New Anthony Montgomery film

[TPoptarts]

Browsing casting notices I just came across this one

FEATURE FILM WITH STARS LOOKING FOR BACKGROUND
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Reply to: whyamidoingthis@earthlink.net
Date: 2007-09-07, 8:18PM PDT

WHY AM I DOING THIS? (extras)
Feature Film
Ultra Low Budget Feature Film

COPY, CREDIT, MEALS AND GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR NETWORKING!
ALL ROLES ARE BACKGROUND

Director: Tom Huang
Produced by Stoddard Temple Productions and
Tri-Destined Studios
Casting Director: Jeff Lam
Interview Dates: Casting from Pics
Shoot/Start Date: Mid September
Pay Rate: Copy, Credit and Meal
Location: Los Angeles

ALL ROLES ARE BACKGROUND

Ultra Low Budget Feature Film
w/ tons of name stars and great networking opportunities!

To name a few:

Anthony Montgomery (Enterprise)
Valerie Pettiford (Stomp the Yard)
Emma Caulfield (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Kal Penn (Harold & Kumar)
John Cho (Harold & Kumar)
Dion Basco (Biker Boyz)

and more!

[ AUDIENCE MEMBERS ]
Ages 20 to 38. Men and Women, all ethnicities - For Comedy Club Scenes

[ AUDIENCE ]
Ages 20 to 38. Men and Women, all ethnicities - For 'Death of a Salesman' Play Scene

[ KARAOKE CLUB MEMBERS ]
Ages 20 to 38. Men and Women all ethnicities, but mostly Asian

[ NIGHT CLUB MEMBERS W/DION BASCO ]
Ages 20 to 35. Men and Women ASIAN ONLY

Story Line: Talented but perennially down-on-their-luck, LESTER NILES, a struggling African American comedian, and TONY CHANG, a struggling Asian American actor, are best friends in Hollywood pondering the age-old question, 'Why Am I Doing This?' while juggling relationships, family and the impending feeling of doom that they're never going to make it...

Location: Los Angeles
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: no pay

[JadziaKathryn]

That's kind of cool, but what's "Copy, Credit and Meal"?

[TPoptarts]

^ That means there's no monetary compensation and they're just gonna like feed the extras on set, credit them on the film and send them a DVD copy of the finished film. But like most of the time they say that and they don't give a copy though

If you ask me though that's like a total rip off, I'm never gonna do like unpaid extra work, like I don't even want the scale non-union pay but at least to cover transportation because otherwise it's just like people spending their own money to be in their film and gaining basically nothing, I mean like okay they might get a credit on the film (though extras don't usually get a credit), maybe even on IMDB but it's still too small a role to be considered for anything. Plus extra work isn't even like real acting, like yeah it says "opportunity for networking" but in the end in most cases extras don't actually get to be around the actual actors of the film and network with them, not even like the producers, directors, casting directors or anything they're a completely separate aspect of the project, "cattle call" in professional jargon they're not even individuals. So basically the only people extras get to "network" with are other extras and like 99% of them have absolutely no professional acting experience. Especially like on unpaid extra works it's like the bottom of the food chain, the noobest of the noobs who have nothing on their resumes and are desperately trying to get credits to list. Not that there's like anything wrong with them as people but professionally "networking" with them won't really get you anywhere. Better register with one of the extra companies that supply extras for like shows and films and stuff that pay the people. No credit but since it's not an actual role anyway I'd prefer at least to get paid.

Though I'd act for free anytime

[JadziaKathryn]

I guess they weren't kidding about the ultra-low budget part.

[TPoptarts]

Heh "ultra low budget". Like yeah some productions really are ultra low budget and then like everyone volunteers, but hell they have enough to pay star actors and crew and shoot a professional feature film, I'm sure they can afford to pay at least for like gas or public transportation. The extras are just as essential for the production. It's only fair because why should people spend their own money to do something that doesn't even help them do something they actually like and wanna do. I mean like it's not an acting role, it's not real "networking" it's not actual experience in acting and it's definitely not a foot in the door. It's extra work it's like a totally different thing. Like I said though I'd happily do unpaid acting work. Like without being compensated for buses or anything, and get up at like 3am etc etc. Even though my mother thinks it's like a total waste of time. It's fun

[CoffeeCat]

I once read an article that described all the *perks* that big stars sometimes get when they get involved in a film contract, so hearing that they can't afford to pay the extras kinda annoys the crap out of me.

[CX]

I sure as hell wouldn't work for free.

[TPoptarts]

hearing that they can't afford to pay the extras kinda annoys the crap out of me.

Oh I'm sure in this case they can *afford* to pay the extras just fine. They're just doing what many other productions do - trying to mooch off of naive hopeful fresh-off-the-bus starving actors trying to build their resumes, and like yeah building an acting resume is really hard it's really competitive and not many opportunities especially for noobs, but extra isn't an acting role (even if it's credited) they're better off registering with one of the extra agencies. That way they can list the same insignificant credit in their resume but at least get paid for their time. Because their resume isn't gaining anything from an extra role that's for sure, actually a list of extra credits even lowers the value of an acting resume and then the actor's taken even less seriously than if they only had an "empty" resume with like 1 or 2 credits that are actual acting roles.

Hell go do like community theater or something, like yeah it's not a film/TV credit but it's an acting credit and it's a start, well like even though theater doesn't pay well at all but that is experience and that is resume material. Like seriously there's some people on IMDB, you look at their page and it's nothing but extra credits that say "uncredited" on them. Like yeah so big/professional acting jobs (and many smaller unprofessional ones too) require that actors submit their IMDB link. And actors without an IMDB page aren't like "professional" or "well known" enough for their projects. But no one's gonna take an IMDB page seriously when all the "credits" on it aren't even actual credits (they're uncredited)

[justTripn]

Our T'nT spies are EVERYWHERE. Thanks, T'Poptarts.