Union Status: Non Union

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Casting Breakdown:

• Looking for 3 BG kids and their family to work at LAX on Dec. 11. Specifically, Mexican or Puerto Rican. Must be able to pass TSA background check.
• Looking for about 45 BG to work at LAX on Dec. 11. Specifically, Mexican or Puerto Rican. Must be able to pass TSA background check
• Looking for a Photo Double to work on Dec. 9. Must look 66 years old with a ballerina’s physic. 5’5” in height with dark/black hair. MUST HAVE VALID CA DIVERS LICENSE AND BE ABLE TO DRIVE STICK SHIFT. Double will be driving a ’65 Ford Mustang

Submission Instruction:

Please send you picture, stats and contact info to: americanoextras@yahoo.com

Background Acting sure beats a "Regular" job!

Simple Stuff Really Hollywood Milieu ©2010

Written by Denny Dormody

Here’s a real life scenario: You work a day job you detest. You work with maybe five people in Office Space type cubicles. You wouldn’t invite those losers to lunch. You wouldn’t invite those losers to an execution. You certainly wouldn’t invite those losers to your home. You certainly wouldn’t invite those losers to your funeral.

You know your current office accommodations are against the Geneva Convention for a prisoner of war. You’re leading a life of quiet desperation. You can’t speak up. You’ve become a gutless wonder. Your boss brags about his latest ‘hot’ date. Truth be told, his date started as a she, but ended up as a he. But, that’s another story. It could be worse.

You could still be at the counter at Radio Shack, the only guy there that speaks English as a first language. Or still be working in the prison laundry. Remember starching those Grey work uniforms? Thank God for Governator Arnold’s early release program. Late at night, when the demons come, I’m still coughing up those starch fumes. By the way dude, I need you to return my Barry Manilow CD’s. Good times.

Now that I’m acting in the background and trying to sell our comedy screenplays to the suits, my life has taken a tryst for the better. Since I bailed on that day job, as they say in the movies, I have a New Deal. A new deal and a new 24/7 job as an actor. Every new day there are new colors to play with in the sandbox:

Sunday. I’m sitting at home reading a frayed copy of The Police Gazette. My cell phone chirps out a ring tone of So What, an awesome riff from Miles Davis. I pick up. It’s Chris, a background buddy. “Are you still ballroom dancing?” Two days later. I’ve got a dance gig. Time-Life brings you the Greatest Hits of the 50′s and 60′s.

A small supper club set. My date is another ballroom dancer. A wonderful surprise. Manhattan Transfer is on set. “Hi, we’re Manhattan Transfer. Remember the great songs of the 50′s and 60′s?” A coffee break. I’m talking trash with Manhattan Transfer. I saw them perform in Sydney in the late 70′s. Later my dance partner and I twirl around as the credits role. Lunch. Manhattan Transfer. Dancing close with a babe. $250 for the day. I get my check in two days. I ask you. This is a great job or what?

Monday. I’m working a pilot. I’m in our holding area or in our ‘scolding’ area as some background extras describe it. Our holding area is sort of like a green room for background actors. We are on the 51st floor of a building in downtown LA. As the sun slowly rises and sets, we are treated to a sun and shadows look at the freeways and twinkling lights. We can see Catalina Island in the distance. A gourmet lunch. How much would this food and this view cost in the real world? A lot.

[ad#HTML-1]A Goodyear blimp hovers over the city. What a view. After lunch I’m in the foyer of an office suite. I’m playing a lawyer. Between the shots Titanic’s Billy Zane walks through the lighting set ups and disappears. Just another day at the office.

Tuesday. A Diet-Coke commercial. Heidi Klume struts her stuff along a runway.

Wednesday. I cross in front of L-Word’s Jennifer Beals and Pulp Fiction’s Tim Roth.

Sunday. Bar atmosphere. A NYU graduate thesis film, shooting interiors in LA.

Monday. Warner Bros. A veteran day player character actor. We’re chilling between takes. He puts acting into sharp focus. “Actors have got to go out on a limb. Have a survival part-time job, job that means nothing to you. A job you can pick up and put down and not even think about.” You couldn’t buy this education.

My day jobs with no passion, are history. I’m an actor now. Like almost every actor that lives in LA, I’m reinventing myself. Every day. Every way. Promoting 24/7. Facebook is my friend. My goals: Pay the bills. Speaking lines. Trophy wife. Beach frontage in Malibu. Simple stuff really.

Denny Dormody is a Los Angeles Times Magazine published comedy writer and author of Riding the Hollywood Glacier. dennydormody@gmail.com

The NBC Game show Minute To Win It is Casting

minute to win it

want to win a million dollars!!!

minute to win it is casting now!!!

“Minute to Win It” is a new family-friendly competition series, hosted by Guy Fieri, featuring 10 deceptively simple games that require savvy contestants to complete under pressure with a prize of $1 million awaiting the winner.

Competitors will face 10 challenges that escalate in level of difficulty. Each game has a 60-second time limit and failure to finish the task on time will eliminate the contestant. At various points throughout the game, the contestant can walk away with the money earned up to that point, but it’ll take nerves of steel to complete all 10 tasks to win the $1 million.

Do you have a heartwarming Christmas story that you want to share in the 60 Second Circle? Well, Minute To Win It wants to hear it! We are now casting for a very special Christmas episode! Email us your stories at minutetowinit@gmail.com and put in the subject line the city you live in.

In the body of the email please include your name, contact info and current photo.

If you are interested in trying out for the show here are your options.

OPTION 1: (OPEN CALLS): TBD

OPTION 2: (If you live in Southern California) If you live in the Southern California area and want to try out for the show please e-mail our casting team at mtwicasting@gmail.com Be sure to include in your e-mail your contact info, city you live in, photo, and a paragraph about yourself.

OPTION 3: (Mail-in a Video): If you don’t live in Southern California and want to be considered for the show please send us a video. This is the best way for us to get to know you and be able to consider you for the show. Please follow the instructions below. Have fun, good luck and remember to be creative!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD APPLICATION

INSTUCTIONS:

1.) Have someone else film you so your hands aren’t full and we can see you clearly. Try not to shoot against a window or have any bright light behind you.

2.) To get started, begin with your name, age, what city/town you reside in and your occupation. This is our first impression of you… so make it a good one! We love smiles!!!

3.) Next, tell us a little bit about yourself. If you have personality… flaunt it!!! There is no right or wrong thing to say on your tape, we just want to get to know you.

4.) Show us your game skills. You’ve seen the games now, so show us how good you are at them. We know you’ve practiced, but even if you don’t get it right the first time, we’d love to see your funny out takes!

5.) Be sure to include your completed application with two pictures of yourself. Make sure these are copies, because we won’t be able to return them.

6.) Last, but certainly not least, make sure the tape works!!! Test the sound and picture before you send it, because this is your shot to impress us!

7.) Your videotape must be no longer than five minutes. Please clearly label your tape with your name, address and phone number. We will only accept DVD’s and DV tapes. (No hi-8)

Send your completed application, photo and videotape to:

Minute to Win It

P.O. Box 1599

Studio City, CA 91614-0599

Video, application and photos will become property of Producer and will not be returned to you.

All submitted applications must be signed and completed.

Thank you and good luck!!!

Applicants must be 18 years and older.

You can also find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/minutetowinit

A local online TV network is seeking Male and Female hosts for several upcoming web series. If you think you fit these talent profiles, please submit one (1) professional headshot and your resume to moderators@insidershealth.com

We a looking for the following talent:

• Male/Female Actor(s) for a Hollywood health show. Preferably in your 20s, and you must be Celeb savvy! If you are upbeat and stylish with your finger on the pulse of Tinsel Town, we want to hear from you!
• Male or Female Actor for a medical news show. Age ranges 40-50s. You must have a distinguished/professional presence and an articulate presentation. Can you be a SuperHero? Can you be our “Dr. X”?
• Male or Female Actor to co-host a series on sex-related news. Content is tactful, but you can’t shy away from the hard topics. This investigative show needs a risk-taker. Can you balance audience questions, a crazy cameraman, and a sexologist? Come show us!

Submit your head shot and resume to moderators@insidershealth.com Today!

A NATIONWIDE casting service that specializes in representing infants, children, and teenagers with the exciting opportunity to work on feature films, television shows, music videos, commercials, print, or entertainment related hire.

• Location:
  Los Angeles
  6646 Hollywood, Blvd. Suit 215
  Hollywood, CA 90028Other Locations:
  New York, NY
• Contact:
  LA 323-488-9983
  NY 917-475-2605
• Website: www.kidscastingnetwork.com/

Networks Casting Services is one of the most experienced and respected, fast and friendly Entertainment Casting Services; hosting a complete searchable database of professional actors, models, stunt performers, musicians and background extras for a wide variety of entertainment projects.

• Location:
  Los Angeles
  6646 Hollywood, Blvd. Suit 215
  Hollywood, CA 90028

  Other Locations:
  New York, NY

• Contact:
  LA 323-488-9983
  NY 917-475-2605
• Website: www.networkscasting.com

Written by Denny Dormody

Blades of Glory with Will Ferrel and John Heder

She’s small but loud. Small but obnoxious. She’s one of the wardrobe ladies from hell and we are moving out of her way.

We are the background extras. I don’t even have a pulse yet. It is 5:30 am. This promises to be about five days of work, so we are patient. We are waiting. You do a lot of waiting here in the movies. Here in LA.

We’re at USC, the University of Southern California, the great football school and site of so many Hollywood film shoots. About a block away is The Shrine Auditorium, also the location of many movie locations, the recent SAG awards and host to the Grammy Awards and the Academy Awards. Luckily, it’s located right off the 110 Freeway and only a few freeway minutes from Burbank.

This is Blades of Glory with SNL’s Will Ferrell and Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heder. The Hollywood log line or industry one-sentence description of the plot would be: Two troubled world-competitive skaters, banished from the international skating association join forces and seek redemption. Sweet!

This is big budget with a cast of thousands. In LA-speak that means about 750 background extras. I’m a face in the crowd. A face now waiting for the wardrobe gestapo lady to darken my door. She talks loudly for all to hear, admonishing those that didn’t bring the correct wardrobe with them. A small coterie of flunkies follows her around like a lap dog.

She stops in front of a lady that has brought a heavy winter coat, a scarf, a hat and rubber boots. The wardrobe Gestapo clears her throat and loudly announces “This lady brought the right wardrobe, write down her name, as we’ll be featuring her today.” She continues her rounds looking at everyone like a grade-school teacher that is so, so disappointed with her pupils for not bringing the right clothes to school. I call it day-care management. I counted that she would be “featuring” about 500 of us today. Oh Yeah. Sure.

I have to stay positive if I’m going to get through the next five, 15-hour days. I always say, you couldn’t buy this entertainment. Where else could you find such a condescending character? As a writer, I couldn’t be in a better position. Here’s another character you meet on these movie sets that you couldn’t even imagine. As an actor in training, I’m watching and remembering her every move. She’s quite an actress. You couldn’t buy this education.

I have my pay voucher in hand and scrape together the last of the scrambled eggs in the buffet tubs that Craft Service catering has provided for breakfast. I wash down the last of the Winchell’s Donuts with steaming coffee that I brought with me. I’ve been on too many sets that have no coffee, no hot breakfast and almost nothing to eat. Most do. Some don’t. I always have hot coffee. I always bring my own.

A head PA or Production Assistant does a head-count on 200 of our fellow extras. He leads them through the cavernous LA Sports Arena. I silently merge into the lemming-like cattle call. I prefer to work than to sit around for hours waiting on the next shot. We are led to the front outside entrance to the area. Lights are lit. Cables are snaking across the sidewalk in front of the ticket office. Phony snow is on the ground. A hurricane fan is swirling the snow all over creation. We hunker down in our winter coats, winter boots, winter scarfs and gloves. The LA summer temperature is a cool 92 degrees.

The scene: Ferrell’s character is kicked out of the skating association for drunken behavior. The ice show is going on regardless. He shows up and tries to disrupt the family ticket-buyers. Will Ferrell is wearing a brown snake skin jacket.

He rants and raves. A bouncer-type security guard tries to restrain him. He throws a classic Ron Burgundy style Will Ferrell temper tantrum. Take one. Take eight. Cut. Checking the gate. New deal.

New deal means a new camera set up. The 200 extras and 135 crew members move back inside the Sports Arena. All the cables, lights and three or four Panavision cameras also have to be moved back inside for the next shot.

The logistics of putting winter wardrobe on 750 people and feeding them is a task the military would find daunting. This is day one of five days. Lunch is called. Later that day Will Ferrell barfs on the ice in front of shocked families watching an ice skating show. I play a fake Dad and shield my daughter’s eyes from the carnage. Days pass.

Long days. Morning into night days. We are exhausted. Our checks are in the mail.

The Shrine Auditorium near USC in Los Angeles

It’s our final shooting day. As we break for lunch I notice a few familiar faces seated in the audience. I know I’ve worked with these guys before. I recognize a face from Seabiscuit. There’s a lady I know from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I shake a few hands. I give a few hugs. The lady dummies, mostly. These are the inflatables. Inflatable dummies that look like real people. These guys are absolutely the greatest. Producers love these people.

[ad#HTML-1]Inflatables don’t arrive on-set stoned or drunk. They never talk. They never have to be fed. They never ask for bathroom breaks. They usually have their own wardrobe. They never raid the Craft Service catering munchies. They never ask for a pay check.

I realize some of these same inflatables may be on the cover of my first book Riding The Hollywood Glacier. Inflatables can actually be seen during the interviews on the Blades of Glory extra features DVD. Great to see these guys again. It’s a small world.

P.S. I’ve worked on a few other shows with the wardrobe lady mentioned. It turns out when you get to know her, she’s a sweetheart. She always compliments me for bringing the right wardrobe.

Denny Dormody is a Los Angeles Times Magazine published comedy writer and author of Riding the Hollywood Glacier. dennydormody@gmail.com

Written by Denny Dormody

There’s not much to Fresno, California. Not much sitting looking at the four walls of The Vagabond Inn just off the Interstate. I can hear the din of the traffic as trucks shift gears as the moon and sun slowly trade places. Still I’m glad to be here. Here waiting for the 5:15 AM. shuttle to take us to the set. The set of the “Genre project.” The bus arrives. The bus gears groan into the still-dark morning. Some fog. A few minutes later we arrive.

Fresno Airport California Circa 1968

A wave of fog clears. A sign appears. The Fresno Airport. As we get off the shuttle bus, some of us head to wardrobe. I head to the craft service catering area for breakfast. A guy I’ve worked with before says, “Hey, I saw you last night on Curb Your Enthusiasm.” We shake hands. We talk. We network. As we inhale our breakfast we are whispering.
The whispering is all about today’s location shoot. On this show, it’s always been about whispers. A few weeks back at Western Costume the Hair and Makeup signs said “Genre.” The white vans shuttling we background extras around had “Genre” signs. Our paychecks had “Genre” on them. You know the Genre Project by its worldwide box-office name: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Indiana Jones IV. The movie gods and goddesses have smiled down once again. I lucked out, again. I’m happy to be here. A wardrobe guy in jeans with a plaid shirt is handing out our ’57 pre-fitted costumes. I’m a baggage handler dressed in blue.
Hair okays my hair. Makeup pancakes me and okays my makeup. I’m ready for my close up. My close up is hours away. 320 cast and crew members haven’t landed yet. Their plane is en route from LAX. The sun also slowly rises. The paparazzi also slowly rise. A gaggle of photographers is peering through a chain link fence, like LA cops looking for a Java and jelly donuts fix through a window at Winchell’s Donuts.
An hour passes. We head to set. We’ve heard rumors and more rumors. Who? What? When? Where? How? The rumors evaporate as we round the corner and head out onto the tarmac. A large Pan Am plane is being towed into the shot. Pan Am stewardesses are dressed as they did back in 1957. A baggage rack complete with scratched and scrapped luggage is being pushed by a man with a tan fedora walking behind the luggage.
It’s Harrison Ford, strutting his Indiana Jones stuff. He looks great. He looks at the top of his game. The rumors are over. We are working on Indiana Jones, the Temple of Whatever. No time to text message our insignificant others now. It’s time to go to work. In the distance and coming closer I hear a voice. A very distinctive voice. It’s Adam.
[ad#HTML-1]Adam has a cockney accent and is the 1st AD or Assistant Director. He is the arms and legs and heart of his director. He calls out to us, my co-baggage handler and set-buddy Gene. As we arrive he lowers his bullhorn. “Stand over here mates” he advises.
I say “Adam, I’m Denny. I’ve worked with you on Seabiscuit and War of the Worlds. Great to see you again.” Adam has a million details on his mind and the walkie-talkie stuck in his ear is giving him death-defying instructions every two seconds. He doesn’t remember me from a bar of soap. He graciously says “Great! Lads, stand over here.”
We stand near the airplane’s oval baggage compartment. We’re handed an old fashioned tape measure. We measure the length and width of Indiana Jone’s mud spattered motorcycle as it is wheeled into the shot. A couple of period cars and an ambulance are wheeled into the shot. Fill lights are lit. We begin blocking the shot. Ten feet away, a guy with a lens viewfinder is watching our every movement. It’s Steven Spielberg.
We do a dry run on the shot. A murmur begins to ricochet around the set. The walkie-talkie earphones are buzzing. There’s a pregnant pause. A second second assistant director makes the announcement “All background, back to the holding area.” The shot is canceled. We are all disappointed to say the least. Crushed might be a better word.
Still dressed in our 1957 costumes we board a small shuttle bus. In moments we’re back sitting under the tents. We talk. We walk. We wait. Lunch is served. We follow set protocol and let the cast and crew go through the buffet chow line before we extras eat.
Sitting together under the tent, the cast and crew and background extras are joined by a special guest. He sits opposite Harrison Ford and begins talking. They have a lot in common. The special guest is George Lucas.
It takes about three hours for the bus to return to LA. On the apron of a parking structure, a production guy signs out our pay vouchers. On location. A day up; and a day back. It took about three minutes and I was on I-5 heading south to home.

We may not have been in the shot and certainly not in the final cut, but this was one great day on-set with the movie gods: Spielberg, Ford and Lucas.

Enjoy your iTunes movie download.

Denny Dormody is a Los Angeles Times Magazine published comedy writer and author of Riding the Hollywood Glacier. dennydormody@gmail.com

We know every match has a catch! Are you tired of waiting three months to find out who you’re REALLY dating? The new season is looking for outgoing singles (28-60) who are ready to reveal the good, the bad and the ugly!

GSN’s hit game show gives you the opportunity to discover and share each other’s quirks, baggage, habits and dirty laundry upfront to avoid the all-too-common surprises down the road! Such as… “I still live with my parents…” “I am a pack-rat…” “I have ten cats…” “I’m lactose intolerant … ” “I smoke like a chimney…” “I live with my ex…” “I’ve been divorced three times …” “I never wear underwear …” What is interesting about you? If you or someone you know is outgoing, uninhibited, open and ready to meet a match, then this is the show!

How to submit to the Casting:

Please email us your:

• Name:
• Age:
• Phone number:
• Occupation:
• Photo:
• 10 quirks/interesting habits and/or baggage:

Mail to: valeriepenso@gmail.com

Selected participants will receive $500 for a one day in-studio shoot

Type of Role:

Gameshow Contestant

Union Requirements:

Non-Union

“Cut Above” Casting Service was created, an extras booking service that will not only offer on-set assignments to those who know the ropes of extra work, but will also provide the tools necessary to instill a sense of professionalism and dignity in those who are new to the field.

• Location:
  2047 N. Beachwood Drive
  Hollywood, CA. 90068
• Contact:
  323/ 465-3055
• IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/company/co0201191/
• Website: www.cutabovecasting.com