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I get the great pleasure of working with the background actors
I handle all the registration
of the new actors that come in
And it’s about 300-500 every week
But there are a lot of people that come that have no set experience
They’ve never been on a set
ever in their life
Let me see the “never been on set before” one more time
Alright. How awesome is that!
And so they would ask a lot of questions on like
What’s going to happen when I get there and
What if I don’t do it right? And how will I know what to do?
The idea came up to create a class
that would be designed to help those brand new people
that were just coming in, to feel more comfortable on the set
We want to make sure that you guys know the importance
of background acting and also what to expect
as a background actor
Often new background actors are a little nervous
They sort of see production and the directors as here
and their role as here
That they are just extras, they’re not
They’re background actors, they’re essential to any film
We couldn’t tell a story without them
We decided to call our program the Central Casting University
We have DGA guest speakers who come in
We do this twice a month
And every DGA guest speaker who has been with us
has asked to come back
I enjoy coming and speaking at Central Casting University
for a lot of reasons. It helps me
It’s a people business, and the only way that it works
is when you get that group of people you like to work with
or you train people in a way that you’re expecting them to work
And this is a great opportunity
This is the stuff that can actually change the way that we do the work
The main focus of Central Casting University
is to invest in our background actors
To give them the fundamental knowledge that they need
to feel comfortable working on a set
You guys are all professionals or you wouldn’t be stepping forward to do this
And those that have done it on more than one show are proffessionals
And your ettiquette and your protocol
and the thing you learn every time you get on set
and that you’re willing to share with the people around you in the holding area
is going to help you
I just see hands go up, and questions, and smiles, and fun
We get the actors out of their chairs
The A.D.s will set up scenes where they’re doing crossings
So just watch for me to give you a point que
when I’d like you to walk in, and when you guys walk in
you are literally just going to cross
right next to this here
After we established our very first class, Central Casting 101
we decided that we’d go to the next step
and we developed Central Casting 201
Which is our Stand In class
And now we’re thinking of what class can come next
And we’re hoping that we can keep expanding Central Casting University
We want to be able to offer them as much as we can
to let them know that we really do care
And that we want them to be successful
I’m incredibly proud to be one of the founding memebers of Cental Casting University
I work with an amazing creative team here at Central
I love working at Central Casting, and one of my favorite things
that I’ve had the opportunity to do here
is to become one of the founding memebers of the Central Casting University
I think it’s better than we ever dreamed it would be
And I’m very proud to be a part of it