Becky Hawkins
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Keepin' it Classy
🕑 Added 2025-10-24 17:24:02 +0000 UTC
This was at Pictures Tell The Story: Political Cartooning in Portland. If you have some time, the panel discussion is worth a listen. It has lots of interesting old-timey political cartoons and a bunch of inspiring discussion about the power of community and making your own work!
Last summer, someone on my neighborhood email list said that she's making a film and needed people to be in the background. Being an extra was on my list of things I'd like to try at some point, just to see what it's like. I got on an email list when the TV show Shrill was looking for bicycling extras in Portland, but it never panned out. Unfortunately, calls for extras are always like "Are you available ALL DAY AT ALL HOURS in a TBD location that may or may not be accessible by anything except your own car?"
I was glad this experience basically fell into my lap! They said this shoot was in "NW Portland" (easy! my old commute! so convenient!) but what they meant was, "the mansions in the giant fucking endless steep curving hills right next to NW Portland."
The rumors are true: film acting is 90% sitting and waiting while everyone else runs around.
One extra told me that she always swears she's going to get a bunch of reading done at this shoot, but she ends up scrolling, hanging out or spacing out the whole time. This was a novel experience for me, so I had the energy to do some drawing from observation:
At the bottom-left is an exercise where you draw w/o looking at the paper or lifting your pen, just to wake up your eyes & get in the zone.The background actors were about 50% professionals (who also have a ton of interesting other jobs, no two weird art careers are alike) and 50% neighbors of the mansion-owner and friend of the filmmaker, who were really friendly and excited.
We got there at 2pm and probably started shooting a little after 7. Even then, most of the time we were hanging out, waiting to get called upstairs for 30-second snippets of filming. I don't know if I pulled off looking like a rich person at a party. I bet I was just okay at pretending to have a conversation with someone while counting to five and then walking to a designated spot and making it all look natural. But I found it very fun!
Thanks, as always, for supporting me on Patreon!
Comments
Johnny 5
Totally agree! Great comment! Also, can I just say how much I love uncommon contractions? “These’re” just made my day lol
Emily Siskin
You say "I bet I was just okay at pretending to have a conversation with someone while counting to five and then walking to a designated spot and making it all look natural." I bet you were GREAT at it! You pay such close attention to what's going on around you, and remember great details which you later render so nicely to share with us in your drawing. You come across as an interested - and interesting - person, so you just channel that while Extra'ing. All these're great, and fascinating.
