Great piece by Jodie Burke in the LA Times Saturday
about how the recession and increased unemployment rates have led to
huge lines of people trying to get work as television and film extras -
or "background artists", as they say. However, the recession has also
led to studios tightening up, and there being less work for these
background artists. Not to mention the fact that the number of scripted
shows on TV which could even hire these folks decreases every year,
giving way to "reality" programming, which has no use for background
artists.
And then another great piece in the New York Times yesterday
by Sarah Toland, an editor in a "protracted period of unemployment",
about her utterly miserable experience working as an extra on the new Cupid, which premiered on ABC last week.
Great pieces, but depressing. So, to counterbalance the doom and
gloom, we've included video of probably the funniest scene from the
show Extras, in which Sir Ian McKellen explains acting in the most obvious terms possible to flummoxed former extra Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais). Now all of us can laugh again...
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