Hours of film work translates to seconds in the background

I'm an actor. Although I've worked as a principal, with lines to say, mostly I play background. I'm one of those people who make a place look populated while doggedly avoiding looking at the camera or the stars in the scene. You could watch a movie all day and not see me.

For a long time I was trying for a Guinness record of working on the most productions without being seen. No, that's not a category. It's just a line that earns appreciative laughter from other background actors. On my first film, I spent five nights working on "Major League II" and you can see me for about three seconds. I had my first speaking part in 1996, as a dispatcher on the television series, "Homicide: Life on the Street" with six lines, three of which were off-screen. I earned my Screen Actors Guild card. An episode of "America's Most Wanted" and I had my American Federation of Television and Radio Artists card.

After that, there was no visual clue that I was in any of the movies and television shows I worked on for the next decade. Oh, the back of my right shoulder was almost in "Failure to Launch" when Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey are eating hard-shell crabs. A left ankle here, a blur in a crowd there, until "National Treasure II," where almost all of me can be seen around minute 53. Look fast.

Usually, background people work one day out of a shoot, maybe two or three. It's mostly a lot of waiting, but it's a change of pace and it's time to catch up on what other actors have been doing. There's a fair amount of work in this area, although I've not quit my day job. Background actors around here work a lot because David Simon, George Pelecanos and David Baldacci find secrets, sex and sleaze aplenty in the streets and offices of Washington and Baltimore. They paint dark and vivid portraits of these cities and inhabitants in their best-selling books, which are then turned into TV shows ("Homicide: Life on the Streets" and "The Wire") and a movie (Baldacci's "Absolute Power"). Anne Tyler ("The Accidental Tourist") and Nora Roberts are pretty good for the industry, too.

Sex in the District

The current buzz comes from Jessica Cutler, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Michael DeWine who posted her tempestuous trysts as tantalizing tidbits on her blog, The Washingtonienne, which became "The Washingtonienne: A Novel." Four years after the scandal broke in May 2004 on Wonkette, another blog, Parker is producing an HBO pilot that is said to be a comedic spin of Cutler's story. It follows the lives of congressional staffers and features Rachael Taylor (playing the lead character, Jackie), Kate Burton, Amanda Walsh and Bitsie Tulloch. You might call it "Sex And Another City."

Pat Moran and Associates, the company that garnered international fame for casting for Simon's and Pelecanos' TV shows, Barry Levinson and John Waters movies and other films, were busy again in late October and early November, casting about 900 people for the "Washingtonienne" project.

On Nov. 1, about 100 people, union and nonunion members, students from Garrison Forest School of Baltimore, other established and rising young actors and some of their parents gathered before sunrise in a parking lot at RFK stadium. We were playing Hill staffers, lobbyists, tourists and school children visiting D.C. and the Capitol. You'll recognize the Garrison Forest children, for they're wearing their school uniform. Other children wore "DC 2009" T-shirts.

Do we look like them?

As life imitates art imitating life would have it, a group of students from northern Ohio were just a few paces from where we were shooting. As we sauntered or strode back and forth, climbed up and down steps, setting the background for the lead characters, tourists and Hill staffers on early morning jogs wove their way through the set.

Many asked, "What's happening?" A short explanation made it about as far as saying Parker was producing before they assumed a totally bored or awesomely wowed look and asked where Parker was. We could point to any short, thin female 50 yards away and that made them happy.

Once "action" was called, D.C. motorcycle officers kept busy telling people they couldn't walk this part of the sidewalk or that part of the plaza. It didn't matter whether they were real cops or people playing cops.

The pilot was shot in Washington and Baltimore for approximately 12 days. The first days of November saw what could be "establishing opening" shots showing the "girls" and the west front of the Capitol. Other scenes shot that day were at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the Treasury building.

Among the Baltimore locations scheduled for shooting were Pazo (look for chef Michael Costa, but ask for his autograph now), the Baltimore Museum of Art, the B&O Building and the George Peabody Library.

Reset button

What you won't see is the repetition involved with each shot. Victor Mudrick, account executive for ImEllis Global Recruiters in Columbia, worked as background because his 13-year-old son Christian was hired by Sareva Racher from Pat Moran and Associates. Christian wants to be in movies and attend Carver Baltimore County School for the Arts when he enters ninth grade next fall. Sareva asked Victor if he wanted to work, too, as long as he was going to be downtown with his son. He said, "Why not?

"I had no idea they shot from so many angles," Victor says. "It's fun to watch how things are actually done. Participating is somewhat tedious, with a lot of walking back and forth for the background shots. It was an eclectic group of people. If I heard 'Reset' (go back to your original place) one more time ... the biggest surprises were how many times they did each shot and the track that was laid for the camera."

It was an extraordinarily busy day, with four shots completed within the 12 hours of shooting. Often, only one scene is shot in that time. Altogether, the day's work may represent a minute of screen time.

It remains to be seen whether the producers will continue to shoot here -- and indeed whether HBO will even pick it up -- or just shoot an occasional "establishing" outdoor shot to show they're "in" Washington and do the interiors in New York, where Parker lives, or even somewhere else.

The other question is, will I be seen? No idea. Look for me in a light turquoise sweater looking at Jackie (Taylor) walking in front of the Treasury building with a small gaggle of media trailing after her. She's the one in the fuchsia coat and a "why are you bothering me?" look on her face.

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