Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2021 August 20

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August 20

Do film crews usually double as extras?

By ‘film crews’ I mean the people who are better known for the behind‐the‐scenes production, such as the producers, executive producers, casters, make‐up artists, writers, and so forth. Given how many people like this are involved in a typical theatrical release, they seem like such obvious starting points if the scene needs a crowd somewhere, but I have never heard of anybody doing this (not counting lone cameos by Hitchcock and the like). —(((Romanophile))) ♞ (contributions) 01:57, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

No, this would be most unusual. The producers, executive producers, casting director and writers are usually not present at shoots. The crew members that are present at a shoot need to be available at all times; calling on them to serve as extras may interfere with their availability when needed.  --Lambiam 07:53, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

There's also the question of whether this would be allowed at all. Union regulations, studio policies, and even the laws of the place filming was done might limit or forbid this.--Khajidha (talk) 14:37, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

It may be noted that the way Hitchcock's cameos got started was that an extra in The Lodger didn't turn up, so Hitchcock did it himself. But that was in 1927, which is a rather foreign country as seen from 2021. --184.144.99.72 (talk) 07:37, 21 August 2021 (UTC)

Agreed this would be unusual. I just finished watching the special features for the The Lord of the Rings, er, again, and it was considered noteworthy for the amount of cross-departmental work that got done on it and even there any crew people who got involved in front of the camera were special events limited to a handful of people. The makeup artists and grips and continuity folks are all busy. Matt Deres (talk) 15:36, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

It does occur on small budget independent films. Also remember that union rules are different in different countries. The difficult thing would be tracking down any occurrences. Since they would mostly have non-speaking roles your not going to find many cast lists to cross reference with production staff. MarnetteD|Talk 23:03, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Not quite what is being asked here, but in that major, current Australian contribution to world entertainment, Bluey, "The child characters of the series, including Bluey and Bingo, are voiced by some of the children of the program's production crew." HiLo48 (talk) 23:32, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

The District

So I'm watching The District because it's on right after Star Trek and my brother likes to leave the TV on. Is there an episode guide or anything like that? I did a little web searching and can't find much more than brief blurbs, unlike other shows that have much more detailed info. Thanks. 2601:648:8202:350:0:0:0:2B99 (talk) 09:33, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Presumably you want something more in-depth than List of The District episodes? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.63.186 (talk) 12:26, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

No, those are just the one sentence blurbs. I wanted something with more detail, like x-files.fandom.com or the separate articles we have about each Star Trek episode. I've decided it The District a pretty bad show though, so I guess it's unsurprising if it never had a dedicated enough fanbase for that. Thanks. 2601:648:8202:350:0:0:0:2B99 (talk) 22:11, 20 August 2021 (UTC)