Long hours spent waiting around for the film crew to prepare the scene before the real cast appear and show us their years of acting training – that‘s an extra’s day’s work.

To survive as an extra, the main rule you need to clearly remember is – don’t look at the camera. If an extra does look at the camera the whole scene might need to be re-shot to ensure the filming looks authentic. If this has to be managed a few weeks after the original filming, it’s going to be an expensive operation.

The second rule is to remember about continuity. The same scene may be shot from various angles including long shots and close ups. If you are working as an extra in the background, but close enough to the stars, you must ensure that you take the same actions every time the director calls action so that it’s easy for the editors to rearrange the shots in a scene to make it flow nicely. If you have chosen to look left in the scene, but look right during one retake, the editor won’t be able to use that footage in the final print.

If you would like to know more about what an extra does – professionals call themselves a background artist – and how to learn the basic rules, here’s a few hints to start you off.

Beware that there are many scams exiting for you to pass over some of your funds. They offer to find extra’s work for you and offer nothing or at the very best, offer you work too far from your home to make it affordable. You need to research the offers available and find out, via the wonderful world of the internet and more importantly, personal discussions with people who have found work, what really exists and how to claim work.

Extra’s work is a nice way to be in the movie world and earn a little and regularly. Although often a boring experience, you won’t need a degree or experience to claim a role. One day, you might be asked to utter a word or two and your claim to fame will last forever.

Be polite and consistent in your work and you might find yourself on screen for two seconds.

It’s hard work being an extra and you may find yourself cut out completely of the final editing. After all, it’s the stars the director wants on screen, but often they can’t complete a scene without a few extras.

The real name for the position is production assistant, also known as a PA. If you are good at fetching coffee, copying screenplays and moving both crew and equipment to specific locations which might be miles apart, then the gofer’s work might be right for you.

The smaller the movie budget, the more the gofer will do. When a large budget is available, a number of people will be employed to carry out specific tasks on set.

Gofers will have the opportunity to learn all about the making of movies because they will be closely involved with all the people concerned in the film making process.

All the crew will give the gofer orders to complete, not just the producer or director, which explains why the position is an entry level role, known in other industries as the bottom of the rung. Where the role differs in the movie industry is where quality gofers can be spotted by actors or directors and become personal assistants to just the one person in the near future, which can become quite a career leap, financially.

You won’t need any particular education or skills to become a gofer. What you will need is the ability to perform each task quickly and efficiently without complaints. You will need to be ready to work for someone at a moment’s notice, even if you have just started your own coffee.

If you fail in your tasks you will be easily replaced as many people will be queuing to take your place. Many future actors, producers and directors start life as a production assistant.

Most gofers are creative thinkers. This helps their work move smoothly and efficiently. It also means they get noticed for that ever important spotting by an important person who can offer you a better role in the industry.

When people’s voices drift in and out of the scene as they move across the stage, you know the boom operator wasn’t trained properly and the production team have failed to over-ride the problem in Foley.

Boom operators work with either hand held long arms or mount their sound pick-ups on people or moving dollies.

The best operators will know the screenplay in advance so they will know where to move the boom while on set after the person who believes they’re in charge has called action.

Experts at pulling a movie apart will cheer when they see a boom operator making an appearance in a movie, either by the black of a shadow or in a mirror or reflective screen.

A good working relationship with the director of photography and the lighting departments is required.

It is not just a case of holding up a stick with a microphone on the end. Good boom work can mean the difference between a good or a great movie; going under or over budget.

The screenplay writer doesn’t write the boom operator in for an appearance on film. Boom people spend all their time keeping off the line of the camera.

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourous Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up In The Air

Best Actor In A Leading Role
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up In The Air
Colin Firth – Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Best Actress In A Leading Role
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sibide – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie and Julia

Best Actor In A Supporting Role
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglorious Basterds

Best Actress In A Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farminga – Up In Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up In Air
Mo’Nique – Precious

Best Director
James Cameron – Avatar
Kathyn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglorious Basterds
Lee Daniels – Precious
Jason Reitman – Up In The Air

Foreign Language Film
Ajami
El Secreto de Sus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
Un Prophete
The White Ribbon

Best Original Screenplay
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

Best Adapted Screenplay
District 9
An Education
In The Loop
Precious
Up In The Air

Best Animated Feature Film
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Princess And The Frog
The Secret Of Kells
Up

Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Documentary Feature
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc
Which Way Home

Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin

Film Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Make-up
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Music (Original Score)
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Music (Original Song)
The Princess and the Frog
Paris 36
Nine
Crazy Heart

Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Short film (Animated)
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Short Film (Live Action)
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Oscar® winners to be revealed on Sunday, March 7, 2010.

Not all the best get nominated, but that’s why we can all have our own viewpoint. No doubt a large percentage of people will disagree with the winners, but that’s life as we know it.

I thought I’d write a piece about the closing ceremony, which was excellent.

I thought I’d write a post about the wonderful British section, where they accepted the flag and then introduced not only David Beckham (world and interplanetary superstar whatever planet you’ve been on) and then Jimmy Page playing those riff chords to ‘Whole Lotta Love.’ The humour the Brits intend to use in 2012 was obvious already. I just loved the lollipop ladies (Google it if you don’t know) and the red London bus.

Then they fucked up.

I thought I’d use their 2012 London Olympic game logo here to promote the event. They won’t let you use it unless you pay them tons of money. So this is what it looks like if you don’t pay

I thought I’d use their video of the London (closing ceremony) segment available to watch on the BBC download section and the London 2012 Olympics website; except they won’t let you run it outside of the UK. So here’s what it looks like if you don‘t live in the UK

I expect it’s on YouTube somewhere, but I can’t be bothered to help anymore and it’s still four years away. I’ll fly over and get tickets for some of the events, but I may not mention it again.

Is that what they intended in the marketing department?

How many times did you say ‘wow!’?

Firstly, apologies guys, this one beats all previous openings. How will the Brits beat that in 2012?

What would you have produced with the sort of financial plan used in that wonderful opening ceremony? The budget just for the fireworks alone would be sufficient for most special effects teams in Hollywood. Whoever wrote the script, did the pre-production, produced the event which needed no editing should be able to seek easy employment in California.

Disney couldn’t mix with those heart strings any more than this show. It read like a great script with all the good guys winning, as always, at the end, as predictable as any L.A. produced and financed main movie.

Doesn’t it bring a small tear to your eye when they light that flame? Doesn’t it make you feel good? Over two hundred countries playing together for honours that will last forever, just like those academy awards. There are large studio players with hundreds of athletes to the indies with less than a handful, all competing together. Sounds familiar?

Athletes; no cheating please. Good luck and accomplish your best.

China: sort out your human rights please. The world is watching. Impress. You’ve had an immense start and we want you to do well. We do wish you well. We may call more for our own teams as the games get going, but we’ll cheer on people from countries we may not have even heard of before.

On your marks, get set, you know the rest