I think this is the appropriate thread for a little self-promotion, as well as an effort to educate my fellow Americans.
Since I got away from 9 to 5 jobs several years ago, I signed up with a Pgh casting agency and have been an extra (often called "background" in the trade) in some locally-filmed movies, national tv shows, and commercials, when it's been convenient for me.
In 2004 the local PBS station filmed the majority of
The WarThat Made America in the Pgh-area and I was a "Virginia Gentleman." The documentary is about the French & Indian War and how it eventually led to the American Revolution. Well, this Wednesday Jan. 18, the first two parts will be shown from 9pm to 11pm on PBS stations nationally, and the final two segments on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 9pm - 11pm. Unless the director does some strange flashforward/flashback thing with regard to Geo. Washington, I will get a little face-time in the fourth episode that airs on the second hour on Jan. 25. That is, unless my part ended up on the cutting room floor. Which is very possible.
If I show up in that episode, I will be signing a document for some kind of land acquisition in 1767, I think, and handing the quill to George Washington. The other scene I might be in would take place in the Raleigh Tavern in 1774 (after the Virginia House of Burgesses was dismissed by the governor), in which the action is filmed over my shoulder and Geo. addresses the camera directly. So there might be a really good shot of the back of my head and my right shoulder (I'm in the maroon WOOL coat. It was about 90F degrees
when those scenes were filmed. Oh, and that "F" can stand for something else besides Fahrenheit.)
Anyway, I'm hoping the show will be good, even if I don't show up in it. For you folks that enjoy exploring U.S. history, you might want to consider looking into it. I learned a lot about a period of local, national, and international history that I was pretty vague on before.