In the Background: An Extra's Handbook

Pauline Carey is the author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

Bill Tarling, actor and extra, has been Chair of the Background
Performers’ Committee of ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema,
Television and Radio Artists) and also runs his own extras agency. While
this book is loaded with advice for the neophyte extra who wishes to do
a professional job, it also contains some useful information for
would-be principal actors who would like to be more at ease around a
film set, and even for stage actors new to the business.

The text focuses on procedures followed in independent film productions
and in the CBC, since this is where most extras find their work. The
short chapters are efficiently divided into sections on how to get
through the audition, how to behave on the set, and how to organize
one’s life in a profession in which it is not uncommon to be called
with two hours’ notice (or even in the middle of the night) and asked
to arrive with three different costume changes.

There is a wealth of forms and worksheets at the back of the book to
help the extra keep up to date on such essentials as casting agents,
schedules, finances, contacts, and the all-important résumé. Although
there is no index, there is an extensive glossary that will be of
particular value to nonprofessionals.