Immortalized forever on social media

Retirement Life

It still surprises me, when I bump into someone I haven't seen in a while, and they say, "Hey! I saw you (in a commercial/on TV/in a movie) the other day." I mean it is to be expected, as I've been doing this for almost five years now, and sometimes the scene or advertisement will get some eyeballs. But for the most part, the Background work I do, you'd really need to know what to watch for in order to see or recognise me.

Here's a good example of a typical scene when working as Background. This is from Sandra Bullock's new Netflix movie called "The Unforgivable". Another guy and I are standing outside the office, where Sandy is meeting with the parents who are taking care of her sister. They exit the room, and for the briefest millisecond of a moment, you can catch me standing outside. Believe it or not, this is actually what they wanted, because after the first rehearsal, the AD comes over and says, "Can you shift a little to your left? Perfect!" But anyone but me, they'd never know that I was intentionally placed there!

Then there are the days when you know that you're going to be "featured" in a scene. It's pretty easy to tell, especially when you can see your reflection in the camera lens! This one was another Netflix movie "The Perfection" - it's a pretty creepy movie actually, but you never really know what they are about when you are filming these scenes.

But most of the time, we're working on TV shows filmed here in BC that most people I know aren't going to watch (Riverdale, Supergirl, etc.). However, when the BC goverment commercial runs for a month during the local news and during Hockey Night in Canada, people were bound to notice me (grandpa at the end).

 

And then there's the time when a fellow BG said, "Hey, you're on Shannon Dang's twitter feed!" Of course, I'm just a blur in the background, but it was funny that someone recognised me from that. But speaking of feeds, my wife and I were sitting in the ferry lineup this past summer, and she was scrolling through her Facebook feed, when this came across:

The strange thing about this one, is that we had shot those scenes over four years ago, and I only got paid for the day session photo and video shoot. i.e. I did not get a buyout or residuals for use. But I guess because the company that these were for (Destination Canada) is partnering with Expedia for this, maybe they don't have to pay anything for usage? I had finally gotten over it, when this appeared on MY facebook feed:

And the final weird one, is that if you were to google image search my thumbnail to the right, you'd get a hit for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, listing me as and extra on Helstrom! So just like that, I'll exist forever on the internet - Marvel, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter! 

Time to start travelling again!

Travel and Leisure

Ok, well maybe "booking" is the appropriate verb here. Now that we have had our two shots, and the world is starting to catch up, it looks like we might start to be able to do some European travel again. So while I was browsing the travel deals that come into my inbox daily, I noticed a Travelzoo promo for Emerald Waterways river cruises that looked pretty good! For those of you who haven't looked into river cruising, it can be ludicrously expensive, but sales do come up, and it can often come into the price range for "normal" European travel.

Let me explain. First of all, we don't normally travel in 4-5 star hotels, and eat 5-course meals for dinner. But if we were to travel to most places in Western Europe, we'd be probably paying $200/night¹ for a hotel, and then meals for both of us would likely be at least another $100 (conservatively), plus another $100 for transit/taxis and tours/attractions. So we would be looking at $400 a night, or $200 per person for each night we'd stay in Europe. Sure, regional differences will make that go up and down; it would be hard to get by on that in Paris or Zurich, versus you might only spend half that in Porto or Zagreb. But the $200 figure is a good baseline that I like to use for a discount fare on river cruises; i.e. if I see anything that comes remotely close to that, it's time to take the offer seriously.

What? For some of you reading this, you are thinking that I am probably on crack right now. European river cruising for $200 per night? Yet we've done it, and all it required is some flexibility on dates and routes, and watching the inbox for deals to come along. In truth, we actually have gone on two cruises where we sailed for $159/night - Essential Holland with Vantage Deluxe Travel, and Budapest to Regensburg w/ Prague with Gate 1. And we're not talking about being in the dark staterooms on the bottom of mediocre ships, cruising in the shoulder season. No, this was peak times, and we were in French balcony rooms on the middle or top deck, and the Vantage MS River Voyager was definitely a Deluxe² calibre of ship. Update: Gate 1 has picked up the lease on the River Voyager, and re-branded her as the Monarch Queen.  

Emerald Panorama Balcony Suite (image credit: emeraldcruises.co.uk)

The one cruise I have been watching out for is the Lower Danube, typically starting in Budapest and ending in Giurgiu, Romania, with a short bus trip to Bucharest to catch your flight home. So when this deal rolled across my inbox and that route was included, I quickly did the calculations, and it was coming close to my pull-the-trigger $200 threshold. The Travelzoo promo code didn't give exactly 50% off, since the discount didn't apply to the port charges and taxes, as well as the one hotel night in Bucharest; the final per night price came down to around $270 per person. Emerald also includes some extras that we didn’t used to factor in, like onboard and shoreside tips. I'd never seen this itinerary go on sale at a reasonable price, and since we've saved so much money not travelling during the pandemic, I figured the overage was within my Scottish financial reach. 

Now that I've pulled the trigger on a September 2022 river cruise, I was curious as to what the other guys are charging for this cruise. I had a tough time trying to get pricing to match up for the same type of cruise with a good sampling of other operators (e.g. without pre- and post-excursions, flights, etc.), so I picked a very popular Rhine river cruise that sails Amsterdam to Basel over 7 nights. Pretty much every operator offers this cruise, and while there are tons of them, I narrowed it down to the three Deluxe (5-star) big guns, and some other First Class (4-star) ones. For each operator, I checked their website for the current list price for a Cat D or C panorama window/French balcony stateroom, then deducted any promotional offer from that. 

The shocker of course, is Crystal (edit: now defunct), as their list price for this cruise shows on their site at $14,998! But since they are pretty much always selling at 2-for-1, I've adjusted that as their list price in the table. Even though it's not the trip I booked, the Emerald Travelzoo promo code³ brought their price down to the cheapest. But you're thinking, "So $2,100 divided by 7 nights, that's still $300 per night?" And you'd be right, but with some patience and if you’re flexible on dates and route, there's still room to go down. Sign up for discount sites like Travelzoo.com and RiverCruise.com as well as the regular updates from the major cruise operators. That's where your flexibility comes in - if you like the route and dates offered, you can often save even more; I sometimes see the Gate 1 Travelzoo promo knock 50% off their already competitive prices! Update: you would also see cruise deals for Vantage Deluxe pop up on Travelzoo, but with their recent issues, I would not suggest booking with them going forward. If you would like to read about how these lines compared to our original Uniworld trip, click here.

Now I know there are those that will say, "Uniworld is all-inclusive" or "you leave your wallet at home with Tauck", and while these statements are true, all the other operators I've compared with are nearly all-inclusive. There is always one free included tour or excursion everyday, Wi-Fi is also free, and wine, beer and soft drinks are included at dinner (and sometimes at lunch). Some do require that you pay tips at the end, which for a 7-night cruise is around $120 per person. Yes, drinks at the bar during non-meal hours are expensive, but really, how many cocktails are you able to suck back between the time you get back from your afternoon city exploring, and dinner? In my comparison above, it would be hard for me to justify almost $3,000 difference to sail with Uniworld (BTW, our first river cruise was down the Rhine with Uniworld, but it was long ago, when she was a travel agent, and we got a special price). But I salute those of you who can afford the high-end, Deluxe cruise operators - maybe someday we will find ourselves travelling with the upper echelons as well. But for now, I'm happy to save some money and sail on First-Class ships.

¹ all prices discussed in this post are USD or approximated USD equivalent.

² With river cruising, Deluxe is classified as the highest level of service, and First Class is one notch below that.

³ Travelzoo promo sold out as of time of writing.

Want to read my other posts about river cruising? Click here.

What to expect on set

Background

My first day on set was a bit of a trial by fire. It was a big indoor scene on Supergirl, with at least 150 x BGs, and for some reason, I was singled out to play with the actors! I mentioned to the other two BGs that this was my first day, and they gave me a couple of tips like, "don't look directly at the camera", and "repeat your action the same each time, unless someone tells you differently". They gave me the basics of the timing, (we go on 'Background!'), the place where we start (First Mark) and the end mark, and the other terms that the Assistant Director (AD) yells out (Action, Cut, Reset, etc.)

That stunned look of a BG newbie

Anyhow, as we were setting up the shot, we chatted with an attractive young woman, that I wasn't quite sure what her role was (later learning that she was the stand-in). We rehearsed the scene, where I come from another room and walk up to our group and shake the actors' hands. So when we go to shoot the first time, I come around the corner, and there is this beautiful woman who has of course replaced the stand-in now, and I am so surprised that I barely remembered what to do! Obviously, she was a professional, and gracefully introduced me into the scene. The 1st AD gave us a little tweaking here and there, but otherwise, the day came out without me making any colossal blunders.

Luckily for new BGs, that is not how everyone's first day goes; most BG are not involved with the actors' actions in the scene. Typically, you'll be walking onto set with some or the rest of the BGs, and asked to stand off to the side to wait for either a 3rd AD or sometimes the BG wrangler to assign you an action. There will be a lot of crew around, sometimes two or three camera setups, lighting rigs and cables everywhere (watch your step!). When someone does assign you to an action (try to get their name), don't be afraid to clarify what they want you to do. e.g. "So after this guy walks by, I count 3 beats, and cross behind the actors? Or do you need me to walk in front and wipe the camera?" (It is definitely not the norm, but sometimes they want a busy scene, and have the BG passing between the camera and the actors).

Crew adjusting the camera on a recent commercial shoot

After a rehearsal with "second team" (the stand-ins), the actors, or "first team" will be called to set for their rehearsal. When the director is a happy, they will call for "finals", or final makeup and hair touches for the actors. Then everyone takes their first positions, and the AD yells, "Pictures up!" - this is usually accompanied by something like "Give me a bell" (in studio) or "Lock it up" (on location). That's the cue for the locations team to calm the set down; crew working with tools have to stop, HVAC systems are turned off, and all off-camera crew have to clear the set. "Roll sound!" or less frequently "Turnover!" (British) is the last step before the AD yells "Background!", which is your cue to start your assigned movement. "Action!" starts the scene for the actors. Keep doing what you were instructed to do until you are off-camera or you hear "Cut!"; most of the time you can start heading back to your first mark then, or when you hear "Reset!"

After the first take, they might mix it up, and have you doing something different. Otherwise, you simply keep doing the exact same thing on each take until the scene is finished. If possible, pay attention to the dialog, or watch for other visual cues; sometimes they will shoot a "pick-up", and start the scene half way through, and you'll need to start from a 2nd mark. Also, if you are paired with another BG, introduce yourself, and get their name as well. Sometimes, after getting a break or a run to Crafty, they are looking for that person, and no one knows who it is. Anyhow, typically after an hour or so of shooting from alternate angles and with different lenses, that scene will finish, and you'll move onto a new scene.

Sometimes, it ends up being more Foreground than Background

As a BG, your job is to be on camera, but be immediately forgettable. Just the other day, a couple was supposed to be dancing, but they literally polka-ed right onto the dance floor; needless to say, the AD had to get them to tone down their entrance. For the most part, just act naturally. Conversations are all mimed; unless specifically asked, talking is a no-no. Even whispering causes problems for the sound department, and as a courtesy to the crew trying to work, resist the temptation to talk amongst the BG between takes. Bearing that in mind, Background is intended to be part of the scene and so make sure that you are aware of where the camera is pointing; a quote I heard one day on set was, "If the camera can't see you, then you're not doing your job". Try not to get "stacked" behind other BG; offset yourself so that you you are not hidden from the camera. "Open up" your face-to-face conversations, so that the camera gets a partial quarter-view of you rather than a profile shot.

The 3rd AD will likely give you all the guidance that you need; e.g. "can you walk a little faster", "give it another 3 or 4 beats before you leave", or one one of my favourites, "how about if you banana out over to that spot". Sometimes, they leave it up to the BG to make the scene, and will simply state, "you're in a busy office - we need lots of movement back here". All you have to do, is look for gaps or breaks in the action, and pass through that area, naturally of course. A frequent tip you will hear in BG, is that you should do whatever the last person told you to do. e.g. the 3rd might have you walk down the hallway, but then the AD asks you to stand and pretend to talk to the woman at the reception desk; you do the latter. Finally, when the cameras are not rolling, try to stay out of the way of the crew as they move about, trying to set up for the next shot.

BG should never leave set unless the 3rd or a wrangler sends you back to holding. Once in a while, the camera or a lighting rig will be where you are supposed to be, and the camera operator sends you away; good practice would be tell to the wrangler that you received direction from them to "relax". Similarly, if there's a long period of shooting, and you need to empty your bladder, wait for a break in the action and ask the 3rd or a wrangler if there's enough time to "10-1" (ten-one), or if #2 is your calling, then "10-2". Crafty runs should typically wait until you have been officially "relaxed" back to BG holding.

It may seem like a lot of information, and the first few times you step onto set it may seem a little daunting, but it will become familiar quite quickly. Even though every day on set is different, there is a certain pattern to things and it will become second nature eventually; you can literally go from being a newbie to a veteran BG in a handful of days. If you listen carefully and pay attention to what is happening around you, it is the easiest non-job there is.

The novelty of standing next to Jessica Biel wears off... after a couple of hours!

Oh and one last thing. It probably won't happen very often that you are on the set with an A-list star, but if by chance that does happen, you should not try to speak to them. When they are waiting between takes, it is highly likely that they are trying to get into the moment, rehearsing their lines in their head. Now is not the time to try and get a selfie with them.