Young Victoria: face in the crowd

Two years ago, I "worked" as an extra on The Young Victoria. New readers may like to read my journal of the whole experience by reading the archives here. The film came out in March, but I've only just managed to watch it on DVD. And, as I suspected, the whole day's filming culminated in about three seconds of actual footage at the 59-minute mark. Can I be seen, I hear you ask? Well... yes. But I'm totally unrecognizable and you'll need a magnifying glass to see me. In fact, I couldn't spot myself without studying a screengrab, but maybe the Blu-ray version's a little clear. So, it's a slightly disappointing end to my experience as a film extra, but it helped that I didn't have high hopes. If you're interested, below is a screengrab of the scene, with a handy red arrow pointing me out:

Click for a bigger version.

Interestingly, the ocean backdrop is entirely CGI because there was actually green rolling hills there. It's also eye-opening to speculate on how much that three seconds actually cost. Every extra got £75, just for starters. Then you factor in hiring the location (Belvoir Castle) for a week, the costumes, the equipment, the cast and crew wages, and it's got to be in the tens of thousands. Quite ridiculous, really!

Anyway, I guess that brings my Young Victoria adventure to a close after two years of following this film's progress. I'd still recommend being an extra if you get the chance, but be under no allusions that you're likely to be a smudge in a crowd scene or have your scene cut entirely. I didn't even make any of the extra features about locations and costumes, despite being filmed as part of the documentary at the time.