Why Some Movies Feel More Alive

0:00 See that?

0:01 I once spent over 12 hours on the set of the AMC television show Turn,

0:05 pushing a wheelbarrow for 20 ft through the mud for take after take just

0:09 for the sake of being that 1 second blur in the background of a single shot.

0:13 I'm not [music] saying this to complain.

0:14 In many ways, it's literally the job of the background talent

0:17 or extras as they're often called to be present but to go unnoticed.

0:23 Sorry.

0:23 To form a kind of texture for the scene.

0:25 And while extras play an incredibly crucial role

0:28 in bringing film and TV to life by populating [music]

0:31 the area around the main characters to make sure

0:33 the world of the film looks and [music] feels realistic.

0:37 Most of the time that's basically all they're used for.

0:40 A blur of nameless bodies that are almost a kind of set design,

0:44 adding context and realism to the story without

0:47 drawing the audience's attention away from the story itself.

0:52 But you can also use them like this.

1:00 [music]

1:00 or like this or this.

1:05 As with any aspect of film making,

1:07 there are some movies and filmmakers that defy

1:10 the norm and use extras in fascinating,

1:13 brilliant, or artful ways.

1:15 Here's a subtle example of what I mean.

1:17 Let's say you have a classic scene from a romance

1:19 where two potential lovers are walking through a park.

1:21 You could just fill their surroundings with the usual crowd of suspects,

1:25 but what if you wanted to subtly highlight

1:27 the emotional distance between these two leads in this scene,

1:31 the romantic gap that they're afraid to close?

1:34 That's exactly what Selen's song does in this scene from past lives,

1:38 where every single background extra in the scene

1:40 is romantically paired off as a couple.

1:42 It inverts the way these scenes usually play out,

1:45 as if all the extras are the ones in the romance movie

1:47 and the two leads are the characters just going about their lives.

1:51 [music] It's not the kind of thing that's going to jump out at most viewers,

1:53 but it's a fantastic little flourish that reinforces the story's subtext.

1:59 Book about metals.

2:00 A bad performance from an extra can potentially create a distraction.

2:04 They might spike the lens by looking directly

2:07 into the camera like this woman does in Michael Man's Heat.

2:10 Save the phony tears.

2:11 Or they might do something distractingly unrealistic like this kid in North

2:15 by Northwest does by plugging his ears before a gunshot even happens.

2:19 or they might make the easiest error like I did on another

2:22 day I was an extra on turn by slipping into dramatic overacting.

2:28 Despite all the ways an extra can flub a scene,

2:30 it's rare to find examples that actually make it into a final

2:33 film or television show and are noticeable enough to actually matter.

2:37 These things happen, but it's the job of the directors,

2:40 the assistant directors who work directly with the extras

2:42 and the editors to notice the flubs and work around them.

2:46 So, when I think of background talent that isn't quite great,

2:49 it's usually not because of a bad performance from an extra,

2:53 but instead the absence of extras where it feels like they should be present.

2:56 [music] In some movies like Heat,

3:02 you find the world surrounding the main characters, teeming with people.

3:06 Streets, cafes, bars, and offices all have other people going about

3:10 their lives alongside whatever the main characters are doing.

3:13 And then sometimes you watch a movie and you notice it feels

3:16 a little [music] artificial in a way that's hard to put a finger on.

3:21 There can be many things that cause this, but occasionally it's

3:23 because the locations in the film feel just a little too empty.

3:27 This is the kind of thing that's not immediately noticeable in any given scene,

3:31 but over the course of a film can really

3:34 add up to create a world that feels uncanny.

3:37 [music] For an example of this, look at this scene

3:39 from The RIP compared to a similar kind of scene from Heat.

3:44 Of course, I'm not saying quantity of extras is automatically better.

3:48 Not all stories require a lot of background talent.

3:50 [music] Some take place in more isolated environments,

3:53 or the sense of emptiness created by a lack

3:56 of extras could be a deliberate storytelling choice.

3:58 But it's also a way you can kind

4:00 of cut corners in film making that isn't immediately noticeable,

4:03 but where you'll ultimately feel the absence.

4:05 Extras can kind of be like the seasoning that tie a scene together,

4:09 really adding a sense of life and visual interest and motion to a film.

4:13 A lack of extras isn't always a creative oversight, [music] though.

4:16 There are a lot of practical reasons why a film might have less of them.

4:19 They're an added expense.

4:21 They add complexity and difficulty to blocking and shooting scenes.

4:24 And more recently, CO played a big part in reducing the number of extras on set.

4:29 And I think some of the habits

4:30 that were developed during that time have lingered.

4:32 But I think there are a lot of cases where the added

4:34 cost and effort of having plenty of [music] extras is worth it.

4:37 And there are lots of directors working who

4:39 make an effort to use extras in interesting ways.

4:41 [music] In the current era [music] of filmm,

4:59 Scorsesei might be the king of this.

5:02 In movies like The Irishman, The Wolf [music] of Wall Street,

5:04 and Killers of the Flower Moon,

5:06 he consistently uses large groups of extras to [music] an amazing effect,

5:10 bringing these period worlds alive.

5:14 Extras play a special [music] role in period films,

5:17 essentially acting as models for the costumes,

5:20 which are often a big [music] part of what defines the era.

5:24 I really love what Scorsesei and his costume designer do in The Irishman.

5:28 Often creating these beautiful color palettes for each crowd,

5:33 treating the extras as a canvas on which the costume designer can paint.

5:42 Extras can also help build out the world of a film in science fiction.

5:46 Movies like Bladeunner rely heavily on the extras

5:49 and their costumes to help build the world.

5:52 But maybe my favorite example of this is

5:54 the dystopian apocalypse picture, Children of Men.

5:56 [music] Alfonso Kuran uses wide-angle lenses with deep focus to give us

6:01 a wide vivid view of the world that surrounds the lead [music] character.

6:06 And this world is jam-packed

6:08 with interesting characters actually [music] doing stuff.

6:12 What the background talent is doing in this film is crucial [music] to defining

6:16 the nature of the world and what life is like for people there.

6:20 These extras aren't just pantomimeing

6:22 conversations or walking to unknown destinations.

6:25 They all seem to have something they're trying to accomplish or need.

6:29 [music] And even if we don't understand exactly what they're doing or why,

6:32 the sense of desperation that builds up throughout [music] the film is palpable.

6:36 And much of that is created by this incredible background ensemble.

6:42 Plurabus, the new show from Vince Gilligan is another

6:44 science fiction story where the extras play a critical role.

6:47 Here, almost everyone on Earth has become part of a giant hive mind.

6:51 And a lot of how this is depicted is through

6:54 how the people [music] who fill the world walk and move.

7:00 Sometimes having a ton of extras

7:02 in your film is just necessary for basic realism.

7:05 For example, if you're telling a story about war, you might need a huge army.

7:10 One way you could accomplish this is by doing what David Lean

7:13 [music] did for Lawrence of Arabia by actually employing a real army.

7:19 Some of the most noticeably impressive uses

7:21 of extras are [music] large crowds like this.

7:25 The 1982 film Gandhi currently holds the record

7:28 [music] for most extras in a scene,

7:30 clocking in at over 300,000 people for [music] Gandhi's funeral.

7:34 It seems unlikely a crowd this big will

7:36 ever be amassed [music] for a film again.

7:39 These days, it's just too easy to extend a crowd using VFX.

7:43 [music] What do you do if you're someone like Christopher Nolan

7:45 who's dedicated to using as many practical [music] effects as possible?

7:49 In that case, you're stuck with more old school lofi methods.

7:53 In Dunkerk, he already had 6,000 extras on [music] his beach,

7:56 but he needed to boost the size of his army.

7:58 So, way in the back,

7:59 he attached a bunch of cardboard cutouts [music] to a fence.

8:03 Using background talent to create realism isn't just a numbers game, though.

8:06 Often how extras are placed and move is just as important.

8:12 If you watch classic studio films, you'll see scenes that have plenty of extras,

8:16 but having the extras obscure the view of the camera

8:20 for an extended period of time would have seemed ridiculous.

8:23 Yet, this is exactly what Robert Altman does in the player.

8:26 deliberately planting a whole table full of cyclists

8:29 in distractingly colorful riding gear in this restaurant and then

8:33 having them get up and block the view

8:35 of the camera for an extended period of time mid-cene.

8:38 Both in the name of realism and as a kind [music] of visual gag,

8:42 you can find less glaringly obvious versions

8:44 of this move in many other [music] movies.

8:46 Filmmakers who do this are using extras

8:48 to deliberately create a less than ideal shooting environment.

8:52 And it's exactly that lack of a [music] perfect view

8:56 of the subject that lends the shot a sense of realism.

9:00 It's as if we're seeing the camera struggling [music] to capture

9:02 something that's really happening instead of a perfectly choreographed fiction.

9:08 Another important part of realism in background [music] talent,

9:12 though, is making sure they look the part.

9:14 For period films, casting people with haircuts that fit the period is important,

9:18 but getting a diverse and realistic set [music]

9:20 of extras can take a lot of extra casting effort.

9:24 One way directors find extras with the right

9:27 look is by deliberately casting nonprofessional actors.

9:31 In Terrence Mall: Days of Heaven, for example,

9:33 they needed people who both looked like farm workers

9:36 and who knew how to act like farm workers.

9:38 So, he just went ahead and hired a bunch of farm workers for the film.

9:43 But another more risky approach

9:45 to getting ultra realistic background talent [music]

9:47 to fill your scene is to use people who aren't extras at all.

9:50 This is what Shawn [music] Baker did for parts of the Florida project.

9:54 Shooting on the streets as his leads acted

9:56 in the midst of real people and then having producers go

9:59 in and speak to people afterwards in [music] order

10:01 to secure permission and the necessary releases to use the footage.

10:05 Don't take this as legal advice, but in some places [music] it is legal

10:08 to film people on public streets without their permission.

10:11 And some filmmakers take advantage of this by just filming scenes on [music]

10:15 public streets so that they don't have to fill streets with extras.

10:20 I'm walking here.

10:21 I'm walking here.

10:23 This approach has a [music] lot of challenges though because you don't

10:25 want those people to notice you're filming and look into the camera.

10:28 The trick is to keep a very low profile or to hide the camera [music] somewhere.

10:33 Gdard did this in Breathless by hiding his cameraman in a little cart.

10:37 Jafar Panay does this in it was just

10:40 an accident by hiding a camera in [music] a car.

10:43 Not just so that people in the background don't notice,

10:46 but also to avoid being seen and caught

10:48 by the Iranian government after they banned him from making movies.

10:52 Shawn Baker and director Soqing shot left-handed girl

10:55 in a fully operational night market in Taipei,

10:59 shooting on an iPhone to be less noticeable.

11:02 It works amazingly well.

11:03 The environment of the film feels incredibly authentic because it is.

11:07 And only occasionally do you catch one of the people

11:10 in the market noticing that someone is filming.

11:13 But what if your story requires your very recognizable lead actor to run

11:16 in his underwear through one of the most crowded places on Earth?

11:19 This is exactly what Alandro Initu needed [music] for Birdman.

11:23 But closing down Time Square and paying to fill it up

11:26 with paid actors would have been way too expensive for the film's budget.

11:29 [music] So they decided to have Michael

11:31 Keaton actually run through a busy time square.

11:34 Here the reaction from real people to a famous actor in his underwear

11:38 running through Time Square isn't a problem

11:40 because in the story that's what's happening.

11:43 A famous actor is running through Time Square in his underwear.

11:46 So it makes [music] sense for people in the scene to be reacting.

11:49 But you still have to protect your crew and you

11:51 want to keep [music] people from looking at the camera.

11:53 So, they placed a few paid extras

11:55 strategically [music] on the street for crowd control

11:58 and hired a drum line to create a distraction and then just shot the scene.

12:05 Ultimately though, for me,

12:06 the most interesting uses of extras are not the most realistic ones.

12:09 Selen Song's Park full of couples perfectly

12:12 paired off in idealistic love isn't realistic, but it helps tell the story.

12:17 Some directors push this kind of thing much further,

12:20 turning the use and choreography of extras into its own art form.

12:26 One of the directors who does this you're

12:27 probably already familiar with is Wes Anderson.

12:31 I like his use of extras the most in [music] the French

12:34 Dispatch where the background talent is carefully posed in these frozen tableau.

12:41 When the extras do move in this movie,

12:44 they move with a kind of clock-like [music] precision.

12:47 But Wes Anderson didn't invent this.

12:49 He's just following in a tradition of filmmakers

12:52 who have [music] perfected the art of staging extras.

12:56 One of the most notable of these directors [music] is Akira Kurasawa,

13:00 who would carefully choreograph the movement of his extras within a [music]

13:04 scene to create a sense of rhythm and composition in motion.

13:09 For example, look at how this crowd of journalists creates a perfect [music]

13:14 separation to balance the composition where

13:17 this character is standing in the foreground.

13:20 Extras in his films will often move in a flow

13:22 [music] from one perfectly balanced composition to another.

13:25 Or they might move their heads

13:27 together [music] in carefully timed synchronicity.

13:31 Curasawa was the master of this, but you can see extras used

13:34 similarly for composition and rhythm in a lot of Spielberg's [music] work.

13:38 Notice the role extras play in this scene from Jaws to create a kind

13:43 of motion and activity [music] in the background

13:46 or the way they're used in this one.

13:48 It's rare to see a scene shot like this today.

13:51 [music] But if there's a director who has pushed

13:53 the limits of choreographed chaos further than any other,

13:57 it might have to be Jacqu Tati.

13:59 In his masterpiece, Playtime, the [music] way the people that populate

14:03 his immaculately constructed post-modern city are

14:06 dressed and moved create this kind

14:08 of [music] expressionistic representation of modern reality.

14:13 In some ways, it starts to break down [music] our idea of what an extra even is.

14:18 For example, in this scene from La La Land,

14:20 [music] would we call these people extras?

14:24 probably not usually [music] because they're performing a choreographed

14:27 dance and they're the subject of the scene,

14:30 but the dance is being performed by [music] people who would typically occupy

14:33 the space in the story that is being occupied by extras [music] in a film.

14:38 That's much closer to the way extras are being used in playtime.

14:42 They're not performing a dance,

14:43 but they're also not just moving around in a naturalistic [music]

14:46 way in the background while the subject is in the foreground.

14:49 They are the subject.

14:51 Look at these extras who are just standing

14:53 in the back doing [music] nothing but slowly rotating.

14:58 Tati constructs scene after scene that might

15:01 [music] look normal at first glance,

15:02 but which becomes hilariously absurd the closer you examine it.

15:07 A gag might be built just [music] out of the contrasting costumes

15:11 and postures of two extras that are sitting next to each other.

15:15 Through this, Tati constructs a [music] kind of maximalist chaos.

15:18 In many shots, there's no clear subject or lead character.

15:22 The subject is instead [music] the chaos.

15:25 Your eyes might land on this woman

15:27 who's exhausted from dancing [music] and then jump

15:29 to the waiter tripping and the patrons

15:31 reacting before drifting over to whatever's happening here.

15:37 The point of these shots [music] isn't so much to construct intelligible action

15:41 as much as to capture an overwhelming

15:43 feeling and heighten its absurdity for comedic effect.

15:54 Swedish director Roy Anderson also uses

15:57 extras expressionistically but at the opposite

16:00 end of the emotional spectrum in songs from the second floor.

16:04 It's as if every character, extras included,

16:08 has had the life sucked out of them.

16:11 They are motionless and dejected in the background.

16:15 Occasionally, wandering groups of business people pass by whipping each other.

16:22 [cheering] For one of the most interesting uses of extras

16:25 I've ever seen put to film, watch this moment.

16:45 You don't need incredible acting to be a good extra.

16:49 Most of the time, you're just performing mundane

16:51 tasks that we all do in everyday life.

16:54 Standing in a crowd, [music] walking down a street,

16:57 having conversations at a restaurant.

16:59 But it does take a little bit of skill.

17:01 You have to perform [music] these things as naturalistically

17:04 as possible for long periods of time while silently pantomimeing.

17:08 [music] For the sake of getting clean sound,

17:10 you have to pretend to party without actually yelling or partying.

17:14 You have to pretend to talk without actually talking.

17:17 [music] And despite the allure of Hollywood, it's relatively unlamorous work.

17:22 My time on turn involved standing in an uncomfortable period costume

17:25 in the cold for hours waiting to be told what to do.

17:28 But hanging out on a film set can be fun.

17:30 And getting to see the inner workings of the machine can be

17:32 very cool if you're interested in the craft of film [music] making.

17:35 Being an extra is probably the easiest way

17:37 the average person has a chance to do just that.

17:40 I just wouldn't expect it to [music] be a stepping stone to your big break.

17:45 While some people like Brad Pitt have

17:47 been extras before they eventually became lead talent,

17:49 [music] getting access to a speaking role

17:51 because you were an extra is extremely rare.

17:54 It's entirely possible to make a great movie

17:56 with little to no background talent, but for many films,

17:59 the extras [music] are one of the most important elements

18:01 in bringing the world to life in a realistic way.

18:04 And I appreciate the role the people who show up

18:07 for these parts play in the art of film making as well

18:10 as the filmmakers who go the extra mile to make sure [music]

18:13 their background talent is elevating the story in unique and interesting ways.

18:18 So much of the art of film making

18:19 [music] is about these kinds of little details.

18:22 the 12 hours of work for a single blur.

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