The Background Scoop

This episode is about SAG-AFTRA, divorce, and finding yourself in the middle of a foreign city that doesn't really exist. No airlines fly there; you have to take a shuttle bus that seats only 8 people, and there's only one of them, so getting a hundred people there can take as long as a cross-country flight. I've decided that to protect myself from potential lawsuits, I'm no longer going to mentio...

This episode is about being part of a large caucus and working all night long. More specifically, a one-day job on Season 2 of The First Lady with Viola Davis. And an all-nighter on the remake of a movie called The Valet. It's about what happens when you don't carefully read your call-time email. Looking for hints that you'll be working until 7 AM the next day. How unexpected precipitation can tot...

This episode is about roadkill. Yes, those dead animals in the road and my reaction to them when driving down local roads to get to my background jobs. Especially those an hour away south of the city. I also make a revelatory discovery that a finished product can be so good that people find it hard to watch. It’s a figurative roadkill. The Underground Railroad is just that. I include stories about...

This episode is primarily about The First Lady (a new Showtime series) and about being featured, which is when a scene clearly shows you, the background actor, versus having you appear in the background, possibly not visible at all. I discuss getting feedback as a featured actor and some of the challenges I encountered with fake rain having an old car driven towards me by a stunt woman. I talk abo...

This episode is about getting excited about opportunities but then getting rejected or cancelled by the production at the last minute. About rushing out for last minute calls and getting COVID tests. About how 12 hours on a project translated to mere seconds or minutes in the finished product. About boarding your pet when you have no idea of your call time or how long you will be on set. About see...

This episode is about the complexity and simplicity of making shows and movies, eavesdropping on famous people and then researching them online, running into old friends, and making new ones. Most of all, it's about meeting and connecting with people on the set. It's also about doing period work during a period when you were actually alive as a kid! It creates a new perspective on the world when y...

Is it real or is it fake? The film and TV industry's job is to entertain you with productions that look as real as possible. And in order to do that, they have to create reality with a lot of fake things. In other words, nothing is filmed without creating the right set, whether it's built from scratch or discovered by a location scout and turned into something that it isn't really. Since acting is...

Some call them "extras," but BG (or Background) is the industry term for people hired to work on a film or TV production that aren't the main actors. They're those people literally in the background that you don't even really notice, but they play a very big and important role in creating a reality that makes the production believable. When you're making a movie or TV show, you want it to look rea...

The film and TV industry is probably unlike any other, and it makes sense to explore this a bit if you're considering background acting. I've done close to 40 jobs at this point and have been exposed to all kinds of things that are quite different from the cultures of Corporate America and real estate, where I currently operate. This episode is dedicated to the unique characteristics of the indust...

S1Making money is one of the primary reasons for doing background acting. Yes, it's fun and exciting to do this work, but if there weren't money involved, would you offer up your time for free? Some people would, and there are background acting jobs that pay nothing. This episode is about those that do. How the pay structure works. How you get paid. And how taxes are handled. I've added some perso...

The film & TV industry has a whole vocabulary of its own, which was the original subject of this episode. I hadn't intended on doing an entire show about The First Wives Club. But I did this TV show three times in the past two weeks, and a number of things happened that I wanted to talk about. I do cover some industry terminology here, but your best bet to learn the most common terms is to listen...

I had a number of things go wrong on a single day on a project in January of 2021, so I recorded snippets that I had planned to intersperse into other episodes, but I very quickly realized I had enough material for an entire episode. So, this episode is dedicated to all the possible things that could go wrong, what's gone wrong for me, and how I addressed it. Clearly, it's not an all-inclusive lis...

This episode covers things you'll encounter on the set on a typical day of a background job, if there is such a thing, since they're all different. But they all have a set of things in common and generally work the same way. The structure of the day, signing in/signing out, crafty and meals, wardrobe, props, holding, and the filming itself. This assumes you've gone through the effort of finding, a...

This episode covers everything you need to know and do between the time you accept a background booking and arriving on set the day of the job. This consists of fitting(s), COVID testing, signing a non-disclosure agreement, getting the final logistics the day before, and packing what you need for your day of the shoot. These typically happen quickly if there's only a week or less between your book...

In this episode I cover how to find background jobs and how to submit for them. There are many companies hiring in Atlanta, and most use websites and Facebook to advertise these jobs. Most are totally free. I describe what to expect to submit for a job, what pictures you'll typically need, and how to track your submissions. If a casting company reaches out to you, they'll cover specific topics whe...

Here’s a taste of what this podcast is about. No pun intended.