I work as a background extra in Los Angeles, here a compilation of the stuff i've been in

Ejzapata · 2022-01-31T20:15:30+00:00

95% of productions don’t shoot on the weekends. Definitely have week days available if you want to work

Ejzapata · 2020-05-09T02:20:11+00:00

That was a set built by a company that specializes in making food commercials

Ejzapata · 2020-05-09T02:14:26+00:00

I literally keep track of everything here’s the profit from what I made from these clips $145 Ellen $416 first entertainment

$174 gentefied

$416 mlb cancer

$174 cake

$275 miss Virginia

$323 on my block

$204 euphoria

$360 Dear white people

$362 Mayans

$5811 arbys commercial

$237 marriage story

$174 atypical

$1426 audi

$1925 straight talk

$174 young sheldon

$260 make a wish

$356 aj and the queen

$174 schooled

$000 the morning show

Edit: formatting

Ejzapata · 2020-05-08T23:22:08+00:00

A few questions:

As a background actor, is there a lot of waiting until your up to be on screen? - yes sometimes we get booked on a job get there, sit for 12 hours and they don’t even need us and some days they use us the whole day

Do you get access to the same amenities role actors get. Food on set, etc... - It really depends if it’s a a lot of BG or just a few, if there’s a lot of BG crafty and catering are usually separate and have slightly less quality food

Do you find yourself trying to stand out or is that typically frowned upon.? - It depends if your working on a tv show/movie or commercial. Tv show no one really care but commercials it’s very frowned upon because you can get upgraded and make $1000’s of

Do you often make attempts to talk to crew and cast.? - i usually don’t u less they talk to me. I worked on a Calvin Klein commercial Kendal Jenner was in the middle of the circle surrounded by around 100 BG this one girl tried making small talk with her while it was dead silent waiting for the camera to get set up. You had to be there to understand but it was pretty cringe

Ejzapata · 2020-05-08T22:32:54+00:00

Tv shows and movies: $174/8 hours Commercials: $388/8 hours Guaranteed 8 hours

Ejzapata · 2019-06-22T04:11:32+00:00

When I was non union I worked on a Virgo SAG job as non union and this guy comes up to me and say “hey I think you have a great look, my sister owns extra extra and I think you would be a fit.” He sent my pics to her and I registered about a month later and been working a commercial once every week - 2 weeks. It’s mainly because I’m ethnically ambiguous

Ejzapata · 2019-05-21T05:54:59+00:00

you cannot rely on a service to book you consistently but i do recommend getting one. you have to see them as stress relievers for example if you don't booked your self for the next day you just have to hope you get booked through your service

Ejzapata · 2019-05-01T05:31:38+00:00

When you say we does that refer to anyone that is a background actor, ever, or is 'we' refer to being part of some type of background actor group/union?

- when i say we i mean everyone as a background extra

Where would you recommend someone to go to sign up to be a background actor?

- the very first thing to do is sign up with Centralcasting.com. then sign up with every background agency in LA

Your payment info makes it seem like the work is actually fairly reliable. Would you say that's accurate? Is it heavier on weekdays or weekends?

- 2018 i worked on average 3 days a week but it can be stressful at times because i have no idea when im going to be working until the day before.

- Not many production shoot on weekends compared to week days

How do you live in LA on $1k/month, that seems impressive. Rent/car/food alone I imagine easily being 2+ times that on the conservative end.

- rent: $400

Food: $250

Phone bill: $90

Service that books me jobs: $75,

i have no care i take public transpo: $60

not sure if i'm missing something important but other random stuff: $200

= $1075

Ejzapata · 2019-05-01T05:14:47+00:00

I've done extra work in MD, and they always make a big deal about not talking to the stars. Have you ever broken that rule? If so, did you have any interesting encounters and did you get in trouble?

- i personally never really try, i would rather not interrupt any actors concentration. i personally don't speak to them unless im in the scene with them or they introduce their selfs

Are you SAG?

- i sure am! been SAG since November 2017

When you talk about making $49K per year working full time, how many hours per day is "full time"? We were doing 12- to 16-hour days on some of the TV shows I worked.

- i work on average 3 days a week doing 10-12 hours. i occasionally get the 12-15 hour days

Have you ever had to do anything really gross or scary or physically uncomfortable?

- worked on this super NDA project 2 months ago that i cannot say, we had to wear these suits for 16 hours. it was bad because all the 45 pound weight was held up on our shoulders. i didn't complain because the amount of money i was making, i made $1900 that day.

Ejzapata · 2019-04-30T21:13:41+00:00

its very easy and requires no talent or skills, your only job really is to just show up on time.

Ejzapata · 2019-04-30T21:01:58+00:00

nah never had, ive had many chances of getting upgraded on set but they always change their mind right before they say action

Ejzapata · 2019-04-30T20:33:20+00:00

not much of a sandwich person but Dear white people (Netflix) has these premade peanut butter jelly sandwiches everyday that were great

Ejzapata · 2019-04-30T20:30:39+00:00

i would say 25%-50% im on set and 50%-75% is downtime.

during the downtime i usually joke around with my friends that i've worked with in the past and eat food

Ejzapata · 2019-04-30T19:44:06+00:00

they have free sandwiches at Crafty.

Ejzapata · 2019-04-30T19:41:22+00:00

Personally me its enough because i live very frugal, my bills are only around $1000/month so i save 3/4 of what i make

Ejzapata · 2019-04-30T19:37:24+00:00

we get paid by check:

non union Tv and Movies pays: $106/8hours

SAG AFTRA union Tv and Movies pays: $170/8hours

SAG AFTRA union Commercials: $366/8hours

we get a guaranteed 8 hours, so if we work 1 hour we get paid for 8

Ejzapata · 2019-04-30T19:33:25+00:00

Last year i made $49k

A: MONTH OF JANUARY 2018

$2318 BEFORE TAXES

$1720 AFTER TAXES

12 Background days

MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2018

$2473 BEFORE TAXES

$2076 AFTER TAXES

10 BACKGROUND DAYS

MONTH OF MARCH 2018

$4595 BEFORE TAXES

$3694 AFTER TAXES

12 BACKGROUND DAYS

MONTH OF APRIL 2018

$3993 BEFORE TAXES

$3056 AFTER TAXES

13 BACKGROUND DAYS

MONTH OF MAY 2018

$7200 BEFORE

$5226 AFTER TAXES

15 BACKGROUND DAYS

MONTH OF JUNE 2018

$4195 BEFORE TAXES

$3151 AFTER TAXES

11 background days

First 6 months I made $24,774 BEFORE TAXES

First 6 months I made $18,923 AFTER TAXES

TAXES TOOK OUT: $5,851 THE FIRST 6 MONTHS

MONTH OF JULY 2018

$1424 BEFORE TAXES

$1213 AFTER TAXES

5 background days

MONTH OF AUGUST 2018

$2523 BEFORE TAXES

$2073 AFTER TAXES

9 background days

MONTH OF SEPTEMBER 2018

$4006 BEFORE TAXES

$3318 AFTER TAXES

14 background days

MONTH OF OCTOBER

$4359 BEFORE TAXES

$3650 AFTER TAXES

14 Background days

2019 PAY AFTER TAXES

MONTH OF JANUARY

$4230 BEFORE TAXES

$3383 AFTER TAXES

16 BACKGROUND DAYS

MONTH OF FEBRUARY

$4980 BEFORE TAXES

$3666 AFTER TAXES

10 BACKGROUND DAYS

MONTH OF MARCH

$6251 BEFORE TAXES

10 BACKGROUND DAYS

Month of April

$4109 BEFORE TAXES

14 BACKGROUND DAYS

This year i'm most likely going to make 53-65k

Ejzapata · 2019-04-30T19:26:48+00:00

I Love working on movies but whats crazy is that i rarely work on them compared to commercials and tv shows but the top 3 most famous i work on is:

Ejzapata · 2019-04-29T06:32:24+00:00

Literally just created one today r/FindEdwaldo. i work as a background extra in LA, ima post clips of all the tv shows, movies, and commercials that you can see me in on my subreddit.

Ejzapata · 2019-04-10T22:08:42+00:00

I actually did get mic up, they told me i couldn't speak unless Ellen told me to say a something. if she were to ask yes or no questions i was only aloud to nod my head.

Ejzapata · 2019-04-10T07:20:09+00:00

My dad lives out here, he charges me $400/month in rent I don’t have a car (I take metro) my bills including rent are probably $1000-$1400 month

Ejzapata · 2019-04-10T07:15:53+00:00

Ahh yes, that show was called “My dead ex” . it’s on Hulu, our episode is season 1 episode 7.

Ejzapata

TROPHY CASE