next time :-)

• 15 years ago
• 8

Nigel ... your first point was the most valid:

Name in the credits = credited. QED :o)

• 15 years ago
• 9

Andie, I would seek advice from my agency if I wasn't sure. TV and film parts, even if you are featured can be very short after editing. What you don't want to do is miss out on a film credit - you were selected for it after all.

• 15 years ago
• 10

Hmmm...certainly sounds like a 'walk on' part to me. I have no great issue with you placing it on your CV if you wish to (it's a free country!), but it's not going to cut any useful ice with anyone (e.g. casting director) who can clearly determine its a passing, non-speaking role. I never bother with stuff that is minor, blink-and-you'll miss me material - I have even been in 'featured' roles which I've taken off the CV because I know, were a casting director to ever review the material (in my dreams!), their first question would be 'where the hell are you in this?'. I'd rather be listing the obscure low budget in which I had a co-supporting role, than the fact that I appeared in a Steven Spielberg for .08 of a second, wearing a hat. That's my opinion.

More important may be the issue of if this came through an agent, what exactly are they thinking of? I can understand putting you forward for 'cameos' in adverts, where the money is the primary motivation etc. - but a walk on in a TV series is something you could have got yourself! And even with these provisos, it should *always* be a 'featured' role you are intended for, otherwise the agent hardly has a right to call themselves an agent (naturally, working through a walk on agency is different!).

• 15 years ago
• 11

Actually, Andie, rereading that post I see you never mentioned an agent, and this could be something that you landed through personal application or personal contacts. In which case, ignore my last points. Most of us do a bit of this sort of work at some time or another, often by accident - we are led to believe that our involvement in a project will be more substantial than it turns out to be, and find ourselves caught in a bind when we realise the part is weak. But, honestly, I think you, the actor, know when you are *acting* (in however brief a capacity) and when you are providing background colour. In my opinion, when I am filmed walking across a room, or clapping my hands from a distance etc., this hardly constitutes acting - anyone could do it, if told to, and frequently they do. If you know in your heart that the part was being a glorified extra, then trust that any casting directors etc. will see it too. As I pointed out recently, my problem is often the opposite way about - having performed meaty and substantial parts that are given identities that sound as if they are 'walks ons'. Character actors often have to suffer from definite article syndrome when they are never 'Tony' or 'Brian Higgs' etc. but always 'The Milkman', 'The Bank Manager', 'The Leader of the Guard' and it doesn't matter whether 'The Leader of the Guard' has a three and a half page soliloquy, it still sounds ropey!

Anyway...that's getting off the point...

• 15 years ago
• 12

ask yourself this;- are you a professional or an extra , as is the part creditable?

• 15 years ago
• 13

ANSWER IS NO

• 15 years ago
• 14

I've done loads of what officially would be called SA or Extra work but the production company saw fit to give me a credit due to the critical nature of the roles I was playing to the storyline being portrayed!! It's really an emotive point and there is no hard and fast ruling on this despite Alan's capitalisation of his opinion on this and the other related thread!!

At the end of the day, it's up to the producers if you get a line in IMDb and subsequently you CV or not!

• 15 years ago
• 15

I take Forbes's point - if there is an independent listing of the part on IMDB, then it can be considered 'featured'. But I do think this is an issue at your discretion - you will know whether you feel the part in question is representative of you working to your best ability, and my feeling remains that, if you returned home from the shoot feeling you were underused, or asked to do something anyone could have done in your place, then you shouldn't list the credit, because its pointless. I know you might have worked with a big name director etc., but I reiterate, if you also know, that were someone to view the sequence in its entirety, they might justifiably say 'What, you mean you were the person with the big hat in the back of the crowd?' or 'that was the back of your head that I saw moving past Sean Bean sat on the park bench?' or whatever, then this is not a credit you need...it just isn't.

Forbes's case is frequently different, I believe, because as he says many of his 'supporting' roles end up having a vital part to play in the narrative. There is, in that sense, a distinction, and good 'featured' parts, especially if they reinforce industry awareness of your casting type, *can* be useful to credit, as can, of course, things like 'cameos' in adverts, about which there isn't the same stigma.

Another good way of defining the quality of the part is to ask whether you had to audition/recall etc. to get it - in which case, somebody was at least making a judgement call on your suitability and talent to a certain extent, as opposed to pure 'extras' work, where anyone can be pulled onto set regardless of their performing experience.

So put simply, it's always a judgement call in my opinion, as to whether you feel the part is worthy of consideration or not. If *you* felt it inconsequential, ditch it.

• 15 years ago
• 16