This could be your big break, or at the very least, provide you with an incredible story to tell around the dinner table.
Several hundred background actors or "extras" are needed when the filming of a Nickelodeon made-for-TV movie comes to Greater Victoria on Oct. 26, 27 and 28.
The movie is called Big Time Movie, and is based on Big Time Rush, a TV series about a boy band trying to make it in the music industry.
It’s a coup that director Savage Steve Holland has chosen to film scenes at the Fairmont Empress Hotel, Hatley Castle at Royal Roads University and Victoria’s Chinatown, considering most of the film is being shot in Vancouver.
“We don’t normally do things for Nickelodeon (a popular family television network), so I think that part of it makes it exciting,” said Victoria casting director Annie Klein. “Nickelodeon is a big deal.”
Klein is looking for fashionable, attractive men and women, aged 18 to 40, of all races and ethnicities, especially Asians, to work as background actors. Candidates must be available for all three filming days, and those selected will earn $10.47 an hour.
"There are a number of reasons why people want to be background performers and one is they’re hoping to be discovered,” said Kathleen Gilbert, film commissioner with the Greater Victoria Film Commission. “The other is that a lot of them are retired and find it an interesting thing to do.”
Film students are often lured by casting calls in order to gain valuable on-set experience.
“People who want to break into the industry, whether it be as an actor or a camera operator and a technician, it gives them an opportunity to get on set and look around,” Gilbert said.
The casting session happens Saturday (Oct. 15), from noon to 5 p.m. at the Sandman Hotel’s Shark Club, 2852 Douglas St. Applicants will have their photographs taken and be asked to fill out scheduling and contact information.